I really loved the premise of this book and was excited for where the storyline would go. It started out strong but unfortunately, there were some aspects I did not enjoy as much as others and it did pull me from the story especially as I did not relate to the main characters so couldn’t get invested. . I shelved the book for now but it is something I would like to get back to in future.

This one was fun and I enjoyed the world. Characters were okay too but didn’t really stick out to me.

Overall it was okay.

I recommend it to fans of fantasy.

This book was fast paced & there was enough going on to keep you interested, but the world building could have been better. In places it would have been nice for the author to slow down and go into a bit more detail!

DNF @15%
Temper the Flame had a great start. Dynamic opening. Snarky main character. Action. But then it quickly fizzled out. Too much telling and not enough showing. I felt like the storyline was going through the motions of telling the story without building the story. And it was quite apparent that instalove was developing. Because the book involves fallen angels I gave it 2 attempts before I called it quits.

Firstly, I'd like to thank Netgalley for the eARC for an honest review! I couldn't help buying the special edition hardback (signed as well).

I really loved how the book began with the real life problems of working in retail. I worked at TESCO for 5 years and know that I hated it as much as Ivy (the MC) did. I flew through the first 200 pages in an evening and really didn't want to put it down but sleep is necessary apparently. Definitely signs of a well written book! As soon as we met Devlin, I knew I was going to love him (who doesn't?). The instant attraction between him and Ivy set the book up for a steamy romance, which it was! Dev, a fallen angel, needs Ivy to help him and his friends home with powers she has no idea she has. I love how her powers are slowly revealed throughout the whole book. I found the narrative witty and easy to read. I got Percy Jackson vibes with Hades and the Underworld and also some TVD vibes from Gabe and Devlin.

I found that sometimes the action scenes or impact scenes seemed to resolve too quickly for me. It felt like one page there was a problem and the next it was solved. It would have been great to have seen these scenes in more detail. I thought that the book would end after the battle scene and didn't expect a whole 6 months to have suddenly passed and the characters sent on another adventure. It seemed like a whole other story at the end of the first. I also felt that most of this book is more YA except with the sex scenes. So it felt like we were flitting from YA to NA quite a bit.

Freddy was definitely my favourite side character and I was so thrilled to see the LGBTQ+ rep that continued throughout the book. I loved his and Ivy's friendship! I feel like Ivy's character is dealt with well showing her weaknesses and they weren't just suddenly gone but worked through. Each character's growth is shown clearly. Ivy learning to be vulnerable being a main theme after her traumatic past. I definitely recommend this debut book to lovers of fantasy and romance and can't wait to see what Zola publishes next!

Interesting premise for the book and it started out good but somewhere in the middle it started to fizzle for me. I found I kept losing interest in it and didn't really care what happened. I'm rather disappointed.

Thank you so much, NetGalley for a chance to read this ARC, and congrats on the debut!

I want to start off and say how much I enjoyed the writing and dialogue of this book. I absolutely loved Ivy and loved her personality. The quick witty lines that came from her were really enjoyable to read and one of the main reasons I would return to this series (if there is a book 2).

I also wanted to say how much I loved the play on different mythology and fantasy elements! Jade clearly had fun with building the world, Dev, and his brothers. I really loved all of that.

The reason I am giving it 3 stars is that it did take me a while to finish this and I hoped it would capture my attention more. If/when there is a second book I definitely plan on reading it to really decide if I would recommend this to my other fantasy friends.

I was provided with the copy of Temper the Flame in exchange of an honest review. Thanks to Netgalley and Jade Church for this opportunity.

Ivy had a very quiet life, without any complications, until some very handsome man had appeared in her store with some serious injuries. Since then her life had changed radically. She's a psychic, that has the important role of bring back the fallen angels to Heaven. Because of that, angels from Heaven started to hunt her, but Devlin will protect her despite anything. So Ivy's staying with the fallen ones, training and developing her powers, and meanwhile, falling in love with the strongest fallen angel, Devlin.

