After being forced to watch his father's execution, Haruo knows it's his turn to take on his family's legacy. He needs to kill the emperor in order to save his island. Then he learns about an upcoming tournament where the winner can choose a bride for the emperor's son and Haruo hatches a plot to accomplish his mission.

I really liked the world building in this story. The island and the voices of the island combined with the anguish of the island because of the actions of the emperor was a really interesting premise. Unfortunately, the story doesn't live up to that premise at all.

The lack of explanation hurt the story the most. After reading this story I still don't have any idea why there are dragon shifters, why the island is alive, or even why the emperor's presence on the island is having such a negative effect on it. Given all of that was the entire base of the story, having the answers left out made this story almost unreadable. Basically, Ricci needed to double the length of this story. Talking the time to actually flesh out the full plot, and to let the characterizations actually grow, would have helped this story immensely.

Beautiful Cover that immediately drew my attention. The blurb was quite intriguing and I was excited to sink my teeth into this story. However I felt a bit let down to be honest and wish that the story had been longer and laid out better.

"You father smiled when he died. Will you smile when death comes for you too?"

*
1 / 5

I liked the idea behind Flamecaller (also really dug the title and the cover): a guy called Haruo seeks revenge for the execution of his father by the emperor and finds an opportunity in the tournament the emperor is holding in order to find a wife for his son.

Unfortunately, Flamecaller feels really rushed and underdeveloped. At only 45 pages, I think it's better to concentrate on portraying a snapshot of life or a character development, but Ricci is ambitious and attempts to cover a massive plot including a romance, a tournament, and an assassination plot. It was really too much for so few words.

"There were a doxen people around him, all dragons in their second skins"

The setting of this story is also pretty confusing: it's clearly Japanese inspired with the Emperor and imperial elements, but the people can also shift into dragon forms (why? who knows) and the island appears to be alive. Flamecaller feels like a first draft: some good ideas, but very unpolished.

2,5 *, rounded down. (based on my feelings, not math)

The premise of this book is very interesting and I think it could have been pretty good story. But at this point, it simply isn't, which saddens me.

This book is a novella, which I think actually hurts it - it would probably worked better, if the author had more words to explore the relationship between the two love interests. Instead, they go from "i will kill you" to "you are important to me" during like... one conversation, which feels really weird. Enemies to lovers storylines need time and space to work properly and there isn't any in this.

Another issue is the pseudo-japanese setting. If the Emperor was called a lord or some lesser rank, I would maybe be able to swallow he has basically no guards/servants, lets his son live like he does and decides to wed his offspring based on... tournament in a small island? That could work for some mayor, but Emperor? I am sorry, does not compute. Also, the whole "Tokyo" thing confuses me greatly - Tokyo has become capital of Japan only in recent history and was called Edo until year 1869, but the overall setting of the book seems to be much sooner, so why the heck is one of the main characters referencing Tokyo?
The setting just falls apart and even though this is fantasy, even fantasy should be grounded in reality. If the author doesn't want to do any research about real world japan history, fair enough, but don't base your fantasy books on them please.

All in all, this could have been a decent book with more words and more time to edit and polish it and do research. Since these things lack, I cannot recommend it with clear conscience as a good read.

Rating: 2 stars out of 5

When the emperor has his father killed, it's the breaking point for Haruo, who sets out from the island of dragon shifters where he lives in search of revenge. The tournament being held to marry off the emperor's son seems a perfect opportunity—what better way to get close to the father than through the son, after all.

Three things drew me to this story.  That incredible cover, the author, and that synopsis.  I have read Caitlin Ricci's stories before and enjoyed them. That fact, combined with the intriguing plot,  had me eagerly starting into chapter one.

Sigh.

What I found was more along the lines of an author's outline for a novella than an actual story that was complete with fleshed out characters, relationships that had some depth to them, back histories that went beyond the shallow, and a foundation that made some sense.

This surprised me considering the author, which is why Flamecaller seems more like an outline of a story than an actual one.   The potential here is marvelous, especially with regard to the emperor's son.  But do we get any of the necessary background on him to make sense of his actions or subsequent feelings? No.  Does the author give the readers any understanding of how certain important plot elements as I will call them (no spoilers) run genetically through family lines?  No.  Nothing.  She just throws facts out there and leaves them unsupported and whole sections of her story moorless.   That goes for the whole island is crying thing as well and Haruo's family.  See statement above.

I won't even get started on that ending which is preposterous no matter how fairy tale-ish this story became.

No, my hope is that sometime in the future, this gets pulled back, and properly rewritten into the novel it's crying out to be.  Unless you are a hardcore Caitlin Ricci fan, I'd wait and see if that happens to read this story imo.

Cover Art :Michelle Seaver.  This cover is absolutely gorgeous as well as pertinent to the story.  It's one of the things that drew me to read the blurb.  Love it.

An interesting idea but very poorly executed. The writing was amateur and the dialogue repetitive. Although it had a nice plot twist for such a short story, it wasn't worth it