I loved this book from start to finish. I was completely swept away by the storytelling and lush scenery descriptions. I found the "arranged marriage" trope had a fresh new take and really felt like it was an enemies to lovers/fake identity trope. Adraa and Jatin have known that they will marry since they were children. Everything about this book kept me captivated! Dana has great world building, character & romance development, and created a unique magic system. I liked how the "underground casting cage" kind of reminded me of like a UFC fight, but with magic! LOL. I am excited to ready what she writes next. This was wonderfully crafted and I never would have guessed it was a debut novel. Definitely recommend it to all YA fantasy fans.

Unfortunately this was one of the few books I couldn't get into. The cover is a beautiful rendering by Bowater, but the story didn't fit the bill.

What an amazing adventure! Cast in Firelight was an exciting story that took my breath away. I loved the rivalry between these two characters and how they both adopted secret identities to fight the threat before them. This was a great story and I’m excited to see where book two goes from here.

I absolutely loved this book. The slow burn romance between Adraa and Jatin, the magic system, and the mystery plot just kept me reading. Great for readers who enjoy novels like Six of Crows, I can't wait to see what happens in the next book and how Adraa and Jatin continue to grow.

The story is a solid YA fantasy. The characters are interesting, the magic and world building creative, and the budding romance is sweet. I felt the mistaken/hidden identity went a little long into the book, but it's a good way to have the characters fall for one another.

Beautiful and. unique story. Hoping this is going to be a series! Excited for more from this author.

Cast in Firelight was an enjoyable start for a fantasy duology. I liked the story enough to want to keep reading. However, I also felt that the book wasn't much different from other YA stories.

At the center of Cast in Firelight is a political storyline which was somewhat intriguing. The tension between the countries led to a lot of mind games where the motives were fun to guess at. However, there wasn't much of a resolution in this book so I was a bit frustrated at that.

I liked Cast in Firelight but thought it was a rather predictable story. Nothing surprised me. The characters didn't make me want to get to know them. I was more interested in learning about the magic system. That was fun to see in action! I liked that they were identified by colours. So beautiful and easy to visualize.

I hesitate to say I loved the romance between Adraa and Jatin because there were elements I disliked but also parts I thought were meaningful. Without giving too much away, both parties weren't truthful in the beginning. It irked me a lot. Yet, as much as I did not enjoy the deception, their lies led to an undeniable positive relationship- a strong and solid one rooted in trust. Adraa and Jatin were equals and worked well together.

All in all Cast in Firelight was a nice debut novel. Even though the story and characters didn't stand out, I enjoyed the world, its magic system and the questionable but low drama romance. I hope book two will feel more distinct and deliver more twists.

I have been anticipating this book since I first heard about it back in May of 2019. I waited for months, the whole time worrying that I was getting overexcited. I was not. This book was even better than I ever imagined that it could be.
I really loved how the characters progressed. Their growth was incredible and also very believable.
All in all, I would highly recommend this one for both fantasy lovers and those who are new to the genre.

Rating: 5/5
Language: N/A
Romance: a kiss or two
Spiritual: N/A
Violence: a bit, never descriptive
Note: talk about periods and cramps

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All thoughts are my own and a positive review was not required.

Quotes:
"'And if I hat her? Or she hates me?' Maybe I should tell Father about our letters. 'Because she does hate me a bit. She's not avoiding me because she's shy.'"

"'She doesn't hate me. She hates Jatin, or at least the idea of him. Thinks he is arrogant and cold.'
'Where did she get that from?' he asks, deadpan, and raises and eyebrow in case I don't catch his meaning."

*Quotes taken from arc and subject to change.

This book brought me out of my reading slump. I really enjoyed the building romance between Adraa and Jatin. Cast in Firelight was the perfect mix of magic, action, and romance for me. The worldbuilding and magic systems were intricate and thorough, fully immersing me into the story. While I did enjoy the story, as I'm not Indian, I cannot say whether or not the portrayal of this world was accurate as it was not written by an Indian author. One complaint I have is not with the book itself but with cover art. Adraa is described multiple times throughout the novel as dark-skinned and even as the darkest one in the room, but the illustration makes her a lot lighter than anticipated.

*eARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Wow, I did not expect this book to be as amazing as it is! It really blew me away, and I had to stop myself from staying up all night to finish it.

The relationship between Adraa and Jatin is much like the relationship between the main characters in The Swan Princess, the "This Isn't My Idea of Fun" part. For most of the book, they are unware that the person they are falling in love with is the person that they have disliked and been betrothed to for years. While not enemies to loves, maybe rivals to loves? Annoyance and irritation to attraction and love.

