Put this one down at about 23% - I am so tired of description and no action I just can’t keep going.

Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of The Fire Child. I voluntarily chose to review this novel and my opinion is freely given.

How much can you truly know about a person when you marry them after a short, whirlwind courtship? Rachel finds herself married to David, becoming an instant parent to his son Jamie. Isolated from her old life and her friends, Rachel soon comes to the realization that she is in the dark about a good many things.

The Fire Child never finds its footing, with the minimal character development and the general sketch of a plot. The story was predictable and had few thrilling moments. I wanted to feel invested in the outcome, but I mainly read the novel hoping that it would grab my attention. This psychological thriller did not deliver on its promise and, for that reason, I would not recommend it to other readers.

I really wanted more from this book. It was a decent thriller, but it was pretty predictable and lost my interest about halfway through the book.

For fans of atmospheric psychological thrillers. Set in Cornwall, I enjoyed reading about the area and it's mining history. The writing was chilling, dark and engaging. My first book from this author but definitely not my last.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for providing a digital copy in return for an honest, unbiased review.

Though I liked the book, I made the decision at the time I finished not to review it on my site. Maybe in the future I will include it in a book list post or another article.

3/5

This book wasn't bad by any means, but just maybe not my cup of tea. I finished it, but about halfway through I had a little less interest. Months later as I write this review, little sticks with me. So borrow, maybe don't buy.

Rachel, having recently married widower David and gaining a stepson Jamie seems to have it all. Coming from a single life in London to a beautiful home in.Cornwall and having love and wealth with her new family-what more could she want? That is until Jamie's behavior becomes bizarre-having visions, talking to himself, making strange predictions, claiming to be haunted by his mother's ghost. Needless to say Rachel becomes not only concerned ut also suspicious oh his mother's death and David's role in it if any as he refuses to discuss it. This is a great psychological study as we learn whether Jaime suffers from paranoia or if everything he relates has validity. Interesting descriptions of Cornwall and the copper mines for those that are interested.

Spooky read. Captivating. Will recommend. Good for fans of thriller

This is a page turning thriller with a plot line we've seen before (young woman married older widower with creepy kid) but it's well done and inventive (no spoilers!). Tremayne makes especially good use of the Cornwall setting, which is just perfect for those of us who are suckers for books set in the area. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Tremayne is an author to look for because they are reliably good, very readable novels that are well written and just twisty enough to keep you guessing.

The Fire Child by S. K. Tremayne is so amazingly gothic, in the best possible way, that if it wasn't for the cell phones and other modern touches I might have thought I was reading a much older book. In the first few pages Rachel makes her way through her new husband's ancestral home, going from The Old Dining Room, through The New Hall to The Yellow Drawing Room. And then there are the sprawling basements, and the mine tunnels beneath them that extend under the sea. Did I mention that her husband's first wife drowned in those abandoned tin mines eighteen months earlier and that her body was never recovered? It might have been washed out to sea, or trapped in the tunnels under the old house. And Rachel's young stepson has told her that she will die on Christmas. If you want something that's wonderfully creepy and suspenseful without being actually frightening, this is the book for you.

With so many thrillers out on the market these days, a good one needs to be able to set itself apart from the masses. S. K. Tremayne's approach is to take the idea of an unreliable narrator and add to it. In addition, he sets his novels in areas of the world that have tragic histories. With the atmosphere and mood set by the background and his upfront approach to unreliable narrators, he then must use the story itself to keep a reader's interest and build the suspense. With The Fire Child, he succeeds in spades.

Tragedy abounds within the setting of The Fire Child, and Mr. Tremayne uses that tragedy to good advantage. Set among the ruins of the tin mines in Cornwall, Mr. Tremayne weaves its miserable history into the very fabric of the story. These mines and everything they represent in terms of human misery and abominable working conditions are a shadowy character that haunts the Carnhallow House and its occupants. Their ruins echo the human ruins they created, and the stories Rachel learns about the mines are more than a little grim. The pall they cast on the house is palpable and sets the bleakest of moods. Mr. Tremayne only adds to that pall as he establishes David's relationship with his father and with his 1,000-year-old family past.

