Monday, May 11, 2015

Review: Through Fire & Sea - Nicole Luiken

Through Fire & Sea
Nicole Luiken 
Series: Otherselves, #1
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Goodreads | Amazon

Thanks to Entangled Teen for the eARC!

Last year, I read Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini, the first book I've read about parallel worlds and other-selves. Because I really enjoyed Trial by Fire (review here), I was approached to review Through Fire & Sea. These books definitely had a similar vibe, with other-selves in other-worlds, but they were also very different, and I'm happy to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Through Fire & Sea!

The beginning of Through Fire & Sea throws a lot at the reader right away - there's a lot of otherworldly jargon very quick in the beginning - but once I figured out what was going on, I found it a lot easier to get into the story. In the story, the land where Leah is from is being attacked by a dragon. As a way to get rid of the dragon, the duke sends Leah, his illegitimate daughter, with Qeturah, a sorceress who can send the dragon away. Qeturah teaches Leah that she can call her otherselves from mirror worlds, and from there, Leah and her otherself Holly's lives become intertwined.

One thing I was at first skeptical about but ended up really loving about Through Fire & Sea was the way it combined a totally fantastical world with the world we know and live in. The way Nicole Luiken wove the two worlds together was both fascinating and extremely well executed. It was really cool to see the juxtaposition between the two worlds and their characters.

Similarly to how the two very different worlds mixed together well, I really enjoyed how each character had a double in the other world and seeing how they could act similarly or completely differently. Like I said earlier in the review, even though this aspect was really similar to Trial by Fire, the execution was absolutely different and just as enjoyable. Another great thing about the two different characters was seeing how Leah, who lived in a world that felt like it was from long ago, reacted to Holly's modern world. Both Leah and Holly were strong and independent in their own ways, but it always felt like they were two separate and very different people.

The entire concept behind Through Fire & Sea was so interesting and I really enjoyed the journey. I'm so excited to see where Nicole Luiken goes with the rest of the mirror worlds in the Otherselves series. Book two will not come soon enough! I highly recommend this for fans of fantasy, parallel worlds, and Trial by Fire!

- Kiersten

What do you think your otherself would be like?
Let us know in the comments!

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