Unfortunately dnf’ed at 13%, really wanted to like this book and the plot sounded amazing but just felt like it wasn’t going anywhere

This book grabbed me by the throat with dragons, political scheming, and a wild enemies-to-lovers arc. Now, let’s talk about the scorched, unhinged battlefield of emotions this book delivers: Aemyra and Fiorean’s romance? This is enemies-to-lovers done right. They fight…like literally draw swords and try to end each other fight. It’s not “lust at first stab.” Their relationship is hard-won, messy, and all the more satisfying because of it.

Content warning: This book deals with heavy themes, including sexual assault. Please check trigger warnings before diving in. While the victim does get some revenge, the emotional toll could weigh heavy for some readers.

That said…Aemyra is a fascinatingly flawed protagonist. She’s strong-willed, sometimes reckless, and makes choices that made me want to scream into the void. Girl, I support you… but also, are you okay? (No. The answer is no). The story doesn’t always give us enough internal monologue to fully understand her decisions, but her growth is undeniable. And the politics? Deliciously twisty. Trust no one…not even the main characters. My trust issues were thriving.

McBride’s Scottish roots bleed through the worldbuilding in the best way. It feels authentic, not performative, and adds a lovely grounded layer to the magical chaos.

The beginning is lore-heavy and confusing, the first 20% felt like drowning in fantasy quicksand. But once I found my footing? Page-turning bliss. While the momentum picked up beautifully, I do wish we had more time to sit in certain emotional beats. At times it felt like we were sprinting past feelings to get to the next jaw-drop plot twist.

And yet… I couldn’t stop reading. The magic system, the beasts, the power plays…it all meshed together into a chaotic symphony of pain and passion.

And that ending? McBride said *cliffhanger* and YEETED me into the abyss.

Rude. Cruel. Brilliant.
I saw it coming. I still wasn’t ready.

I need book two like, yesterday.

Thank you Netgalley for this advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the preview. All opinions are my own.

OMG! SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP OBSESSING!! This book had me in an absolute chokehold, and I’m already screaming for the sequel.
Truly, I can’t remember the last time my heart was racing so much while reading. This was an insane ride.

Aemyra is a FIREY FMC. She’s quick to temper, impetuous, a bit naive, and rushes into trouble. She’s not always the easiest to like, but she’s got a great heart at her core. Fiorean seems like a right bastard, but if villain, why so HOT?! These 2 hate each other, but also scorch the ink off the pages together. The slow burn enemies to enemies to lovers to enemies is CRAZY GOOD.

And then there’s dragons, and magic, and ragey feminism, and terrible patriarchy, and politics, and plotting, and betrayal, and angst, and heartbreak, and more rage. At times I could barely breathe with trying to read so fast to see what would happen next. I’m absolutely obsessed.

This is perfect for fans of House of the Dragon. Just be aware that like the show, the book is in a brutal world; there’s violence, especially against women. But several of those women know how to take revenge.

Thank you to NetGalley, Delacorte Press, and Hazel McBride for providing this free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was a struggle to get through. The world building in the beginning didn't feel fully fleshed out, so I as a reader was often left confused as to who was who and what was important. And the dialogue felt on the juvenile side, as if the characters were adolescents, when they were supposed to be adults.

This was an interesting premise and alternative to some other popular dragon-based fantasy novels, but overall the execution was lacking.

I enjoyed the world building in this, anything with dragons has my attention. Sometimes I felt a little lost with the name dropping. For me, it was hard to get past the FMC Aemyra. I don't like when a FMC is pretty childish, all rage and arrogance, with not much else going for her. She tears down other women and makes decisions that don't make a lot of sense to me.

There also wasn't much to the MMC, he felt cookie cutter, and the chemistry between him and Aemyra was not there for me. This isn't bad, it just didn't hold my attention for that long and I could not connect or care about the characters much unfortunately.

This book dragged for me for the first 75% but I did enjoy the last 25%. Really not sure how to rate it, cause I'm kinda interested in the next book buy also meh

As far as the story goes, it was good. I would really enjoy this book if it weren't for the romance.

I liked the dragon bonding and the magic. This is set up for Aemyra to take the crown once the King dies as she is an heir that no one knew about. In a land that worships multiple gods/goddesses in a matriarchal society, there have been no female descendants and so the monarchy has been handed down to the next male in line. Aemyra is the rightful Queen and I loved how adamant she was about trying to take her place to care for her people.

The beginning felt like a lot of info dump instead of a seamless introduction to the world. It made it slog through just a bit, but was still interesting to me.

There is also a lot of a religious war going on with the Covenanters trying to get everyone to worship their god. So this is very much a feminine rage filled book and I was here for it!

Now the romance...enemies to lovers, forced marriage.. sound like great tropes. HOWEVER. They are related. I messaged the author because I could not read any more until I had details and it wasn't very clear in the book. Apparently their great grandfathers were half brothers. So it IS a distant relation and according to the author "they are third half cousins which for medieval royalty in a fantasy world is barely related." To me, that's still too much. Mostly because their whole family line has red hair. This red hair is significantly only in their family line. Aemyra and Fiorean both have that red hair. So isn't that a significant RED FLAG (hehe) to say "hey, maybe I don't fall someone in my lineage?" I'm sure most people can get over it and I tried to tell myself I could, but as soon as I read a kissing scene, my mind immediately went NOPE!

