Princess Talea is the heiress to the kingdom of Mariess, being the only legitimate child of her father, King Belar. She has lived in seclusion for the past ten years, in part, to avoid the dissolute court and her father’s lover, Princess Fardretha, and his illegitimate son, Orath. Talea has a secret that could doom her, if it was known – she is a female mage, an almost unknown phenomenon on the world of Hearthome. She cannot control her powers, for she has never received training, and she dares not be around people for fear she will slip and reveal her powers.

Then Prince Loran of Tarnwhite, youngest brother of King Jareth, arrives in Mariess. His job is to find and retrieve the third part of the Book of Tocson, so that the evil mage Narik cannot get his hands on it. The three parts of the Book were hidden separately; Narik has found the first part of the Book, and King Jareth has the second. Meeting his childhood friend Talea after all these years brings him to the awareness that Talea is his soulmate. They must work together to achieve their goals, and overcome the machinations of Narik.

This is the third book in the Hearthome series, the first two being Silver Fire and Amber Inferno. Although reading these first books would help the reader understand the story fully, it’s not necessary to have read them in order to enjoy this book. Sapphire Flames continues this Quest trilogy; in each book, one of three brothers goes on a quest for an object, the Book of Tocson, and, on the way finds his soulmate. In each quest, the love of the soulmates is the key to overcoming evil forces. I think that I like this third story best of all three, because it is more complex and resolves some of the loose ends that were left from the previous stories. The plotting is tighter, and the author develops the plot in several separate threads, bringing them all together skillfully at the end.

The characters of Talea and Loran are very congenial and we get to meet Jareth and Mirelle, and Pendar and Rayne again, which I enjoyed. If you’ve read the other books in the series, you know that Hearthome is powered by lanbeth, the magical substance created when two soulmates make love. And as in the other books in the series, the soulmates really give it their all so that as much lanbeth as possible is created! The love scenes are frequent, and very graphic, but are, with a few exceptions, between loving couples. I will warn the reader that there is one violent rape scene, which demonstrates the evil nature and corruption of the villains.

I think that readers of fantasy will really enjoy this book. If you haven’t read the other two books in the series, I recommend them as well.


Reviewed by: Jean