DNF at approximately 10% in - I was unfortunately unable to finish this title, and therefore will not be reviewing it.

**Disclaimer: I was given a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.**

Title Forged in Fire and Stars

Author Andrea Robertson

Release Date May 5, 2020

Description from Amazon

Ara has always known the legend of the Loresmith: the blacksmith who served alongside the kings and queens of Saetlund, forging legendary weapons to arm warriors and protect the kingdom. She’s been told it’s her fate to inherit the title and become the next Loresmith. But since the monarchy’s downfall in a vicious conquest years before, Ara has never truly believed she would be able to take up her duty.

But when the lost Princess Nimhea and Prince Eamon steal Ara from her quiet life with a mission to retake the throne and return Ara to her place as the Loresmith–Ara’s whole world turns upside down.

Suddenly, Ara must leave her small mountain village and embark on a dangerous adventure where she will uncover new truths about her family’s legacy, and even face the gods themselves. With a mysterious thief as an unexpected companion, and dark forces following their every move, Ara must use all her skills to forge the right path forward–for herself, her kingdom, and her heart.

Initial Thoughts

I was super excited when Penguin Teen offered me the chance to review this book early. It has been on my TBR for a while now and the premise sounded really interesting.

Some Things I Liked

Lore and mythology. This book felt like it was inspired by Norse mythology and I loved the way lore and gods were woven into the history of the world.
Unexpected turns. I’ve read a ton of YA books and I sometimes find that the plots can be a bit formulaic or predictable. I can honestly say this book kept me guessing. Not in a bad way, mind you. I felt like the plot twists were well executed and there were subtle hints to them earlier on.
That ending. Wow. That’s all I’ll say on the matter.

One Thing I Wasn’t Crazy About

The age of the main character was my one issue with this book. Ara was 15 which just felt a little young for the responsibility and expectations the adult characters had for her. I know this is YA but typically YA is characterized with adults who are not present or totally evil. Ara had her grandmother and I found it odd that she was so quick to let her leave for her quest with basically some random kids she met. It’s a small critique, but I’d have preferred if Ara was a smidge older. It would have made the story feel more realistic.
Series Value

I would definitely keep reading this series. I have many unanswered questions and I’m eager to know more about these characters.

Furthermore, I think that this series has high re-read value. There are so many details in this book and I’d definitely want them fresh in my mind as I read the next installment.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed this book. It has really good bones for the start of a series and I’d gladly keep reading.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Recommendations for Further Reading

Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa – if you liked the concept of “found family” in Forged in Fire and Stars, check out this finished series by Julie Kagawa.
Seven Deadly Shadows by Courtney Alameda and Valynn E. Maetani – again, if you liked the idea of a “found family” or where the main character has to gather warriors to fight with her, try this standalone based on Japanese mythology.

As soon as I heard Andrea was writing another series, I couldn’t wait to dive in. I was obsessed with the Nightshade series, so I had really high hopes for the start of a new series from her. Thankfully, this book not disappoint! 
From the very beginning, it starts with plenty of action. Lore and myth become reality as Ara, a fifteen year old blacksmith, is set on a quest to fulfill her destiny and prove her worth to the gods. She gains a few companions along the way, and I love how diverse their personalities are. I do wish there had been a bit more character development, but I’m sure that’s something we will see in upcoming books. There is also so much going on throughout the book. You rarely have a slow moment. When one does come along, they can seem to drag a bit, but I can understand it because it is mostly information for world building to help with the flow of the series. 
Overall, I enjoyed this book and I’m excited to see where to story goes.

I really loved this story! Ara was such a great character that I just enjoyed reading about. The world building and the story telling was phenomenal! I.also really enjoyed reading about the mythology.  Five stars to this book!

This was my first time reading Andrea's work, even under this pen name. Nightshade has been on my physical shelves for years but I've just never taken the plunge yet. I'm very happy that I finally completed and loved my first book by her! This was such a fun book! I truly thought the twins we meet very early on, were a lot younger. Once we really got to know them, I understood that they weren't that much younger than our heroine that is taking them to where they need to be. I REALLY enjoyed this book and cannot wait to see where this goes next!!

I loved this book!! From the prologue, I was so intrigued and wanted to keep learning more. It is such a exciting first book and I can’t wait for the next one. I am such a sucker for these types of fictional stories and this world was laid out so well that I love it already!

An uplifting fantasy adventure about destiny, fate, and the Gods that weave it.

