IT ENDS IN FIRE is an engaging YA fantasy with magic, politics, and rebellion. Alka lives in the Marovian Republic, a place ruled by Wizards, where Humbles, or those without magic, live in eternal servitude at the whims of the Wizards in power. For harming a Wizard, even if by accident, they could be sentenced to death. Ever since Alka's parents were killed by a wizard when she was 7, she has been working with the Humble rebellion to find ways to destroy the current system.

Their careful planning has led to Alka killing and replacing a young woman traveling to the most elite Wizard boarding school, Blackwater Academy, where only some will survive and go on to rule the Republic. As a plant, she is sent to sow chaos and destroy as many Wizards as she can. Once on the island, she begins to see the other side of society, how the Wizards life and their infighting, as well as the way they treat the Humbles around them, born into a servitude they will never escape.

At the school, Alka begins to form her own plans for how she will take down the society that oppresses so many and killed her parents. If anyone stands in her way, Alka is prepared to destroy them.

What I loved: The world-building here was really fascinating, and I particularly loved this Wizard school (it rivals the other famous wizard school with the pageantry, designs, and classes). The school has a competition between the Orders or groupings of students that soon takes over the plot, and it is through these dangerous games that we see the cracks in the Wizard society. The politics were interesting within the Republic, as well as in the neighboring kingdom, whose prince is attending the school. Magic is not a born quality, but one that is given by the governments. This privilege and control of power is a central theme in the book.

Other themes around this power, control, and the use of magic were interesting. Magic has many rules here in terms of how it can be crafted and what it can be used for. The user must create a specific rune (and correctly) to use magic, and it is not whimsical. It boils down to training and knowledge that make a great wizard, something which can also be controlled by governments and those with power.

I found the dual timelines to be really intriguing, showing the reader her past and the things that led up to the present. We meet her sister and learn more about the rebellion through these peeks into her history. Alka has been treated as a tool in many ways, and during this time away, she also begins to develop into her own person, making this in some ways, a coming-of-age story.

This ends up being a pretty dark read. Alka has been trained as a soldier in many ways, and her mindset is to allow no lives to stand in the way of her goals. As such, her connections to others are somewhat tenuous, and there are some really difficult scenes. It does also make other characters feel more distant, and we do not get to know them as well as I would like, but this made sense with who Alka was. She is driven by a need for revenge and destruction.

What left me wanting more: A major theme is around Humbles and the way they are treated by the Wizards. Alka is seen as "different" because of her raising and as part of the Humbles rebellion. However, there is only one Humble servant (if you can call them servants) that she bothers to defend or even ask the name of. She is not so different from the others after all. She sees the suffering, but she does not directly connect or try to help (I suppose her mission would ultimately help). As a small point, the romances did not entirely speak to me, perhaps because they did not speak so much to Alka. She is busy hiding herself and unable to fully connect. Once she does connect more, I felt that I needed more on the page of the build-up to fully buy in.

Final verdict: Overall, IT ENDS IN FIRE was an intriguing YA fantasy read that will appeal to wizarding fans. Recommend for fans of CRAVE, BEYOND THE RUBY VEIL, and VAMPIRE ACADEMY.

Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

It took me a bit to really get into this book, but once I did, it was fast paced and hard to put down.

Alka and her sister, Sera, watched their parents get killed by a wizard. Alka has the Godsmark and is a wizard, but she wants revenge. Her father gave them an address to go to if there were problems. It led the young girls to a woman named Whispers. Whispers is a Revenant, a rebel. The Revenants want to remove wizards from power and make things more equal. The Humbles (non wizards) are oppressed and not in power. Alka just wants revenge more than anything. Whispers comes up with a plan. Alka will ambush and kill a young wizard, Alayne, and take her place at Blackwater Academy. This is a top school for wizards. It's where the senators, generals, etc come from. Alka needs to learn as many secrets as she can. But Alka also just wants to burn it all down.

Alayne makes friends with a few other wizards and one humble girl. She can't tell them who she is or why she's really there. So she has to play a role. But Alka has trouble controlling herself at times. When she finds out that the winners of the great game will end up on the senate floor, Alka decides that she needs to win and bring it all down around her. But the games are not easy and she finds herself face to face with the person she hates the most. Alka starts to fall for two people while she's there. She finds that she cares about some of the wizards. But she also makes enemies and there are constant reminders on why she's there.

I really liked the magic system of using glyphs. I felt for Alka throughout the book. There are chapters from the past that slowly fill in the details. I just wish there was a bit more. It looks like this is a standalone, but I found myself attached enough that I want more.

I gave this book 4 1/2 stars rounded up to 5 on Goodreads. Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for my review copy.

Warnings for revenge, gore/blood, death. There is also mentions of sex and teenage drinking. The book focuses a lot on oppression, too.

Rounded up from 2.5 because I can see where the target audience might enjoy this (as long as it's a one-off). This is similar to many of the "wizard school with contests" books, although the ways in which Alka and her team play the Great Game may not be quite according to Hoyle. The characters are fairly stock, and the constant switching between her life Before and her life At Blackwater doesn't quite help. Plus, any book that has an unlikeable main character isn't going to help (her main redeeming quality seems to be her relationship with her sister).

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.

This book was received as an ARC from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

As I have said in most of my YA reviews, I am a huge fan of YA Fantasy especially the House of Night series by P.C. and Kristin Cast and this book read almost exactly like House of Night. Alka goes undercover in one of the most prestigious schools in the school of magic and all she has to do to survive is be deceitful in ever possible manner. Alka discovers something about herself that can be very dangerous to others. This book was filled with so much action, adventure, drama and fantasy that it was the perfect YA book. I know our teen book club will be excited and anticipating the release and I can't wait to hear their thoughts.

We will consider adding this title to our YA collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

This book was fascinating, exciting and at times heartbreaking. Alka fought the whole time for what she thought was right and it kept the book interesting. The characters were amazing and the rivalry intense. I can't wait for the next one.

Zero stars.
Could not finish, or barely start, this book.
Way too many similarities to HP, even though I've never read that series. I've seen the movies.
I disliked the main character sooooooooooo much.
Too bad. I love the title and the cover.

This book had a lot of promise for me, but there were elements of the book that didn't hold up well. Throughout the book it flips to now and then and for some reason, this didn't help my reading process with the book, and I didn't care for that style. Plus, the writing seemed to be more choppy with it. I thought I would really like Alka, but she was hard for me to connect to throughout the story. Sometimes, I felt for her and other times it was baffling the decisions she was making. The story was trying to be something similar to Harry Potter with a twist of other stories here and there, the problem is that when there's such a resemblance to an incredible story, it makes you think of the other story and compare. Tried not to compare to other books, but it didn't hold up well for me. Overall, it was a book with beautiful cover art but only an ok story attached, just not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!