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The Fire King takes place in our world except shape-shifters are real and they live among the rest of us. In this past shape-shifters ruled the lands like gods. They protected and kept humans. We worshiped them until they all began to disappear. Now in the present, shape-shifters blend in and keep their secret. When an old grave is dug up and inside is found a living shape-shifter people start freaking out. The found shape-shifter is old-really old- and he isn’t a normal shifter. He is part lion/ part dragon. He shouldn’t exist. With both humans and shifters after Karr’s life he doesn’t have anyone to trust in this strange world he has woken up in. When Soria walks into his world his instincts become cloudy, can he trust this woman?

Soria is the best part of this book. She isn’t your average heroine. She may be beautiful but for your average guy she’s isn’t all that desirable. Due to a tragic history Soria only has one arm. She doesn’t want to rely on others so she insists on doing everything for herself. Her first interactions with the mysterious Karr are him seeing other beings fear and respect her. Soria has a presence that makes you stop and take notice. Using an imperfect woman for a romance is a huge breath of fresh air from all the books I’ve been reading lately. I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t even want to read character descriptions anymore. I could just look at the author photo in the back and imagine them skinnier and more perfect for 85% of the books I read. It takes a lot of guts for an author to use a character that the reader may not want to step into the shoes of. No one wants to lose an appendage, especially the way Soria did. Even though, by the end of the book I loved her and felt honored to have been able to step in her shoes and experience her story.

Karr was interesting. I didn’t dislike Karr but there were times when he could just feel really heavy. He was so closed off and untrusting of everyone, which is understandable, but it could still get really frustrating at times. Again, big props to Marjorie for writing her characters so well. I understood their emotions and they all felt real. Nothing was forced about them which is very important, especially when dealing with romance. If I wanted to read about cheap lust I’d grab an erotica. I expect a lot out of my romance and Majorie really delivers.

As far as the romance of the story goes, most of it took place at the end of the story. This isn’t the kind of story where they fall in love at first sight and fight with themselves about how long they would wait till they rip each other’s clothes off and get dirty. They slowly come together. They learn to trust each other as partners, then friends, and then start to realize that they aren’t really thinking of the other in an only friendship sort of way. When they do finally realize that their perfect for one another and they aren’t afraid of the other rejecting them their love is beautiful! The main story is very cool and exciting. It was hard to put the book down at any given time. I’ve already starting collecting the rest of Marjorie’s others books, I can’t wait to read more of her work.

5