The beginning of this book was quite slow and depressing.

If there’s anything you should know about me, it’s that I don’t like depressing books. I don’t even like conflict about main characters feeling bad. So a book that opens with the main character’s mom getting burned to death by a dragon and then immediately following it up with the main character’s dad getting seriously injured by a different dragon years later took me a while to get into.

I wasn’t actually enjoying myself until Arturo gets introduced a while later. All the death and destruction of the first part of this book were cancelled out by this sort of mini enemies-to-lovers (more like “annoyed-to-lovers”) plot that starts once Arturo is introduced.

That being said, I wasn’t entirely a fan of the romance. While yes, I do enjoy enemies-to-lovers and yes, I did find Arturo attractive, there was still something missing there for me. It didn’t feel real.

This book also had weird sex scenes I skimmed over, but that’s not unusual. I just don’t like the sex scenes in most fantasies.

There was a lot of surprising twists throughout this story, but I was mostly surprised that I correctly guessed the villain of this story early on. I’m sure it was entirely a fluke, as this book vaguely reminds me of another book I’ve read within the past year (and will not name for spoilers reasons), but the bad feeling I was getting from the villain character may also appear in other readers’ interactions with this book if they’re savvy.

The ending to this story is wild and something readers will just have to read to believe. But even flabbergasted, I could tell once I finished this book that this was something I really enjoyed.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance audiobook and reader copy of Together We Burn by Isabel Ibanez in exchange for an honest review. I received both and ended up just listening to the book and we just post same review for both. I requested this book because it has dragons in it and I loved the premise of the story. There was beautiful imagery and storyline, but my life kind of exploded as I tried to read this, making it very difficult. I am going to try again in the future when I can better appreciate it.

I was very excited for this book when I read the premise and honestly, it started very strong! This was a DNF for me though and here's why:

After the inciting incident it got really REALLY slow. I feel like the inciting incident is technically supposed to be the lead into the more exciting stuff in a story, right? So why were there so many pages of Zarela selling stuff and doing stuff that feels fairly pointless?

BUT I was more than willing to stick through for the romance because I love a good enemies to lovers! And yet... the first two meetings with the love interest were VERY flat. I mean, he was a very flat character. I could easily read him. The whole meeting where he's rude to her then 'jerks his head up' when someone else is mean to her? That felt very cheesy and obvious, and I'm the type who prefers a slow burn of the love progression and of the revealing of a characters' traits. Like if he has a moody exterior but a mushy interior, I want to learn that in pieces.

I'm also very certain, even at 25% that I know who the villain is.

Otherwise, I do think this is a GREAT idea and I LOVED the intertwining of Spanish with the dialogue! It was really fun to read and figure out the meaning as a new-Spanish speaker. The cultural aspects were very interesting too.

Overall, I DO suggest this story. Why? Because I know that all of these pacing and character issues will be resolved with the final book. I will definitely be giving this ARC another chance and I plan to read the final copy and post my actual review on Goodreads, Barnes & Nobles, Amazon, and my socials!

Thank you for this arc!

This story has dragons, a dragon hunter, a feisty heroine and magic! I love reading fantasy and this book was action packed and a swoony romance!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

𝙰𝚜 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚒𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚕𝚏 𝙿𝚞𝚎𝚛𝚝𝚘 𝚁𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚗, 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚘 𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚃𝚆𝙱 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚒𝚗𝚏𝚕𝚞𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚢 𝚂𝚙𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚑 𝚌𝚞𝚕𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎. 𝙸 𝚍𝚘𝚗’𝚝 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚜𝚎 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚘𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚗, 𝚎𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚒𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚏𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚜𝚢.

