First, I would like to say that I’m infatuated with the cover of this book. I love the name. I love everything about it. Truth be told, it’s been on my TBR list for a while. I’m happy to finally have had the chance to read it!

In this standalone debut by Jade Church, we plummet into a world of Angels and psychics. Our heroine, Ivy, finds herself caught up in an Angelic war. She finds up in the arms of Devlin in an insta-love romance, battling alongside him to conquer their demons – both metaphorical and literal.

I personally enjoyed “Temper the Flame”. I enjoyed the stories, I enjoyed the characters. I found myself quite intrigued by what was going to happen next. It had all of the makings of a stunning debut novel. 

I enjoyed the humor of the book. It was very tongue in cheek and it made it incredibly fun to read. I adored all of the characters. The development, for me, was there. I was incredibly attached to the characters. Even the smaller, ‘bit-part players were intriguing to me.

There were, unfortunately, some things that didn’t quite jive well with me that took away from the reading experience. The writing itself was very fast-paced. There were a couple instances where I had convinced myself that I had skipped several pages, only to go back and re-read, only to then realize that it had happened as quickly as I thought it did. I wish there was some more time taken to flesh out the action scenes.

I will admit I’m not the biggest fan of insta-love, so I did my best to keep myself impartial while reading (I don’t review based on my own preferences, rather, I try to be as objective as possible). All that aside, I’m still not convinced I felt a connection between Devlin and Ivy. There weren’t very many sparks, which was a tragedy because both characters on their own were wonderful to read. 

At the time of writing this, Jade Church doesn’t intend to write a sequel to this novel, which I can’t help but feel is a missed opportunity. The overarching plot of the book finishes about three-quarters of the way through, and then we’re then dropped into another plotline entirely. One that I would love to see explored more fully. I was actually quite disappointed to learn there wouldn’t be a follow-up, because I would have loved to see what happened with this lovable cast of misfits.

Overall, I feel like I want to rate it somewhere between 3.5 stars and 4, so I will round up. I’m really looking forward to reading more from Jade Church, and do hope she’ll consider writing a sequel! If the appetites there, my ARC requests are open! 😂 

You can find Jade Church: On her personal website, Goodreads, Instagram, or you can pick up a signed copy via her Etsy!

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