However, the story was interesting and I wanted to know where it went so I finished the book. The ending did have a bit of a wild time and I am interested in knowing what happens next. But I won't read the second one since I skipped over every bit of romance scene in this book and I don't wish to read that nonsense again.

Thank you to Random House for the eARC. My thoughts are my own.
Finish date: 5/7/25, Release date: 5/27/25

ARC Review

Overall rating: DNF

At the end of the day I just don't think this book is for me, but I can definitely see how people love this. I unfortunately could not push myself to keep reading past 100 pages (about 30% through), so I just cut my losses and ended up DNFing.

I'll start off by saying that I was so incredibly excited for this book. After reading the premise and elements included, I thought it would be right up my ally. Dragons? I love them every time. Mythology inspiration? I eat it up. Slow burn romance with a badass FMC and broody MMC? One of my favorite tropes ever. In theory, this had pretty much everything I eat up in a book, but in the end, was poorly executed. For me the biggest reason which lead me to DNF was that I simply didn’t care about anything happening, and I feel like we weren’t given any incentive to in the first place. As a reader I feel like we were just thrown into the story with no context of what was going on with the plot or characters, so why would I care/root for them if I have no idea what I’m rooting for? To me it felt like I was walking in on a random family that was having an argument and I was expected to choose a side, even though I had no idea who these people are or what the argument was about.

The second main reason I chose to DNF was because of the extremely underdeveloped world building. Because we were just thrown into the story with no prior context, all of the terms, place names, etc. used within the world were being told to us as if we already knew what they meant. This made the book quite hard to follow and slow to read since I was continuously going back and rereading paragraphs to try and make sense of the world. Since I was having such a hard time simply understanding the setting we were in, I couldn’t picture what was going on at all, keeping me from getting sucking into the actual story.

Lastly, I just want to touch on the characters and pacing. First looking at the characters, I didn’t necessarily have a huge problem with any of them except for the fact that (like the world building) they felt underdeveloped. I didn’t connect or care for any of their problems, especially for our FMC. We’re told she’s this super badass women (26 of age), and I really thought that’s what we were getting from the first two chapters. But after that, she felt very childish (like she belonged in a ya not an adult) and was all bark, no bite. Despite what little we were being told about her past, none of it was reflected on her present character. Now looking at the pacing, it felt so incredibly slow to me, despite the fact the everything was happening within quite a short time frame. Even though things were going on and there were some action and fight scenes, it felt like everything was dragged out and at a standstill.

Overall, the best way I can summarize this is that I simply didn’t care about what was happening and I never felt excited to pick it up.

Thank you so much to Netgalley, the author, and publisher for an early copy of the book in exchange for my honest review!

I struggled to get into the book, I enjoyed the concepts, but I just couldn’t get into it and push through reading. I think I have so many options to read right now and this didn’t captivate me enough to push through. Does that mean I don’t think I’ll ever read it no! I just don’t think I’ll be able to read it anytime soon! I don’t like DNFIng books it’s just not something I do but for now that is this for me I hope to come back though!

Thank you, ballantine and @netgalley for the gifted ARC!
Aemyra has hidden in plain sight, waiting to claim the thrown and her birth right. She's blessed with fire magic and waiting for her chance to bond to one of the few dragons still in existence. While making her stand, she's captured and forced to work with her sworn enemy, Prince Fiorean, in order to survive.

Thoughts 💭
This was tough to get into. The story dragged right from the beginning with a lot of filler that wasn't needed. It made the book way longer than it should be. It did pick up by the end, so I'm glad I stuck with it. I loved the premise of a strong female claiming what was rightfully hers, but I didn't really love Aemyra, which made it hard to get behind the story. She was impulsive and immature, and she thought she knew everything. It was cool to have a world filled with dragons, and "The Terror" was a neat addition. She had decent banter with Fiorean, but I couldn't get past the point that they were distantly related. Much of the story was pretty predictable.

Such a good book, one that should appeal to anyone who is suffering from Empyrean withdrawal. I actually put off reading Onyx Storm to read this. And I was not disappointed.

While the dragons aren't as significant characters as in Fourth Wing, they are still a major part of the plot. There is similar enemies to lovers spice, plus a lot of political intrigue.

I loved that the conflict revolves around a matriarchal society and how the anti-magic teachings of the True Religion are almost a metaphor for women's rights. Because of this, there are content warnings, which (at least in the eARC) were specified upfront.

I basically binge read 350 of the 400 pages in one sitting, it was that compelling. My only complaint...it's a duology and no idea when the second book will release!

I had such a great time reading A Fate Forged In Fire! Now, I am a sucker for enemies to lovers and let me tell you, the romance DELIEVERED. Most of the book did keep my interest, however there were a few plot lacking points. But that is okay as I have high hopes that my questions will be answered in the next book!

