Took a little while to get through the world building at the beginning (which was fantastic - Celtic lore ) but once I got into it I loved it. Enemies to lovers (actual ENEMIES to lovers), politics, magic, dragons and bi FMC, just 👌🏻

The inner torment that Aemyra goes through - this part of her that wants to be a great queen to her people, one who doesn’t rule with fear and doesn’t want to kill anyone, but then another part that is all things angsty and stabby.

Fiorean - Loved the development of their relationship, the slow(ish) burn, the tension, 100% here for the enemies to lovers trope every.single.damn.time… but that twist?! Excuse me Hazel? 😭

Absolutely loved the magic, elemental - fire, earth, air and water. Not a magic system that is often used.

I loved this book! The scene with Aemyra helping Fiorean with the bond 🥹🥹

Will definitely be eagerly awaiting the next one and I cannot wait to see how it continues after that ending!! 🗡️ 🩸 👋🏻

P.S - Definitely giving Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon vibes! 🐉

This book has dragon, romance and a complying female main character. It wasn’t the best world building book I’ve ever read but the storyline was altering enough to keep me interested and fit me the characters just worked so well. I was routing for the FMC the whole way through- one of my favourite reads so far this year

Thank you to NetGalley and Dialouge Books for this advanced copy. I always like to finish my arcs but I had to DNF this at 30%. I don’t think I can power through this.

The tropes drew me in but I found it really difficult to connect with the characters and I started to really lose interest in this story. It’s quite unfortunate, because I did like the overall idea.

I do think it has a beautiful cover and other romantasy readers might appreciate this book more.

4.5 ⭐️

First of all thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Dialogue Books for allowing me to read this ARC.

Hazel created such a vividly immersive world full of Celtic lore, a unique magic system, dragons and war. The politics in this novel both intrigued me and frustrated me as I became fully immersed into the story. The enemies to lovers was extremely well done. When I say I enjoy enemies to lovers this is what I mean. The hatred to begin with and to have a relationship painfully slowly develop over the book along with twists and heartbreaking turns was so well done and artfully created.

The beginning of this book has a lot of world building that makes it a slower pace but believe me once you are through it the pace speeds up and you find yourself wishing that it wasn’t over. Our bisexual FMC doesn’t shy away from destiny and is incredibly strong while our MMC is a classic morally grey who you don’t know whether to hate or love. Side characters are just as strong and I found myself connecting to multiple of them, even being brought to tears with a couple. Finally, the dragons I absolutely loved and I can’t wait to see how the bonds between dragon and riders as well as dragon and dragon are further explored in future books. The cliffhanger hurt my soul but I can’t wait to see how this story continues.

4.5⭐

A Fate Forged in Fire was such an enjoyable read, the world building was vivid and immersive with so much Celtic lore that I loved learning about, the unique magic system, the dragons, the political intrigue, the enemies to lovers was very well done with how it slowly developed over the course of the book along with the heartbreaking twists and turns that was carefully and well thought out.

It was so refreshing to see a strong FMC from the start in Aemyra who doesn't shy away from what her destiny is, though I will say it took me a little while to really connect with her and to fully grasp the world as a whole, there is a lot of world building and history to learn that it can feel a little slower paced and repetitive at times but the unfolding of the storyline kept me engaged enough that I couldn't wait to see how everything would plan out.

The dragons and the how the bonds were explained was one of my favourite things I loved how different this was and can't wait to learn hopefully more about them in the next book. I'm so excited to see what comes next as that cliffhanger hurt so much!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this before publication, these are my honest thoughts and opinions.

I was waiting for this book the moment I saw this one on tiktok. Yess I swooped into it and couldn’t stop Reading love it and expecially of the main character what a vibe does she give off

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publishers for access to this ARC 📚.

🔥Quick Fire Review🔥

Genre/Themes: 🐉🐦‍🔥🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🔥⚔️👩🏼‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏻✝️
Tropes: Chosen One, Royal, Dragons, Magic, Fridging, Enemies-to-Lovers, Forced Marriage, Marriage Before Romance, Rivals, Touch Her and You Die, Knife to Throat, Nursed Back to Health, There’s Only One Bed
Positives ✅ : awesome Celtic-inspired universe, engaging plot with some edge-of-your-seat dark scenes, intriguing characters, elements of great romance writing
Room for Improvement 🔎 : a slow start, occasionally unnatural dialogue, some predictable story lines and plot twists, underutilised supporting characters
Rating: 🌕🌕🌕🌖

✍🏻Full Review - RISK OF SPOILERS 🛑

About 30% in I’d grown disheartened by this book. I was struggling to get into it and found the main character unlikeable. Well, I’m glad I stuck with it because I ended up not being able to put this book down! I am chomping at the bit for the second part. Edit: I had noticed similarities with House of the Dragon, namely Evander’s character and the whole jilted Queen thing, but didn’t think anything of it. Now I’ve found out this book started as a HotD fanfic and that explains A LOT.