"Ara has always known about the legend of the Loresmith: the blacksmith who served alongside the kings and queens of every generation to protect the kingdom. It was her fate to inherit the title–though she never truly believed it would come to pass since the monarchy’s downfall years before.

But when the lost Princess Nimhea and Prince Eamon steal Ara from her quiet life with a mission to retake the throne–and take her place as the Loresmith–her whole world turns upside down."

This fantasy was a lot of fun! I loved the traveling aspect of the story, and how we got to discover each new part of this magical land with every chapter. The mythology and lore of this world was so enticing, as well. I loved meeting the Gods, and only wanted to know more about them.

I mean...If you know me, you know I'm a sucker for a good first line. That quote gripped me! I loved how we dove right into the action. Oftentimes with other stories, it can be tedious waiting for the inciting incident, but this one starts off with a bang. Also, I really liked Teth. His witty banter was fantastic comic relief, especially in regards to Nimhea, who takes herself entirely too seriously...Lol.

Overall, I enjoyed this. If you're looking for an adventuring YA fantasy with complex mythology, this is the book for you!

A big thank you to Penguin Teen for sending me an advanced copy!

Forged in Fire and Stars by Andrea Robertson is a YA fantasy dealing with mythology, mystery, intrigue, and a fallen kingdom.

Ara is a young girl, who lives with her grandmother. Her father was a Loresmith, a powerful blacksmith chosen by the gods to help protect their lands. With his death, she struggled to understand what it means to be chosen. One day, the long lost prince and princess show up in her small town, and that’s where the journey begins. Ara has to learn what being the Loresmith means, and how to stay true to herself while helping to regain the peace that used to exist.

The main character Ara was your typical YA fantasy stereotype protagonist. I didn’t feel like she was unique in any sort of way, however, the one thing I enjoyed was the Loresmith aspect of her character. The idea of a female being a blacksmith was original enough, and a fresh concept for a fantasy.

I wish there was more character building in this book, but sadly I really didn’t feel any sort of connection to Ara. I did like some of the other characters like Prince Eamon, and I’m excited to see what happens to him in the next book.

The pacing of this novel was too slow for my enjoyment, and although I loved the concept of the story, I felt as if I was lacking in important details, as I was not fully comprehending what was going on. With the world building, it was difficult to understand all of it as everything was kind of just thrown at us in the beginning. I think the concept of the magic system with the Loresmith was cool, but I wanted more clarification. The world definitely had the potential to be a pretty unique place, but it unfortunately fell flat in a lot of aspects.

Overall, I feel as this book had the potential to be great, but let me down in the end. I really hope that the next book builds on this potential and fixes the pacing issue. I could like these characters with a bit more of development in the next book. I have hope the next book will be even better!

Magical blacksmith, Gods and warring kingdoms. The cover drew me in and while the pacing was a little slow at times, it was world building and I loved it!

Ara is the last Loresmith. A blacksmith who can create magical weapons from the Gods. Her father passed away before he could teach her how, so she must journey to the Bone Forest to speak with a God named Ofrit to see if she is worthy of the title.

Nimhea, the rightful queen to the River throne and her twin brother Eamon make the journey with her. They pick up a thief and a Summoner along the way. This merry band of misfits make their way across the lands in search of their Gods. 

They face trials and tests along the way, but the true test comes when Ara faces Ofrit. Will she be deemed worthy of being the last remaining Loresmith? 

I cannot wait to see how much they all grow in the next book!

The following review was posted on SomethingOfTheBook.com on 5/29/2020.

I understand why publishers use big name books in hooks and blurbs for upcoming releases. It lures you in with promises that this novel is for you because you liked this Very Popular Book™. But I wonder if they think about what happens after someone buys a book on a false premise. I can tell you what happens though: bad reviews for books that are very good, but nothing like the big name book they tried to make you think it was like.

It’s about expectations. I once read a book that was promised to be like Labyrinth. Except it wasn’t at all and my expectations, that were specifically influenced by that comparison, led me to strongly dislike the book. Not because it was a bad story. But because I kept waiting for anything remotely like Jareth the Goblin King in his tight tight pants to show up. And I never got it. And while I read this book back before I wrote book reviews, if I had been writing them at the time, it would have been a 3 page essay on how mad I was there were no tight pants. I can’t speak for everyone, but reviews do influence my book buying habits and bad reviews certainly don’t make me want to buy a book.

