Review: The Fire Child by S. K. Tremayne


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Release date: March 28, 2017

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing 

Genre: Psychological Thriller 

Blurb: 

THE PERFECT HUSBAND. THE PERFECT STEPSON. THE PERFECT LIE?


When Rachel marries dark, handsome David, everything seems to fall into place. Swept from single life in London to the beautiful Carnhallow House in Cornwall, she gains wealth, love, and an affectionate stepson, Jamie.


But then Jamie’s behavior changes, and Rachel’s perfect life begins to unravel. He makes disturbing predictions, claiming to be haunted by the specter of his late mother – David’s previous wife. Is this Jamie’s way of punishing Rachel, or is he far more traumatized than she thought?


As Rachel starts digging into the past, she begins to grow suspicious of her husband. Why is he so reluctant to discuss Jamie’s outbursts? And what exactly happened to cause his ex-wife’s untimely death, less than two years ago? As summer slips away and December looms, Rachel begins to fear there might be truth in Jamie’s words:


“You will be dead by Christmas.”

Review: 

I wanted to love this one, I really did. The Ice Twins has been recommended to me by so many people so when I saw the same author had a new book on Netgalley I jumped at the chance. Let me back up a little, this has been a crappy reading week for me, I gave up on two books before I started this one. I started a third but was having technical difficulties, which sucks because I was liking the book. (Those issues have since been resolved!) Anyway, my point is that I picked this up hoping that it would break my streak and leave me excited, but alas I really wish I had just given up on this one when I wasn’t into it by the halfway point, I didn’t really like anything about this one unfortunately. 

It starts out really slow, like painfully slow you guys. The chapters are told in a countdown to Christmas because Rachel’s new stepson, Jamie had a premonition that she’ll be dead by then. You learn that David and Rachel had a whirlwind romance and married quickly and they’re all adjusting to their new family. They live in a creepy old house in Cornwall and the atmosphere was ok, I can see where the author was going with it, but it didn’t quite do it for me.  There was tons of history behind the mines and it was mind numbingly boring. I almost gave up, but I peeked at a few reviews that said it gets better, so I persevered. I should’ve called it quits at this point. 

By seventy five percent I was still not engaged, it was clear all three family members were hiding things, David about the night that his first wife, Nina died, and Rachel about her past. Jamie was either the creepiest little psychic around or a big fat liar, but as I never connected with any of them so I just didn’t care either way.

When the big twist was finally revealed I was actually pissed off. It was so improbable that it goes way beyond suspending disbelief. It made no sense to me whatsoever and by the final few pages I was skimming just to finish. I never do that, if I’m committed to a book, I’m usually all in but I was so beyond annoyed at this point that I just couldn’t take it. Now that I’ve looked at the reviews on Goodreads I see they’re all over the map, some of my friends loved this and others felt more like me, so don’t let my feelings dissuade you if this is on your radar, it could go either way.

Overall rating: 2/5

Thanks to Grand Central Publishing for my review copy. 

31 thoughts on “Review: The Fire Child by S. K. Tremayne”

  1. BrizzleLass says:
    Reply

    I had a very similar reading week right at the beginning of the year where it felt like i was cursed with everything I picked up, I was even pulling out of blog tours because i hated those books so much! Thankfully it passed but boy it drove me a little nuts so i really empathise with your current plight! I hope your next book breaks the trend.

    Liked by 2 people

  2. Megan @ bookslayerReads says:
    Reply

    Love the honest review, Amy. That stinks that this one was so slow, and not engaging. I’d been eyeing this one, but I can’t handle slow. I definitely can’t handle painfully slow. So I’ll probably skip this one. At least for now, anyway.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Renee (Itsbooktalk) says:
    Reply

    Is it wrong your phrase “mind numbingly boring” made me laugh:) It sounded like it could go either way as you started off talking about the history of the mines which obviously tanked…I so appreciate your honest reviews, this wasn’t on my TBR and it’ll remain that way:) I hope you’ve found something else that’s grabbed you…I hate when I get on a DNF and average read streak😁

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Keeper of Pages says:
    Reply

    The Ice Twins is way better than this one!!! I liked the last 30% or so of this book but the descriptions of Cornwall really did get on my nerves, especially as there were pictures of the house in the book so I didn’t need extensive descriptive detail.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Book.blogging.momma says:
    Reply

    I have this one to review, eh now I’m not excited. Is it ok when you are receiving them for an honest review to not finish them?! Never done this, I always suffer the pain.

    Liked by 1 person

  8. Annie says:
    Reply

    Which others did you DNF? XD I’m curious haha I didn’t even like The Ice Twins that much, it was good but I wasn’t in love. Haven’t read this though!

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Donna says:
    Reply

    I was so disappointed when I was denied an ARC last year, haha. Then I bought the book and realized it was a good thing!!! I loved The Ice Twins so much that this second book was a real letdown that left me very angry!

    Liked by 1 person

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