Characterisation:
Aemyra, our main character, was off-putting to begin with. I understand it was likely intentional, but she started out no better than a swaggering, leery douchebag of a man. I get that the author was trying to represent queer ‘female rage’ and shatter the image of your stereotypical femininity but my god did she come across as an insufferable dickhead. Her hot temper, impulsivity and loyalty doesn’t change much but I feel she does become more mature as the story progresses. I went from not caring much what happens to her to rooting for her. I think her time in the castle made me like her more. Her scheming and planning showed how intelligent she was while we also saw her having to process vulnerability and sacrifice. I started to find her funnier as time went on, too. Her twin brother, Adarian, was criminally underwritten. He disappears for the vast majority of the book. He’s presented as more level-headed and very protective, but that was pretty much it. I felt he was too one-dimensional. Their father, Draevan, was mysterious and intriguing. He is portrayed just as stubborn and ruthless as Aemyra, and sometimes he seemed to compromise their safety for his own gain. We later start to see some vulnerability from him, but it was perhaps a little bit too sudden a redemption. I’d have liked to have seen this develop more gradually, particularly the relationship with his children. Overall though he is a cool character. A tactical adrenaline-junkie. The twins’ adopted parents and brother unfortunately got the fridging treatment. I found myself not feeling much about their fate though they were such a huge motivating force for Aemyra. Perhaps we just didn’t spend enough time with them.
I found Fiorean off-putting as I did Aemyra to begin with. He didn’t come across as having much personality at all. I didn’t find him ‘cold’ or ‘icy’, just dull. Aemyra’s descriptions of how beautiful he was didn’t register with me and his attempts at matching Aemyra’s arrogant stand-offishness didn’t feel very natural. It was obvious he was the love interest and I was disappointed, fearing a lack of chemistry and a lacklustre love story. How wrong I was. I ended up fancying this man so bad it was unbearable. Once Aemyra encounters him again mid-story he is a wise-cracking yet broody hottie. He’s talented, smart, assertive yet compassionate about the greater good. Theoretically very similar to Aemyra, but his trauma shaped him differently and resulted in a more grounded, pragmatic version of her. It was heartbreaking to watch him struggle to criticise his family even though he knew he desperately needed to. His brother Evander progressed from a drunken man-child who couldn’t care less about the throne, to a senselessly violent madman due to his bond with a similarly insane dragon. I really liked this storyline and watching him spiral, if anything I wish it had been written about more. Some more frightening scenes to make him truly intimidating, and watching the relationship with his brother become more and more fractious would have been awesome. It was there, I’d have just liked more. Their mother Katherine was somewhat underwritten as well. It would have been good to have seen her reaction to her son’s downfall, but she becomes notably absent later on in the book after being heavily involved in political scheming in the first part.
The main baddies are Athair Alfred, the leader of an opposing religious body, and Sir Nairn, a soldier/bodyguard for the Royal family. In the same vein as Evander, there were some great scenes with these characters that made them truly terrifying. Athair Alfred in particular was a really unsettling character, with his manipulation of Katherine and those close to the royals in the name of his religion. His devoutness to patriarchy and vaguely eroticised desire to put women in their place was eery. The scene involving Aemyra and the men of the cult trying to prevent her from reproducing was utterly harrowing. I was wincing, closing my legs, heart racing. Horror scenes like this were actually so well written I wish there’d been more. Sir Nairn in particular is clearly a representation of the indoctrination caused by Alfred and his cult, but he also becomes a bloodthirsty lunatic and some of it didn’t feel as contextualised as it could have been. He was somewhat a victim of being villainous just for the sake of having a villain.
The main issue with this book was the side characters. Maggie and Marilde, supporting characters in the castle, could have been way more influential than they were. Especially Marilde, being an old friend of Aemyra’s adopted mother. She’s also clearly well connected and powerful behind the scenes, but I felt we didn’t see much of it. There were also loads of other characters, like Laoise, who were magic wielders and important members of Aemyra’s war effort. But their dialogue and personalities weren’t distinguishable, I knew very little of their magic or history and couldn’t tell many of them apart. Sorcha, Aemyra’s lover was again just used as a plot device and I felt no chemistry between the pair at all.

