Review: The Fire Child by S.K. Tremayne

When Rachel marries dark, handsome David, everything seems to fall into place. Swept from single life to the beautiful Carnhallow House in Cornwall, she gains wealth, love, and an affectionate stepson, Jaime.
But then Jamie behavior changes, and Rachel’s perfect life begins to unravel. He makes disturbing predictions, claiming to be haunted by the spectre of his late mother - David's previous wife. Is this Jaime's way of punishing Rachel, r is he far more traumatized than she thought?
As Rachel starts digging into the past, she begins to grow suspicious of her husband. Why is he so reluctant to discuss Jamie’s outbursts? And what exactly happened to cause his ex-wife’s untimely death, less than two years ago? As summer slips away and December looms, Rachel begins to fear there might be truth in Jamie’s words:
‘You will be dead by Christmas’.

Shona's review 3 of 5 stars

I read and loved SK Tremayne's previous book The Ice Twins, so when I heard of The Fire Child I jumped at the chance to read it. Unfortunately for me this one didn't have the same pull I loved with The Ice Twins.

The writing itself is great, it perfectly describes the scenery, the mood, the people. I could read it with ease but I wasn't necessarily enjoying the story. This story was such a slow burner though that at 120 something pages in I felt we didn't really have a story yet. I struggled with this, really struggled. I hate when I'm not enjoying a book but I refused to believe that this should be relegated to my DNF pile. So I pushed through. And slowly, ever so slowly the story picked up, pieces of information were uncovered about Rachel's past, about David's past, about Nina's death and slowly it all began to come together.

By the time I was half way through the book I knew I was going to finish it, I needed to find out the secrets hidden in everyone's lies. I needed to know if Rachel was going to survive Christmas Day and if not, who or what would be responsible for her death. 

In the end I was on the edge of my seat, utterly gripped, convinced I knew how things were going to turn out and surprised when they didn't quite go as I thought.

I cant help but feel if we had been given a little more information a little earlier in the story that this book could have been so much more. but for me everything came just a little to late. Which is why despite the fact that I loved the ending, this book only gets 3 stars from me.