ARC Review: A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet

Catalia (Cat) is a fortuneteller with a travelling circus. One night she is approached by five men and is asked if any of them are disloyal to their leader, Griffin. Griffin's suspicions are correct in two things. One of his men is in fact a traitor, and second, Cat is the Kingmaker. She can determine between truth and lies when spoken.

Griffin decides to take her hostage and back to the capitol and his sister. He has conquered the previous royal family and put his older sister on the throne. Cat fights as hard as she can to get away from the men and makes the journey as difficult as she can. Despite her captivity, she starts to care for the group and have romantic thoughts about Griffin.

The small company faces some incredible beings and magic. Turns out she is a known entity to Gods like Hades and Poseidon. Griffin has some unique abilities of his own, and he also becomes obsessed with Cat. He cannot stop trying to figure out all of her secrets. Cat resists pretty well but she is at war with herself over it.

Personally, I thought it was pretty lazy of the author to use Greek Gods and Goddesses for this story. It doesn't really go into them very much and only their names and basic powers are used. I don't think any of the city's mentioned are from ancient Greece. I wasn't impressed, but it is possible that I'm particularly biased because I love Greek Mythology. It just would have been better if the world and magic was original.

Cat's character was hard from me to decide on. She annoyed me to no end with her overconfident sarcasm while at the same time I admired it. It was an inner struggle for me. I did find her pretty funny though. I hated Griffin. He just would not see that he was forcing Cat to be with them. He kept justifying it with his family's need for her abilities. He wasn't even the slightest bit remorseful for doing that to someone he cared about.

The plot of the book was pretty amateur. It repeated itself. A new threat would appear, and Cat would miraculously save the day almost killing herself. She'd regret not telling Griffin, info and then when she recovers or is saved, she still won't confide in him. The book ends out of nowhere. I understand that the story will continue, but even a smaller resolution was not found.

Despite the fact that this book had contradictions galore, I was still pretty hooked. Something kept pulling me to turn the page. I think the author does a good job of keeping the reader on their toes and wanting to uncover the next secret. It's a good ability for Amanda Bouchet to have and speaks of her potential. For a debut, this is a entertaining read. I look forward to seeing how the author improves.

**ARC provided by Publisher**

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