World-Building:
Loved it. A Celtic-influenced magical world with dragons? What more could you want. Magic wielders are ‘dúileach’ and their mythical creature companions are ‘beathaichean’. It’s not just dragons, there’s kelpies and firebirds and salamanders. A dúileach has their powers strengthened by bonding to a beathaich. Dúileach’s are also able to wield a particular type of elemental magic - fire, water, earth and air. I wish this had been expanded on somewhat as I still feel I don’t know much about those other than the fire dúileach, or the creatures that may bond with them. I’d also like to understand why some people have weak powers and others have extremely strong ones. Having a ‘diluted’ dúileach bloodline due to how long heirs have been selected from the male line rather than female would be fair enough but why is Fiorean still so powerful? Why do he or his brothers have powers at all? Why is Aemyra’s father not just as strong as Fiorean if he is closer to the female line? There’s mention of the ‘blessing’ from the gods, but how do they decide who is stronger and who isn’t? I just needed it explained a bit more. There is a lot of focus on religion in the story, and the matriarchal or patriarchal influence of it. Tìr Teine, the kingdom the book is based in, is still following the old ways which is centred around a matriarchy - female gods blessing people with powers, taking sacrifices from the kingdom and passing their magical gifts down through the womb rather than the seed meaning queens were heirs rather than kings. That was a cool twist. There’s a lot of different goddesses mentioned, a guide to these would be good. The True Religion, the religion trying to take over the old ways, is more reminiscent of modern day religions focusing on patriarchy and a single god. A background as to how this faith found its footing would have contributed to the sense of fear surrounding its influence. However I enjoyed the upheaval the religions caused and watching people support the goddesses in secret to rebel against the royal family acquiescing to The Saviour and the True Religion. Mention of other clans, whether allies or enemies, was also quite vague and at times I got confused as to who was attacking who.

Prose\Plot:
The first line of the book nearly made me close it and give up. Just because Aemyra is queer does not mean she would automatically be thinking about sex while watching a woman PUSH A BABY OUT OF HER VAGINA. Anyway, now that that’s off my chest, the writing on the whole was great aside from the odd occasion when dialogue suddenly became very unnatural and exposition heavy. It was only occasional but noticeable, particularly in smut scenes. It occasional gave TikTok quote energy, and I just don’t think it was needed. I did enjoy the smut though (even if I have to remind yet another female author that the percentage of women who can climax by vaginal penetration alone is VERY LOW and we need to stop pushing these expectations) and other sexual tension scenes. If you like a bit of knife play it’s all here. Fiorean’s ending plot twist was unfortunately very predictable. Aemyra’s character had just disintegrated and it was so obvious she was being uncharacteristically naive. There’s hints that it’s going to be a misunderstanding so I suppose I can live with it. As mentioned earlier there was occasionally too much reliance on characters, who I didn’t feel much about, being used as leverage and it probably needed to be toned down a bit. Aemyra’s infiltration of the royal family in the castle was such a great plot though. The last part of the book, the battle, was noticeably too short seeming it had been being built up for the whole book. Aemyra’s bonding with Terrea was also a little bit too easy seeming they are supposed to be the most fearsome dragon in history. However, I don’t want to put too much a downer on an otherwise really enjoyable book with an awesome universe that I can’t wait to experience more of and an enticing plot.

Such a bratty, hot-headed and impulsive fmc and I absolutely love it!

From the first line to the last, this book had me hooked. What surprised me the most was that McBride managed to squeeze so much world building, character development and plot twists in 400ish pages. AND EVEN ROOM FOR SMUT.

What irks me is why is Aemyra a bamf who’s constantly a damsel in distress? The math ain’t mathing. And why is fiorean character so bland? I think he only shined in the last 30%.

If you love royal drama, soap opera betrayals, and enemies-to-lovers, this book should be your cup of tea. Do note that the story is quite fast paced with more fantasy than romance. All in all, it was a really good read and it managed to scratch my dragon itch.