Let's start with the strong points of this story. The fact that Hades rules the Hell, is pretty interesting. And, that the Angel Michael is the one who 'rules' Heaven, is pretty interesting, too. So, the main idea about different worlds, and heavens it's good. The idea is so cool. The story isn't boring, but the pacing is too fast for me.

The less good points... When I was reading the book I felt like I was 14 years old. We have here a lot of clichés. The hot guy... Always the hot and sexy guy that need to be 'fucked', because it hot... OK, I understood, that I y had a very difficult past and she doesn't want nothing serious with anyone. But,... She starts kissing with Devlin since the day one. Like, you are a psychic and you discovers, that you're hunted by angels, that want to kill you. Plus, you go with some strangers, t'ha you don't know anything about... OK, it's a fantasy book, and I don't need to be so annoying. But... The second day Ivy thinks, that she might be in love with Devlin, and Devlin fells in love with her and want to be more than sex for her... So, here we go with an illogical love story. This book seemed to me more like a porn movie than a story.

Then, of course, we have a jealous girl who is in love with the hot guy, and starts to make you life impossible, or tell you that you need to be with the hot guy, because he's a good person... Like, wtf...

I loved this kind of stories when I was 14, yes. It was cool in the past, but nowadays, I think I need more logical stories and see the love's development.

Sorry, but I like read books where the hot guy has a brain and a soul; where the girl fells in love with him because of his personality, and not because he's a fucking hot machine for sex.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an early copy!

I devoured this book in a day! My only complaint is, I wanted something longer!

I love fast paced stories that are compelling and pull you in from the first page, rather than having to wait for the action to begin.

I loved Ivy as a character - she made me like her instantly. Her interactions with Devlin were also something you’d just love to see and turn the pages for.

This was certainly not a slow burn romance type of book, so if that’s your jam, sorry! I loved this anyway.

I hope there’s a book two 👀

I really enjoyed this book! I loved how fast-paced it was, it really hit the ground running from the start so I always felt like I was engaged. I love it when I just can’t put a book down and that’s exactly what happened when reading this book.

Ivy is such a great main character. Not only does she kick ass, she is hilarious! So many laugh out loud moments and her sass made this book so enjoyable.

The relationships in this book were done so well, especially between the love interests. Their chemistry was amazing and I devoured every scene they were in together.

Definitely recommend for those who love fantasy, romance and a fast-paced story!

I wanted to like this book, because the premise sounds unique and has the potential for a fun standalone fantasy. Unfortunately, it falls short in the execution. The writing feels juvenile, the romance rushed, and the pace off-putting. I tried to ignore some of my initial dislike within the first few chapters, hoping it would improve as the plot picked up, but it did not.

Temper the Flame has an interesting plot but it's poorly executed. There were lots of things that didn't make any sense to me and the pacing made this one a quick read. I also don't like insta-love which is exactly what the main characters have. I also found the worldbuilding lacking in this book and the mix of angels & a greek god didn't sit well with me. Overall, this was a miss for me but if you like reading stories about fallen angels then you can give this book a try.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for my honest review!

Oh what a disappointment! This book had so much potential. It started off great but there was little to no character development. Everything happened in a short period of time and then suddenly there is a 6 month gap.
Throwing in Hades as a character was just odd. There is no reference to the fact he is from Greek Mythology he's just an ancient figure that controls the Underworld.
The writing was good and there was great splashes of humor but the story unraveled and characters disappeared with no resolution and new characters were thrown in at the end. Sex was also thrown in with little to do with the plot.
I received an arc of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

received a free e-ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

I was so disappointed by this book.

You know what, I was going to round this up to 3 stars, but I had threatened to cut off a star if they'd had sex at that point in the book when she felt exhausted, and they did, and so here we are with 2 stars.

I don't even know where to start. I thought this book was going to be good, and it did start out great, but I should have known from the moment they first kissed that this was bound to be a disaster.

Let me start out by saying that the concept for this book was great, but the execution was just not. Maybe it was okay for someone who was not expecting a run of the mill fantasy standalone with some surprises, but I was and so it was not okay. I had expected some surprises. Not a whole truckload of them.

