Cast In Hellfire by S.M. Reine Narrator: Rebecca Mitchell
Length: 8 hrs 28 mins
Series: Mage Craft #2
Published by Red Iris Books, Tantor Audio on April 3, 2016
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 336
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I received this book for free from Tantor Audio in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Marion Garin, daughter of the former Voice of God Metaraon, has returned to power. She's the only one who can stop brewing war between the shapeshifters, sidhe, and angels. But Seth Wilder wants her help, and Marion owes him a favor. A big favor. She'll do anything he asks. Even if that requires putting the world at risk for it.
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There was a long period of time between my reading book one, Cast in Angelfire, and this book, Cast In Hellfire. I’m saying this as it may have had something to do with my feelings about this book. It’s possible that I just did not remember enough from book one and that made following Cast In Hellfire difficult. It could be one reason. However, there were other things that did not have anything to do with past circumstances that really bothered me.
I did not connect with Marion at all. I found her whiny and selfish. Possibly because she is a spoiled nineteen year old. I call her spoiled even without her memories. I can’t imagine what her character would have been like had she had them. Marion’s decisions and actions were all centered around her and her wants. She’s the steward of the Winter court, yet every decision and act she makes is for her own benefit. Sure, getting your memory back is important. However I would think the wellbeing of an entire race of people would be more pressing. I also did not like how she played Konnig around while chasing after Seth. It is somewhat reminiscent of a love triangle, if not a full-fledged one, and that drove me nuts. I hated how she strung Konnig along while chasing after Seth, even with the excuse that it was to find her memories. Seth has some pretty strange feelings towards Marion throughout the book, but she doesn’t catch on at all. Even after finding out what some of those thoughts were, she continues to chase after him.
The male leads in Cast in Hellfire were not the type of characters I normally choose as favorites. I couldn’t tell if Konnig was genuine, and we find out just how loyal and trustworthy he is, so he had several strikes against him, and Seth was just conflicted for the entire book. I don’t know where his head was at. So many things going on with him. He made me thing he was going crazy throughout much of the book.
Cast in Hellfire’s main focus I think was getting Marion’s memory back and what that would mean. Everything else was secondary. Even things that I thought should be more important. Marion, Seth and Charity travel to the nether regions to find and retrieve a jar that supposedly holds Marion’s memories. They must deal with a King of Hell (every time this character was called that I was reminded of Supernatural) who is completely intrigued by Charity. The evil and intrigued sides of him actually made him kind of a funny character. Despite being evil, I actually kind of liked him.
Marion and Seth go through some pretty horrid things and I felt they stretched my imagination and possibly even surpassed it. The pair go through an attack and their survival had me shaking my head. I just couldn’t imagine how they’d come back from what they did. Normally I can go with the flow on a lot of things, but I this time I was just over it. I felt like it should have just ended.
Now you may ask, why, if you found so much fault with this book, did you continue to read it. Well, Goodreads shows a pretty high rating for this book. In fact, it has a 4.5 star rating. I thought that if Cast in Hellfire had that great of a rating, I must be missing something, or there was something that was coming up that was going to totally change my opinion. It didn’t. In fact, the book ended with a situation and act that practically had me yelling at Marion that she was an idiot. I was really disappointed. I am not really sure what other readers found in this book that they enjoyed so much. I do not plan on continuing the series.
The narration really wasn’t too bad. I think there could have been more distinction and character put into the male voices, but the overall tone and voice was engaging. I would definitely give the narrator a higher rating.
About S.M. Reine
Hi everyone! My name is Sara, and I write urban fantasy and paranormal novels as SM Reine. I collect swords, cat hair, and typewriters (which I do use for writing!). It’s a good day when those three things have nothing to do with each other.
If you would like to know the instant my next book is available, you should enlist in my Army of Evil! We have a wicked cool secret handshake, but you’ll have to sign up to learn it. š Check it out — http://smarturl.it/armyofevil
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
