I found ‘Flames’ to both allow the imagination to craft what it sees and feels from the writing, and manipulate it in a haunting but delicate manner. The changes in perspective, person and tense kept the view and feelings fresh, and all of the ideas and descriptions were unwonted in a stunning way. Even the pure passion and intensity that the writing evokes pushes the reader forward on a journey of mystery, fantasy and realism. Arnott was able to overlap and intertwine the stark way in which a short story can be written, and the lengthy novel; creating a beautiful balance of narrative and descriptive. He also did this with the characters and their indvidual stories. This developed the depth of the characters, how their setting affected them, and the personification of emotions, particularly anger and fear - a key attribute to this writing. The randomness of the mixture of myth and truth was delightfully mishap, in an unusually tidy way. The themes of nature in a intimate manner were poignant and evocative, and they certainly touch the reader with an outpouring of vehemence, ardour and tenderness.

*** Rating: 4.5/5 *** There’s something inexplicably grounding about this mystical marvel and its humble wisdom. With its original imaginings of land and lore “Flames” sustains a connection to both spiritual and earthly things, while the forces of nature merge with flora and fauna to provide reckoning or enrichment during pivotal moments of the characters’ lives. I found each new chapter effortlessly rewarding, especially the exchange of letters that unleashed some of the funniest unprovoked outbursts I’ve read for an age. In the midst of all its other effective quirkiness this was a totally unexpected discovery. It’s weird, wonderful and refreshingly different. The stunning narration heightens the senses and calms the soul. (I received a copy of this title from the publisher via their Readers’ First website and it’s been my pleasure to read and review.)

The front cover definitely made me want to open it up and start reading straight away. The plot is a very good and interesting story. The character description is good. I could easy imagine what was going on. I could see the scenes and see the characters and there details also. As I started reading I got into it straight away. Sometimes it takes awhile for me to get into the story but this book was very easy and good to get lost into. The author does a good job on getting the readers into the plot. As I got more and more and more and more into the book I thought it was getting better and better and better. It's definitely worth reading and I am very happy to recommend this book to anyone as it's one of the best I've written so far and can't wait to read more.

Personally, I felt as though even though it was beautifully written in such a poetic way, the plot was over complicated for such a short book and genuinely didn't need the side plots. There were side plots that I didn't understand or even understand the necessity to the main plot. I think the entire book should have just been about following the two girls and there journey. I loved the LGBT aspects and inclusion in this book but it would have been nice if that was explored further and in more depth where we could see the relationship develop and flourish or crumble, depending on the choices by the author. I found it difficult to rate this book because of my differing opinions on the book as a whole.

3.5 Stars I think the kindest way to describe this short tale is quirky; I could have said pretentious but that feels overly harsh and is very much down to personal taste in matters of expression. Although, sections of it did read in a very self-conscious manner as though the author was peaking through the lines saying "you see what I did here, you see how I am layering the metaphor, aren't I clever". Maybe that's just my take on it, maybe you will relish the "richness of prose". The story itself seems to take a good third of the book to become cohesive, it certainly took me that long to figure out what each of these disparate characters and settings had to do with each other. Once the links are delineated I found myself quite enjoying the tale of the Old Gods of an Old Country still pushing through the changes that the "dark apes" and the "pale apes" (Robbie Arnott's descriptions not mine) were wreaking on their land, water courses and skies. Although, I am still not really sure why so much time was spent on the hunting of Oneblood Tuna - yes I am aware it is referenced at the end but even so. Strangely the only character I really felt any sort of connection through the page was was the God of the South Esk. The people never really felt fully formed on the page and had just the one dimension to their characters and I could discern no real depth to them apart from their part in the tale. There was also the rather peculiar segue into the world of the Private Detective and their reliance on the self-medication of gin and strange relationship with The Last Graham. As a fantasy novel it works quite well. The section on the wombat farm in Melaleuca was well described and the descent in to madness - or maybe possession - was evocative and absorbing. The history of Charlotte and Levi's parents also gripped me, even though I had figured out by now who daddy not-so-dear was. I am not entirely sure that this is a book I could recommend though, I would certainly need to know the reader's tastes before I could do so. If you can struggle past the sometimes obscuring prose the tale itself is actually very good, it just depends if you feel it is worth the effort to power through. I did and, on the whole, I don't regret it but it is a very short book and only took me an afternoon so that did help. I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM READERS FIRST IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW