8 August 2016

Book Review: The Secret Fire (The Alchemist Chronicles, #1) by C.J. Daugherty & Carina Rozenfeld

(Click image to take you to Goodreads)

Format: Kindle
Publishers: Atom
Published: 3rd September 2015
Pages: 424
Genre: YA, Paranormal, Fantasy 
Main Characters: Taylor, Sacha
Date Read: 23rd July - 1st August 2016

Rating Given:

Synopsis:French teen Sacha Winters can't die. He can throw himself off a roof, be stabbed, even shot, and he will always survive. Until the day when history and ancient enmities dictate that he must die. Worse still, his death will trigger something awful. Something deadly. And that day is closing in.
Taylor Montclair is a normal English girl, hanging out with her friends and studying for exams, until she starts shorting out the lights with her brain. She’s also the only person on earth who can save Sacha.
There’s only one problem: the two of them have never met. They live hundreds of miles apart and powerful forces will stop at nothing to keep them apart.
They have eight weeks to find each other.
Will they survive long enough to save the world?


I received a review copy from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This cover is a bit different to the covers I've seen around at the moment so for me this one stands out because it's different. I love the colours used in this cover especially the fire looking part of it as my eye is drawn straight to the title of book, plus with the use of fire it's in keeping with the story.

I wasn't quite sure I was going to like this one when I first started this book as things was happening in the first chapter that annoyed me but after I got over that it really started to get better and better. At certain moments I was hooked so much so I didn't want to put it down. It was about halfway through when for me it stalled a bit but again once I got over that bit it was back to it's thrilling stuff again. There wasn't very much romance involved in the story but there was a bit of attraction there so I can see there's bound to be more to come in the future books. Even though there wasn't really any romance involved with the two main characters I did love their friendship and how they grew closer and closer with each other. I loved the whole paranormal side of the story as it was a little different to the normal paranormal books that I've read before. I felt the ending was good as it was left open for the rest of the series but it wasn't a huge cliff-hanger which makes a refreshing change.

I liked the characters but I do think they grew into stronger characters the further I went into the book. Taylor started of a little bit too perfect for my liking but by the end that didn't feel like the case which made her a bit more likeable and realistic. In the first chapter I didn't think I was going to like Sacha but after that little blip I really started to warm up to him.

Overall, this was a good start to this series and I'm very excited to see where things are going to go next.