This is a book heavily inspired from Indian culture, but it is not #OwnVoices. In the words of the author, "I know some readers may be disappointed that this story isn’t #OwnVoices. You may look me up and see my pale skin (and one of the most English names in existence) and wonder why I tried to craft a fantasy in which none of the main characters look like me. And for me the answer is simple: because these characters will look like my children.

I was honored to be accepted by my husband’s family. And as a result of their generosity in teaching me about their culture and incorporating them into their family, I began, as fantasy writers tend to do, imagining a world that encapsulated my experience. Thus, Cast in Firelight was born as a blend of both my worlds (with a heavy dose of imagination stirred in, of course)."

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Children for this eARC!
This was the most anticipated read of 2021, and I was not let down. Cast in Firelight was impressive. From the relationship and the character development to the plot, nothing was lacking.
I thought Adraa and Jatin's relationship was adorable and at times, extremely funny. I love how they both tried to hide their identity from each other and yet somehow ended up falling in love with each other. Jatin was such a wonderful person through and through, I thought that it was too good to be true. Adraa was a strong, determined, and passionate person for everything she does. Adraa running her business, helping her mother, and dealing with the illegal trading of the firelight all showed her to be a congenial character. Their relationship was beautifully written, but I can't but feel as if Jatin's emotions were slightly sugar-coated.
The plot also surprised me in a good way as well as the world-building. It was not at all what I had expected and the unexpected plot twist at the end was welcome.
When I first started the book I was expecting more South Asian culture in the writing, however as the book is not a #ownvoice book, the amount that was already there was adequate and I was fine with that. I cannot wait for the second book to come out and I thoroughly enjoyed this!

I enjoyed this books story line but I did feel like the Indian influence should have been stronger. It was there but was obviously not written by someone in that culture. Otherwise I enjoyed the book.

While reading Cast in Firelight by Dana Swift, it tool me MAYBE 2-3 chapters before I knew this story/series is going to be something BIG. It is not only fantastically written with such well developed characters that you cannot help but become immediately invested in them. The magic systems are a really cool, fresh take on elemental type power and I am on the edge of my seat waiting for the second book to see just how Adraa's powers grow. I will be recommending this book to every person that I can possibly get to listen to me!

Something to note before I start this review: I am white, this is an Indian-inspired fantasy written by a white woman. The author's reasoning for writing this seemed a little iffy to me. It seems like she is taking up space in a genre that doesn't get all that much representation. I did like this book, though I will be looking for own voices reviews.

TW: mentions of assault/sexual assault, violence, drugs, and drug addiction

I'm going to split this up into what I liked and what I didn't like

What I liked:
• Okay I really really liked the romance in this one oh wow. I think this might be counted as rivals to friends to lovers and I love it so much. I thought Adraa and Jatin were really cute together and I'm really glad that we didn't have to wait until the very very end for them to actually confess to each other.
• I loved the double mistaken identity oooooh it was so good, and I think that's part of what saved this book for me.
• I loved the twisting turns it took to figure out who the real villain was. And I'm happy that the real villain was who it was and not someone that I thought it was going to be.
• The reason for all the firelight being taken????? Loved that twist


What I didn't like:
• Again the fact that this was written by a white woman, and I am white too so I'm not sure if she messed up any of the cultural aspects in the book.
• Adraa spoke in a more modern way than the rest of the people. She would often say things we say now while everyone else pretty much spoke like you would in a high fantasy world.
• This ties in with the last one (and is technically part of what I loved but still). It felt weird and off to call the menstrual cycle, a period in this book. It's a fantasy book, and yeah I know it's not that big of a deal but it felt weird haha. I guess I'm just used to them saying monthly or something like that.
• this book has exactly one shown and talked about gay person and it's brought up once and then never again. She's a pretty big character too so that's a little weird. And the whole book is kinda heteronormative, not super obvious but they always talk about how Adraa needs to marry a man and all that jazz. But there's one line where another woman fighter briefly brings up Adraa and Jatin's personae in the Underground and says "all that heteronormative crap". I don't know, it just felt like the author was trying to act like she had all this great lgbtqia+ representation by adding one gay character and adding that one line.
• they use male and female so so often, it was aggravating. There are more than two genders in general, but I know that South Asian cultures recognize genders beyond the binary so this sucks even more.
• I felt like the ending kept dragging on and on and on. I thought it would be over and then boom another chapter.
• I did feel like the romance was a little rushed (not in general because they had been kind of pining since they were kids, but it wasn't shown all that much)
• The magic system was a little confusing at first because it's not really explained, so you have to pick up details throughout the whole book.

Okay, I know I had way more disliked things than liked, but I still really enjoyed reading this!

I absolutely loved the first 100 pages, but then it started to drag on just a little bit.

I loved the relationship between the two main characters. I thought they were lovable and complimented each other perfectly.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the ending, but that is just my personal preference.

I’d recommend this to fans of fantasy romance and enemies to lovers!

