Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for approving me to read this, I’m rating it 5 stars.

Aemyra was an incredible FMC, her feminine rage was everything. Aemyra was not a perfect character, she showed a lot of growth during this story, she appeared quite headstrong at first but along the way learned when to hold fire and when to go all guns blazing.

This story will hurt, the corruption of religion used to support the hierarchy of men above women is atrocious. Check your trigger warnings as the story has abuse, violence and other dark contents.

My heart broke many a time during this book, magic and dragons mixed with romance and political intrigue created an environment for betrayal, violence and loss.

The MMC in this book almost had me and now quite frankly I wouldn’t be mad if Aemyra followed through on her promises. There is some spice in this book and romance, this is true enemies to lovers and is done very well. I’m not sure what book 2 will hold for our FMC and MMC but as long as she makes him beg then I’m here for it.

Can’t wait to continue this series, I’m captivated.

Hazel McBride does a fantastic job building a world that feels immersive, with Celtic-inspired magic, dragons, and political intrigue. Aemyra is a strong protagonist, and I loved her fire magic and determination to reclaim her throne. The dynamic between her and Fiorean kept me hooked—starting as enemies and slowly shifting into something more complex.

That said, the pacing was a little uneven for me. The beginning had a lot of world-building, which, while interesting, felt a bit heavy at times. Also, Aemyra’s impulsiveness frustrated me on occasion. But by the end, I was completely invested, and that cliffhanger? I need the next book ASAP!

If you enjoy strong heroines, slow-burn romances, and dragons, this one’s definitely worth reading!

Thankyou NetGalley & Dialogue Books for this arc copy for my honest review.

I gave this book 3 stars purely for the dragons and the minor world building, the fast pace at the start & throughout had me slightly confused on the character development and the main bulk of the book. The FMC is a strong female character however I felt it lacked personality at some parts and proven her to be self absorbed. I would have liked for depth of the characters in the book and to have more input of the dragons and their mating. It is fast paced book

I absolutely adored this book. It was a little slow to start with but as soon as it got going, I ATE it up!
The book gives Game Of Thrones/House Of Dragon and is just an overall perfect enemies to lovers, romantasy read.
I loved Aemyra. She’s everything you need in a FMC.
There’s a lot to take in with the world building and magic system but I found myself completely immersed. The Celtic lore added in was perfection and kept me hooked from cover to cover.

I highly recommend this book and cannot wait for the second!

Thank you to NetGalley & Dialogue books for the Arc ✨

Review to be posted to Fable, Instagram & Amazon.

I should have loved this book, it has everything I like in a book but I feel like there's just something missing. The storyline is great, slightly predictable at times, but really good. I felt like the characters needed more work? They would be set up to be one thing but almost seemed to break from it regularly. The world building was just okay. I would have liked some more background story, things seemed to be mentioned but not explained. It sounds like I didn't like it, but I did! I just wanted more from it.

Tropes include:
- Enemies to lovers
- Forced marriage/ proximity
- Dragons
- Badass FMC
- Feminine rage

And most of the above were just okay, not particularly great which is a shame because they are some great tropes for a romantasy. The enemies to lovers felt forced, the dragons were good but I wanted more of them. Our FMC was a badass, but she definitely made some questionable decisions. The feminine rage was good and appreciated. I liked the women in power aspect. The forced marriage was quick but enjoyable. The forced proximity is always my favourite thing but the characters seemed to switch pretty quickly to actually liking each other.

Huge thank you to Netgalley, Dialogue Books and Hazel McBride for the e-ARC. I really appreciate the opportunity to read this before publication.

I liked the premise of this one. But for me, it felt a bit too slow. I started to enjoy the book from around the 60% mark but found myself wondering whether I should just DNF at many points before I started to enjoy it.

I liked the dragons and the idea that bonding with them and other fire creatures could help to increase the magic of the dùileach. And the celtic language and pronunciations really added to this story even though I probably pronounced most of it wrong!

I would read the next instalment in the series to see where this story leads and look forward to seeing where Aemyra's story will go.

Thanks to the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book via Netgalley.

The perfectly executed enemies to lovers featuring dragons, battle of wits and for the throne. Hazel McBride has written a fantastic fantasy book with a brilliant plot, likeable characters and a morally grey fire daddy (with a hint of shadows). I was entranced from page one and I enjoyed every single step of the way to the end. That ending though? Really?! Book 2 better be in the works for a release soon!!

I went into this book relatively blind and it paid off. I kept coming back to it, wanting to read more. I think I read it in a day and a half and I work full time, which is a testament to how compelling this book was. AFFIF felt very GOT/House of the Dragon vibes to me and then I read somewhere that it started as a fanfic? Not sure if that’s true but definitely makes sense! GOT mixed with the forced marriage aspects of Serpent and Dove? “My wife”? Ahhh gimme.

One thing about this book that stalled me at points was that I felt like there should be more going on with the MC worrying about what’s happening with her family rather than just waiting for release or escape about the court, but those elements were still there. I am still confused about why a certain character did what they did, but I’m sure this’ll wrap up in the sequel.

I loved the representation in this novel, from honoring the Gaelic language to the Scottish-folklore inspired elements and also bi rep were spot on. Definitely an easy sell and for good reason. Can’t wait for the sequel!

4.25

Female rage with dragons and enemies to lovers. Need I say more???

Honestly though my favourite part about this book was the female rage element. It hit so close to home with what’s going on in the world right now and I was almost shaking with anger along with her throughout the book at the injustice of it all. The romance plot was a little too rushed for me and the ending of the book I saw coming from a mile off but I don’t know if that’s just because I’ve read too many romantasies!

Overall a really good book and can definitely see it being the next big thing

This book is fast paced with a lot of attention into the characters and the development of them. The FMC is a queen in the making with a lot of tension.

Loved this one and look forward for what comes next

DNF at 20%.

I was so excited about this after seeing it on so many peoples' anticipated 2025 romantasy releases however, I just couldn't get through it. Initially, I was aware of the House of the Dragon inspiration (especially when it came to the love interest), but it felt like there were many scenes in the first 20% that were in the show and I couldn't help but make the comparisons. In terms of the world building, the info dump was SO MUCH (I don't think I've ever read a book with that much heavy info dumping right at the start), which I normally would not mind but it felt as if we were not getting any context as to what was actually happening. Nor could we get to know any of the characters because the constant descriptions were solely on the 'lore', of the world.

Unfortunately, that make me want to DNF due to the constant confusion and 'tell don't show'. Perhaps I will try and read this again closer to its release but it unfortunately just didn't work for me.

This was a captivating romantasy and was an incredible start to what I believe will be an amazing series!

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