Book Review of “Spark of The Everflame” By Penn Cole – Spoiler Free!
World Building: 5/5
Plot: 3.5/5
Characters: 4/5
Spice: N/A
Ending: 3.5/5
Overall Book Rating: 4 /5
Overall Series Rating: 5/5 – Absolutely recommend!
Summary:
As the first book in the fantasy series The Kindred's Curse Saga by Penn Cole, "Spark of the Everflame" spends a lot of time laying the ground work for the overall plot of the series and introducing us to the magical world our main character, Diem Bellator, lives in. As a healer in the impoverished Mortal City, her life changes irrevocably when her mother goes missing and Diem has to take over her magical patients where she is forced to get close to the presumed heir to the Crown of Lumnos (one of the 9 realms of Emarion), Prince Luther Corbois, in search of answers she desperately needs.
In Emarion, each realm has their own special type of magic the descended, those descended from their gods, have the ability to access. In Lumnos, the realm of shadow and light, where Spark of the Everflame takes place, the descended are able to wield either shadow or light magic with the powerful few being able to wield both. The crown is passed from one monarch to another based on who is the most powerful magic wielder, making the line of succession a gamble.
Things I loved about this book:
I absolutely loved the world building and the characters. Cole paints a fascinating world full of magic, danger, and pending adventure. The magic systems were easy to understand and fairly straightforward without being overly simplistic.
There is a lot of character development for the main character- Diem. Other than that we don’t get a ton about the other characters, their motivations, histories, etc until the second book.
Things I didn’t love:
Spark of the Everflame was slow to start. All fantasy genre books usually are, but I felt like the entire plot of this book was more like the first half of a book rather than the whole thing. While the world building was amazing I feel like there is a good amount of info/ scenes that aren’t super relevant to the plot even after having finished the first 3 books by the time of writing this. It just seemed like it was more focused on including a lot of details rather than building up the story at times. Thankfully the other books out so far don’t follow the same path.
The plot twists were fairly easy to see coming a mile away. Didn’t make it less enjoyable though.
Favorite Quotes:
“Don’t choose a mediocre life for a mediocre man. Go be exceptional.”
“Darkness isn’t just the absence of light—it’s the absence of everything.”
“I didn’t want gentle or delicate. I wanted to burn.”
Favorite Characters:
- Diem Bellator
- Luther Corbois
- Teller Bellator
- Lilly Corbois
