Review: Wilde’s Fire by Krystal Wade

Title: Wilde’s Fire, DarknessFalls, Book One
Author: Krystal Wade
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Genre: YA contemporary fantasy

Wilde’s Fire is a young adult fantasy that crosses, via a portal in a cave, from our known world to another reality. It’s a classic coming-of-age tale of a girl’s journey to find herself, her previously unknown powers and her place in a new world. This is a common underlying theme for young adult fantasy, but so long as authors keep coming up with new takes on it (as Krystal Wade has here), it never grows old, because it’s an analogy for every teenager’s life as they move from the known life as a child to the unknown life of an adult.

All teens have inner resources they know nothing about until they are tested, and Katriona Wilde is tested when she inadvertently leads her sister and best friend through a portal into a world she’s dreamed of for six years, but had no idea was real. She enters a nightmarish world embroiled in a war with lethal monsters, and discovers that her mother lied to her, she apparently has no control over her future and someone close to her has betrayed her.

The only plus to her new life is that those who rescue her from the same fate as her best friend are, in the main, nice people, and she meets the man she feels she knows already because she has dreamed of him and her in an intimate relationship. It’s an interesting way to circumvent the falling-in-love-too-quick criticism the book would probably otherwise receive. After seeing her relationship with this man grow over 6 years of highly realistic dreams, of course, she feels she knows him. He doesn’t know her, but his role as protector and her need for his presence as support throw them together, so they become close more quickly than would otherwise be the case.

Kate is the one prophesised to save this other world, but if you’re thinking of groaning, remember that this is another way of telling every reader (presuming they identify with the main character) that they are important to the overall scheme of things.

In general, this is a well-crafted story and the beginning of what promises to be an interesting series. The characters and fantasy world are well developed, the relationships realistic, the plot moves along at a good pace and though the ending definitely is designed to draw us into the sequel, it’s also a satisfying end to a first book.

I loved the descriptions of the ‘old magic’ in action. The light truly brightens up that dark world, and the ‘stronger-together/love is powerful’ aspect of the power makes a worthwhile statement.

On the down side, I would have enjoyed a touch of humour to lighten the book, and I found Kate’s emotional reactions a little melodramatic, perhaps even overwritten, but I know that many teens enjoy that kind of angst. When, at one point in the story, one of the other characters tells Kate to get over it already, I had to agree.

I give it 4 stars and recommend it to anyone who likes a good young adult fantasy.

Wilde’s Fire is a young adult fantasy that crosses, via a portal in a cave, from our known world to another reality. It’s a classic coming-of-age tale of a girl’s journey to find herself, her previously unknown powers and her place in a new world. This is a common underlying theme for young adult fantasy, but so long as authors keep coming up with new takes on it (as Krystal Wade has here), it never grows old, because it’s an analogy for every teenager’s life as they move from the known life as a child to the unknown life of an adult.

All teens have inner resources they know nothing about until they are tested, and Katriona Wilde is tested when she inadvertently leads her sister and best friend through a portal into a world she’s dreamed of for six years, but had no idea was real. She enters a nightmarish world embroiled in a war with lethal monsters, and discovers that her mother lied to her, she apparently has no control over her future and someone close to her has betrayed her.

 The only plus to her new life is that those who rescue her from the same fate as her best friend are, in the main, nice people, and she meets the man she feels she knows already because she has dreamed of him and her in an intimate relationship. It’s an interesting way to circumvent the falling-in-love-too-quick criticism the book would probably otherwise receive. After seeing her relationship with this man grow over 6 years of highly realistic dreams, of course, she feels she knows him. He doesn’t know her, but his role as protector and her need for his presence as support throw them together, so they become close more quickly than would otherwise be the case.

Kate is the one prophesised to save this other world, but if you’re thinking of groaning, remember that this is another way of telling every reader (presuming they identify with the main character) that they are important to the overall scheme of things.

In general, this is a well-crafted story and the beginning of what promises to be an interesting series. The characters and fantasy world are well developed, the relationships realistic, the plot moves along at a good pace and though the ending definitely is designed to draw us into the sequel, it’s also a satisfying end to a first book.

I loved the descriptions of the ‘old magic’ in action. The light truly brightens up that dark world, and the ‘stronger-together/love is powerful’ aspect of the power makes a worthwhile statement.

On the down side, I would have enjoyed a touch of humour to lighten the book, and I found Kate’s emotional reactions a little melodramatic, perhaps even overwritten, but I know that many teens enjoy that kind of angst. When, at one point in the story, one of the other characters tells Kate to get over it already, I had to agree.

I give it 4 stars and recommend it to anyone who likes a good young adult fantasy.
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