𝚉𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚊 𝚉𝚊𝚕𝚟𝚒𝚍𝚊𝚛’𝚜 𝚏𝚊𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚢 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚖𝚘𝚜𝚝 𝚏𝚊𝚖𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚍𝚛𝚊𝚐𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚍𝚘𝚛𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝙷𝚒𝚜𝚙𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚊, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚍𝚊𝚢 𝚍𝚞𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊 𝚏𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚛𝚊𝚐𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚖𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚕𝚢 𝚕𝚎𝚝 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚓𝚞𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚙𝚎𝚘𝚙𝚕𝚎 𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚏𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛. 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚉𝚊𝚕𝚟𝚒𝚍𝚊𝚛’𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚋𝚕𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚍 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚑𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚊𝚢 𝚕𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚊, 𝙻𝚊 𝙶𝚒𝚛𝚊𝚕𝚍𝚊. 𝙽𝚘𝚠 𝚉𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚊 𝚖𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚞𝚕𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚝, 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚏𝚊𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚢 𝚗𝚊𝚖𝚎, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚏𝚒𝚐𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚊 𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚔𝚎𝚎𝚙 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚊 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚋𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚗 𝚋𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙳𝚛𝚊𝚐𝚘𝚗 𝙶𝚞𝚒𝚕𝚍.

𝚃𝚘𝚐𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚆𝚎 𝙱𝚞𝚛𝚗 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚘 𝚠𝚘𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚏𝚞𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚗 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚖𝚢 𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚏𝚊𝚟𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚜. 𝙸 𝚘𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚠𝚒𝚜𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚒𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚊 𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚜, 𝚜𝚘 𝙸 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚢 𝚒𝚗 𝙷𝚒𝚜𝚙𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚊 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛. 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚗 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚜𝚘 𝚖𝚞𝚌𝚑 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚢.

Thank you to the publisher for sending this ARC to review via NetGalley. In turn, this is my honest review.

Character 4| Setting 5| Plot 4| Writing 4| Enjoyability 3.5

Overall Rating: 4.10

This story was enchanting in the nature of explaining how these traditions and families worked. Hispalian people are very much about family and Our main character Zarela loves her own family so much and would do anything for them.

The culture is rich and you can feel just how these people lived through Ibanez's writing.

The characters in Together We Burn are strong. They all have their own motivations and were realistic to their core. We didn't get a lot of time with the ones outside of La Giralda, but they still felt like they could stand on their own.

There are a couple of mysteries to be solved in this and I think Zarela is quick to anger, quick to judge, and is very irrational. She's heated. She's Stubborn. She's flawed and I think that's what makes her a good main character. If she was unflawed this would be a boring read.

I did really like this book, and plan on buying a physical copy once it releases. I did feel like the end went a little too fast, but overall it was a good read!

I really liked the various elements throughout the story. I will say that I found the storyline to be very predictable and the villain easy go guess.

I enjoy reading Isabel Ibañez books because they provide such a cool peek at the cultures she loves. They make me want to go to those places and experience the people, history and culture firsthand. I love that they celebrate cultures while also being fun reads with all the fun fantasy magic and in this case - dragons!

The dragonadore idea is fun! I liked that Together We Burn took the history of matadors and flamenco and gave them a fantasy twist.

I also found the characters and story to be enjoyable. While a few of the plot twists were predictable, there were a few things that surprised me or weren’t quite as they seemed. Overall I really enjoyed this book!

This was disappointing for a book that could have been soo good and super interesting. The pace was entirely too slow for me and I just couldn't get hooked on. I skimmed the rest of the book to know what it was about though. It's such a unique concept for high fantasy and I kept trying to push myself to fully read it because of how much I wanted to enjoy it. The writing was repetitive and gave "trying too hard". Additionally, I just love dragons, and just reading about sooo many dying was breaking my heart.

Set in Hispalia we are thrown into the world of Dragonador's slaying dragons. Each show using starting with a traditional flamenco performance by our fmc Zarela. Chaos breaks loose on the 500th anniversary at La Giralda leaving her father, the dragonador, severely injured and unable to continue. Zarela must then take over the business herself.

This also has a romance plot but this was just from the parts I skimmed. When I skimmed the ending, it was incredibly lackluster and left me satisfied with not fully reading the book.

I wish I could have loved this.

