The Weather Warden series by Rachel Caine has just been a delight to read! It's definitely worth reading them in order as otherwise they might get rather confusing but the standard of the writing is consistent throughout.
Book 5 starts where book 4 (Ill Wind) left off - the Djinn have been released from their bond with humanity and Mother Earth is waking up. David, Joanne's lover, has now become head honcho of the Djinn and his and Joanne's baby has been born - as a full grown adult, Imara.
Firestorm carries on the theme of the other books - there is a lot of long-distance driving, loving description of flashy cars, injuries, confusion, weather changing, fires, Djinn... everything that we loved about the previous books is here. Paul, Lewis, Marion and others appear again - as does Joanne's sister Sarah and her evil lover. In fact, Joanne seems to have no end of things on her plate in this book at the same time - not only is she trying to save the world, she's also trying to help her daughter feel worthwhile, to rescue her sister, to look after her friends... the list is endless.
I feared at the end of the last book that David wouldn't be part of the story now, or would be a baddie - fortunately that's not so. We have the ready-made baddie Ashan, of course, who gets a bigger part in this story, plus the three Oracles who are new characters and very significant.
When starting this book I wondered if it would tie up all the loose ends and finish the series, knowing that Rachel Caine has now started the Morganville Vampires series. But no, this book ends up with more loose ends, not less, at the end, and the sample chapter of the next book shows it's going to be fascinating.
What do I like so much about these books? I think it's the heroine - she's such fun! She has to make some pretty major decisions in this book and I like the fact that things don't go all right for her all the time. Still, it's amazing she's still alive with all the hardships she faces.
Read this book - it's a great way to spend an afternoon!