Thank you Netgalley and Delacorte Press for this arc

A Fate Forged in Fire is the first book in a fantasy duology following Aemyra who is to be the first queen of Tir Teine in centuries. The kingdom is under the influence of the True Religion, a religious group that is steadfast against magic. Aemyra must fight for what is rightfully hers. She must fight for her throne and for her people.
Dragons ✅
Magic ✅
Marriage of convenience ✅
Hate to love ✅

*THIS REVIEW CONTAINS POTENTIAL SPOILERS*

This book had potential, I think the issue I had was with the writing style. It wasn’t for me. It drops you in the deep end, bombarding you with world building, politics and religion. There is a lot of action straight away without much build up. In fact that’s where I had many issues, the chapters jumped around so much and it was hard to follow. At the end of one chapter she has just retreated from the kingdom after a failed coup, she has just got to this new place where she finds out about a dragon that had destroyed parts of the kingdom. Then the next chapter starts with her up against that very same dragon with little context as to how she got there or why.
One chapter she has been told to stay behind while her brother and father go to a different kingdom to secure an alliance. Then the next chapter begins two weeks later when they returned with news.
It seems as though all of the build up has been cut out, there’s no stakes for me personally when it is action after action, with no explanation of how they got there. The plot was interesting, but it didn’t allow for any real development.
I think this book will be a favourite for many people, but unfortunately it didn’t work for me personally.

Rating: 4.5 stars

For the little girls who were told to put their fires out. Burn them all to the fucking ground.

First of all, I want to thank Dialogue Publishing and NetGalley for granting me this arc. Once I saw on your IG story that this book was available to request on NetGalley I immediately raced to the site to hopefully get my hands on the digital version (also, if there’s still a copy of the uk paperback arc available, I’d REALLY REALLY REALLY love to receive one. It’s the most stunning arc I’ve ever seen🥹)

The book starts with a very welcome pronunciation guide to all the names mentioned in this book. For someone who isn’t skilled with the Gaelic language, I truly appreciated this guide to make sure I was pronouncing names right, even if it was only in my head.

After a few chapters, the idea of the story started taking shape quite quickly without becoming predictable. The story is quite fast-paced, which I really enjoyed. It made sure my attention was grabbed and didn’t let it go. Because this was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, I wanted to savour it while also wanting to continue asap so I would know what happened next.

If there is any character list of women that embody the term female rage, Aemyra would be high on the list. She tries so hard to fight for equality and women’s rights, from page one right until the very end of the book. Even with the royal family working against her, she still tries to find a way to claim her birthright with the least amount of bloodshed (unless people continuously hurt her).

In the next book I hope we’ll see more of the bond between humans and animals, I feel like the book could’ve contained a bit more of that. The amount of it that’s already in the book is soooooo good. I’d also love to see more of Aemyra getting involved in the tactics of the war, but wherever Hazel will take the story, I’m sure it will be good😊

If I had to summarize this all, the summary would be: “The next upcoming fantasy world with a delightful mix of romance, fantasy, dragons and a badass FMC. What more could you ask for?”

I wanted to love this book, have it be my new fantasy obsession, but was left disappointed by a character who didn’t endear herself to me and trope-y writing. Aemyra is suppose to be a queen who rallies the people, that the general populace wants to fight behind and yet, I found her unlikable and too stubborn. Her character development was a little slow and chunks were often skipped. She went from completely distrusting Fiorean to complete faith in him in just a handful of chapters.
The plot had a lot of promise, I love the premise of the religious war. However, like many of the major plot points, it was not afforded enough time for it to be fully developed. Time was instead dedicated to the enemies to lovers trope that made the novel a little too predictable.
The Scottish Gaelic woven in was wonderfully done and the ceilidh was one of the most memorable scenes.
Overall, I felt this book could’ve done with being longer and dedicating more time to fleshing out the plot rather than the tropes.

3.75 ⭐️

Overall, I liked this. There were parts which I thought were good - for example, I loved the fast pace and that the writer wasn't afraid to let us jump right into the world, without feeling like they had to spend ages building it for us. I think allowing the reader to fill in some of the blanks sometimes is a good thing. I also found some scenes really brutal and shocking so I liked that the plot wasn't necessarily predictable.

I can't quite put my finger on why I didn't love it but something felt off to me with the characterisation and relationships throughout. I didn't believe that Aemyra would fall for Fiorean the way that she did and I maybe felt like the romance was put in for the sake of making it a romantasy?