I enjoyed the writing style, I will say this; the humour was very well done, and I did enjoy even the plot a bit, but the romance? NO. JUST NO. INSTALOVE. NUFF SAID.

There was so much instalove, and I am not in the mood to unpack it, and it has been like 2 weeks since I read this and I'm thankfully forgetting the major scarring stuff already. Just, let it be enough that I did not enjoy the romance, because it was mostly sex and no feelings, or more that the feelings had literally no basis.

The timeline was all over the place; first we were going super fast (on that note, how on earth did she master those skills so fast? It was like 2 weeks?!) mastering super skills, falling in love, getting betrayed, fighting people, making no sense, lust, lust, more lust, did I mention lust?, and then BAM it looks like the book is pretty much over by 70%, and like what can you possibly squeeze out of the 30% of this book that is still left.

Haha, turns out, you can squeeze out a six months later that makes absolutely no sense, two new characters I have no prior knowledge of, and a bisexual Hades who is supposed to be a parent here having sex with one of the (actually two of the) new characters.

What else even was there in this book. I can't remember anything else, so BYE-BYE, you can go now, and don't pick this up if you were looking for something that would make sense.

I just remembered what I came up with in my old review drafts for this (the ones in my head):
this book is like SJM on drugs. I stick to it. At least SJM does better romance, if nothing else.


Also, if one other person puts a greek God, namely Hades, in something that is a angels something fantasy (I have no clue what these are called), I will blow a gasket. THERE ARE LITERALLY NO OTHER GREEK GODS HERE. WHY, OH WHY THEN, ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH, IS THERE HADES?!

All that being said, if you're looking for a short, crack-fic like, i.e. light and not too much thought provoking and to pass the time, then you might enjoy this. Just nothing too serious. And it is funny.

I was lucky enough to get this book from @netgalley and from the moment I started I couldn’t put it down. It’s fast paced, full of sass and romance - my favourite kind of book. If you’re into paranormal romance books like me (who doesn’t love an angel story), then read this one!

I was so disappointed with this book. It sounded like something I would love but unfortunately, I just didn't like it and ended up having to quit it about 70% into it.
I found the world-building was all over the place and I just didn't care enough of the story to both to continue.

First of all I would like to thank NetGalley for an ARC of Temper The Flame.
To start off this book was very captivating I truly enjoyed it! The characters in the book were amazing. If you enjoy fantasy you’ll love this book!

Thank you to Jade Church, Publishers, and Netgalley for providing me with this free ARC in return for an honest review.

This book follows Ivy as her world is turned upside down when she learns that she is the psychic that is supposed to help fallen angels return to heaven...

While I enjoyed the romance, I was a little disappointed with the rest. The pacing of the story was incredibly to quick in some parts and left me wondering what the heck was happening. Ivy was kidnapped and she totally just went along with it without coping with the events that happened just prior to her being kidnapped. Then she quickly becomes besties with everyone and settles into the new life...It's not that I didn't think the storyline was good, it's that I found the way it unfolded was unrealistic. It made it very hard for me to follow and continue reading.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I'm sorry I couldn't give this book more stars, as it was definitely fast paced and had quite a few good characters. There were a couple of issues... mainly, there were a lot of parts in the plot that were never revealed, and knowing that it is a stand alone, it seems unfinished. Maybe I missed them? We never found out what happened to Ivy's family and why. Why was Jeff added in at such a random time? What happened with Gabe and Freddy in the end? What was the state of 'heaven' and who was in charge now? What did Ivy do in those 6 months after she last saw Dev? It just felt like things weren't explained to the reader very well.
Dev and Ivy were a bit insta-love too, if you don't mind that.

I requested Temper the Flame since I was in the mood for an urban fantasy plus I love trying to support indie authors when I can but this book just wasn't for me, unfortunately. Between the lack of plot and poorly written characters, I just couldn't find much to enjoy about this story.

