Relic(ARC) by Renee Collins

"After a raging fire consumes her town and kills her parents, Maggie Davis is on her own to protect her younger sister and survive best she can in the Colorado town of Burning Mesa. In Maggie’s world, the bones of long-extinct magical creatures such as dragons and sirens are mined and traded for their residual magical elements, and harnessing these relics’ powers allows the user to wield fire, turn invisible, or heal even the worst of injuries.

Working in a local saloon, Maggie befriends the spirited showgirl Adelaide and falls for the roguish cowboy Landon. But when she proves to have a particular skill at harnessing the relics’ powers, Maggie is whisked away to the glamorous hacienda of Álvar Castilla, the wealthy young relic baron who runs Burning Mesa. Though his intentions aren’t always clear, Álvar trains Maggie in the world of relic magic. But when the mysterious fires reappear in their neighboring towns, Maggie must discover who is channeling relic magic for evil before it’s too late.
Relic is a thrilling adventure set in a wholly unique world, and a spell-binding story of love, trust, and the power of good."

Relic(ARC) by Renee Collins
400 pages

Renee Collins has created an amazing, interesting world based on our mundane history of the old west. The old west revamped into a magical world filled with extinct mythical creatures we could only dream of meeting in reality.

Relics are the remains of magical creatures that used to inhabit the earth(much similar to the long extinct dinosaurs of the real world) that still possess some of the powers of said magical creatures. Humans have been mining for them and using them for years. The powers are mainly the 5 main elements of the world(water, fire, earth, wind, and spirit).

Maggie Davis is actually one of the more regular characters in this novel. Her family is the most important thing in her life and she just wants to basically give her little sister the world after their parents and brother die because of a mysterious group of people. Moving into Burning Mesa, Maggie tries to get their lives back on track by working at the town's local saloon. Of course, her little sister can't exactly stay with her there. Her sister is forced to stay somewhere else while Maggie is busy making money by cleaning tables.

Álvar is the rich, young, charming hacienda that owns most of Burning Mesa. By fate(or coincidence), Maggie meets him and begins to work at his saloon. Is Álvar just being kind and generous or does he have his own hidden agenda?

Throughout this whole novel, Maggie is forced to make decisions that affect the well-being of her sister and herself. She gets entangled in things of her past and things that she's just discovering about herself. Between making new friends and trying to solidify her life, she can't possibly be crushing on some cowboy, right?

This is actually one of those books where I am pretty set on buying a copy of. I will admit, at first, I thought this would not be the kind of book for me. I shudder just at the thought of the old west. Renee Collins has transformed my opinion on this. She's sucked me into this world and I am very, very, much looking forward to a sequel to this. Definitely a 5 of 5 stars book!