Through Fire & Sea Review

Through Fire & Sea

Author: Nicole Luiken

Average Rating: 4.33/5.0

Personal Rating: 4.0/5.0

Page Count: 354

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Published Date: 5 May 2015

According to Goodreads:

Mirror mirror, hear my call…

In the Fire world, seventeen-year-old Leah is the illegitimate daughter of one of the realm's most powerful lords. She's hot-blooded—able to communicate with the tempestuous volcano gods that either bless a civilization or destroy it. But then Leah discovers she's a Caller, gifted with the unique—and dangerous—ability to “call” her Otherselves in mirror worlds. And her father will do anything to use her powers for his own purposes.

In the Water world, Holly nearly drowns when she sees—and interacts with—Leah, a mirror image of herself. She’s rescued by Ryan, a boy from school with a secret he’d die to protect. Little do they know, his Otherself is the son of a powerful volcano god at war in the Fire world…and he’s about to fall.

As Leah and Holly's lives intersect, the Fire and Water worlds descend into darkness. The only way to protect the mirror worlds is to break every rule they've ever known. If they don’t, the evil seeping through the mirrors will destroy everything—and everyone—they love…

My Opinion:

I received a review copy from the publisher, and in no way does that have an impact on my opinion of the novel. 

Remember when you were a kid or maybe it was even last night when you believed in Bloody Mary? How you would stand in front of the mirror in a dark room and chant her name three times, but chicken out before the third time by sprinting out of the room to the safety of a well-lit room. There are countless stories about strange happenings involving mirrors. I even get weirded out by looking into a mirror sometimes...usually after watching a scary movie. Will I see someone or something behind me? Will my reflection be me or will the face staring back at me have different characteristics? 

Through Fire & Sea creates a concept that instead of there being only one world there are multiple mirror worlds. There's five worlds present in the novel: The True World, Fire World, Water World, Air World, and Stone World. The majority of the story takes place in Fire and Water Worlds with True World briefly mentioned every so often. True World is the first world where everything is real, while the other four worlds are mirror-like reflections of the True World. Each individual in the True World should have an otherself in each of the other worlds. As long as their otherselves remain in their specific worlds the atmosphere is in balance, but if two selves are in the same mirror world chaos is unleashed. 

There are two budding relationships that take place: Gideon and Leah from the Fire World and Ryan and Holly from the Water World. Leah and Holly are each other's otherselves and the same goes for Gideon and Ryan. I preferred Ryan and Holly's relationship over Gideon and Leah's, because I felt theirs was more realistic. Both couples fell in love quite easily and moved quickly, but at least Ryan and Holly weren't referring to each other as soul mates in the second chapter after they met like Gideon and Leah were. I felt like Holly had a more stable head on her shoulders, and made connections to various instances quicker than Leah could. I mean, it took literally forever for Leah to make a huge connection that I refuse to specifically state since it would destroy some of the spark of the book. 

Overall, I enjoyed Through Fire and Sea. I thought the novel provided a unique twist involving mirrors. Mirrors are interesting objects that we usually don't pay too much attention to since they are basically everywhere we go. Who knows maybe someday we will be able to travel through them like Holly and Leah.