Book Review: Firelight by Kristin Callihan

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Forever; 1 edition (1 Mar 2012)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 1455508594
• ISBN-13: 978-1455508594 
• London, 1881
  Once the flames are ignited . . . 
  Miranda Ellis is a woman tormented. Plagued since birth by a strange and powerful gift, she has spent her entire life struggling to control her exceptional abilities. Yet one innocent but irreversible mistake has left her family's fortune decimated and forced her to wed London's most nefarious nobleman.
  
  
  They will burn for eternity . . . 
  Lord Benjamin Archer is no ordinary man. Doomed to hide his disfigured face behind masks, Archer knows it's selfish to take Miranda as his bride. Yet he can't help being drawn to the flame-haired beauty whose touch sparks a passion he hasn't felt in a lifetime. When Archer is accused of a series of gruesome murders, he gives in to the beastly nature he has fought so hard to hide from the world. But the curse that haunts him cannot be denied. Now, to save his soul, Miranda will enter a world of dark magic and darker intrigue. For only she can see the man hiding behind the mask.

Miranda is haunted by her gift.  Able to manipulate fire, it is her defensive weapon that she loathes. In her father’s house she feels like a prisoner. He blames them for their misfortune and little money. So when the offer for her to marry the infamous Lord Archer, her father rejoices.

At first Archer is cold and aloof, a stranger behind a mask. But as Miranda gets to know her new husband who won’t touch her, she knows him better than anyone ever has before. When Archer is accused of being responsible for a series of gruesome murders, Miranda is determined to prove his innocence…and step by step remove the mask.

Firelight had an eerie and dream-like quality to it. A romance set in a horror story. The reader is kept guessing what Archer hides behind the mask, and how terrible it may be. But, like with Miranda, the better we come to know him, the less it matters.

Miranda is a sassy and street-wise character and extremely likeable. Her determination to get to the bottom of what Archer is hiding aggravates him, but he has finally found his match in her. Archer himself is like the Phantom of the Opera only noble and true. The passion they feel makes Miranda’s fire feel like a cool wind.

I adored the interactions between the pair, and the puzzle of the story. Highly recommended.