Product Description

After seventeen-year-old Thais Allard loses her widowed father in a tragic car accident, she is forced to leave the only home she’s ever known to live with a total stranger in New Orleans. New Orleans greets Thais with many secrets and mysteries, but none as unbelievable as the moment she comes face to face with the impossible— an identical twin, Clio.Thais soon learns that she and the twin she never knew come from a family of witches, that she possesses astonishing powers, and that she, along with Clio, has a key role in Balefire, the coven she was born into. Fiery Clio is less than thrilled to have to share the spotlight, but the twins must learn to combine their powers in order to complete a rite that will transform their lives and the coven forever.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #271013 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

About the Author
Cate Tiernan is also the author of the popular Sweep series. She lives in Durham, North Carolina.

Customer Reviews

Witchy series part 2
This is the second book in the Balefire series by Cate Tiernan (author of the very good Sweep series).
In this sequel, Thais and Clio (identical twins who found eachotehr in the first book) get to know eachother better. Thais moves in with Nan, their grandmother, and Clio. By working a little magick, Nan now has legal guardianship of Thais. Things start to heat up, literally speaking, when Clio and Thais try to do spells together and end up being thrown across the room the first two times, and setting their house on fire the third. They try to figure out what's wrong with this while the twins are getting magically attacked. Someone must be trying to kill them. But who?
The next book is A Feather of Stone due out in November. I can't wait!

A great follow-up
In my review of A Chalice of Wind I said I'd saved this second book as a treat to read on a plane. In the end, I read the whole thing in one sitting, on a coach crossing the mountains to Antalya in Turkey. I hardly noticed the scenery.

The narrative picks up neatly where Chalice... left off, neatly developing the twins - Thais and Clio - and the other main characters, with a minimum of 'what has gone before'. It's a great read, Cate's really getting into her stride and we learn more about Bonne Magie.

So why only four stars? Well, in my review of the previous book I expressed the hope that this one would actually bring some of the plot-lines to a conclusion. Sadly for me, it doesn't: we need to rad book three (October) and presumably four as well (now slated for March) to find out what's happening.

The Magic Grows
Thais's father died in an accident. She was then whisked off to New Orleans where she discovered that she has an identical twin and that they are descended from witches. They are also surrounded by a bunch of witches made immortal by a huge spell worked over 200 years ago. Clio, Thais's twin is trying to deal with the fact that her father had been around and that her grandmother should have a lot of greats in front of her name. It is not easy for either twin although Clio was brought up to understand magic. That is what this volume deals with.

Clio is trying to help Thais adjust to the idea of magic and that she also has the ability. To do this the twins study and try to work magic together. But when they work together things do not go well. But while they have trouble working magic together, Thais manages to discover her true magic and makes if feel right for herself. We also learn what Nan, the great-something-grandmother, has been up to on her sudden trip. In the end another spell is worked as the immortals are almost all together.

Once again things move very quickly. Most of the book flips back and forth between each twin's viewpoint but these are peppered by other chapters as seen from some of the immortal witches. Although I feel Thais may come into her magic a little quickly, it does help make the story really move. Once again you will want to have the next book ready when you finish this one. Check it out.