Rizkaland Readalong: Water Princess, Fire Prince Part 5 - The War

First off, if you missed part 1, you can check it out here.

Second off, if you don't have your own copy of Water Princess, Fire Prince, you can nab it today only free on Kindle! And, since next week begins Lady Dragon, Tela Du, you can go ahead and grab it for free, as well! ALSO, today is the last day to preorder Love and Memory for just $0.99! So go nab up the whole series. Don't worry. I'll not go anywhere while you're off grabbing them!

Third off, there's a giveaway at the end, so do stick around!

Let's get into it.

 Summary:
Andrew has been in Amber's prison for two weeks, Clara's still an ice statue. Granite shows up and reveals how to break the ice magic and how to get out of the prison, and Andrew follows the instructions, and they make their way out of the abandoned city ... only to be attacked by cat-like creatures called etrinas and Andrew goes down for the count. Clara stays to fight them off, but it's only when Kath, Rich, Stephan, and Kiona show up on hinequa-back that they're rescued. Then it's into full-swing for war, though there's a quick detour to get Essua, since she didn't melt, and then it's battle time. Amber attacks, they spend the day fighting, and then Andrew gets the brilliant idea to chase Amber out of town with fire AND water (y'know, the stuff they found inside the Mountain), and lo and behold! It works, everyone lives happily ever after. At least for the next twenty-five years, when it's time for Clara and Andrew to return to their own world.

Things of note:
There are four kisses in this section. The first is when Andrew has to defrost Clara, then she returns the favor moments later 'cause fire down her throat wasn't comfortable and she wants to have a first kiss worth remembering, and then they share another one that night as they're talking over their relationship, and then the final one is right after they chase Amber out and win the war. *happy sighs*
No, he did not actually pour fire down her throat. It just felt that way to her because she was so cold.
It's revealed in this section that Bugslayers, due to the poison in their system, can't have children.
So that kiiiinda puts a wrench in Jill Anna's relationship.
But then she dumps a bunch of Ia beetles onto Amber's head and Amber has to completely destroy the poison to get out of her system. I don't completely state in-book that it cures her of her inability to have kids ... but it does.
It's revealed here that Amber's offer to Andrew - about how she'll give him "the life he always dreamed of - was also offered to Princess Renee ... who turns out to have been Andrew's mother. Hmmm... weird.
Andrew's pretty badly scratched up after the etrina attack, so Clara insists that they wait until he's healed before they counterattack. 
Andrew breaks a vase the night before Amber's attack, which results in him and Clara falling asleep cuddling on a couch and !!!!!
Rich and Kath skip town in the middle of the fight.
In the epilogue, their youngest daughter seems a bit fixed on a story about Rich. Hmmm...
Oh, and yes, it turns out that their parents are the Ten. 
And Clara gets given a locket that has pics of all their children, after they leave.
Andrew realizes why Granite seemed familiar - he looks just like his friend's cousin, Reuben. Who has a best friend who looks just like Amber. (dun dun duuuuuun). Yes, this realization was added in the revision.

Favorite scenes/other stuff in this part:
Andrew just has noooooo idea what to do with a Clara that isn't hostile. It's adorable. And also him being all embarrassed when Rich finds them asleep together on the couch and everyone else is like ... yeah, you're Tied to her. It's FINE.

But Clara's just gone in heart-whole for Andrew. Also, random thing that just occurred to me ... her fear of falling ... may have extended to falling in love? I dunno, but it does line up with her personality? Which is why she'd have fought it so hard, but then he just represents security to her, it never felt like falling, 'cause it was so gradual and here she is!!! 

The convo between Clara and Rich was great. Because, like, he's happy for her that she's happy in her relationship now, but also ... well, he's still in love with her and now he's lost her completely.

Parker finding a schwazle in his bag of animals was ... cute. 

I'm going to skip favorite quotes, as this is going out late, and blogger's being nasty about formatting with these.  

Behind the scenes:
I am aware that the war was a rather ... abrupt ending. I have a ... very good explanation for that. See, the first draft was written by hand, and I was running out of pages on my third notebook, and I just didn't want to get a fourth, so I just put the story out of its misery? Okay, not a good excuse ... but I'm not good at wars, 'kay? 

I kiiiinda feel like I needed to have a Clara/Jakob/Essua scene where he askes Clara about Jill Anna, and Essua's just like, bro! Go ahead and pursue your lady-love. If she can't give you kids, then you can just hand the crown over to me and I'll just have to go find myself a husband. Just ... chill out. Because that's actually 100% what happened, and how Jakob finally convinced Jill Anna to marry him because she was just this insecure bean who didn't want to take the risk. (They did have kids, though. Their eldest daughter actually married Clara and Andrew's eldest son and became queen. And I don't think Essua ever did marry)

So, fun fact ... the kiss on the beach was going to be their first kiss, during plotting, but then Clara just had her balcony moment (like, I have a reviewer say I forced the balcony, but ... that was Clair. I'd plotted for her to keep fighting to the end), and she just fell into his arms and !!!

Shortly before writing their first kiss, I'd just done CPR/artificial respiration training, which is why it happened. My certification has long-since expired ... but I do still carry the card in my purse 'cause, y'know, if it comes down to it and I'm the difference between life and death for someone, at least I have had the training.

Also, randomly, while writing that scene, I was at my aunt's watching a Barbie movie (Princess Charm School, I believe), and my uncle joked about getting all those ideas about romance from said movie, and I just fell out of my chair laughing because I'd just written "You kissed me!"

I tried to cut their third kiss, 'cause I wasn't sure if it was necessary (Four kisses were waaaaay too much for one book, right????), but then the scene got better and I kept it. (And, joke's on me, six years later, as I'm writing Love and Memory, I've had a good 20+ kisses and no regrets.)

Discussion Questions

(Every question you answer in the comments below is an entry to win one of the Rizkaland Legends in paperback, or all four - for a total of five winners. Giveaway is U.S. only.)

1. Thoughts on Clara being afraid of "falling" in love?

2. Have you ever had CPR training/certification?

3. Anything you're excited about happening in the sequels?

4. Any favorite quotes?
5. Would you mind, pretty please, leaving a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or anywhere else?