Jacob (Jake) is a geeky high school football star (jeek) with his biggest worries involving his stepdad being a creepy peeper and his biological dad haunting his dreams because Jake heals unnaturally fast, never tires from workouts, and only needs 4 hours of sleep. His worries double as he falls for his sister’s “off-limits” best-friend and has a sudden near-death-experience that results in a new friend telling him he’s a druid.
Thus begins an interesting combination of Witness Protection Program-style action with fire spells, wraiths, and vampires.

Magic

The magic system isn’t too complex (matter = energy = magic), and (despite Jake’s incredible strength) it takes hours to concentrate, days to practice, and weeks of study to master a single spell. (This isn’t the type of story where the magic comes easily…at least in most cases). The simple magic system is easily accessible to low-fantasy fans.

Cleanliness

Speaking of accessibility, I’d rate it 13+ for its high amount of teenage boy hormones, limited swearing, and limited (but severe) sexual references.
As a movie, however, it would be 18+ for its high percentage of nudity time. There are a lot of references to girl’s clothing (or lack thereof), but since the descriptions are mostly vague, it makes a 13+ book.
Since it’s Utah, there are brief (non-preachy) references to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Setting: Modern Utah

I don’t think I’ve ever read an Urban Fantasy where I actually recognized the street names, so that was a fun and repeated surprise in this story that’s heavily set in Salt Lake City, Utah. Starting in West Jordan, we get to tour places like Gateway, Jordan Commons, the never-ending-construction on I-80 and Bangerter, the insane mansions on the Eastern foothills, and the beautiful Bear Lake.

Since it’s set in Utah, Jake and his sister are casual members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (going to church maybe once a month – mostly to get out of the house and see friends), meaning topics like “church” and “modesty” are mentioned, but definitely not preached. The story’s slightly outdated as they’re called “Mormons” and attend 3-hour church, but the religious references are limited anyway.

On the topic of references, there are, however, a lot of fun 2000s pop-culture references.

This guy Dumbledored me.

Fire Light, by J. Abram Barneck

I really enjoyed the references, especially when one character doesn’t get any of them…then surprises Jake with an unlikely reference near the end.

Final Rating

“Fire Light” has a good balance between a love-triangle romance and supernatural action and was written well enough to keep me up till 2:30AM to finish. Then, I immediately looked up book 2, because a lot of plots were resolved, but there were also many plots left open. Thankfully, the trilogy’s complete. ****4.4 Stars*****

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.