I enjoyed this book but I didn’t fully fall in love with it. Aemyra came across quite unlikeable, arrogant, and entitled - I love strong FMCs who are sure of themselves but in this case the FMC didn’t act like a leader to her people. Some of her choices also left me feeling frustrated. Overall I just wanted a bit more from everything - the world-building, the characters, the relationships. It felt like it lacked depth across the board and, as a result, I found it hard to connect with/care about some the characters and plot points at times.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.

A good and interesting read, I really enjoyed A Fate Forged in Fire by Hazel McBride.

We follow main character Aemyra who lives in a world of dragons and magic and it really got my undivided attention.

I am giving this novel 4 stars as some parts were quite tiresome and I found my mind wandering.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and author for allowing me ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wow this was a wild journey, I think I went through every emotion possible while reading (and discovered some new ones too). I absolutely adored Aemyra and her fiery personality just made this book come to life for me.

There were so many twists and turns, I didn’t know what to expect next and I can say I definitely did not expect the ending!!!! Hellooo?? I need the next instalment right this very second please.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️.5

This book is the DEFINITION of feminine rage
I am speechless
I took the first 30% of this book at a leisurely pace but then suddenly it was like BOOM and I just could not put it down
The world building is deep and rich and the Scottish lore is beautiful
This has one of my new all time favourite FMC’s

If you like fantasy, feminine rage, enemies to lovers, he falls first, GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY
WIFE, strong FMC vibes, this book is for you

I will be getting a physical copy for my trophy shelf for the world to see

I was so excited when I saw all the hype and teasers for this book on bookstagram, so I immediately requested it once it appeared on NetGalley. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to love it, this book just wasn’t for me.

A Fate Forged in Fire is the first book in a new romantasy series, and the debut novel for Scottish author Hazel McBride. This book follows blacksmith Aemyra, who is the heir to a kingdom which was once under matriarchal rule, but has since been ruled by kings. Now, it is time for Aemyra to come out of hiding and take her rightful place as queen.

Firstly, the writing felt very clunky and wooden. It read like a first draft; the bare bones of the story were there, but it needed to be polished and prettied up. I also had a hard time with the world-building. At the beginning, there were lots of names of places, gods, and characters dropped in, with little explanation of who or what they were. While there was a pronunciation guide, it would have been useful to have had a glossary too. The magic system was interesting (a bonding system) but I wish it had been further explained.

As for the characters, I could not connect to the FMC at all. She came across as very childish, rude, and bratty, and made some really stupid decisions. She also contradicts herself a lot; at the start of the book, she defends women from some priests of an opposing religion, but then later in the book she looks down on and judges other women as “weak” just because they hadn’t taken the same path in life as she had. For a book that is about upholding a matriarchal society, this felt very out of place.

The MMC was okay, but lacked depth. It felt like he was just there to tick the box of “possessive love interest that’s also your enemy” and he didn’t feel fully fleshed out. The enemies-to-lovers vibes were definitely there, but because I didn’t love the characters, their romance fell very flat for me.

I found the first 70% of the book very slow, and I wish Aemyra was calling the shots more and had a bit more agency. There were some plot twists that I saw coming, and by the end of the book, I just felt quite disappointed.

Overall, this book just wasn’t for me. The author certainly has great ideas, but the execution was lacking, and I won’t be picking up the next book in this series. Thank you to NetGalley and Dialogue Books/Renegade for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Based on the premise, I went into this book with high expectations. Dragon riders, feminism, political intrigue, magic and enemies to lovers? With those ingredients, I felt sure that I was going to absolutely love this book. And, despite a bit of a slow start, I wasn't wrong.

It did take me a minute to get into it and wrap my head around some of the world building, but once things got going I was hooked. The enemies to lovers romance particularly drew me in - the tension, the sharp wits and quick quips... The chemistry between them is fantastic, and I loved seeing how their relationship grew and evolved over time.

The FMC Aemyra is full of layers, which slowly get peeled back as the story progresses. On the surface she is confident, strong and at times rather cocky. She believes that the throne is her birthright, and when the time comes for her to claim it she isn't going to let anything stand in her way. She knows who she is, and she owns her power completely. But beneath all of that she is human. She feels things, and she has vulnerabilities. She has flaws and she makes mistakes, and what's more she acknowledges those things. Hazel McBride has done a fantastic job of crafting a fiercely feminist character without falling into the trap of her being too unaffected by her emotions.