One of the best parts about the novel is the fact that Mr. Tremayne lets readers know from the very beginning that Rachel is not the most reliable of narrators. We find out very early on that she is keeping secrets from her husband, and the novel is not even at its halfway point before we learn what some of those secrets are. Knowing this so early into the story allows readers to let the story flow without having to worry about her trustworthiness. It even creates more suspense as we are left to wonder just who we can believe as things start spiraling out of control.

Things do spiral out of control and rather quickly. This brings to the story an inordinate amount of excitement as Rachel and David's idyllic marriage is frankly somewhat nauseating to behold. They are proof that happiness is boring in a novel and that tension and strife are where the best stories occur. As things deteriorate, the reader should do nothing but hang on for the ride. To try to puzzle out the story's trajectory is to miss the way Mr. Tremayne weaves doubt and madness into every scene.

The Fire Child is exciting and intense, but there is an undercurrent of sadness and regret to it that may surprise readers. This is in part due to the fact that Mr. Tremayne includes the history of the tin mines into as many scenes as possible, and the history is not pleasant. Grief is at the heart of the story, and it permeates all of the characters and their actions. The story is as tumultuous as the Cornwall beaches and weather, and it makes for outstanding reading.

I wanted to love this one, I really did. The Ice Twins has been recommended to me by so many people so when I saw the same author had a new book on Netgalley I jumped at the chance. Let me back up a little, this has been a crappy reading week for me, I gave up on two books before I started this one. I started a third but was having technical difficulties, which sucks because I was liking the book. (Those issues have since been resolved!) Anyway, my point is that I picked this up hoping that it would break my streak and leave me excited, but alas I really wish I had just given up on this one when I wasn’t into it by the halfway point, I didn’t really like anything about this one unfortunately.

It starts out really slow, like painfully slow you guys. The chapters are told in a countdown to Christmas because Rachel’s new stepson, Jamie had a premonition that she’ll be dead by then. You learn that David and Rachel had a whirlwind romance and married quickly and they’re all adjusting to their new family. They live in a creepy old house in Cornwall and the atmosphere was ok, I can see where the author was going with it, but it didn’t quite do it for me. There was tons of history behind the mines and it was mind numbingly boring. I almost gave up, but I peeked at a few reviews that said it gets better, so I persevered. I should’ve called it quits at this point.

By seventy five percent I was still not engaged, it was clear all three family members were hiding things, David about the night that his first wife, Nina died, and Rachel about her past. Jamie was either the creepiest little psychic around or a big fat liar, but as I never connected with any of them so I just didn’t care either way.

When the big twist was finally revealed I was actually pissed off. It was so improbable that it goes way beyond suspending disbelief. It made no sense to me whatsoever and by the final few pages I was skimming just to finish. I never do that, if I’m committed to a book, I’m usually all in but I was so beyond annoyed at this point that I just couldn’t take it. Now that I’ve looked at the reviews on Goodreads I see they’re all over the map, some of my friends loved this and others felt more like me, so don’t let my feelings dissuade you if this is on your radar, it could go either way.

A fun suspense thriller that had me flipping pages faster and faster. I loved this book!!

Rachel and David both enter a marriage with deep, dark secrets. Each have their own agenda but one thing they do have in common. They want whats best for Jamie the little boy left bereft after his mother's tragic death. Carnhallow House where David takes Rachel to live is an added bonus. On the coast of Cornwall, it does have a tragic history with tin mining taking precedence but it has been the family home for David and his ancestors for generations. The fact that Rachel fell in love with the house as well was a real bonus.

