review 1: TRUE FIRE is an epic fantasy with twin girls, invading armies, and prophecies that might be coming true. The story begins with our heroine Megan discovering that she is pregnant and then watching her town being invaded and all of the townspeople, including her grandfather, being killed. She manages to escape from the invaders with the assistance of a woman named Eleanor who appears fortuitously. Megan discovers that her twin Gwyneth is missing and presumed captured by the invaders. She is determined to follow after and rescue her. This leads to all sorts of adventures. Along the way, Megan learns more about Eleanor who is the remnant of the aristocratic class that was overthrown by the priests during the witch war 80 years previous to the current time. Megan and Eleanor do... moren't get a chance to find Gwyneth before the invaders take off in ships. But they do rescue a brash young man named Damon who joins in their quest. Megan decides that they have to alert the priests to the resurgence of the witches who were thought to have all been killed at the end of the last war.The story is filled with both action and violence. I lost track of the number of people the Megan and Eleanor killed along the way. The story is also filled with all sorts of twists and turns as she learns more about her companions and their hidden agendas. Fans of adventure and excitement will enjoy this story. review 2: This book tells the story of Megan, a peasant girl that lives in the village of Thicketford by the mill with her grandfather and her twin sister Gwyneth. Megan is only sixteen years old and she recently found out that she is pregnant. When she is working up the courage to tell her grandfather about the baby growing up inside of her, soldiers dressed in black armours come upon her village, destroying everything, killing everybody and kidnapping her sister.She would too meet the same fate have she not crossed paths with Eleanor, a monarch whose titles meant nothing more in a world ruled by the priests. Eleanor saves Megan’s life and uncovers a terrible truth. The witches are back and they’re rising up seeking revenge after a long lost war.Now Megan has to travel across the realm, looking for a way of saving her sister from the witches’ claws and discover why they are so interested in the twin sisters. But above all, she must protect her unborn child.If you do not like witches, you still have to give this book a go, it will surprise you. And that was a book I was not expecting to be this good. I haven’t heard a single thing about it before and I am usually not much into high fantasy (is it? I’m bad with genres). However, this book was pretty impressive, giving me two female characters that were strong driven and complex.Megan was persistent in the matter of saving her sister, she sometimes made dumb choices that in her mind were courageous ones like throwing herself at bad guys without having swung a single sword in her life, which I sometimes hate in books because there is not a glimpse of doubt that we actually would have in the character’s place. But as the story went along those actions were becoming more believable as she threw her morals out of the window (not completely) and did what she needed to do in order to save those she loved and that deserved it.Eleanor, I’m not sure how old she is until now, she is supposed to be in her forties but she behaves with such a young soul. She is someone that should be in position of power but had everything taken away from her when she was a baby and now she is fighting completely alone to get it back. Even though she is good, you can see she is not a high moral character. She will leave people to die if she needs to. Which is refreshing, really.Damon is the third party. He has a crush on Eleanor, even being over 25 years younger than her. He is reckless and wild but he is a loyal friend and tries to help in any way he can. He has a tragic backstory and he is neutral in the matter of witches and priests, he has good and bad things to say about both sides which brings the scales to a very interesting position. Also, despite his crush there is no love-lovey story to take the attention away from what is actually happening in the book. Like I said, refreshing.The world building is good, it shows a lot of backstory in the witches and priests and monarchs department (which is very important for the plot). But I will be completely honest with you, I can’t remember if there were holes in the world building because the story was entertaining me enough to not be wary of them. I sometimes don’t understand how Megan can protect her baby one time and then slam belly first on the floor and not worry about miscarrying in the other. Also, the lack of food wasn’t addressed enough and I wish it had, she was - after all - pregnant.This book was 4.5 out of 5 stars and it is part of a series (maybe trilogy, the goodreads don’t show the series though) and the second book - True Dark - is coming out in April 2015. less