Thank you to Wednesday books and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

2.5/5

Ugh this was such a chore to read.

Together We Burn is a Spanish inspired high fantasy. The world of Hispalia has an ancient tradition of dragon fighting. Zarela Zalvidar is a talented flamenco dancer and the daughter of the most famous Dragonador. When catastrophe strikes during their 500th anniversary performance, her father is gravely injured and La Giralda is left in almost complete ruin. Zarela has no choice but to take over running La Giralda and face her fears of dragons in order to keep her family's business running.

This was hard for me to read because of the animal cruelty towards dragons. Plus Zarela has such an apathy towards them and it just really put me off this book. Plus then we also get a good heaping of sexism, misogyny and traditional gender roles and I'm just so tired of that shit showing up in fantasy. Can we not imagine a better world than that?

I didn't particularly care about Zarela or her romance. Though I did like Arturo, the love interest. He's super grumpy and he's against dragon fighting completely. I didn't really see the chemistry or appeal for him to like Zarela but whatever, I'm not stressing over it.

The ending was predictable but it annoyed me that the option did not occur to Zarela until like 80% into the book. Really? All this time to finally use some common sense?

Ultimately, I did not particularly like this, and I wouldn't really recommend it, but the cover is pretty.

Rep: All Spanish inspired cast, cishet female MC, cishet male side character with a permanent injury from dragon fighting.

CWs: Kidnapping, fire/fire injury, death, death of parent, murder, sexism, misogyny, grief, violence, blood, animal cruelty, animal death. Moderate: sexual content.

I really liked a number of elements about this fantasy: it's setting in a fictional Spain or similar place, the use of Spanish (although repeating every phrase in English to make sure readers understood it got a little tiresome by the end), and the characters. But it was easy to call out who the villain was in the first several pages, and equally as easy to see how the practice of dragon fighting would turn into dancing with dragons. But for audiences less well-versed in the tropes of the genre, it should be a fun book.

Together We Burn is an incredible story that sucks you in from the first page. There are dragons, drama, high stakes, enemies-to-lovers, and slow-burn romance. I love how Isabel is able to create lush settings/worlds and characters that are well-developed and lovable.

I was lucky to receive an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

We follow the story of Zarela as she fights to essentially regain her family’s honor after a tragic “accident” at her family’s dragon arena. She believes they were sabotaged and has to work with a cast of characters to figure out who is plotting against her family all while dealing with taking over the family business.

This is a fantasy story with a unique flair! The take in the dragon tamers as related to bull fighting is so interesting. The intertwining of the Spanish language was so beautiful and necessary. More books need to this especially when it is relevant. The spanish/latinx culture from which this story comes is truly stunning.

Despite the big plot “twists”/revelations being predictable I thoroughly enjoyed it. The pacing was appropriate. The tension between Arturo & Zarela was lovely and the overall arc of their story was enjoyable and quite realistic.

If you love “enemies” to lovers, powerful, realistic and determined heroines, dragons and intrigue this is for you!

Zarela is a flamenco dancer trying to follow in her mother's footsteps, but she's got big shoes to fill and can't quite seem to win the love the crowd like her mother did. Her father is not only a Dragonador but also the most famous one in Hispalia. When her father is seriously injured, Zarela takes his place as a Dragonador in an attempt to save her family home. With the help of dragon tamer, Arturo, Zarela begins training to become the next Dragonador.

First of all, I commend Ibañez for such a unique concept. I don't know whether this was her intention or not but this book struck me as an allegory for bull fighting in Spain. I loved Zarela. She was a well-written character. I wasn't sold on Arturo and the romance there fell flat for me. I was also not surprised by the twist, but I think that's just because the author did her job planting clues. Also, I wanted more dragons! The dragon scenes were some of the most interesting in the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC. I recommend this book.

