The bones of this story are really good. The framing of the old religion of Scotland being suppressed by outside forces and them instituting their ways on the society is deeply rooted in the history. Beira being mentioned alone is worth a lot to me in a world dominated by Greco-Roman myths. But I wasn't surprised by anything. The characters didn't really go or show their mettle in a way that line up with what we were told about them. So when the ending happened I was just meh about it since I saw it coming.

This was a solid fantasy romance novel! I loved the beginning and the drive behind Aemrya's desire for the throne. I did feel that the middle was a bit convoluted - I didn't understand some of Aemyra's decisions, which in turn made me doubt the plot at times - but I reminded myself that she is only 16 and therefore bound to make some misinformed choices. Really loved the slow-burn build with the Prince!

I’m not going to lie, I’m a little salty about the ending of this book, but it’s okay. It’s frustrating enough that I need to read the next one. Haha

Let me start by saying this one is definitely harder to get into, the language, terms, and pronunciations are rough. I had to end up tandem reading because even just doing audio alone the accent is thick and hard to follow sometimes.
Once I finally got my grips on what was going on (about 30%) I really started to enjoy this one.
It’s got a mixture of tradition’s, culture difficulties, action, marriage of convenience, dragons, and magic all mixed in. I appreciated that this wasn’t an easy fight where the female mc just overpowered everyone right away like most fantasy books with female leads. This one was more realistic (excluding the magic and dragons obviously).

The Celtic part of this fantasy made this both difficult to follow but also was what made this unique. I believe I’ll enjoy the second one even more because I’ll be starting off on a better foot already.

Over all I really enjoyed it by the end and will definately continue.

Triggers: Gore, Violence, open door spice scenes, language, crud humor, rape, and abuse.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me this arc in exchange for my honest review.

4⭐️
2🌶️
Tropes: enemies to lovers, arranged marriage, lost heir, dragons, family trauma, forbidden romance, touch her and die

I went into this pretty much not knowing anything other than fantasy romance + dragons. This was a pretty fun read for me, I had a good time and I’m excited to see where this story is going to go. We have our very sassy blacksmith FMC who is a secret heir to a throne she can’t quite have. She ends up in a situation with her enemy who of course is our broody hot MMC and the story goes from there. We got an interesting plot and solid tension & chemistry between our mc’s. Plus give me anything with dragons and I’m sold!

There was a bit of confusion for me in the beginning. We just get so much information but at the same time not enough? It took me a while to fully grasp everything that was going on but I still enjoyed it. I think this series has a lot of potential so I’m excited to see what the next book brings.

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for an arc🩷

I really really enjoyed this!! The setting and world building felt so lush and immersive. I found the Celtic influence to be really compelling and unique! Aemyra and Fiorean were such multi-dimensional characters whose morals and motivations were always complicated. The side characters added a lot of depth to the story, especially politically. I liked the political intrigue, but do wish that the pacing was a bit more consistent throughout, and that some world-building was explained more plainly. For a good 50% of the book, I thought Aemyra and Fiorean were related (there was then a quote from Aemyra's father how they're of the same clan but not kin). I loved the moments of real tension and excitement, but found that those were a bit lacking through the middle. However, I really loved this and was shocked by the ending. I can't wait for the next book!!

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Net Galley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was interested in this book because of the dragons. I like that they were more present than some other dragons books that I've read. This book was okay for me. It felt done before. It started out a little slow but then picked up the pace.

overall 2.25⭐️

i had really high hopes for this book because it’s celtic inspired, it’s got dragons and had promise of politics and feminine rage, but unfortunately it fell quite flat for me. maybe even more than flat because i found myself getting annoyed at times.

i had a hard time getting into this book because from the onset the fmc was not a character i vibed with. despite her being an older fmc for most romantasy books, she’s quite brash and impulsive and to me, her behavior, her actions, did not match her age. in fact i thought she was quite childish and entitled and lacking in intelligence for a 26 year old…

i fear the mmc and the romance were also not up to par. the mmc is absent for a good chunk of the book and so the romance in my opinion didn’t develop organically. it felt quite forced and lacking in genuine connection so i don’t have any real investment in the two as a couple.

