Thank you so much to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing and the Author for this ARC read. I'm so grateful to receive it and....
All I can say is WOW!
This story is a prequel to The priory of the orange tree and focusses on the life of Donmate Marosa, This tells us more in-depth about her life before. Explaining about the place she lived and the isolated life she led. Then it introduces us to her friends which gives us more depth into her character and what the mean to her.
The story details about the first days of the eruption and what happened to her. Changing their world forever.
The second half of the story focusses on `after' and how she started her new life and how she became the person she was (in the priory)
After reading this book I felt like I needed to read The priory of the orange tree again, as it brought back so many memories of this book and some insights to characters that I had never thought of before.
The writing is quite complex and you do have to keep your wits about you to remember who is who (like the main book) I feel its not a book to dip in and out of but something to sit and read wholly, Maybe a holiday book, where you can sit, read and be uninterrupted.
If you have not read The priory of the orange tree, this can easily be picked up,
I would say this series could be compared to Game of thrones meets George and the Dragon vibes.
Personally I would like more dragons in the whole series but just because I love dragons.
A solid 4 star read for me, I would recommend.

I have yet to read a Samantha Shannon book that I don't enjoy. A perfect little filler, this book goes to show how deeply the worlds crafted by Shannon are thought about

ARC review to follow!

This was such a tease! I need a full length book featuring these characters!

I was incredibly excited when I got accepted for this ARC. I had a great time with Priory so my standards were high for this one.

Now it didn't disappoint, at all. I had a bit of trouble getting into it at first and getting familiar with the world building. It did help that there were only 2 povs each time, which made it easier to get into the story. I loved reading each chapter, very interesting to read more about the world. It was nice seeing the names of familiar characters again, especially since I finished Priory not that long ago.

At times it felt like I was missing information or import parts of the story because of the time skips. It caught me off guard for sure.

Overall it was just a really good read.
++ Sapphics !!

I can't wait for this book to be released so I can see the illustrations.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this ARC in exchange for an honest review

Great prequel book to priory. Awesome world building very in depth storytelling I absolutely loved it

Another Samantha Shannon 5 star read. Just when you think this authors books can’t get any better she produces another one that is even better. I am not going to say any more because you all need to emerge yourselves in this world.

I feel a bit selfish because I can't deal with such a short book from Shannon, her stories really come to life when fully fleshed out. But having said that, this prequel added some lovely nuance to the Priory universe and was thoroughly enjoyable as always

Thank you to the publisher, the author and netgalley for the arc copy in exchange for an honest review.

It took me a long time to start this book, but only because Samantha Shannon and her Roots of Chaos series are so hyped that I was afraid I wouldn't enjoy it. But I couldn’t wait any longer, so I started and finished it in just a couple of days. I liked it. It’s a very good book, solid, but it doesn’t stand on its own and there are a couple of issues I want to explore here.

The first issue is with what the author herself said. In a video, she states that Among the Burning Flowers could serve as an entry point to the series if the two previous 800+ page books felt too intimidating. She also suggestes it could be read as a standalone. I disagree. Despite having read both The Priory of the Orange Tree and A Day of Fallen Night when they were first published, I remembered almost nothing by the time I picked up Among the Burning Flowers. And because of that, I was lost, confused. I remembered vague echoes of names and events, but nothing truly clicked and I remained confused for the rest of the novel. I didn’t know one in five words because of the rich and expansive world Shannon has created, but in this book, the worldbuilding is non-existent. It relies entirely on the groundwork laid in the previous books. So no, this is not a standalone, and I don’t think it’s a good entry point into the Roots of Chaos series.

The second issue I had is with the pacing. The story starts very slowly. It doesn’t really pick up until about 35% into the book. After that, I couldn’t put it down. But for such a short book, I wish the plot had started moving sooner.

Lastly, I definitely preferred reading some POVs over others. I could read an entire novel about Malaguo, I loved her sections the most.

Overall, this is a great book. The characters are complex, the writing is exquisite, and it made me want to reread The Priory of the Orange Tree. I loved that.

Among the burning flowers is a prequel which takes place roughly 2 years before the start of the priory of the orange tree,
We follow 3 POVs:

- the future queen of Yscalin, Marosa, who is prisoner in her palace and under her father, the king’s thumb.
- her betrothed, Aubrecht, who is destined to rule his kingdom across the mountains, Mentendon.
- Malaugo, a former urchin turned Draconic beast hunter.

I loved Marosa’s story!!! Gimme 5 more of them 😍 there were some audible gasps and pearl clutching moments, which I won’t go into detail about, to avoid spoilers.
Aubrecht was almost too perfect for me, so I distrust him - I feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop and for him to show his true colours.
Malaugo was SUPER intriguing, however she was only in the first half of the book so I feel robbed of more of her POV 😂

Despite being a bit difficult to get into because of all the different cities/religions/characters, once I had a grasp on all that, I was hooked. This book has without a doubt made me want to pick up Priory, in fact I downloaded it the second I finished! Very keen to see what happens next. Thank you so much to Bloomsbury for the ARC!!!

