Format: E-Galley, 464 pages
Release Date: September 6, 2016
Publisher: Orbit
Source: Publisher
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Behind every myth, there's a spark of truth...
There's nothing special about Ben Garston. He's just a guy with an attitude in a beat-up leather jacket, drowning his sorrows in a downtown bar. Or so he'd have you believe.
What Ben Garston can't let you know is that he was once known as Red Ben. That the world of myth and legend isn't just a fantasy, as we've been led to believe. And he certainly can't let you know the secret of what's hiding just beneath his skin...
But not even Ben knows what kind of hell is about to break loose. A centuries-old rivalry has just resurfaced, and the delicate balance between his world and ours is about to be shattered.
Chasing Embers is the first installment in author James Bennett's Ben Garston series. Chasing Embers is told in the third person narrative with a male lead character. Bennett takes his character from New York City, to London, to Berlin, and onward to Cairo for the crushing finale. Ben Garston, aka Red Ben is one of the last dragons left in existence thanks an agreement that was signed between the Remnants, and King John who also signed the Magna Carta, 800 years ago. Ben looks like a normal human being, but that's just because he can't tell anyone what he really is without incurring a major wrath against him.
"Progress always means decline for others."
Pact was supposed to protect all Remnants leaving them protected by the Guild of the Broken Lance, but ended up luring them into a long sleep instead. As the last Remnant and Dragon, Ben has an obligation to the Lure and Pact that becomes tiresome at times, especially after trouble hits him where it counts right out of the gate, and keeps hitting him until he realizes that he might be over matched. It takes Ben a rather long time in understanding why he has been targeted since the breaking of the pact takes place away from his purview. As Ben scurries for a way to stay alive from those who mean to see his end, he must try to the one person who has his heart; Rose McBriar.
Clearly this is a book that weighs heavily on understanding things that happened 800 years ago, and why Ben and Rose have such a dysfunctional relationship that ends up leaving a whole lot of questions by the time you get to the ending. By the end, I liked Rose's attitude while wanting punch Ben in the throat from being a complete and utter asshat. I held back a bit on my review because the author through Ben does a whole lot of info dumping that probably wasn't necessary. Bennett didn't shy away from action. Nope. From a sword fighting scene in a bar, to Ben being chased by Witches through NYC, to facing an entity even more powerful and older than he is across Europe, while ending in a curious shove everything into the washer, and hope it comes out in a cohesive way ending in Egypt.
Weeee! Okay, I got approved for this, will definitely read it at some point.
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