I loved this really beautiful story crafted by Isabel Ibanez. I've read so much fantasy but nothing quite like this and I loved the story of strength and triumph in the face of some very scary opponents. I was hooked on the mystery of it all from the very beginning and the pacing was so good. As soon as I caught my breath, there was something new happening. Ibanez is just an absolute masterful storyteller and her scenery always makes you feel like you are right there along with the characters,

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC! I was originally drawn to this book based off of the summary, the ideas of dragons and enemies-to-lovers made me so excited for this book. I really enjoyed reading this, the characters were extremely well written. The banter was cute and there wasn’t any insta love. It took me a bit to get into the story but after a while it got really good!

I think this could have been a duology. I'd have liked to have learned much more about the different types of dragons, what Arturo learned and the changing relationship between Zarela and her family legacy. She was a decent enough lead character, and had endured a lot throughout the book, but she wasn't engaging of her own right (honestly I found Lola and even the ghost of Eulalia slightly more interesting). I guessed the villain about a quarter of the way through; but that intrigue was only secondary to the larger story. This is definitely younger YA and that age group should really enjoy it. I wanted something slightly more complex. 2.5 stars rounded to 3.

Absolutely loved this book! Gripping storytelling with unpredictable plot twists in a truly unique fantasy setting. I'll promote it with Bay Area Young Adult Librarians and cannot wait to see it on our shelves at the library!

3.5 stars

Zarela, the m.c., of this novel that for me reads more like New Adult than Young Adult, is in a challenging predicament. When her father no longer can, she is left with having to support the family and keep the family business (humans vs. dragons!) alive. She's sad and she's not trained, but she definitely has the will of any great heroine, and she puts it to good use.

I've really enjoyed Ibanez's previous novels (this is my third), and while this was a great listen (I opted for the audio book), the kind of description and adventure I'm used to from earlier installments just didn't come through as powerfully for me here. This felt a bit too predictable, and I found the romance tedious at times. Also, when there are animals involved, and readers have to pick a human or animal side, I'm just never going to be able to root for the human characters. Early in the book, this happened, and I think my perceptions about what kind of people some of these characters were just kept me feeling judgy throughout.

These minor gripes noted, I was entertained enough to listen to the whole book in less than a day and will continue to excitedly seek Ibanez's work. She creates lush and intriguing worlds, and this is no exception.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc!

I thought the idea behind this novel was such a cool concept. Instead of Matadors, this world has Dragonadores. Instead of fighting bulls in the ring, they're fighting dragons. That's all I needed to hear to be super excited to read this book.

The book starts strong, throwing us right into the action, which I always appreciate in books. But from there, the pace kind of crawled for a bit. A lot of time was spent without the plot moving forward too much, but I didn't mind because it left room for world-building and I got to learn more about the world Ibañez created, Hispalia. I think that is one of the strong points of the novel. Not necessarily the world-building, but the atmosphere the world-building creates is something I really enjoyed.

On the other end of things, the last third or so of the book was, in my opinion, great. I loved the way all the plot points came together and resolved at the end. We have dragons, a mystery, and a romance all getting a satisfying conclusion. (I may have figured out the bad guy, and some plot points were a bit predictable, but I don't think that's a bad thing). Overall it was an ending I liked. The romance in the book was really fun, and the journey of finding her space Zarela goes on was a nice piece that tied the whole novel together.

My only complaint is that I thought there were pacing issues. The scenes I found uninteresting towards the beginning of the novel seemed to go on for too long. For example, Zarela has to sell a lot of things at the start of the book. We get the gist of that with a scene of her selling something, we don't need multiple scenes where she essentially does the same thing. On the flip side, there were scenes I felt ended too soon. A lot of action-heavy or romance-heavy scenes cut away from the action right when things were getting interesting. I would have loved for those moments to be more fleshed out. I wanted more action and danger, more romance and passion and time on the page to flesh out the emotions that come with that.

Overall, I thought this was a fun book with an amazing world. If you like dragons and spanish-inspired fantasy, you'll love this.