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Book Review: 4 Stars
I picked up Firevein: The Awakening because I was in the mood for something wintery and escapist, and it definitely delivered on atmosphere. From the moment Cristabel Johnson arrives in Norway for her friend’s wedding, the whole setting feels almost unreal in that cosy, snow-globe sort of way. There’s candlelight, heavy snow, old buildings, strange traditions, and the constant feeling that there’s more going on beneath the surface than anyone is saying out loud.
One thing I liked quite a lot was how quickly Rurik is introduced. Their meeting at the airport is simple enough on paper, but it immediately feels strange in a way that’s hard to explain. Not creepy exactly, just unusually intense, like both of them are reacting to something they don’t consciously understand yet. I thought the book handled that really well because it never overexplains those moments too early.
Cristabel herself was probably my favourite part of the book. She’s funny, a bit chaotic, occasionally impulsive, and talks far too much when she’s nervous, which honestly made her feel more believable to me. Underneath all of that confidence, though, there’s somebody much more sensitive trying very hard not to let herself fall apart.
This book did hit a nerve for me emotionally at times, if I’m being honest. When it’s revealed that Cristabel went through cancer and was abandoned by her boyfriend during it, that really got to me. Having experienced something similar myself, those scenes landed quite hard. I think what made it more emotional is that she’s still such a bright, bubbly person despite everything she’s been through. There’s sadness underneath her humour, and I thought that came across really well.
This is also a far more erotic book than I originally expected. Once the story reaches the sauna scenes, the tone changes quite dramatically and the relationship between them becomes very physical very quickly. Normally that either works for me or it doesn’t, but here it made sense because the attraction is tied into everything else happening around them. It feels less like random spice added in for the sake of it and more like part of the awakening the title keeps hinting towards.
I also really enjoyed the more unsettling side of the story. There’s this constant sense that the world is slightly off-centre, and little details keep reinforcing it. The hotel feels aware somehow, the town itself seems to carry old secrets, and eventually it becomes obvious that not everyone in Røros is entirely human. I liked that the fantasy elements weren’t rushed. The book lets you sit in the uncertainty for quite a while before giving proper answers.
That said, there were a couple of places where I got slightly lost, especially during some of the transitions between scenes. The shift after the sauna caught me off guard for a moment because I genuinely wasn’t sure how they had suddenly ended up somewhere else entirely. It made more sense afterwards, but I did have to stop and reread briefly.
Overall though, I had a really good time reading this. It’s dramatic, emotional, strange, very sensual, and completely committed to its own atmosphere. By the end, I was far more invested in the relationship and mythology than I expected to be when I first started it.
A very immersive fantasy romance with heavy winter atmosphere, intense chemistry, and just enough mythology and mystery to keep pulling you further in.
The Blurb
I went to Røros for a wedding—not to fall for a man who looked at me like he had already mourned me once.
From the first moment Rurik touched me, something beneath my skin burned. Every kiss felt inevitable. Every glance pressed at the edge of memory. He says I’ve lived before, that I’ve died before, that he has loved me through it all. I don’t remember him—but the mountain does.
The tunnels beneath Røros hum when I pass. Runes flare in the stone. The deeper I fall into his arms, the more something inside me begins to awaken—hot, wild, and impossible to ignore. I was never meant to survive what should have killed me. Now something ancient is stirring, and I can’t shake the feeling that it’s because I did.
I have buried Cristabel in every lifetime—though she has worn different names.
Across centuries, I have found her and lost her to the curse my bloodline was sworn to guard. She was never meant to live this time—but she did. Now the fire in her veins is awakening too soon. The balance beneath the mountain is shifting, and the oath I have carried for generations is beginning to fracture.
I waited lifetimes to hold her again. This time, I will not let her go—even if saving her means unleashing what should have remained buried.
A steamy Nordic fantasy romance of reincarnation, fate, and fire.
Read with #KindleUnlimited
I began my writing career in the pre-dawn of a winter morning while my husband snored like a train. We could call my husband the catalyst. If it weren’t for him, I would never have gone to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee, feed the cat, and sit on the loveseat in front of the fire. It was there, in those moments of wondrous quiet, that I did something I had never thought possible. I opened my laptop, and while the coffee went cold, I wrote a story. My husband had no idea that these sojourns to the loveseat in front of the fire would become a daily occurrence, that writing would become an obsession, but the cat knew. She knows everything.
I write stories that make you laugh, make you cry, and make you love. Thank you, friends, for reading!
In the beginning, there was an empty page.
I am a writer who lives in Muskoka, Canada, with a husband who snores, a hungry cat, and an almost perfect canine––he’s an adorable little shit.
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