So I'm one of the few people who did not read Priory of the Orange Tree before this. Though Priory has been on my radar for a while, I never picked it up, partially because I was a little intimidated by the length of that book. I requested the ARC for this, because I really appreciated the author writing this as an easier entry point into the series.

First the good, I really liked the writing. I liked the characters and I liked how descriptive the writing was. I could visualize every scene the author set up, and the world felt very real. The politics were fleshed out very well, and seeing all different kinds of people in this world experience the starting of the war was very interesting.

Unfortunately the book had some slow pacing, especially in the beginning I struggled to get into it. This is also a bit of a downside of the descriptive writing, because the world gets described in so much detail, the pacing slows down quite a bit.

I really liked the book, I enjoyed the writing, and I had a great time reading this. I feel overall this book did what it set out to accomplish. It makes Priory and the roots of chaos series more accessible, while still standing very well on it´s own.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for providing me with an ARC for this book.

I loved this. I really enjoy reading this series and it was nice to be immersed in that world without committing to a very long read.
I would maybe have liked the two sets of characters to be more intertwined, or to be in two separate novellas, because I find it hard to keep tabs on who everyone is.
However, this book has everything you want from this series - some queer romance, some wyverns, lots of political intrigue and courage and peril.

I’ve devoured the other Roots of Chaos books (RoC), and almost binge read the Bone Season books. Most were 5 star reads for me. So I guess you can say I’m a huge fan of Samantha Shannon’s stories and will read anything she writes. Among the Burning Flowers (ATBF) is no exception.

At first, I felt like I had some difficulty getting back into this world and story. The complex storyweaving with lots of characters and worldbuilding is amazing, but takes some time to reacquaint yourself with. So I read a few recaps, studied the maps again, scanned the glossary in the back of the Priory of the Orange Tree (TPOTOT), and dove back into ATBF. From there on, the reading went smoothly. It’s everything you can expect if you know the other RoC books.

Because of its shorter length, ATBF is more accessible, yet in my opinion it isn’t a great starting point for RoC. Because if you want to understand everything that’s being said and that’s going on, you’ll definitely have to have read at least TPOTOT already (though there are a few references to a Day of Fallen Night (ADOFN) as well). I’m not saying you can’t start with this novella, only that if you do, there might be some things that you don’t understand yet. But no worries, once you’ll read the other books, it will all become crystal clear. So if you’re intimidated by the other two bricks, because they are chunky books, you could still give ATBF a try.

I loved to get to know Marosa, Melaugo and Aubrecht better. This story creates more depth and background, giving insight into why certain things happen the way they do in TPOTOT. ATBF takes place only a few years before TPOTOT, so it’s a direct prequel. It was so much fun to see all the different puzzle pieces fall together, and to experience the buildup to the next part of the story. I felt connected to the characters almost immediately and wanted to keep on reading. Some small things felt like they were left unresolved, which was the only downside for me, but that’s because TPOTOT will pick up the story right there again.

4,5/5 stars for me, because it’s pretty complex for a novella, but I still loved it.

Thank you Netgalley and Bloomsbury for the ARC, I'm forever grateful. Still, my opinion is and remains my own and isn't influenced by receiving an ARC. .

Samantha Shannon did it again! Huge thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book early. — Samantha Shannon is being one of my favorite authors! I absolutely loved it! Even though it’s nearly 300 pages, I devoured it like it was a novella.

This is a brilliant prequel to The Priory of the Orange Tree, and it immediately made me want to reread it (I plan to reread this prequel and the book itself before the end of the year thanks to this arc!). The world-building, the characters, the writing — everything was spot on. A truly flawless read in my eyes!

Another wonderful, full-bodied dive into the world of the Roots of Chaos.

Samantha Shannon weaves this story of political and supernatural intrigue with a masterful hand.

I’ve been following this series since the beginning, and getting this deeper look into the lives of other players in Priory of the Orange Tree, an almost peak behind the curtain, was incredible.

Amongst the Burning Flowers is also an excellent stepping off point for anyone who’s been intimidated by the size of the other novels in this series!

A short but riveting prequel that greatly expands on the lore of the world. While I would've loved a full novel with greater character depth, I still loved this great entry in the roots of chaos series.

A devastating, brutal tale as old as time, of a princess trapped in a tower, with no way to save her country from a terror that has gripped the land. In such a short book (compared to the rest of the series), Samantha Shannon makes you feel strongly for the Donmata Marosa and her plight. She is a strong heroine, well-deserving of her place among iconic Roots of Chaos heroines; cunning, resilient, patient, and determined to protect her people however she can. This book is full of tragedy and atrocities, and doesn’t shy away from showing the true brutalities of war. It takes the reader right up to the moment where they first meet Marosa in Priory, and is a fantastic prequel!