One of my big problems with this book was how much telling instead of showing was going on throughout. Other characters would describe Ivy as feeling guilty about her past, that she blames herself for what happened to her family, and that she runs away from people/relationships but is this ever actually shown in any of her POV chapters? No, or at least not until after another character brought it up. Same with Devlin being described as someone who takes on all of these burdens but he himself never even feels or behaves this way in his POV. I swear it was giving me whiplash because I knew none of that was shown before being mentioned. Instead of showing these sentiments through Ivy or Devlin's actions, facial expressions, etc., another character would simply just bring up that that was how they were. The lack of character building and development made it impossible to care about any of the cast.

That also ties into the lack of foreshadowing or build-up of basically everything in Temper the Flame. The story just starts in the wrong spot in my opinion. I feel like it would've been better if the author wrote a bit more about Ivy's daily life first rather than launching right into the angels and chosen one psychic plot. It would've allowed for there to be a gradual introduction where Ivy could've been having odd premonitions or dreams about things like feathers, wings, blood, etc. That could've foreshadowed the inclusion of angels and the fact that she's the prophesized psychic they need. I also just couldn't get over how Ivy just automatically accepts that angels exist—it was way too convenient and unbelievable.

Worldbuilding is one of the most important parts of a fantasy book because it's what makes the story and settings believable. The worldbuilding in Temper the Flame was lacking, to say the least. When you're writing a scene where a character explains an aspect of the world they shouldn't really be saying "I don't know" or "no one knows". Sometimes I can forgive the lack of hard worldbuilding or description when the book is more a romance with a bit of fantasy in it rather than a fantasy with a bit of romance in it. But with this book, the romance wasn't well-developed and neither was the world so I can't really give it a pass in that area since it left me with so many questions. For example, why is Hades in a book about biblical angels when there are no other Greek gods mentioned and Greek mythology has nothing to do with the story? Wouldn't Lucifer be a better fit? It just didn't make sense.

As a forewarning, the relationship between Devlin and Ivy is very much insta-love if you aren't into that. For real though, they'd known each other for all of 2 hours before they were kissing like 20% into the book. There was zero chemistry between them because they both were immediately attracted to each other even if they didn't get together right away. Any of the sort of lines like "I'd never run from you" that normally get me with a well-developed couple just didn't land since I didn't care about the romance at all in this. There was also a quickly tossed sub-plot where Devlin was potentially faking his attraction to Ivy so he could use her to get what he needed to bring the fallen angels back to the Heavens. That conflict could've created some good tension between the two but I swear beyond the first mention, it only popped up once more for some manufactured drama that lasted one page because Ivy quickly forgot it and went back to ogling Devlin.

Also, can I just say I'm so tired of the women hating women over a man trope? Ivy and Jasmine—the only female characters in this book—spent 99% of their scenes together fighting over Devlin whose only personality trait was being hot.

The plot of Temper the Flame is barely existent. It just felt like a bunch of random training and romance scenes between Ivy and Devlin then suddenly the main plot point of getting the fallen angels back to Heaven using Ivy's powers and taking down Michael pops up again and is done 70% of the way in. Everything was solved way too easily and is all wrapped up in a single chapter. Then after that, the whole "we need to rescue Hades and go to the Underworld" bit was super confusing and felt completely unnecessary. I think if the author spent more page time on the main plot it could've ended a lot more satisfyingly.

Not to mention, there were plot points that wound up being completely forgotten like the curse that is quite literally, a part of the blurb. Basically, Devlin is cursed to look inhuman by Michael so when he fell to Earth, no human would ever fall in love with him. If a human ever fell in love with him despite his appearance, it would break the curse and allow him to come back to Heaven if he found a way. But the problem here is that Devlin is never described at any point in the book as being ugly or monstrous looking, so what exactly was the point of this curse? By the ending, the curse wasn't even brought up! Was it broken? Is Devlin still cursed? Who knows.

Needless to say, I didn't enjoy Temper the Flame for a variety of reasons I explain and some more I didn't include, like the YA author and Vine references. I do think there was potential in the story, it just needed more editing and fleshing out to be a solid read for me.