So what does this all have to do with Forged in Fire and Stars? Well, the hooks for this story liken it to the Grishaverse, An Ember in the Ashes, and Game of the Thrones…except it’s not like those at all. A quick glance at some of the reviews for FiFaS show that many people were let down because they were expecting certain things. And because of these expectations, I think people aren’t giving Forged in Fire and Stars enough credit.

Forged in Fire and Stars is a fantastic start to an epic YA fantasy series that, if it must be likened to another literary work, made me think of old school YA series like the Tortall books by Tamora Pierce. While some may find the story a bit slow, those who enjoy deep world building and character driven plots will find the beginning to a new favorite series with this one.

And let’s start with the pacing first, because I know a lot of people might find issue with it. This story is definitely setting up for a bigger arc and world, but the journey we go on is not boring in the slightest. Robertson builds up the world as we go on the journey with Ara and there are many layers to everything going on. I particularly enjoyed the way gods and goddesses tied into the mysticism of the world.

The characters, especially Ara, are all well built and believable. Ara and the lost royals are in their midteens and they are realistically not perfect and sometimes very confused with their role in the world. Some reviews I saw claimed this book “read young” and um, it’s a “YOUNG adult” book. However, don’t think that the book might not be for you. While some of the romantic side plot grated on my bitter old lady nerves, I fully enjoyed this story of teens journeying to claim their heritage. Oh, and did I mention that the main character is a female with bad ass black smith skills?

Forged in Fire and Stars is different from a lot of young adult novels that are on the market these days. It feels more subtle, but no less engaging. I think likening it to other big name books does a disservice to what is a wonderful story on it’s own, but I hope that this book will find it’s readers. I, for one, am very excited for the next book in the series.

What instantly drew me into this book was the idea of the Loresmith: a blacksmith blessed by the gods who defends kings and queens through the ages. The story starts out with high stakes: the kingdom's Loresmith killed during a battle to overthrow the regency, and everyone thinks that the Loresmith becomes extinct. But the Loresmith had a daughter no one knew about. In short, the story follows Ara as she becomes involved with the lost prince and princess to restore their kingdom.

The most unique thing about this book is the writing. It feels similar to J. R. R. Tolkien's writing; it has that similar fanciful feel like some old bard is telling the story over a campfire. Because of this, I struggled to see into the characters' hearts and minds and connect to them. I was constantly reminded that this is simply a story being told. I couldn't escape into the world like I normally do when I read fantasy.

Andrea Robertson sets up a nice series with this one, so a lot of the book is spent on world-building while the characters continually travel. The plot meanders a lot, and some things just don't make sense at first. But I still felt mildly interested in the plot and characters, so it wasn't hard to finish. In sum, this book simply wasn't remarkable enough for me to fully engage with it. But I may pick up the sequel.

Writing Aesthetic/Style: 3
Plot/Movement: 3
Character Development: 3
Overall: 3

Thank you Philomel Books and NetGalley for the review copy!

Ara is the daughter of the last Loresmith. Her father was supposed to teach her the ways of the Loresmith, but unfortunately, he passed away before he was able to do so. When a princess and a scholar arrive at her village, she joins them on a journey to take back the Kingdom. Along the way, she meets a thief and his fox, and together they all set out to discover the ways of the Loresmith. 

I don't know why this is advertised as action-packed, because absolutely nothing happened this entire book. This book is SLOW. The concept was intriguing, but I was just bored throughout most of this. Ara is an interesting character, but I didn't really care what happened to her or the twins. The only character I was truly invested in was Teth and his fox companion. 

It was very obvious that this was setting up for a series, which was a bit annoying.

Actual Rating: 3.5 stars

If you like classic epic fantasy and are looking for a YA take, this one is worth checking out! It has great world-building and cool mythology, but the pacing drags in parts, some plot twists are pretty predictable, and the characters were fine, but could have used more nuance. Forged in Fire and Stars has been compared to An Ember in the Ashes and Game of Thrones. And....I'm not sure those are great comparisons, other than the epic scope and political elements to be found here.

The Loresmith is tasked by the gods with protecting the people and creating magical weapons, but must never lift a weapon themself except in defense. When an evil empire overruns the kingdom, the Loresmith sacrifices himself to save his secret daughter and heir. Many years later, fate finds Ara and she begins a journey to reclaim her heritage and defeat the evil empire. The premise is a great one and for me, the best part of this book was the mythology and world-building. Every time we learned more about the mythology of the world or had appearances from the gods I was riveted. That part read like classic high fantasy and was well developed.