My main issue with the book is that I don’t think the chapters from Aubrecht’s POV were truly necessary, and seemed to only serve the purpose of telling us more about Mentendon and Mentish culture. All the information we find out in those chapters, Marosa finds out later, and could have just been revealed to the audience then. I did enjoy the Estina Melaugo chapters, as she was one of my favourite side characters in Priory, but appreciated that they ended in part 1, as I believe part 2 would have benefited from having Marosa as the sole narrator, to make you feel her isolation.

Regardless, the book is a beautiful prequel to Priory of the Orange Tree, and makes me really excited for the next full-length RoC installation!

She's done it again. Even if this story is considerably more compact than her previous work she still manages to grip the reader's attention right from the start. At this point I will read anything by Samantha Shannon.

Does Samantha Shannon know how to write something that isn’t a masterpiece?

If you’ve been meaning to try to read the behemoth of a book that is Priory of the orange tree, but are afraid of the size, Among the burning flowers is a great introduction to the universe. You get to meet a few characters, explore a small portion of the map, slowly get familiar with the lore.

If you already know and like the Roots of chaos universe, it’s a great way to learn more Yscalin and the Donmata

On that note, I have to go re-read Priory

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for sending me an ARC of this book!

3.5 stars, rounded down

I loved The Priory of the Orange Tree, so I'm really disappointed to say that I found Among the Burning Flowers very underwhelming.

I loved the character of Marosa - seeing what happened to her and Carscaro in the lead up to TPOTOT was really interesting. However, given that (by Roots of Chaos standards) this is a relatively short book, I was hoping that it would focus entirely on her. Instead, we also got two other POV's: Melaugo, and Aubrecht.

While I found Melaugo's POV interesting, it was one of my favourite parts at the start of the book, it felt very disconnected from the rest of the story, and I don't fully understand why it was needed. It also drops off after the 50% mark of the book and you never hear from her again, even though it felt like her story was building up to something important - this just never came. I feel like instead of this, we could have benefitted with more time with Marosa instead.

Aubrecht was interesting to get an outside perspective of what was happening in the world, but again it didn't feel like he brought much to the story. A lot of his chapters felt quite info-dumpy, where he would have conversations with his aunt just talking back and forth about historical facts.

Overall, I do think this was a great introduction to the work of the Roots of Chaos, and it has made me appreciate certain plot points of TPOTOT more. I really enjoyed Marosa, and it was really interesting to see the fall of Carscaro and the rise of Fyredel - However, I do think you'll get more enjoyment out of this if you have read TPOTOT first.

7/10

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for providing me with an eARC for this book.

This is such a difficult review to write, because I love this series so much. I love so much of what this book does, it offers a fascinating new perspective on events and adds so much life to the world, exploring Yscalin in detail. However, I have so many issues, particularly with the book’s structure, that I can’t bring myself to rate it any higher.

The quality of what is here is excellent as expected but the book feels lacking because it feels far too short. Now I wouldn’t want this to be another 800 page epic, because that’s just not the scale of this story, but I feel this would’ve fit so much more comfortably into 400 pages than <300. The first half in particular suffers as it seems to rush through getting to the major events.

To an extent, I could overlook these pacing issues being aware that this was meant to be a shorter story. My biggest issues really come from Melaugo’s point of view. She feels like she’s barely in the story but has so much potential to be an interesting character. The worst part is that her plot line is dropped before reaching the 50% mark with very little closure to this part of her arc. She’s presented as a wonderfully complex and flawed person who simply isn’t given enough space to be fully fleshed out here. It’s clear to me that this is Marosa’s book, so it feels unfair that Melaugo isn’t allowed the space of her own book (or perhaps a higher page count for this book that would actually accommodate two plot lines).

Thankfully, Marosa’s storyline is excellent and this book really shines in the second half where she really becomes the main focus. She is incredible to read about and I couldn’t put the book down following her survival and investigation in draconic Yscalin. By the end, her plot line provides the emotional punches I was looking forward to and I really think she’s one of my favourite characters in the series.

Ultimately, I can’t help but love this book despite its flaws as a huge fan of this series. This really works the best as a companion and addition to the existing novels and has so much to offer. However, I don’t think I can recommend this as the starting point for the series that I’ve seen this being positioned as. Being such a short book it lacks a lot of exposition about the wider world outside of Yscalin and Mentendon, meaning that I was regularly relying on my knowledge from the other novels, because of this I can’t really see this working as a standalone or introductory title.

The reason that I’m so critical about all of this comes from my love and passion for this series. Understandably, it’s disappointing for me to read a book that feels as though its potential has been cut short by editors wanting a shorter and more marketable title. However, it’s impossible for me not to love this world and Shannon’s writing and I do think that existing fans of the series will still find so much to love here!

One final note because I haven’t mentioned him; the Aubrecht pov chapters were excellent and it was so great to see more of him here.