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for an e-arc in exchange for my honest opinion!

I found this book kinda hard to get through. The world building is INTENSE. I found myself confused at times and having to reread to figure out and remember everything that was happening.

Also, did no one else kinda get that the FMC and MMC and technically related? I get that it's kind of a distant cousin kinda thing... but also... it's strange and I couldn't quite move past it.

All in all, it was an ok read. Parts intrigued me. But the world building is a lot and makes it a lot harder to digest.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the early copy.

I had an extremely frustrating reading experience with this book to say the least which I was honestly surprised by because in theory it had all the elements of a book I would normally really enjoy. Enemies to lovers? Hell yes. Dragons? A Say no more. Political intrigue? Sign me up ASAP.

However, I fear what this book lacked from the beginning was easing me into the story. There were clearly a lot of elements at play and a lot of terminology being used and I didn’t understand any of it because there was no context provided especially since a lot of it was related to the world building. I genuinely think this book would benefit from a glossary.

I also felt like there was nothing done to make me feel connected to the fmc and her goals since we’re essentially thrown right into the story and the plot builds up very quickly.

I did have high expectations but unfortunately this book was not for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC!!

I would rate this 3.75 ⭐️

I was going back and forth during the book about whether I liked it or not. There were some parts I liked and some I wasn’t a fan of.

I wish we would’ve gotten a prologue to give us a little bit of a back story, to connect with our FMC a little more. Still deciding if I liked her or not, she made a lot of questionable decisions.

I liked the enemies to lovers trope in this, but I feel like we could’ve gotten to know our MMC a little better. I loved the dragon aspect and very interested to read more about them/their bond in the next book!

Overall, I did enjoy it and the plot twists. I will be reading the second book!

I had high hopes for this book but, overall, it fell pretty flat for me. I predicted a lot of the twists and had trouble rooting for the main character.

What I liked was that Aemrya does not stop trying to get her throne and do what she thinks is best for her people when facing a changing political dynamic where women are becoming oppressed in the name of a god/savior. However, most of the time I found her to be a frustrating main character who tells herself that she’s smart, cunning and worthy of a crown (which is the only part I agree with because she REALLY wants to make the world better for everyone) but makes the worst, most impulsive choices. She is not open to understanding what others are going through, she acts first and thinks later and even then, she doesn’t really change her way of thinking. She seems younger than a 26 year old.

The romance was enemies (but you’re hot) to lovers.

I wish we had gotten more about the dragon/beathach bond and the dragon was a more fleshed out character where we heard their voice rather than just glimpses of emotions, thoughts, etc. Maybe this could have happened if she wasn’t separated from her dragon for a third of the book.

This book is for those readers who like a fast moving plot, political intrigue, and a character who is trying to fight back against an encroaching patriarchal society.
Trigger warnings: sexual assault, religious persecution, misogyny, spousal and child abuse (past), animal death (off page)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy of this book. This does not affect my review.

I only got to about 33% and ended up DNFing. Personally, I found the world building to be very confusing, I felt we were overloaded with info very fast and my brain struggled to understand what was even happening. It felt like a very cliche storyline. I also found the FMC to be very irritating to read about. I just don’t think this book was for me personally.

I feel this book ranges between a 3.5-3.75 star rating.

This was full of cliches but was somewhat enjoyable despite this. Was it my favorite book of the month? No. Was it my worst? Also, no. I wasn't overly invested, and for a book 416 pages long, I'd like to be. I finished it because the writing was good, and I really hate to not finish ARCs. I did not like our female main character. I understand she is written to be a badass, but I found myself not really believing it and wondering... what has she actually done?

God this one took me a while and not for the best reason. I didn’t like the FMC. She is meant to be that girl that is full of rage but she is just a bi*** sorry but I don’t understand how this is a person that I’m suppose to feel sorry for and want to continue to follow her. She is so mean to people and act like she is better than other but end up doing nothing.
And the chemistry between her and her husband zero. Didn’t feel anything at all felt like very anticlimactic.

A Fate Forged in Fire by Hazel McBride was phenomenal! This was a captivating enemies to lovers romance with an action filled plot that will draw you in from the first few chapters until the end! I was so addicted to this book I didn’t want to get off the couch! I had to know what was going to happen next! I gave this book a 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Not only did this book have dragons in it which is my favorite but I love the morally gray aspect on the MMC as I love a little broody character. The FMC, Aemyra was interesting, she was a fire wielder but was also vulnerable and gritty. She was hidden away since birth and now she knows the truth about everything she is fighting to take back what is hers which is queen of Tir Teine.

I thought Hazel did well with the world building. It gave me vibes of Game of Thrones and a little bit of Fourth Wing and think this would be perfect for readers who enjoyed those books!

Thank you to Netgalley, Random House Publishing Group, and Hazel for approving me this e-book copy! This title will be releasing on May 27th, so be sure to add this one to your Tbr ASAP!

Tropes:
Slow burn
Dragon bonding
Enemies to lovers
Action filled political plot
Morally grey MMC
Fire Wielder FMC