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[katara]

Title: The Lantern's Ember
Author: Colleen Houck
Format: Epub
Rating: 3.75/5
Status: Finished
Reading Date: June 22, 2018 to June 27, 2018
Book Summary: Welcome to a world where nightmarish creatures reign supreme.

Five hundred years ago, Jack made a deal with the devil. It’s difficult for him to remember much about his mortal days. So, he focuses on fulfilling his sentence as a Lantern—one of the watchmen who guard the portals to the Otherworld, a realm crawling with every nightmarish creature imaginable. Jack has spent centuries jumping from town to town, ensuring that nary a mortal—or not-so-mortal—soul slips past him. That is, until he meets beautiful Ember O’Dare.

Seventeen, stubborn, and a natural-born witch, Ember feels a strong pull to the Otherworld. Undeterred by Jack’s warnings, she crosses into the forbidden plane with the help of a mysterious and debonair vampire—and the chase through a dazzling, dangerous world is on. Jack must do everything in his power to get Ember back where she belongs before both the earthly and unearthly worlds descend into chaos.
Book Review: I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a chance to read this book prior to it's release.

In "The Lantern's Ember", we meet Jack. Once upon a time long ago, Jack was a mortal whom met the devil and made a deal. In this deal, Jack became bound to a pumpkin and now his job was to be keeper of all things that went bump in the night. In becoming this, he was also the reason for the legend of the Headless Horseman. One day, he meets a young witch named Ember and finds himself trying to protect her from the creatures of the Otherworld whom would enjoy tasting her magic. Because you see, the witches have left Otherworld and with them so was their magic.

When I first saw this book, I was excited because this book had a different premise from those of recent reads. Here, I thought, things would be different and the book would take me on an adventure that most of the ya books seemed to have lacked lately.

Unfortunately I found the same qualities in this heroine that I keep finding in other heroines - brainless, never listening, and taking off on their own despite the fact there is danger. I get that authors are trying to make their heroines brave and the ideal for those younger readers but at the same time, they are not changing the heroine personality. This is unfortunate because all heroines have potential to become something much more than just brainless twits.

I wanted to like Ember but she seemed to be one-dimension and too predictable. Her reactions to situations seemed off. While others reacted to something accordingly, she didn't. I don't know why but it bothered me. It was like she was in another world and she was reacting to something entirely different.

And who the hell allows themselves to follow someone they don't know into a world they have no idea about!? This has been reoccuring theme in the ya universe. We meet heroine and heroine goes off on an adventure into a world she has followed someone into. This has started putting me off on reading ya lately. :/ The heroines have gotten annoying and brainless. There is no personality growth and they always seem to be in some world of their own.

As for Jack? Well I liked him, if that helps, but he isn't something I would be jumping for joy over or writing to people about. I loved the idea of how he is the reason behind the legend of Sleepy Hollow. This was the most awesome part of his story. Otherwise he could be part of the background and would not be newsworthy.

Overall the world building was interesting and I really enjoyed it but the secondary characters were just like Ember - predictable. No growth, no personality, no anything.

If you enjoy movie monsters and a little bit steampunk, then this book you will definitely enjoy.