Review - Into the Flame

Title: Into the Flame
Author: Christina Dodd
Publishing Date: August 2008
Genre: Paranormal
Rating: C
Sensuality: Hot

Into the Flame is the fourth and final book in Christina Dodd’s Darkness Chosen series. This is the story of Firebird Wilder and the conclusion to the war between the Varinskis and the Wilders. There are four Wilder children, three sons and one daughter, Firebird. The sons’ stories are the first three books and Firebird’s is the fourth. Firebird met Doug Black when she was in college. He was employed as a campus security man. He develops a relationship with Firebird and they fall in love with each other. She gets pregnant. The night she was going to tell him about the baby she sees him change from a cougar to a man. Instantly she suspects the worst. Without ever seeing him again she runs home to her family.

Fast forward two years to the present day, when now time is running out for the Wilder family. Firebird’s father, Konstantine comes from a long line of men (Varinskis) who made a pact with the devil. His ancestor sold his soul to the devil in exchange for longevity, power and money. Firebird’s father is dying and unless the curse is broken, he will suffer in hell for all eternity. To break the curse each of his son’s true loves have to find one of the four pieces of his family’s ancient icon. Three icons have been found and a fourth one remains hidden.

I didn’t really care for Into the Flame. I wouldn’t say it was bad. It just wasn’t good either. Of all the books, I felt it was the weakest as far as the romance of the book was concerned. There is a lot going on in this book. On top of the complicated plot, the author chose to add in a big misunderstanding between Doug and Firebird. At this point, these two have enough to worry about without adding fuel to the fire. Instead of adding angst and conflict for the characters, it distracted from the relationship. I found it frustrating. Firebird annoyed me in the fact that she would so quickly jump to conclusions about Doug. She continued to do this throughout the whole book, even up to the very end.

I found the conversations between the characters to sometimes be stilted and unrealistic, especially from the men. When one of Firebird’s brothers would talk, not for one minute did I ever believe that a man would ever really talk like that. Even some of the things Doug said felt off. I just couldn’t get into Doug and Firebird’s relationship. I was much more interested in getting rid of the curse. Into the Flame is a satisfying conclusion to the series, but the ending is ridiculously sappy.

Here's what others had to say:

Lady Caella's Dream World