I received a free copy of The Fire Eye Refugee from the author, this does not affect my review, all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this book once I got into it. It was pretty slow to start, luckily I was on a long flight so kept going, and around 40% it got really interesting.

I had some trouble caring about the story and the characters at first, but I’m glad I stuck with it as the detective story was great. The mystery made me feel the right mix of clever for figuring some stuff out, and surprised about other things. And while I didn’t care that much about the main character, I did care about the refugee crisis and all the political intrigue. The conflict between the Gol and Farrow worked well, and it’s a very current theme, that was portrayed well.

I can’t say what about Kay made me kinda indifferent to her, but her assistant Abi was a good character and I hated the villain, but in a good-hate way.

I’m team worldbuilding when it comes to fantasy, and I liked the world of Celeste a lot. The idea of a gigantic burning fire eye in the sky is something I’ve not seen before. I could understand Kay staring up at it mesmerized and calmed by the sight, I think I’d also be content to spend my nights that way.

I’m going to get the second book in the series as well, and I hope it answers some of the many questions about magic in this world. There isn’t a lot of it to start with, well except the giant fire eye, but we get some very mysterious and intriguing glimpses.

I’d recommend this to readers looking for a fast detective story, and a fresh interesting world. The refugee theme is done well and I’d rate that as good selling point for the book too.

Goodreads

Like self-published fantasy books? I’ve got a pretty big list of books I liked