A Fate Forged in Fire is a slow-burn fantasy romance full of fire magic, dragons, political intrigue, and powerful female empowerment. The story took a while to get going, largely due to heavy world-building and a lot of unfamiliar Celtic names, but once I reached the halfway point, the pace and tension picked up significantly.
Aemyra is a determined, fiery heroine, and I loved watching her begin to step into her power. The tension between her and Prince Fiorean is on point—their dynamic brought heat (fire) and intensity to the story, and I'm definitely interested in seeing more from his story in the next book.
Though the slow start made it tough to stay fully engaged early on, the second half delivered on action, emotion, and stakes. With strong foundations in place, I have a good feeling about book two and look forward to seeing how Aemyra grows as a leader and how the magic, dragons, and romance evolve from here.

*A huge thank you to Random House Publishing, author & NetGalley for allowing me to read this early in exchange for an honest review*

A Fate Forged In Fire by Hazel McBride

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Aemyra had been forged in fire, but a queen would rise from the ashes.”

This was a true enemies to lovers, forced proximity/marriage & lots of “get your hands off my wife” scenarios!! (Ahhh! My absolutely favorite!!)

This beginning is truly an amazing set up to a gut-wrenching, edge of your seat, series! I hope Hazel continues to woo us with her remarkable characters, disgusting villains & swoon-worthy enemies alike. This was very House of the Dragon coded with personable bonded dragons and other creatures!

Our main character, Aemyra, is a powerhouse as she makes her way through so many devastating obstacles in this book attempting to obtain her birthright as queen. I rooted for her, cried for her, and screamed in frustration for her.

Our true enemy-to-lover love interest, Fiorean, is witty and ends up softens for our girl Aemyra at the perfect pace! He’s also so hard to read and *savage* which makes him the perfect enemy!!

“”If anyone else here dares to lay even a finger on my wife, you will also lose your hand.””

Some trigger warning for this book include some spicy scenes, children dying, execution, gore, war, murder, mental illness & attempts to infertilize.

The cliffhanger at the end is making me foam at the mouth for the next book.

Romantasy with a bite. I love this dragon renaissance, but for some reason, i was not getting the same thrills from this one. But! i'm excited for the sequel. recommended for the romntasy fans looking for more dragons

Perfection. The and the twists and turns throughout her quest for her crown. The banter, enemies to lovers, battles, magic and dragons - what’s not to love? That ending, I am not ok. Cheers to over throwing the religious zealots. I can not wait for book 2!!!!

4.5 ⭐️ This book had hooked me right from the beginning. Aemyra is a blacksmith but is on a journey to reclaim her throne as Queen. (Lots of backstory that the book goes over in the beginning.) This story is packed with feminine rage, magic, and dragons. It’s fast paced, empowering, and gives a big middle finger to the patriarchy which we love to see.
Obviously I loved the feminist themes but I did find myself wishing for more strong female characters to round things out. Hopefully the sequel brings in more women to stand beside our MFC.
The romance is slow burn and the political tension keeps the plot moving. Plus the twist at the end was amazing and I can’t wait for the sequel.

Disappointing and put me into a reading slump.

The beginning was rough, lots of info dumping and an excessive amount of Scottish Gaelic. Inconsistent pacing and unlikeable main character which made it hard for me to immerse myself in the story. I would say romance doesn’t start until after 50% and it was underwhelming and lacking development. I also found the plot predictable.

It has potential but needs better character work and execution. Unfortunately I won't be continuing the series but wish Hazel all the best as an author.

This is a pretty classic rebellion story in which an heir raised in secret fights to claim her throne. I enjoyed the Scottish influence on the worldbuilding and thought that the magic system was interesting. I would have liked to know more about the political landscape outside of the city, particularly what the other clans were like and what their relationships with one another are. We briefly hear about them and one of their defining characteristics, but that's it.

I thought the pacing was kind of odd. The beginning develops well enough (and I loved the first encounter between Aemyra and Fiorean), but then suddenly there are a lot of reveals and lots of action happening immediately. Next, there is a substantial lull before the next main event, and then the story really takes off. In the early stages, I found Aemyra to be extremely immature and naive, and although it's pretty clear she's being set up for a growth arc, I feel like these early sections dragged and focused too much on her, when I was more interested in her relationship with her father and how she was trained as a child. Lots of interesting side characters (Aemyra's brother, her bodyguards) disappear or aren't really relevant in the middle section before resurfacing towards the end. I also wish that we had seen more development of her bond with her dragon, especially considering the effect some plot events surely had on it. Instead, it seems that it comes effortlessly to her without any real stakes or challenges. (Although this could be a hint at a development in the next book ... ?)

Otherwise, the dragons and the spicy scenes did not disappoint. Aemyra goes through a lot in this book, and I am looking forward to seeing what happens next and learning what is really going on behind the scenes with another major character.

I'm so bummed I didn't love this, but I'm also not really surprised?

This feels a lot like the writing of A Feather So Black which also didn't vibe with me (and has a similar setting, so I'm sensing a theme for me here)--so if you love the writing style of that book, you'll enjoy this more than I did. It's very prosey and slow paced in order to keep the prose going. I didn't get even slightly invested in the story until around the 40-45% mark.