The characters were fine, but a little bland. Our heroine can do no wrong and I didn't see strong arcs of character development. I appreciated the diversity here though. We get racial and cultural diversity in our little gang that get together along the way, and there is also the possibility of a sapphic relationship developing between the side characters. One character is from a people group that is clearly a stand-in for the Romany, including the way that people have created racist names for them and oppress them.

There are plot twists that I definitely saw coming a long way off, and the pacing of was a bit slower than usual for a YA fantasy. Which I probably wouldn't have minded if the book was longer and did more character development. That said, I think many readers will still quite enjoy this. It feels like a throwback in some ways and I mostly enjoyed my time with it. I received an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

CW include racism, murder, killing of children, blood magic, depictions of gore, loss of a loved one and more.

Um… Well, what I thought would be amazingly awesome (especially with a comp title like An Ember in the Ashes) fell completely flat and absolutely did not work for me. I had it in my mind I would DNF this book early on, but I felt like I wasn’t giving it enough of a chance. Man, do I regret that decision. When I receive early copies from publishers, I feel a bit obligated to give push through the book in order to give it a proper review. In this case, I should have just stopped but every time I picked the book up, I was getting further and further along and eventually found myself at the end… With a great amount of reluctance and very little skimming.

Don’t get me wrong though. The premise sounds absolutely wonderful and love the idea. But executive was so poor. I liked the world-building, the legends, myths, and stories of the gods. But I absolutely couldn’t care less about any of the characters. Ara really had nothing going for her outside of being the Loresmith, while Nimhea and Eamon seemed utterly underdeveloped. You just throw these characters together, yet I felt like no true friendship or bond was formed between them, outside of Nimhea and Eamon as brother and sister. And even at times, that appeared strained. I felt like I was d r a g g i n g, sloshing through this hot mess just to get to the end and say that I read it. Not to mention that the characters are traveling 99% of the time in this book and it was boring. This book starts right in the action but the thing is, I didn’t want all the action up front. Maybe that’s where my lack of connection to the characters started. I feel like I didn’t know them enough to care about them or their journey. The developing romance between the main character, Ara, and a character she meets on her journey… Again, I couldn’t care less. So dull.

It was very much a chore to pick up this book. I forced myself not to skim it, in case I didn’t miss something important. Wrong on me. I should have just went directly to the end. And the utter betrayal from one of the characters? Excuse me, where in the WORLD did that even come into play and why? It makes absolutely no sense.

We do get a few chapters where that don’t follow Ara but I struggled to see how they fit into the story besides it being from the eyes of the enemy. I didn’t feel like there was a connection between those chapters and what was happening with Ara. I’m sure my dislike of the book is causing me to miss any sort of thread to connect these stories but with everything being a struggle in this book, I don’t really care.

Incredible cover. Lovely comp titles. But an absolute miss with me. It makes me wonder if I should go back and read this author’s previous works.

The minute I read that this book was about blacksmiths who forged legendary weapons to arm warriors and protect kingdoms, I was hooked! That is totally right up my ally, and those are the parts that I liked besides the characters Fox and Teth (whom I loved!). The beginning was fabulous, and I couldn't wait to see where the story would go. Unfortunately, it seemed to sizzle out and loose some of the appeal and then I struggled to get it finished. Hopefully, the next book will take off and add more of the elements that I loved in the first one. 

With that being said, I would buy this for my middle school library, and I recommend it to fantasy readers who enjoy stories where the character takes a journey to find themselves!

In a time where shows like Game of Thrones and The Witcher are at the height of popularity, Forged in Fire and Stars has all the ingredients to appeal to all readers. It is the tale of an exiled princess, a divided kingdom, and a legendary blacksmith known as the Loresmith. Tasked with forging the weapons of the Gods, the Loresmith served alongside the Kings and Queens to protect the kingdom. Ara has always known about these revered blacksmiths. In fact, she was set to inherit the title from her father until the monarchies downfall and his death many years earlier. Going about her life Ara is resigned to be simply a blacksmith until the lost Princess Nimhea and Prince Eamon find her and convince her to join their mission to retake their throne and for Ara to claim her rightful place as the Loresmith. There is only one small problem. To claim her birthright, she must petition the Gods themselves. What follows is a whirlwind, dangerous adventure where Ara discovers the truth about her family’s history while forging a new and better future for her Kingdom and herself.