Nothing however is what it seems and the onset of strange utterances from Jamie with disjointed unrelated stuff from David's ailing mother makes Rachel begin to think that Nicola's death was not the straight forward accident it seemed to be and Jamie seems to have some vision for the future which does not bode well for Rachel.

Taking twists and turns of the most unexpected, the depths to which someone would go to safeguard a "thing" in this case Carnhallow House over a relationship and an actual living being shows what attachment and in a sense greed could do to a human. Not being too attached to worldly stuff is something that Buddhism always speaks about and I guess this is a good thing. David considered Rachel expendable in the greater scheme of his life when compared to his family home and this overall affected the entire story.

A mystery it was, but a psychological saga would be more descriptive of this very good book.

Goodreads and Amazon review up on 18/2/2017. Review on my blog mid June 2017

I was given an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest and independent review.
This is not a fast paced, thrilling book but what it lacks in pace is made up by the detailed narrative of the location, which makes the setting very "visible" to the reader.
Written by the same author of The Ice Twins I was excited to read this latest psychological thriller. Unfortunately it doesn't match the thrill of the earlier book or the compulsion I had to race to the end. Most of the characters were not very likeable. David is selfish and self absorbed. Rachel is odd with lots of secrets from her past. In parts I also found it a bit implausible.
3 stars

Great read couldn't put it down,characters are well developed

The Fire Child left me with a bittersweet feeling, much like the author's previous novel, The Ice Twins. Even the setting was similar.

First of all, when a book requires too much suspension of disbelief I just cannot seem to enjoy it much, no matter how well it is written. Rachel put me off from the beginning. I did not get why she married David so soon, especially since she described herself as an independent feminist. Sure, she can feel attracted to the guy but marry him and give everything up in the span of a few months? Or one month, I think I read somewhere.

She just felt jaded. Like in this quote:
"See you for dinner. You're a great sitter."
He kisses me softly before striding away, around the house, heading for his car, calling out for Jamie. Like we are already a family. Safe and happy.

He described her basically as his kid's babysitter and she says she feels part of the family? I don't get it.

There were other details, of course, like the maid having lived there for 10 years and at 32 years old still not being able to speak an entire sentence of proper English, let alone have a chat with Rachel.
In order for events to unfold the way they did, our main character had to be isolated and this just felt like a cop-out. I meant, at the very least make her older so she would have more trouble learning a new language or something.

The Fire Child was an intense thriller at times, while at others it got repetitive and I felt that it dragged on. I have read plenty of dark books and have enjoyed probably the large majority of them, but this just felt bleak and desolate for pretty much the entire time. I was confused, annoyed (I could not take one more line of (view spoiler)) and finished the book beyond disappointed at the wrap-up.

Sure, there is plenty food for thought but it just felt rushed and not believable at all.
I do think that many people will love this novel but the more I think about it the more I realise that there were indeed several isolated episodes where I kept flipping the pages as quickly as I could but, as a whole, the story just did not satisfy me.

Disclaimer: I would like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This did not grab nor hold my interest at all. I could not finish it.

Rachel has been swept off her feet by the dashing and debonair David. Leaving London behind, she moves to his family estate, Carnhallow House in Cornwall. Thrilled with her new home, her husband and new stepson, Jamie, Rachel can’t believe her luck. Then things begin to change. Jamie becomes moody and unpredictable. He tells Rachel he’s being visited by the ghost of his dead mother and makes terrifying predictions. Rachel doesn’t believe in ghosts, but she’s worried about David’s reaction. He refuses to deal with his son’s behavior and it’s not long before Rachel begins to doubt the man she married. How well does she know him really? And just how did his wife die so unexpectedly? I LOVED this book. Tremayne wrote the Ice Twins, a book that was a tough act to follow, but The Fire Child surpassed my expectations. The gorgeous (and creepy) Cornwall scenery, the abandoned mines, the hulking old house – all combined to create a story reminiscent of Rebecca. Highly recommended