I love dragons and loved the magic system/dragon bonding, and the FMC is great. She's angry, she's dealing with religious nonsense (two of my FAVORITE things in books), and it's a true slow burn. I love an enemies to lovers slow burn as much (if not more) than the next person, but this also didn't work for me for some reason. I think it's more subtle, because I'm not sure I really believe the romance at this point. It feels like the author wanted to develop it more and have it actually kick in during book two, but changed it at the last second to come in here and I don't think it really felt believable.

I'll probably pick up the second book because the overarching story, but I can't say I'll be rushing to read it.

So glad dragons are becoming more popular in books. This one was fun! It was very cliche though, and not the most exciting read at parts. But I’m excited to continue the story

I wasn’t initially sure about this book because the beginning was pretty slow to pick up. Once some of the major plot point got things in motion I was having a good time and kind of going with the vibe of the book.

The FMC is a terrible decision-maker, but it keeps the story interesting. I think we were starting to get some found family vibes, but they fell flat for me. I like how the dragons fit into the story, and would have loved more of them!

This is probably the first time I’ve ever had this experience – the last 5 to 10% just completely tanked it for me. I love some good groveling, but I don’t think the certain things will ever be forgiven unless they were completely robbed of free will.

I wanted to like this. I really did. But it was SO boring. And it didn’t get better.
I started and stopped and started and stopped reading it multiple times.
I just could not get through it.
I might try it again at a later time to see.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group for the E-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoy the writing style but unfortunately I had to DNF at around 34%. The pacing is just too slow. I find myself uninterested in the story. Sometimes I don't even know what is going on or what is the premise about. This is just my honest opinion but I'm sure others will enjoy this book much more than I did.

I felt kind of thrown into the story which sometimes is nice but I could hardly pronounce so many words and didn't know what was going on. It's not my cup of tea but I'm sure many will like it 🙂

This book was okay. Not my favorite fantasy I’ve ever read. Aemyra drove me nuts for most of the book! She seemed so full of herself. I don’t think her character was suppose to come across the way it did, but she was annoying.

It was also a little predictable that she was the heir to the throne, but I will read the same storyline again and again.

The story was just a little hard for me to follow and the romance was lacking for me.

This is a spicy fantasy romance - with dragons!

The FMC, Aemyra, is a fierce, vengeful fire-wielder who aims to take the throne when the king dies - she's secretly heir to the throne, but she was raised as a commoner. I appreciated the bisexual rep here as well. She doesn't seem quite ready to be queen - I'll look forward to more development in the next parts of the series.

The story dragged a bit at times, but the enemies to lovers trope was spicy and fun to read. I hope that the next books in the series explore the dragons more and allow Aemyra to develop into the leader she'd like to be.

I love me a good romantasy and this met the expectations! The witty banter between Aemyra and Fiorean was so good. It had me giggling throughout and I just love her attitude and sarcasm. Did not see the ending coming and I was devastated!! I can not wait to see if the story continues and what kind of twists and turns will come with that.

THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD!! I am a PA student and read this book in the middle of a really hard testing month; because of this, I didn't have a lot of time to read, so my reading was spread out over a few weeks. Typially, it's really hard for me to stay invested and intrigued when I am not able to finish my book in a reasonable amount of time. THAT WAS NOT THE CASE HERE. This book had me invested and thinking about it throughout the entire time I was reading it. I loved all of the tropes and the writing was done so well! The ending even had me taken by surprise; I typically am very good at calling plot twists and I did NOT anticipate the one here at the end!!

Overall, I give this book 4 stars. I even listened to the audiobook some while reading and thought the audiobook was SO well done!!

I'm so grateful to have received this copy on Netgalley! Thank you so much, it was such a good read an I will be recommending it to EVERYONE.

If your looking for a Celtic inspired fantasy with enimies to lovers and dragons this is the book for you! I don't know how more people aren't talking about this book. I devoured it. I had to know what was going to happen next. The dynamics in the enemies to lovers were perfect. The political intrigue, the battles, the dragons. I loved this book! And with that ending I cannot wait for book 2.

3.75 This was a good romantasy book but the beginning was a bit hard to follow and the ending felt a bit abrupt. This book follows Amerya( listened to the audiobook spelling is going to be off on names) a girl who is suppose to be heir to the throne but was hiding in site till she could take her rightful place when the king dies Amerya and her father place a claim on the throne causing fighting between the two heirs. This book was good but the pacing at times would drag then other times I would be introduced to so much info I found it a bit confusing at times. The other thing was the names were a bit difficult especially when listening to the audiobook. Overall it was a good read that I might continue the series. I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for a chance to read this book for an honest review.

This book was a WILD ride. I really enjoyed reading this book and loved Ameyra’s spunky and fiery personality. There were so many elements that I loved in this book. The magic system felt authentic, and the plot kept me engaged pretty much the whole time. There was a point in the middle where there was a lull but things quickly turned around. A Fate Forged in Fire always kept me wanting to come back for more. I loved the concept of fighting for one’s throne, overturning a patriarchal society and of course the dragons ✨

There was a moment that definitely calls for a trigger warning so read up on those, but otherwise, I recommend the story!

P.S. I will also say the romance is the subplot - not quite the whole focus of the story.