i think the most interesting (and also horrifying) part of this story is the way religion plays into politics. it always makes for intriguing conflict and tension and it 100% does that in this book.

overall, i think that if this was a planned trilogy rather than a duology, we could have had better, more thought out world building and character / relationship development. as it currently is, i think book one is too rushed and it’s left me feeling unenthusiastic about picking up the sequel.

thank you to netgalley and random house for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review 🫶🏼

The premise of this book was so interesting to me, but I had a hard time connecting to the characters which made it difficult to stay engrossed in the story. I do feel there’s a lot to love here, but it just wasn’t a good fit for me personally. I hope to try to come back to this another time.

A lost heir, fire magic, dragons, and political intrigue burn hot in this new fantasy read.

Hiding in plain sight as a blacksmith, a queen must wait for the opportune time to take back her throne in a meticulous plan years in the making. But soon, things don’t go as anticipated, and an unexpected adversary might be her salvation or her downfall.

Immediately, I was drawn into the House of Dragon-like vibes, the Celtic-inspired fantasy, and the strong female protagonist. Unfortunately, for me, the plot seemed slow to take off, and I had a difficult time wanting to stay immersed in the story.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.*

This is everything I could have ever hoped for from Scottish inspired fantasy! Ugh, I swear, the imagery of that first close up with Kolreath will haunt me. The writing is phenomenal.

Aemyra is a flawed FMC and I’m here to lend my support that we can’t all be perfect. She makes mistakes and she’s stubborn but her heart is in the right place and I can’t wait for her growth in book 2.

I’m not talking about Fiorean right now because I’m still pissed.

This book made my little Scottish heart so happy but it’s genuinely just an amazing debut. It has everything you want in a fantasy book; lore, magic, world-building, politics, religion… the list goes on. So, so excited for the next stories and worlds to come from Hazel McBride!

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for this ARC!

3.5 stars

I want to start off with what I loved about this book. The Celtic influence had me so intrigued. I wanted to learn everything about this kingdom. I loved the FMC Aemyra. She was fierce and full of fury at times. Though I did find her naive in a few scenes, it didn’t bother me.

Enemies to lovers is my favorite trope and I was excited when I saw it was in the blurb. However, I think it fell a little flat for me in this one. The tension started to build but in an instant they were more to lovers. I would’ve liked to feel the bond form a bit more before that.

Overall, I still enjoyed this one and I plan on picking up the next book!

An epic dragon riding romantasy to rival Fourth Wing. This was everything you could ask for in a fantasy romance and then some. I haven’t had a book make my heart race in anticipation of what was going to happen since Iron Flame. And that ending!!!!! Gahhhh!!! I want the next book now!

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up
Wow once I got going with this book I couldn't stop. Now in the eARC, the pronunciation guide is at the very back... I think it would have been helpful to actually have been in the front bc wow this book really had a lot of names that tested me on pronunciation lol. The first part is a little dense IMO to get through with the setting and world building. Overall it's an enjoyable read and very action packed.
There's quite a lot of political intrigue in the book, sprinkle some romance (but is it??), arranged marriage, and a war with dragons!

Aemyra as a character was really not my favorite. At least she's self aware when she pulls stupid stunts but apparently she does not learn from them one bit and continues to repeatedly do dumb things, which is my only gripe.

Thank you Delacorte Press & PRH for the ARC!

A Fate Forged in Fire is a Celtic-inspired romantasy with dragons; it follows FMC Aemyra in her attempts to gain back her rightful place as Queen. I would recommend this to fans of House of the Dragon.

This was good, but not overly page-turning or memorable. The beginning was pretty slow, though it did pick up a lot about 60% into the story. I didn’t feel very invested in the characters. Aemyra was quite frustrating and childish; I understand she’s new to royalty and ruling and wouldn’t be perfect at it, but she constantly made terrible decisions that had consequences for her and those around her. I did appreciate that the characters actually felt like enemies in here. That said, I didn’t buy into their chemistry; it felt pretty choppy. I’m still trying to figure out Fiorean’s character? He’s wishy-washy and his choices were often confusing. <spoiler>I understand Fiorean is like super hot, but how she could sleep with or fall for him given the circumstances made no sense to me at all.</spoiler>

Ending does leave me curious to how the story could continue. There’s some pretty detailed and brutal scenes in here - one in particular towards the end of the book that is sexual assault / medical trauma, which may be difficult for some readers. Proceed with caution!

