Schneider combines highly immersive and expressive writing with deep imaginative world building. This is not a book that you simply speed run through from start to end, it raises the bar for everything you are going to read next. Having read her Crown of Stones series in the past (which I also highly recommend), I went into this (newer) series with high expectations, and yet the author managed to fascinate me in completely unexpected ways.

The more normal and perfect something appeared on the outside, the more messed up it was underneath where no one could see. I was proof of that.

There is a lot to like in the book. First we have the characters - who, like her past books, are the primary focus. We see a complex murder mystery evolve from the perspective of Dahlia Nite, an arson specialist who is assisting the police in solving cases that are inexplicable.

“What exactly are you a specialist in, Miss Nite?” he asked, with a quick confirming glance at my ring finger. “Fires,” I said. “Setting them or putting them out?” “Both.”

As the story progresses, the death toll rises, and strange connections emerge. Schneider is not the kind of author who papers over the gory details, and this book may not be for the faint of heart. The violence, and its aftermath, are described in all its gruesome splendor. When vengeful and desperate dragons are involved, death is rarely merciful.

“Any details?”

“Only that it’s gruesome and unexplainable.”

“Perfect.”

Dahlia Nite is an expert on fire for a reason, though - a reason that she has kept under the wraps for more than a century she has lived in the world of humans. She is a lyrriken - a half dragon, and a fugitive from a different world. But the ‘exits’ between the worlds are spilling over, and more and more dangerous creatures are venturing in - making her job increasingly different.

Besides being a dragon shifter, Dahlia Nite is an empath. The trauma that seeps out from people speaks to her, takes her back in time, and lets her feel the pain and suffering of the victims. As the story evolves, it surprises again and again just how uniquely powerful as well as vulnerable this ability makes her.

Losing solidity, I faded, specter-like, becoming no more than apparition as the residue of the victims’ pain pulled at my senses. It blossomed, thick and black. Trauma overrode reality, and my present surrendered to their past.

Another very interesting source of tension is that the rapid evolution of modern technology is increasingly making it harder for operatives like Nite to explain away supernatural deaths, and workaholic detectives like Creed are hell-bent on digging up the truth behind mysterious personalities with shady pasts who have always been pulling the strings from the shadows.

> “All those times when you wondered if something was out there […] in the dark, when the cold crept up your back and the hair lifted on your puny arms, when you couldn’t shake the feeling that something was there, watching […] We were. We are.”

Besides intense violence, there is also vivid steamy sex. While categorizing this book as a romance would be a mistake, Dahlia’s evolving, complex relationship with various male characters in the story does complement the plot very well.

She giggled and they proceeded to pull each other’s clothes off to the arousing aroma of the nearby dumpster.

All in all, a fabulous read. Looking forward to the next in the series. I can already tell that 2025 is going to be dark and eventful.

We could all stop moving tomorrow. So why stand still today?