(Firevein Saga Book 1)
By Hanna Park
I started Firevein: The Awakening one evening thinking I’d read a few chapters before bed and ended up staying awake far longer than I should have. It has that sort of pull to it straight away. The atmosphere is probably the first thing that grabbed me — everything feels cold, sharp, and heavy with tension, which fits the story so well.
Cristabel felt refreshing because she doesn’t instantly become fearless or all-knowing. She’s trying to understand what’s happening around her at the same time as the reader, and I liked that sense of uncertainty running through the story. It made the world feel bigger and more unpredictable.
Then there’s Rurik. Every time he appeared, the entire mood of the book shifted. He’s guarded, intense, and honestly quite difficult to read at times, but that’s exactly what made him interesting. The chemistry between him and Cristabel isn’t gentle or sweet — it’s immediate and messy and full of tension from the beginning.
A lot of fantasy romances lose me once the romance takes over the plot, but that didn’t happen here. There’s still a strong fantasy story underneath everything, with magic, secrets, and hints at a much bigger history behind the world. I liked that the book trusted the reader to piece things together slowly instead of explaining everything immediately.
Some scenes genuinely stuck in my head after I finished reading, especially the quieter moments between the characters where you could feel how much was being left unsaid. Those were the parts that made me keep turning the pages more than anything else.
I also appreciated that the story never felt repetitive. Every time I thought I had a handle on where things were going, something shifted. It kept the tension going the whole way through and made the book ridiculously easy to binge read.
By the end, I was completely invested in both the characters and the world. It’s the sort of fantasy romance that leaves you wanting to immediately start the next book because you’re not ready to let go of the characters yet.
A man of such dubious reputation…
that he was called Devil Blackbourne!
When Lord Deveril Blackbourne meets Selina Wynter, he is intrigued. For she has all the accomplishments of a lady, but the fiery temper and spirit of a tavern maid! Then she is abducted by a dastardly suitor, and Deveril—for all his roguish reputation— can’t stand idly by…
Lord Deveril is Selina’s least likely rescuer, but when they’re stranded together in a snowstorm and her reputation is at risk, he surprises her with a gallant proposal! Deveril’s no honourable suitor, yet his actions say otherwise…
Just who is the real Devil Blackbourne? Selina’s determined to find out!
Excerpt
Selina playing the piano
Despite an argument, Deveril finds himself even more intrigued by Selina…
Like all the young ladies of her acquaintance, music was one of Selina’s accomplishments. She enjoyed playing, but knew herself to be a competent, rather than a brilliant pianist. She was therefore happy to perform at the end of the evening, when almost everyone was engaged in cards or conversation and paying scant attention to the music.
She sorted through the sheets of music beside the pianoforte and began with pieces that she knew Papa would enjoy before moving onto a Mozart sonata that was a particular favourite of her own. She was so engrossed in her playing that she had finished the first movement before she realised someone had come up and was watching her. She looked up, fingers lingering on the last chord.
‘I beg your pardon, please go on,’ said Deveril quickly.
She looked so startled to find him there that he thought for a moment she would jump up and run away. He leaned forward to turn the page, saying,
‘There are two more movements yet.’
She took a breath, composing herself before she continued to play. Deveril studied her, noting the moment she began to relax and lose herself in the music again. She had removed her gloves and, in the candlelight, he could see faint cuts and scratches on her hands. Evidence that she did not “sit on a cushion and sew a fine seam,” as the nursery rhyme went.
He watched her fingers flying over the keys and remembered those same bare hands gripping the broom when she confronted the drunkards at the White Horse. What a strange creature she was. All the breeding and accomplishments of a lady, but the temper and spirit of a tavern wench.
He felt again that tug of interest, but he quickly squashed it. This was Richard’s doing, blast him, reminding him of his dead fiancée and wanting him to find another woman to love. That certainly would not be Selina Wynter. She bore no comparison with Belinda, who had been a gentle soul, softly-spoken and sweet-natured. She had died so young, before they had had a chance to do more than share a few chaste kisses.
His eyes were drawn to Selina’s lips. He remembered how they had felt beneath his when he kissed her. Soft, warm, the slight hesitation before she responded, albeit briefly. He felt his pulse quicken at the memory. It had hardly been a kiss at all but it had ignited a fire that still smouldered within. It meant nothing, no more than attraction for a pretty woman. A damned nuisance, but it would pass, given time. It always did. Better to think of the cold way she had received him at Reigney Abbey. How she had looked at him as if he was not fit to clean her boots and dismissed him forthwith.
Deveril turned and walked away. Of all the females he had met, Selina Wynter was the very last woman who would ever capture his heart.
*
The final notes of the sonata died away and was greeted with warm applause.
‘Brava, Miss Wynter,’ cried the Squire, clapping loudly. ‘You will delight us with another piece, will you not?’
Selina’s smile was perfunctory. Lord Deveril had walked off before she had finished the second movement and he was now the centre of a lively group standing by one of the windows, paying no heed at all to the music. He must consider her performance very mediocre after the London salons.

Sarah Mallory
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Nicola Harris
Writing became my lifeline: a way to step beyond my pain, to shape my experience into a story, and to find meaning where there had once been only endurance.
I have a lifelong love of children, Counselling, and Psychotherapy Theory and history.
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She is a great heiress; he is the wickedest man in Normandy.
Known to men far and wide as 'The Devil,' Robert de Belleme terrorises France alongside his equally fearsome mother, Mabel the Poisoner. But even a Devil needs an heir, and Mabel chooses the wealthy heiress Agnes of Ponthieu to be her son's bride. The marriage is unhappy, though the longed-for son and heir is eventually born...but when Robert is away on one of his military campaigns, Agnes flees back to her father's castle.
She is not safe; her young son William is not safe.
The Devil will seek to claim his own.
BOOK 13 IN THE MEDIEVAL BABES SERIES.
J.P. Reedman
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Firevein: The Awakening (Firevein Saga Book 1) By Hanna Park Publication Date: 14th April 2026 Publisher: Baisong Press Print Length: 24...