This book was amazing. Our MC is Valerie, an 18-year-old girl who wants to avenge her brother's death. 
A Gang War that recruits you on your 18th birthday, if you are so lucky to get chosen. 
A great read, with excellent characters, plot twists, and an ending that is superb but also super freaking sad,

Wow this was a dark novel. I guess I should not be surprised since it deals with gang, violence, drug and alcohol use with teens. But I was surprised about the cutting from the main character. She feels grief and shame/blame for the death of her little brother and punishes herself through self-harm.

Also this is totally on me, but I assumed this was a dystopian/rebellion story when in actuality this was a contemporary story- a very dark and gritty contemporary that made me feel really bad about a lot of social issues and problems that are very real, with gangs battling each other for many different things.

Overall this book was just ok, not at all what I was hoping for or expecting. If you like gritty realistic contemporary stories this may be for you. Side note, don't expect a HEA, this is too realistic for that.

This was...a lot. I don't know what I was expecting, but it really took on a different tone than I had assumed it had. I also thought there were some kind of fantastical elements for some reason. All in all, an objectively good book, but one I would have a hard time recommending to other people

"My thoughts bleed with the reminder that I'm dancing with demons, flirting with the monsters." 

This was a unique story, it was refreshing and fast paced. It has such a great storyline and I find it promising. I haven’t read anything like this.

The story is about three gangs who fighting against each other. These gangs recruit people on their eighteenth birthday and they only have to stay in for one year. 

Valerie our heroine lost her brother by a member of the Boar gang.She and Matthew were friends and then they have a relationship .Matthew was picked by the Herons and Valerie by the Stags.The Stags decide to team up with the Boars to take out the Herons.  They agree that the Herons need to be stopped. 

Overall, it was original and so refreshing , it was emotional at some parts too.A great story.

TRIGGER WARNING: Cutting

This book was marketed as a retelling of the Illiad, and I admit that I haven't read the Illiad beforehand so I can't really say if this book was a good retelling at that.  However, I just felt like this story was lacking for me.  I really wanted more out of this book than it gave me.  By the time I finished this book I kept going back to the last few pages not believing that that was the end.  It just seemed really short, and I wish it was a little longer.

This book did have some interesting gang dynamics, but they also were a little hard to understand.  I didn't know why the gangs had to take teens when they turn eighteen.  Plus the gang's history wasn't really deep rooted at all; it was all fairly new and recent.  It definitely wasn't a long-standing tradition that I had been expecting.

There also really wasn't much character development or growth.  due to this I felt like I just didn't connect with the characters as much as I normally would've.  I feel really bad in saying this but the characters were regrettably forgettable.

The romance in this book seemed pretty lackluster.  And at times the love interest was a little unstable.  It almost would've been better if there was either more romance or none at all.

This book did have a lot to do with grief and loss with a bit of vengeance thrown in as well. The main character has to deal with a lot of past trauma, and we see how that affects her decisions later on.

The author did a fairly good job for a debut novel, and I'll definitely be picking up their next book and seeing how they've grown as a writer. 

I gave this book 3/5 stars on Goodreads.

A Thousand Fires by Shannon Price was one of the most thrilling debit novels I have read in a long time. It was dark, gritty and really delves into the perks and perils of revenge even for someone you loved dearly. Highly recommended.

I didn’t dislike this book- I just felt that is was slightly more juvenile than I would have liked. The idea of the gangs and their wars sounded interesting, almost like The Outsiders or something a little more modern, but I found myself not enjoying this execution. It would suit younger readers (13-16) well.

unfortunately, i DNF this book. I was hoping as i kept going thought it i would start to love plot and the characters. But they felt flat to me as well as the plot. So because id wasn't able to make myself finish it i will be natural and give it 3 stars.

First, Price is an incredible writer and I look forward to following her publishing career. This book was atmospheric and beautifully written. Absolutely haunting. The pacing was off for me and I had a hard time cracking the shell of the characters.

I stopped reading about half way through the book. I was planning on picking it back up but the story wasn't screaming at me. I felt like the characters were pretty flat and didn't have much of a personality and the story was moving a little too slow. It had a lot of potential to be a great book for me. I know a few of my friends have really enjoyed it though so I would recommend it to others if they want a different dystopian vibe.

Unfortunately, this was not the book for me. I tried very hard to read it, but I had to DNF it. 

I don't feel like I can accurately review this book as I did not finish it. So I kept this as neutral as I could. And rated it 3 stars.

Thank you for allowing me the chance to read it.

Review: 4 Stars

A Thousand Fires was an absolutely incredible read that I found myself tearing right through. Books that are about criminals are my catnip, so I’m not surprised that I loved this book about gang wars in San Francisco. A Thousand Fires is marketed as a re-telling of The Illiad and while I never read The Illiad I know about it and I know a lot about Greek and Roman mythology. I had expected this book to have some fantasy elements because of the comparison, but there weren’t any. Typically I would be really bummed about the fact that a book I thought would have fantasy elements didn’t turn out to be a fantasy at all, but this book was amazing just the way it was and if I knew it wasn’t a fantasy ahead of time I might not have given it a chance.

By the end of the first chapter I was so intrigued and I knew that I was already hooked by Shannon Price. The plot of A Thousand Fires is about 3 gangs fighting against each other, but the story didn’t just focus on the criminal elements of gang life, but also the politics and corruption of the city. The ways that the gangs contolled the city of San Francisco reminded me of how the mob used to be a controlling force in NYC. The corruption of the city and the politics of rival gangs make this book a fascinating read. This isn’t just a book about gang violence and trivial vendettas, this is also a book about scheming and plotting to help turn a city around.

The plot had me intrigued, but it was the characters that got me so invested in this story. Valerie found a family within the stags and the close relationships between the gang members felt so realistic. Found families are something I love to read about and I think that this one was done really well because I really cared about each character. Valerie was a great main character because she was so relatable and it was easy to sympathize with her. The death of her brother was her reason for getting involved with the Wars and her pain and grief were both conveyed so well that I felt like I really understood her. I think the teenage portrayal of the characters were done very well. I felt like I could see myself during my own teenage years in each of the characters throughout the story. All of the characters felt so real and were written so well.

While the characters truly made the story what it is I don’t feel that I can say that this novel was character driven, or even plot driven. Shannon Price did a fabulous job of balancing an intriguing plot with characters that felt like real people. I’m so glad that I stumbled upon this book because it was so worth the read. I think this was a great debut YA novel and I can’t wait to see what Shannon Price writes next.

This book was so engaging and awesome! Valerie is such a brave and admirable main character and I live in a place where gangs are around, but I don’t here many things about them. Gang violence and the dangers with them are important to know and this book really helped me understand even if they are fictional. People have motivations for different reasons which this book shows.

Shannon Price is incredible as always! Absolutely could not get enough of this book! Thank you to the publisher for providing a NetGalley widget in exchange for an honest review

I'm sad to say that I'm a bit disappointed with this one. 

I had high expectations and they have not been met. The premise seemed too ambitious and the execution is lacking. Characters needed more development and fortunately enough the main character is not one of them. I would say that the best thing about the book had been the development of the main character. Besides that, I think this YA novel needs a bit more work. 

However, I would say that this book is extremely fast-paced. The reader gets thrown into the action during the first few chapters. I think it would have been better if the world-building had been set up earlier in the book. 

Lastly, as a Filipina myself, I love the representation in this book. While the reviews can be a bit divided, I believe the author had set up a solid fan base. I know she has the potential to write another best-seller. But this one, unfortunately, is a miss for me. I still thought it was an 'okay' read for a first book though.

Trigger warnings: some characters can seem creepy (i.e. too close or too touchy), violence, self-harm, depression, murder, etc.

I received a copy courtesy of Netgalley.

A Thousand Fires . . . I have never read a book like this one.

A Thousand fires is about a 3-way gang war in San Fransisco that has been going on for quite some time. Two of the gangs, the Herons and the Boars, are immensely well known throughout the city. The third gang is the Stags. People aren’t even sure if they are a real gang, they are so small.
On your 18th birthday you get invited to be in one of the gangs, or you don’t. You don’t choose the gang, they choose you. The only choice you have in the matter is to say yes if they come knocking. 
Main character Val wants to be in the Herons. Not only because they are the most influential, but because they have some information she needs. Her little brother was killed by one of the Boars, and she wants revenge. 
So when her birthday comes around, of course she isn’t recruited by the gang she wants. She is recruited by the smallest and possibly least powerful gang there is. The Stags.
She is put into a predicament where it looked like her only option was to say yes. Then the leader tells her that he knowns who killed her brother, so she accepts the invitation, more readily now.

