Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THAT WAS SO TOTALLY WICKED!, August 5, 2008
I had the honor to be able to read Into The Flame early. I read it back to back with Into The Shadow - which is the only way to read the two, since Flame picks up right after Shadow ends.
Into The Flame is the much anticipated story of the Wilder's daughter and single mother Firebird. I rarely read book excerpts posted on websites - but I HAD to read the one on author's site for this book. Firebird so intrigued me in the first two books, I had to know more about her. The excerpt on Dodd's site only left me wanting more.
I fear that reviews for this book might give too much away. Secrets and truths will be revealed, but I dare not ruin them for the reader.
Into the Flame is a fantastic end to Darkness Chosen series! As sad as I am about seeing the great series come to a close, it was perfect end to a great series. I am a big fan of Dodd, and she has not disappointed me at all with this series and its final chapter.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enter this flame, August 25, 2008
Christina Dodd's Into the Flame is a gorgeous follow-on to Into the Shadow. Her lead characters are vastly different from one book to another, with completely different dynamics in entirely different situations, making the books wonderfully separate. I'm not so fond of series where each book feels like a rehash of the previous. We get to see a different portion of the Varinski family as the family goes on the offensive.
Doug and Firebird make a fantastic couple for this sort of book. They have enough of a history that we don't waste the climactic novel of the series watching the introductory dance-steps of a relationship. Instead, we watch them try to deal with the fallout of what came before and how they handled it (or failed to). Ms. Dodd has a particular couple of strengths as a writer that eliminate some of the plot frustrations that are often present in novels. She doesn't artificially prolong the keeping of a secret, and she doesn't force the characters to be artificially stupid in order to keep them from realizing something important and acting on it. She acknowledges that the characters have brains and will use them, and goes with it. Any misunderstandings that occur between her characters make sense for those characters and are resolved in their proper time---they aren't blown out of proportion or, again, prolonged artificially.
One of my favorite aspects of the Darkness Chosen series is the lack of black-and-white answers to everything. The series deals with a literal pact with the devil, yet it doesn't seek to turn every decision into a hard-edged black-and-white thing. Sometimes justice is harsh. Sometimes triumphing over evil requires killing. And just because someone has done wrong doesn't mean he or she cannot be redeemed.
Doug and Firebird's reunion isn't easy, but it is beautiful. The climactic battle of this series is suitably destructive and kept me glued to the pages. I highly recommend checking out Ms. Dodd's work if you haven't already.
[Usual adult material warning: moderately explicit sex scenes.]
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18 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing end to the series..., August 11, 2008
Okay, first off I HATE Firebird's name. I mean really, it's just a bit silly and over the top. Now that I got THAT off my chest...
We learned at the end of Into the Shadow, that Firebird is not a Wilder by blood. The story of the night Zorana gave birth to her fourth child was very well done, in my opinion.
Firebird feeling hurt and betrayed is now suddenly unsure if the family that has loved her for 23 years will continue to love her now that they know she isn't related to them by blood... This was pretty annoying considering how level headed she was through most of the book but I could see how even a freakishly secure person would feel a little off-balance after discovering such a shocking secret.
Douglas Black searching for his family, blah blah blah, who could they be? I was just happy everyone put two and two together pretty quickly and the VERY obvious answer didn't linger throughout the entire book. He has a few hang ups when it comes to family, not surprising when we learn about his past.
One other thing I would like to mention, Douglas is a cop and at one point mentions he has been a cop since he was 16... Um What? That made no sense what-so-ever. He explains that he had a fake ID because you know cops don't have any way to discover if an ID is fake or not. Yeah, I think Dodd just likes throwing in those random details that any sane person would question and have her characters accept it like it's no big deal...
This book was CROWDED and by crowded I mean Firebird and Douglas get pushed out of most scenes by other people. We have Jasha and Ann, Rurik and Tasya, Adrik and Karen, Zorana and Konstantine, the bad guys, the devil, Karen's dad what's his name, Miss Joyce, Gypsies, and a partridge in a pear tree.
Okay so I made that last one up but I swear all those other people show up and take up lots of pages with their endless chatter when all I wanted to know was what was going on with Firebird and Douglas. I did get the feeling each loved the other but it was more along the lines of Dodd remembering they actually existed and allowing them to talk to each other and be emo in their thoughts about their feelings for each other.
We see the prophecy finally play out and not too many shockers with that one, except near the end another "Um What?" moment that is briefly touched on with a vague explanation that the characters all nod wisely and say "Of course, that must be it." and then drop it altogether while I was left questioning a bunch of things.
Oh and have I mentioned the endless battle scene yet? `Cause there is one, and you couldn't miss if you tried and trust me I tried. Once I accepted that the romance in this story wasn't really going anywhere and was waiting for the last few pages to neatly tie up all the loose ends that had seemed like such a big deal in the beginning of the book, I enjoyed seeing the Varinskis get blown up and shot at.
Overall it was nice to see the curse broken and how they ended up besting the devil but I was majorly disappointed in the romance between Firebird and Douglas. It was sadly my least favorite book out of the series.
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