Thank you to Netgalley, Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine, and Hazel McBride for providing this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Content warnings: war, death, death (of child) (of parent), child abuse, blood, violence, misogyny, religious bigotry, medical trauma (attempted sterilization), pregnancy, vomit, abortion

This was clearly heavily inspired by Fire and Blood. It almost reads like reworked fanfiction, which it very well could be.
This is my first time reading anything from this author and they were unknown to me prior to reading this. The beginning was a bit cringe and started off slow, but once we got to the meat of the story it was pretty interesting. There was a lot of conversations that repeated themselves, and scenes that didn't add to the story. I do appreciate that these characters actually are enemies, who actively hurt each other. It made the enemies to lovers trope actually believable. I do believe that I already know what's going on here and how this will end, so the next book will need to have amazing reviews for me to want to pick it up.

This is one of those books that I immediately gravitated towards based on the cover. I couldn’t not pick it up and read it. The good news is there was a lot to enjoy about this book. I liked the relationship and bonding between people and various creatures. I also appreciated the elemental magic system. I felt that the world building was sufficient to give me a good enough idea of what was happening for the first book in a series. There’s definitely opportunity for expansion. I had mixed feelings about the FMC and the MMC. I appreciated the FMC’s struggles with making her family proud of her while keeping the interests of her people in the forefront of her mind. However, she made some incredibly rash decisions that were frustrating to read about. The MMC showed moments where I thought he would be worth rooting for but then he’d make a choice that would have me back on the anti MMC train. The biggest struggle I had with this was the plot. I felt it got lost at times while also trying to accomplish too many things. This also resulted in pacing issues for me. Overall, though, I enjoyed it, and I’m curious to see what happens in the next book.

Firstly I would like to thank NetGalley for this ARC.

"For the little girls who were told to put their fires out. Burn them all to the fucking ground."

This book was so special, and I will remember reading it for the first time for a long time. I read this book during one of the hardest times of my entire life, and there were very specific pieces and moments that were able to make me feel when all I felt without it was numb. Hazel McBride was able to speak about values that I hold so deeply in my core that I felt like this story was written for my mind and heart personally, along with countless other women. The strength of our FMC Aemyra is incredible. It is so unbelievably inspiring and admirable, and she will always be a favorite FMC in this genre for me because of what she represents and what and who she fights for. This story is centered around many themes that are representative of our world today, including but not limited to misogyny and sexism. The way in which this was done should be noted by all other authors because of how impactful it felt. Our current world is terrifying, for so many groups of people, and heavily for women. I think that this story would inspire and give hope to women living in our world today, and show them what it looks like to exude strength and hope and determination. Aemyra is a woman who fights for the people she loves, whether she knows them or not. She fights for her people with every decision she makes and thought she has. There is an innate strength in her character that I will carry with me in this life.

There are so many lessons to be learned in this story, from so many of these characters, and it is no small feat that Hazel was able to accomplish this and so much more. I am in awe of her abilities and her mind. I will be a fan of her going forward, and I am greatly looking forward to what she creates next.

A Fate Forged in Fire was between a 3.5 and a 3.75 star read for me.

I was very intrigued by the idea of a matriarchy that has been without a queen, add in a dwindling number of dragons and I was interested. The fact that it also included a foiled rise to the throne for Aemyra also piqued my interest. I found the first 30-ish percent of the book to be somewhat slow, but it really picked up after that and I couldn't put it down once I was about 60 percent into the book.

Even with the book starting slow, there was a lot I did enjoy. I think the author did set up realistic flaws for a "Chosen One" type character who's been groomed to rule, but hasn't necessarily been prepared for what the politicking behind ruling can look like. That there were times when Aemyra was outwitted was something I appreciated. I also think the author set up a good antagonist, I wanted to slap him everytime he was on page, and an antagonistic system as well.