I feel like A Thousand Fires had the potential, but missed the mark. There wasn't to much that actually happened in this book at all. It was mostly them drinking themselves into a stupor, dealing with the hangovers, “planning things”, and getting calls from her parents begging her to come home.
Okay, so she cant go home for a whole year, gang rules or whatever. And if she DOES leave, they put the word out and ALL the gangs will come to kill her, and her family. But she never tells her parents this! If she would have told them, I feel like they wouldn't have harassed her as much!
But of course, she does end up leaving and going home for a night to see her mom. She gets caught of course, by the Stags leader Jax, and suffers no punishment.

Jax. The super hot guy with the shoulder length hair that adds to his handsomeness somehow. He is always one comment away from flipping the frick out. Val even mentions how volatile she thinks he is! He is also just kind of creepy. He is a very touchy feely leader, at least towards her. He will touch her butt or hug her from behind or kiss her cheek and forhead. But its MOSTLY when he’s drunk, so . . . Yeah. She caught him going through her underwear too. It’s just . . . Creepy.
And the reason I even bring this up is because he is the LOVE INTEREST. 
She all of sudden, after he tells her they can’t move forward with the plan she has (or something), “realizes” that Jax “likes her” so then they make-out. I just don't understand. Nothing he said was an invite to lip lock. I mean, he was into it, but it he didn’t do anything special or sentimental to elicit a reaction like that from her.
Even later, after they get together, he asks her to keep it a secret!! RED FLAG. When she doesn’t immediately agree, he backtracks and says how its “just for us”, “something special”. And then later as they are about to see the others he’s like “we can tell them if you want” it just all felt very weird, like he was suddenly feeling guilty or something.
Even later, he ditches her. The book ends with her not seeing him for MONTHS. And just before this she had a “realization” that he “loves her”. And then he ran away to who knows where and no one can find him. I don’t know if you can see me, but I am shaking my head.

Last thing I have to say about Jax, I promise, I don’t actually know what makes him qualified to be the leader. His friend Micah would do a WAY better job. Micah is kind, patient, and doesn’t freak out over everything.

Val is . . .  I don’t how I can describe her, so I will just tell you my problems with her. 
She gets offended very easily.
Someone alludes to possibly seeing her kiss her ex in front of her house before they recruited her, and she gets all pissed off at them. I mean, if you make-out with someone in the front yard, some is BOUND to notice.
It is no secret that Matthew, her ex, comes from a long line of Herons, and that he will BECOME a Heron when he turns 18. But she is shocked by the possibility of him being groomed for a gang that his WHOLE family has been a big part of?

I was mostly bored throughout the first 80% of the book, and it wasn’t until the last 20 that I was captivated by it. 

The only thing that really kept me going was the other Stags and their interactions with Val and each other. They were fleshed out pretty well, and made interesting characters. My favorites were probably Mako and Kate. They just seemed to complete each other in so many ways, and helped the other when they needed it. But they were more than just the “couple” of the group. They were there own people with there own back stories, which I really liked.

Like I said in the beginning, this was unlike any book I have ever read.

I will be posting this review to Goodreads, effective immediately. I will be posting this review on my blog, Reading Rambler, on January 1st, 2020. And i will be posting a review on my YouTube channel, Reading Rambler, in the beginning of Janurary as well. I will submitting my review to Amazon which will go live after they have deemed it so.

This was a gripping re telling of The Illiad

The three rival gangs were really interesting and I was hooked from the beginning. The constant action kept everything interesting and the characters were really well developed. 

A really good ending and it really tied the story up well.

Solid YA for fans of Hunger Games / Divergent, etc, though it could have been a little more unique personally, something that makes it stand out among other very similar YA premises.

Ugh, I was so excited for this one! And I hate giving negative reviews but this just wasn’t for me. I usually love YA dystopian—it’s my favorite genre to read—but I couldn’t get into this book. We’re supposed to root for Valerie, but her first act in the book is to hurt her grieving parents by joining the Stags (a gang). She wants to kill the gang member who murdered her little brother--understandable--but she is easily distracted from her mission by Jax, the leader of the Stags. She falls for him, but I have no idea how or why because I couldn’t stand him. They are supposed to be our protagonists but I didn’t connect with either one of them. In fact, the only character I liked was a background character who meets a terrible fate in the book. There’s no redemption story or hopeful ending. The whole thing just left me feeling disappointed and confused. Also, the language was really strong for a teen/YA novel. It was an interesting concept, and Shannon Price is a good writer, but this wasn't my cup of tea.

What a wild ride! I received an teaser excerpt of A Thousand Fires a while back before receiving the whole novel, and I inhaled it. It definitely had me interested enough to keep going, but it did fall a little flat for me in the end.