A Fire Endless by Rebecca Ross
East and west. Humans and spirits. Breccans and Tamerlaines. The Isle of Cadence has always held itself and its residents in a tenuous balance. But now Bane, the spirit of the North Wind, has pushed everyone and everything in his path off-kilter in a bid to claim dominion over human and spirit alike.
In the east, a sickness is spreading through the orchards, affecting the people of the Tamerlaine clan. As their healer, Sidra, desperately searches for a cure, her husband Torin, the clan’s new leader, attempts to draw answers from the spirits. But humans were never meant to walk for long amongst the elementals, and the deeper he strays into their realm, the further lost he and the clan become.
In the west, Adaira finds it hard to adjust to the more brutal way of life that the Breccans embrace. Both the clan and the spirits suffer beneath Bane’s command, whose growing power can be felt in every gust of wind. With the island falling further out of balance, Jack decides to take up his harp and cross the clan line, not only to reunite with Adaira but to unravel a sinister mystery that would grant him the knowledge to defeat Bane and restore peace to the isle. Yet no one can challenge the North Wind without paying a price, and the sacrifice required this time may just be the ultimate one.
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What a beautiful conclusion to an already amazing story! This book is the sequel in the Elements of Cadence duology. I will admit, the first book was so amazing on its own that I was terrified the sequel would ruin the story so I was excited but also hesitant to read it. My fears were unfounded. This book was marvellous and did the first story such justice in its continuation. In A Fire Endless we get to see a deeper dive into the history of the two warring clans on the island of Cadence, we get a deeper understanding of the spirits of the isle and why they act the way that they do and their part in the whole islands history. We also get to see such amazing character development. I think the characters went through such growth in the first book and I loved it and this book had them grow further into such amazing people without undoing what the first book was able to do. Torin and Sidra, once again, stole the show for me. The writing of that soft and trusting relationship is one of my favourite things about this duology. Jack and Adaira once again managed to exceed my expectations and the climax and conclusion of this book was so heart rending and beautiful that it made this an instant 5 star read.
In the first book, Jack, the bard, comes back to his island of Cadence to help Adaira, the heiress of the Eastern Laird figure out why the girls of their island are going missing. The focus of that book is a communion with the spirits through Jacks harp music and within that story, he manages to brush the surface of an internal struggle happening within the spirit realm. In this book, that struggle becomes our main focal point. Torin is now lair, Adaira is off in the West learning what it means to be a Breccan, Sidra is struggling to leave her comfortable life for the castle and power the comes with being the Laird’s wife, and Jack is heartbroken over his separation from Adaira. Everyone is a mess and nothing is right. And then the spirits get involved and all hell breaks loose.
Once again, a story with strong character development has won me over completely. Torin and Sidra are my favourite and their relationship is so beautiful that I can’t ever stop reading when they are on the page. This book not only allowed them to grow more close as a couple, but as powerful people in their own rite. Torin is a brute, it’s how he was raised. Sidra is soft and spiritual and trusting. In this book, they must switch roles as, while Torin navigates the spirit world his wife believes in, trying to find a cure, Sidra must put her healing on hold and become a leader for their people. She learns to better understand his gruff and unbreakable demeanour, and he learns to be more open and caring through the help of the spirits his wife so loves. Jack also has some fantastic growth in this book. He accepts his power, and does everything in his power to fight for what he believes in. There is no miscommunication trope or petty grievances and his and Adaira’s relationship is stronger than ever. Adaira is the only character whose growth comes more from accepting a new way of life as opposed to becoming a better person. She’s still the same headstrong woman, she just has a different cause to fight for this time. The side characters also had so much dimension and life that I couldn’t help but love all of them.
The plot was marvellous. I wasn’t sure where this story would go if it only focused on the clan dispute as, a lot of that was already told to us in the first book. However, bringing in a parallel dispute happening in the spirit world and tying that restlessness to the human world made for such an intriguing story. What could have possibly caused this turmoil on both planes? And why is this island specifically the one facing all the struggles? It built up as we went along and had such an intriguing mystery tied in as well. I loved the alternating points of view as we got little puzzle pieces in each one but needed all the characters together in order to figure it out. I also liked how well it tied in some of the plot from the previous book without relying too heavily on that story to make this one run. In my opinion, they could both almost be standalone stories and I can’t decide which one was better!
This is definitely a 5 star read and this duology is one I highly recommend to everyone who loves fantasy. It’s cozy and mysterious while still having the right amount of angst and excitement. I absolutely loved it and I miss this world already.