The Fire King

A Dirk & Steele Novel

By: Marjorie Liu

Narrated by: Emma Lysy

“Readers of early Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, and the best thrillers out there should try Liu now.” (Publishers Weekly)

In the realm of paranormal romance, no author burns hotter than New York Times best-selling author Marjorie M. Liu! The Fire King is yet another blazing example of her originality, sensuality, and breathtaking storytelling prowess. Her passionate tales centered around the mysterious Dirk and Steele Detective Agency - with its roster of enigmatic psychics, telepaths, shape-shifters, and extraordinary beings - have set a high standard for this popular romance subgenre. In The Fire King, her tormented shape-shifting hero - once almost a god, now much more than a man, and freed against his will from an eternal darkness - must overcome his rage and the pain of his tragic past by accepting the love of a remarkable woman with an extraordinary gift.

A Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award winner and multiple RITA Award nominee, Lui is not to be missed if your taste is for love stories from the supernatural side. In fact, Christina Feehan, arguably the queen of paranormal romantic fiction, says, “Anyone who loves my work should love hers.”

©2009 Marjorie M. Liu (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Fierce! All the feels in all the ways

“Trust was a leap of faith … sometimes you fall- hard.”
This was hands down my favorite of the series. I love urban fantasy with unique and complex characters. As for unique, this installment features dragons, chimera, magical translators, and whatever the heck Cuckoo, Robert, and Eddie are. As for complex, I was riveted the whole way through, attempting to identify friend versus foe and anticipate motives and shifting alliances. This was an excellent mystery with shades of Blade or Gods of Egypt, but with far better mythology and story telling. The fish out of water thing, as Kar copes with awakening after centuries, was very well told. Some twists I saw coming, but the journey was so, so, so worth the destination.

Kar: “How’s your arm?”
Soria: “How are your balls?”
Kar: “Still attached.”
I loved the romance here, even if the sex was the stingiest yet. Who cares, when the love story grabs your heart and squeezes something fierce. Enemies to lovers is best with biting humor and when both are forces to be reckoned with. Most of the books in this series sadly give the alpha males the spotlight, with the ladies being strong in attitude but not necessarily in bad-itude, if you get my drift.
Here, Soria, still coping with the loss of her arm, is smart, capable, and a warrioress for the ages.
She is every bit a match to Kar, an ancient shifter once worshipped as a god.

This works as a standalone. Oddly, this might be the best book to start the series. Then, you can hit the ones featuring the supporting characters that you like. Or not. Going in order works too. The ones that most connect to the plots and characters are book 3 (Red Heart of Jade, on the dragon elements and Cuckoos’ backstory) and book 5 (Eye of Heaven, on Serena’s motivations and allegiances).

Great!

really good book. I haven't read any of the others from this series but I found this one could be a type of stand-alone but you do have some questions of who a few other characters are but it's not about them it's about the two main characters. I will continue to reread this story. :-)