I was also happy to see that while this is another dragon book borrowing Scottish Gaelic as part of the world building, the author is Scottish, noted that she reached out to other Gaelic speakers, and provided a pronunciation guide.

Overall I liked the read and am looking forward to book two.

Thank you to Netgalley and Delacorte Press for the eARC.

Rating: 4.5/5
I received a eARC for my honest opinion

If you love/like the following you might want to read this book; High fantasy, with romance, dragons, enemies to lovers, great plot, great characters, fun magic system, and betrayal. First before I start my review, I have to say that this author did an amazing job with enemies to lovers, because they really were true enemies.

I really did enjoy this book, and I was going to DNF it due to the slow start of the book, but I am so happy that I didn’t and kept reading because now I have to know what happens after that cliffhanger. I didn’t mind that the book was high fantasy with its rich world building and with it having so much going on at first, I was really confused. However, after a little while I was able to connect everything together and wow, let me tell you I have a new author that I can’t wait to read more books from. Tir Teine has grown weak after a long succession of ineffectual kings. Under the sway of the True Religion, an oppressive faction spreading anti-magic doctrines, the region suffers. Aemyra, born to rule and blessed with fire, has lived in hiding to protect her life, awaiting the death of the current King so she can bond with his dragon, ascend the throne, and safeguard her people. However, when the King dies and her plan unravels, she must confront her greatest rival, Prince Fiorean. Amid the engulfing the court, they are compelled to form an uneasy and perilous alliance to claim the throne.

I found the plot of the book to be like most fantasy books, but this author took it up a notch and made sure that she brought you interesting characters, a plot that left you wanting more, and true enemies to lovers’ relationship. I didn’t mind the politics of the kingdom in this book, I think it really helped to get the readers to understand what has happened to Tir Teine. The plot is character-driven but I love when authors do that so with the next book you can dive right in and know who is where and doing what. I found the characters to be interesting, engaging throughout the book, and to be honest one really bad@ss MCF that I want to be friends with. I loved the relationship between these characters because it truly does start off with them being enemies, but there is a slow progression of turning into lovers was great. With Aemyra, I enjoyed that she was confident, knew what she wanted, was determined to do whatever she had to get there, but she was also quick witted. I liked that she was raw with her vulnerability; it made it easier to connect to her character. With Fiorean I wasn’t sure if I was to hate him or like him. I found myself liking him then hating him and was so much a whiplash lol. I liked how he treated Aemyra, you can tell that he truly cared about her. However, that cliffhanger was so mean!! I can’t wait to have book 2.

I want to thank NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to review this book.

Okay the FIRST sentence had me sold! 
The BEST part about this book from the start: the world building! The order of rule is a MATRIARCHY in which we need a FEMALE heir and individuals are GODDESS blessed!  #girlpower The world is also unique to most of the romantasy books I've read thus far, in that it is rooted in Celtic mythology. Initially some of the language was clunky in my brain, but I got it figured out by chapter 2-3 and was smooth sailing after that.
The conflict in the book is more than just a civil war, but includes religious elements as well, which of course for some readers can magnify the female rage component of enjoying this book! 
Our FMC, Aemyra, is everything you want in a queen: fierce and fiery (literally) but for all the right reasons, and we get to watch her grapple with how to do the right thing, but get the right thing done in a way that is safest for all of her people. We see her grow into her role, we see her grieve, fight, and lead, and I love her! She gives me Aelin Galathynius vibes, which I know is high praise, but trust me. 
Also: DRAGONS! I kind of like that so far in this story they are portrayed more as powerful familiars than with so much anthropomorphism like we have seen in other dragons.
This did have an on page assault of a female character in an attempt at sterilization  …so please check trigger/content warnings. 
Overall I loved this and it was just the Romantasy I was hoping it’d be….and now I’ll go pout in a corner about waiting for next book! 
TL;DR: excellent choice to pick up if you like Romantasy with stabby feminist FMCs that feel real and political scheming/intrigue!