ARC Review: Fate of Flames

Title: Fate of Flames

Author: Sarah Raughley

Published: November 22, 2016

Version: eGalley from NetGalley

Synopsis: 

Four girls with the power to control the elements and save the world from a terrible evil must come together in the first epic novel in a brand-new series.
When Phantoms—massive beasts made from nightmares and darkness—suddenly appeared and began terrorizing the world, four girls, the Effigies, each gained a unique power to control one of the classical elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Since then, four girls across the world have continually fought against the Phantoms, fulfilling their cosmic duty. And when one Effigy dies, another girl gains her power as a replacement.
But now, with technologies in place to protect the world’s major cities from Phantom attacks, the Effigies have stopped defending humanity and, instead, have become international celebrities, with their heroic feats ranked, televised, and talked about in online fandoms.
Until the day that New York City’s protection against the Phantoms fails, a man seems to be able to control them by sheer force of will, and Maia, a high school student, unexpectedly becomes the Fire Effigy.
Now Maia has been thrown into battle with three girls who want nothing to do with one another. But with the first human villain that the girls have ever faced, and an army of Phantoms preparing for attack, there isn’t much time for the Effigies to learn how to work together.
Can the girls take control of their destinies before the world is destroyed forever?

My review:

I was so excited for this book. The description sounded amazing and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it and that excitement lasted for about the first 50 pages of the book.

After those first 50 pages, I started to get bored with the story. It seemed to be drawn out and I just wasn’t enjoying it. I tried so hard to enjoy it, but finishing it was a chore for me. I did finish it, but I just wasn’t satisfied. I am not sure what it was that made it seem so hard to finish, but the story just didn’t appeal.

I believe one of the things stopping me from fully enjoying it was the story line. The characters kept jumping from location to location and it was too much. It was hard for me to remember where they were in each scene and the descriptions just weren’t there.

The writing was sub-par, which I touched a bit above with the descriptions. The writing seemed rushed and it was hard to picture the details in my head. That’s not saying that the entire book was bad and the details were lacking, because it wasn’t. I just had a hard time picturing the story at certain moments, while others were so descriptive and I could picture them perfectly. There were definitely times that I was loving the story and the descriptions, but the parts that were just eh for me out-weighed the good.

Maia was an eh character. She was thrust into the world of Effigies and I wanted her to just have a freaking back-bone. She wasn’t completely meek and quiet, but her thoughts made her seem like she had so much more back-bone then she did. I wasn’t expecting her to become an instant hero, I just wanted her to have some freaking personality. Her character seemed very bland and basic, besides being a superhuman. That was a little different about her.

Overall, this was just an eh book. I have no better way to describe it. It was hard for me to stay interested in and I just wasn’t connecting with the story and the characters.