Forged in Fire and Stars has a simple to follow narrative with well defined and structured plot points throughout. The single character, third person narrative allows for straightforward communication of the plot to the reader and the insight given into the main character, Ara, and her emotions and motivations are well conveyed. Andrea Robertson has set out to take her readers on a journey and while the characters themselves are interesting, the twists that occurred throughout the plot lacked finesse and it felt like I was simply being told the story instead of being able to immerse myself in this new world.

The world and political structure Robertson has created is complex and there are many invested parties involved in this story: the dethroned royal family of which Nimhea and Eamon belong, the Vokkans who exiled the royal siblings, the Gods and then everyone else.

The pace of the book was overwhelmingly deliberate and has a large amount of exposition to develop the world and the characters’ ways of life. The overall feel of this book is that of a prequel and that this book has been used to set up the rest of the series. This made the book feel underwhelming and in my opinion, the book would have been more enjoyable if there was equal focus given to developing the plot within this book and creating a succinct narrative as there was given to the explanatory world building.

The subtlety of the presence of a magic system in this book was unique and refreshing and really separates it from other YA reads in its category. The mythology system was well constructed and imaginative and I loved how unique the Loresmith legend is. What really shines in this story is Ara. She  is such a unique heroine it is hard not to fall in love with her. In some situations she is wise beyond her years, in others she is naive and yet the fate of the Kingdom rests on her shoulders. She is the perfect vessel to guide the reader through the perils on this adventure.

Forged in Fire and Stars has an overall interesting concept that has great potential. I was really looking  forward to learning more about this exciting world based off the synopsis and the comparison to Six of Crows and An Ember in the Ashes series. This created some very big shoes for this book to fill and unfortunately for me the execution was lacklustre. I would be very interested to see where this series goes next as there is just so much potential!

I want to start out by saying that I lost the notepaper with all of my notes on it, so we're winging this review! (which, let's be honest, my winged review are interesting, to say the least!)

Thank you to Penguin Teen for inviting me to read this eARC on Net Galley!
I love following stories about bards and knight and blacksmiths, because we really don't have enough of these stories nowadays1 I think the knight tale and anything relating to it was overdone years ago, but I'm excited to see a revamping of them!

Alright, so, Ara is the daughter of the Loresmith, but because the "position" is god-given, she must either learn the trade from the previous Loresmith (which is impossible because her father is dead) or she must prove her worthiness by the gods. 

Ara is living a normal life in a small village when twins Princess Nimhea and Prince Eamon, the long-lost children of the late king, find her and entreat her to journey with her and earn her rightful position. On the way, she catches a fox stealing from her travel companions, and follows the fox to a set of ruins and instead meets Teth, a young thief. Together, the four of them basically venture off on a quest to get Ara her Loresmith title and unseat the tyrant and place Nimhea in his stead, as is her birthright. 

It's a super cool premise, and I loved the beginning of the book, but it slowed down real quick, and I honestly got rather bored. I was really disappointed, because this book is obviously setting up for the rest of the series. The world itself isn't very magical (which I actually preferred) rather the people themselves, and I loved the idea and the characters, and the writing was quite good, which is why I'm rating it 4 stars. I really hope book 2 is faster paced! I wonder if it'll be a good audiobook, because I know it often helps me with slower paced novels.

The story is about Ara, the daughter of the Loresmith, that grew up with her grandmother far away from the Kingdom. Her father was killed to protect his magic and the heirs to the throne. So she lives a normal life until one day the long-lost heirs to the throne, Prince Eamon and Princess Nimhea, come to her small village and ask her to take her father place by their side. The problem is that being a Loresmith has to be earn. So together they start a journey to prove her worth to the gods. During her journey she meets Teth, a mysterious thief that joins her and the rest of the group on their quest.

This is quite a captivating story. From the start we are introduced to a new world and in the first chapters we discover, step by step, what happened and what needs to happen in order to put Princess Nimhea on the throne. It takes a while, but as soon as the journey starts we are brought into an interesting adventure with some exciting plot twist.

The book is slow, but that allows the reader to fully understand what’s going on and predict where the story is going. The worldbuilding is really well done and the story is easy to follow.

It’s a good first book in a series, but I hope the style will be a little bit more fast-paced in the sequel and with even major plot twists.

Anyway, I recommend it to fan of Sabaa Tahir and Tomi Adeyemi. If you are looking for a new interesting fantasy world this is the book for you.