I really liked the concept of this book, and I’m generally a fan of the enemies-to-lovers types of stories, so CAST IN FIRELIGHT definitely has that going for it. I liked Adraa and how quirky and awkward she is, too.

There were a few things I struggled with, though. One was the magic system. It’s nine different types and coordinating gods/goddesses and colors. That made it a lot to keep track of, but also characters that then could use most or all types of magic seemed almost too powerful?

I also had a hard time understanding some of the structure of the royal family/palace. Like, I couldn’t understand if the palace was just really small, with a really small staff? (Was the kitchen maid the same girl who styled Adraa’s hair?) Sometimes things happened that seemed strange, like when a guard takes Adraa to his room to speak with her privately. Wouldn’t that be a huge breach in propriety? And with the prince’s fiancé??

They were small things, so it wasn’t hard to kind of just shrug and move past them to see where the rest of the story was going. I liked that it had a lot of twists and turns, and I definitely wanted to know where Adraa and Jatin’s relationship would head, so I was definitely invested in the story.

I also appreciated the author’s note at the end of the book explaining that while it’s not an #ownvoices story, she wrote the book for her children, who will be Indian. That and the nod to her husband’s family was really sweet.

I feel like this book would be a good one for middle school readers. It’s solidly a young adult book, but not really dark or gritty, so a great fit for readers who need something a bit lighter– readers who read and enjoyed The Lunar Chronicles, for instance.

Cast in Firelight is an interest entrant into the world of teen SFF - it feels unique in its setting and use of Indian/Pakistani (sorry if I offend one by assuming the other) culture interspersed with good writing from multiple character's viewpoints. Swift is able to clearly delineate between her two protagonists' voices, and the jump from one to another is always fascinating; their takes on the same situation really drive one of the novel's central premises home. All in all, Cast in Firelight sets a nice tone and feeling for an easy-to-read series that, as long as it continue on the same path, should be read by any teens (or adults) who enjoy SFF.

I don’t know what it is, but something about this book totally appealed to me. something about the storytelling just gives off this down-to-earth and easygoing vibe. It feels like the author wrote this book from his heart, to have fun, not to hit up all the items on some imaginary checklist of what makes a YA novel successful. The magic centers on the aspect of color and Swift adds a refreshing twist to this concept.

Dana Swift's approach is very straightforward and uncomplicated; it doesn’t feel like she’s sacrificing her vision to adhere to a fixed set of conventions, nor does it feel like she's out to subvert any norms. At the heart of it, I just see an author telling a story about characters that she obviously cares a lot about. For that, I can overlook some of the novel’s weaknesses, such as the simplistic writing style and on several occasions where it felt somewhat skewed towards younger audiences like Middle Grade. The writing is perhaps my only big issue I had with this novel, which I felt could use a fair bit more polishing, but this is not an area I’m overly concerned with when I read YA.

I received an e-ARC copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review!

Cast in Firelight captured me from the very beginning. I could tell from the prologue that I was going to love this book. The writing was flowing and the plot and world interesting. I wasn’t sure where the book was going but I kept wanting to read more. Frankly, I didn’t want to put the book down.
Some of my favorite tropes took part in this book and I was LIVING for it. Enemies to lovers, marriage of convenience and secret identities all took part of the plot. The chemistry and interaction between Adraa and Jatin kept me hooked until the very last page.

Adraa and Jatin were such wonderful characters to read about. They disliked each other for nine years and yet they were also the same people that drove one another to succeed. They drove each other to improve by constantly competing. The tension and animosity that brewed from those nine years, created some interesting developments and interactions between the two and their thoughts of one another. I loved their competitiveness and sass and confidence. Their personalities worked so well with one another and their power as a team really showed.

Their romance progressed slowly but surely, with lots of setbacks and lies and deceits but also lots of insecurity and tenderness. They both tried to refrain from gaining feelings for one another since they did not know each other’s identities, and knew they were betrothed and promised to another. They were both under the impression that the person they are interacting with are just commoners. While gaining feelings for those same “commoners” they still held on to their dislike of one another- believing they have not met each other. This drove me the best kind of crazy. I was frustrated. I kept screaming at the book that they’re falling in love with their intended. That they did not, in fact, hate their betrothed. It was amazing.

The magic system was so intriguing. I loved that it was religion based with their gods and each of their magic type combines with the color each represented. It was complex and yet very easy to understand.

Overall, I loved this book! It was just so FUN. I enjoyed the plot, loved the characters and their chemistry. It was a real fast read too! The pace was great and it definitely made for a good binge read!!

I really loved this story. The magic system was so different than anything else I have read recently. Add in the enemies to lovers but secret because they don’t know who the other really is. It really just makes for a page turning read.
If you haven’t put this one on your list now is the time!