Customer Reviews

A Chalice of Wind (Balefire, No. 1)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Thais (pronounced Tie-ees) has had her world turned upside down. Her father has died in an accident. But as the will is settled, she does not get to go with the woman she thought would be her guardian. Instead she is given to the care of a strange woman from New Orleans. She has no choice, at least until she turns eighteen in four months. Her new guardian is strange and seems unconcerned with things like Thais going to school. Thais has to enroll herself for senior year.

But once at school things get even stranger. For also attending school is the identical twin she never knew she had. Then Thais learns her sister (Clio), family, and guardian are all witches and that magic is real. But things just don't settle down. Near-death and romance come into her life as well as the knowledge of her family history and what parts she and her twin may play in it.

The book oscillates between Thais's and Clio's viewpoints with a few others sprinkled in to add necessary information. The flow is good and the revelations just keep coming. I am glad there are only four books in this series because at this pace anything more would be trivialized. Thais and Clio are typical twins having almost opposite personalities. Clio is a firebrand and party animal while Thais is more straight laced and responsible. A large cast of unusual characters make up the rest of the cast. And make sure you have the next book handy because when you read this one you will want to know what happens next.

Any one who has read Cate Tiernan's Sweep series knows how great a writer she is. But if you have read them you cant go into this book expecting another Sweep, because its not. She has created a whole new set of characters and world of witches
In this first book Thais and Clio, identical twins meet for the first time. Clio find out that's she's not as unique as she thought she was, and Thais finds that she has a family. At first I didn't really like some of the characters but once I got to know them better I came to like them. The world of magic that Tierana creates is unique and beautiful and you can see some similarities from her other books.
All in all it was a good book with plot twists, hidden betrays and mystery. It leaves you wanting more. Highly recommended.

The Sweep series was unique, distinguishable by the feeling you got from reading it, the indentification with the protagonist reader's undoubtably related to, the action, mystery, and suspense, and the crisp storyline that made it intensely enjoyable.

Though one can't expect every storyline following suit to be as much of a 5-star winner as Sweep was, Tiernan's style and talents continue to permeate in her newest creation, "Balefire". It's an enjoyable read, each page more enticing than the last, and with each chapter, I'm growing fonder of the books, my eyes glued to their text and my shelf of "favorite" books running out of space as I add Tiernan's latest editions to my collection.

I didn't classify it as receiving a full 5 star rank, as I did Sweep, because in comparison to Sweep, many things pale against it. I also found the deviations from the main characters (every couple chapters) a little distracting sometimes. Nevertheless, I anxiously await the next books, and continue to remain a Tiernan fan (her writing is just of a higher caliber than most books, and I greatly enjoy the witchy stories she tells, and the way she tells them).

Nothing could quite be a follow-up to Sweep (Wicca here in the UK) for various reasons, but Balefire comes close.

I pre-ordered the books, had to walk across town to collect them and wasn't at all disappointed. I've put aside temptation and reserved the second for reading on a plane journey next week.

Those who've read Sweep will recognise some of the plot devices but this doesn't spoil things at all - Cate can give them reign with slightly more mature lead characters, and does so very well. The background is coherent, and the fact that Cate is on 'home territory' shows (making the book a somewhat poignant read in a few places.

I'd have given the book five stars but for a small niggle: the lack of completeness of the book. Although Sweep left a cliffhanger at the end of most of the stories they were mostly rounded off, whereas this is like a Buffy 'two-parter' where you know you won't get the full impact of the storyline if you don't tune in next week. I'm assuming that this is why the books have been released in pairs and that I'll finish my flight no feeling quite so short-changed.

I liked this book. I just finished it last week and I have started on the second one. I have read some of the books in the Sweep series and totally feel in love with Cate's style of writing. This series is more adult where as Sweep was more teen and tween. Most of it's due to the fact the twins in the series are approaching adulthood(they are 17). It's nothing like T*Witches if anyone was wondering when they read the summary for this series. Though I love T*Witches as well this series has a totally different spin on it's twin characters. I can't wait till the other two books come out because so far the series is awesome.

I love the Sweep Series by Cate Tiernan, and so, I thought, hey, I might love this book as well, seeing as how it's by the same author. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

The main problem I had with this book, was how fast both Clio and Thais fell in love with their "mysterious" man. I just couldn't take the relationships they had seriously. Another major problem I had was how slow the plot seemed to be going (which is why it took ages to finish reading), threading along at a snail pace. It wasn't until literally the last 15 pages that I was finally starting to really get into the book, but only to have it end abruptly.

Also, I was confused for most part of the book. I get that Tiernan is just trying to keep things mysterious, a suspenseful surprise, but it didn't come out as such. I was left re-reading several passages, feeling a headache coming on, just trying to decipher some of them. I think Tiernan should have explained some terms to us in the beginning, maybe that would have kept the headaches at bay.

Don't get me wrong, I did, for the most part, enjoy some of the book... I did give this book 3 stars after all, but I just felt, after knowing what a masterpiece Tiernan can write with the Sweep series, that Chalice of Wind could have been better.

But never-the-less, I will trust you Tiernan, I will keep reading. You better not let me down.

I really enjoyed Tiernan's other work, the Sweep series, so I figured that I'd like this one. That ended up being a rather safe bet as this book has many of the same elements as the other series had. Magic, betrayal in love, forbidden powers... those are just a few of the things that these two series had in common. Not that having similar things makes it a bad or copycat series- it just makes it an almost guaranteed thing that fans of Sweep will like this book.

Balefire follows the actions of two twins, neither one really knowing about the other until the events in this book. Thais grew up in a different state with her father, not moving to New Orleans until his untimely death. Clio has always been a New Orleans native living the party life while learning magic from her grandmother. It isn't until the two meet that they begin to realize that there are things going on that they haven't been told. Meanwhile someone seems to be trying their hardest to ensure that neither twin survives for very long...

I did enjoy this book for the most part, although I have to agree with another reviewer. I'm glad that this series is only 4 books long & doesn't stretch out for as long as the Sweep series did. (Loved the series but it was a little overly long.) I liked the characters, but there doesn't seem to be enough plot to stretch out over umpteen books.

I liked the introduction of the twins & I liked the growing tensions between the two of them over certain issues & people. I would have liked a little more build up of the other characters of the book, as there are a lot of people introduced in the later half of the book & it was a bit hard to keep up with all of them. I'm hoping that this is addressed in the other books.

Overall, this isn't a bad series & I'm enjoying it enough to want to pick up the rest of the books. It's just that it isn't grabbing me as strongly as the Sweep series did for some reason. This is a good read for Tiernan fans, although if you are new to her work I suggest going for her Sweep books first.

Loved this book was extremely good. a mixture of horror, romance, and weird. If u like these books u really should read the Sweep series

this book starts off as just okay but if you enjoyed the sweep series, then this is a book for you. Cate may have gotten kinda boring in the begginging of this book but by the end youll want to know even more about these two twins. This book is amazing. its so good you wont be able to wait to get the second in this series

Wow, is my first thought when i think about this book, Cate has done it again, I love the characters Clio and Thais, my favorite is Clio because she's not learning she's experiencing unlike thais who is also over emotional! Thais was forced into this life, a life she would rather not be experiencing and because she knows nothing, her journey is more based on learning and discovery but clio, who has lived with magic her entire life is now exploring and experimenting with magic. I love the way this book has both magic and relationship drama, and it's not only based on one person or two but thirteen totally unique individuals! this is very different from Sweep, thankfully. I foresee alot more drama in the future with this book, so watch out and get the next three books,i know for a fact, you wont be disappointed!