Firewalker by Josephine Angelini

Title: Firewalker (Worldwalker #2)

Author: Josephine Angelini

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Release Date: September 1, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Worlds divide, magic slays, and love lies in these second book of Josephine Angelini’s The Worldwalker Trilogy.

“You think I’m a monster, but my choices, as ruthless as they seem, are justified.”

Lily is back in her own universe, and she’s ready to start a new life with Rowan by her side. True, she almost died in the Pyre that fuelled their escape from New Salem, and must hide her magic for the safety of everyone she cares about, but compared to fighting the Woven, the monstrous creatures inhabiting the alternate Salem, life is looking pretty good.

Unfortunately, Lillian, ruthless ruler of the 13 Cities, is not willing to let Lily got that easily. If she can’t persuade Lily to return to her world, she will force her to come back by doing away with the ones she loves.

Picking up right where Trial by Fire left off, Firewalker is another sexy, fast-paced, heartbreaking thrill ride from internationally bestselling author Josephine Angelini.

It’s no secret that Josephine Angelini ranks among my all-time favourite authors. I love everything she writes and everything of hers I read leaves me wanting more. Firewalker was so much more than I could have hoped and I loved every single page of it.

Lily is back in her world, this time with Rowan by her side. But after the months she’s spent in New Salem, it’s hard to just slip back into her old life. It doesn’t help that something, or rather someone, in New Salem keeps wanting to pull her back. Lily can only resist Lillian for so long before she finds herself going back to the Pyre and transporting herself, Rowan and her newfound mechanics back to New Salem. Back in this universe, Lily starts to question everything she thought to be true, and finds herself making decisions that may cost her everyone she loves.

I’m always a little apprehensive going in to a new Josephine Angelini book. Not because I’m worried I won’t enjoy the story because I have complete faith in her on that front, but rather because I’m never sure if I’m going to come out the other end with my heart intact. She is particularly gifted at writing stories where my emotions are put through the wringer but I still wouldn’t change any moment of that story. Firewalker was no different. Firewalker wastes no time jumping into things: the story picks up just moment after where Trial by Fire ended. So right from the start, something is happening. And honestly, it doesn’t let up until the very last page. And even at that point, I was kinda hoping there were still pages left to turn. And like I had predicted, Firewalker pretty much put my heart through the wringer. I was constantly worried about the fate of the different characters I have come to love over the course of these two books. And by the end of the book, let’s just say it’s kind of up in the air as to whether some of them are even alive anymore or not. And now I have to wait a whole year to find that out, and it’s going to be painful. 

But for real, though, Josephine Angelini wrote an absolutely fantastic story in Firewalker, and dropped so many hints as to what might actually be going on and it made me all the more curious about what’s to come. And like with any of her books that aren’t the last one in a series: THAT ENDING. WHAT WAS THAT EVEN? Aside from the fact that I’m not sure about the status of some people, I just need to know what happens next and what is going on. As a reader, you reach the end and you’re just left hanging. But in the best way possible. 

One of the things I loved about Firewalker was seeing how much Lily had grown. Where in the first book, she was kind of trying to find her footing as far as this whole magic and multiple universes thing was concerned, in this one, Lily was strong and fierce and ready to do just about anything it took to protect the people she cares about. In my review of Trial by Fire, I had predicted that Lillian was just sort of made to look like a villain and after reading Firewalker, my prediction seemed pretty accurate. Granted things might still change by the time I get to the end of the final book, but I found out so much about Lillian in Firewalker and it had me seriously reconsidering my opinions of her. She definitely isn’t the villain she seems to be and she has pretty valid reasons for doing what she did. It will definitely be interesting to see how it all plays out. And that brings me to Rowan. Who I am still all about. Even if there were a couple moments where I kinda wanted to smack him. But then I have so many unanswered questions where he’s concerned and all I will say is that Rowan better be coming out of all this in one piece otherwise I will be PISSED. 

Another interesting aspect of Firewalker was that it kind of introduces and spends time with different characters than the first book. I mean the story still very much focuses on Lily, Rowan and Lillian and whatever love triangle there is there, if you can even call it a love triangle at this point. But Firewalker also allowed me to get to know Lily’s Tristan (as opposed to the Tristan from New Salem who was very present in the first book), Breakfast (whose name cracked me up every time I read it) and Una, three people from Lily’s world who end up in New Salem because they become her new mechanics when Lily and Rowan are back in our world (are you confused yet—I might be and I’m the one writing this and I’ve read the book). I loved getting to find out more about this Tristan because I definitely had questions about him after the first book and at times what I found out about him and his story broke my heart a little. I’ll definitely be curious to read more about all of them in the future book, even if I am concerned about what my growing attachment to them will do to my heart in the next book.

If this long and rambling review wasn’t a dead giveaway, I absolutely loved Josephine Angelini’s Firewalker and I have a lot of feelings about it. And those feelings are confused and complicated but completely worth it. And I’ll be pining for the final book in the series. For real, Traitor’s Pyre can’t come soon enough.