With increasingly high stakes and some absolutely heart-breaking twists and turns, this is definitely one for any romantasy lover to put on their tbr. As for me, I'm going to be not-so-patiently waiting for book 2, because that cliffhanger hurts!

"You are the light, Aemyra... Shine for us."
"I will shine... I will shine brighter than the fucking sun for my people."

3.75 ⭐

When I read the description of this book I was enthralled by the promise of a matriarchal society, Scottish Gaelic inspiration, a fiery FMC who seeks her crown as is her birth right, fire magic, dragons and enemies to lovers - and for the most part the book delivered. Aemyra is the first female born to the Clan Daercathian in centuries, goddess gifted in fire magic, and until recent history the line of succession always passes to the first female heir - but in Tìr Teine a new religion, the True Religion, is slowly taking dominance, and this religion favours men. In present times, men have ruled for too long and the decline in society is starting show, people feel more emboldened in their misogyny, and not to mention the dragons are dying, with only three remaining and no females to continue their kind. When the mad King dies, Aemyra declares her claim for the throne and attempts to bond with his dragon - but things do not go to plan. Aemyra must come up against the current royal family, the new King and the Chosen, and with the help of her father's army she plans to win back her rightful place as Queen.

I knew from following Hazel McBride on social media that this book was inspired by House of the Dragon and you could really see those influences coming through the entire way through this book. I really enjoyed immersing myself in this world of politics, religion, dragons and magic wielding, it really had all of the aspects that I love in fantasy novel. This story hit on all the right notes, but in the end I feel like it didn't quite have the soul I was hoping it would have to really make this a stand out. We are given snippets of history and world building which join together mostly, and as this is the first novel in a series it makes sense that not everything is made clear, but I do wish a bit more time had been spent on these aspects to really give this book a good base. Some references to what the previous monarchs had done that was so amazing, how that inspired Aemyra, or some flashbacks to the wars and events mentioned in the story - given this was written in third perspective there was definitely some room to show the history on page, or show how Aemyra learned about it with the flashbacks to her upbringing. Without this some of the world building fell a bit flat, I wanted to truly understand why the True Religion was so seemingly popular or what about them made their oppression so formidable, or some more information regarding their mysterious pendants.

This was a really fast paced story, perhaps even too fast paced at times. So much happened in this book and I was on the edge of my seat the entire way through, but sometimes I felt like important scenes and information was brushed over too quickly, or we didn't get to sit in the characters feelings and internal monologue to really know how they were feeling, and this created a bit of a disconnect. Aemyra was extremely strong willed and often very arrogant which can be a bit off putting at points, I think if time had been spent showing how she was raised so that we could truly understand her character, this would've made more sense - instead it came across a little bit immature. There was a quote: "You acted foolishly. Without considering the consequences. Your actions were those of a child, not a queen." and I have to agree completely. Some of the choices Aemyra made really had me scratching my head and wondering if she was ready for the throne. The relationship with Fiorean was one of these head scratchers. The initial progression of their relationship was really interesting, he was a true enemy of hers and the hatred ran deep, especially considering some of the actions he was involved in. But then, after a forced marriage, a few kind words and heated moments, their relationship moved very quickly, causing Aemyra to leave herself vulnerable by being far too trusting, and this just didn't entirely work for me.

Overall, I did enjoy this and I think it was an interesting starting point for both this series and as a debut for McBride. There are some clear places where the authors writing, plotting, characterisation and structuring can be improved on and I am hoping as she gains some confidence with this series that we will see that shine through. You will <b>definitely</b> need to check your trigger warnings for this book, there is a sexual assault scene in this book that is pretty horrifying, as well as graphic violence, death, extremist religious ideas and misogyny. I am looking forward to seeing where this series goes with the second book and really interested to see how McBride find her strengths, she is definitely one to watch this space for. I would recommend this book to those who enjoyed The Jasad Heir and Eragon. Thank you to Hazel McBride, Dialogue Books and NetGalley for sending me this ARC in return for my honest review.

Firstly thank you for allowing me to read this for my honest review.

I enjoyed this book but it didn’t completely wow me. The story was good but did feel flatter in places. I enjoyed the main characters and felt the connection was great! However there was moments with the FMC I feel like she could do more, but that could just be my mind.
This is my first book by this author and I would read her again.