Child of the Flame
Colleen Helme
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2004 Bedside Books/American Book Pub.
ISBN: 1589821378


A young woman filled with impatience for revenge, a burning sense of destiny & an awesome gift, tumbles into the fantastic world of Shadowbeasts, betrayal & evil.

I am thrilled to introduce our Associate Fantasy Reviewers' debut adventure! When I asked Colleen Helme why she had written her own book, she commented that nothing she was reading satisfied her longing to read fantasy coupled with romance, the way she wanted. Thus she wrote her own book.

Child of the Flame stars Callista, a young Academy recruit whose temper & impatience often makes her more dangerous than the enemies who are afoot in her world. The only thing she has from her slaughtered family's heritage is an ancient & mystical sword. Now, with the death of everyone she knew & loved, it is hers. At the Academy, under the tutelage of Swordmaster Torin, she has learnt to wield it with lethal accuracey. & she's more sure than her teacher that she is ready to use it for the good of her people.

Before Callista can graduate she is recruited, with high hopes of an adventurous life & a chance at revenge, into the Elite Guard of the city of Ellesant. However, on her first foray into the underbelly of this port town, she witnesses acts of dishonor perpetrated by her partner, & she flees ... right into the the dark alleys where the Shadowbeasts dwell.

Fighting off a pack of these nightmare creatures, Callista is wounded & saved by a stranger who carries her off to his ship, where his physician sets about sewing her up & letting her heal. Who is this stranger who commans such respect & friendship?

The news that the Shadowbeasts are abroad once again, scares everyone for they are the heralds of an evil which will spread over their beloved land like a plague. & then Callista receives the worst kind of news -- war has been declared.

& so the story unfolds! Deliciously! Well done!

Colleen Helme is our Fantasy Reviewer. Do catch her Guest Thoughts: Clayton's Scotland Wish
(05/02/04)

Rebecca