Skip to main content

Fireborne by Rosaria Munda

Hey all, it's been a while since I posted a review but I couldn't help but share this story.

Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/Fireborne-AURELIAN-CYCLE-Book-1-ebook/dp/B07MYGW4K3/


Without spoiling too much of the story, I had the pleasure of reading and advanced reading copy (ARC) of Fireborne by Rosaria Munda which had me hooked from page one, both as an avid reader of fantasy and romance and as a teacher. I highly recommend the book if you enjoyed reading Seraphina by Rachel Hartman or Eragon by Christopher Paolini.

As someone who appreciates character growth in the story, it was a pleasure to watch two unlikely friends, Annie and Lee, work through their past, their goals for the future, people's expectations, and the war that threatens to destroy their worlds all while dealing with the emotional upheaval of being a teen without parents and training to become the leader of the dragon riders, aka Firstrider and the Fleet Commander.

Lee, a dragonlord's son of the old regime, fights for what he believes in and struggles between the choice of family and regaining all that he lost and those he had come to care about in the new world order. Annie, a former serf whose family was killed by Lee's father, fights to prove herself in a society that still treats her like a nobody even as she climbed through the ranks. Both want to protect their ideals and come face to face with the facts that it is impossible to live in a world without evil.

As they train through a series of tournaments and form stronger bonds with their dragons to become leaders who can protect the city and their loved ones, you read on to find what choices they will make. Some of those choices even surprised me, a frequent reader who usually figures out what's going to happen long before it happens. It was nice to be surprised, but their choices also made sense. With a war on the horizon, one where they have to fight other dragons who have started breathing fire while theirs have yet to spark, it is quite a page turner.

There is a full cast of characters, some you love and some you hate. But these characters are not as simple as that and you start wondering about the true depth of the characters as Lee and Annie sometimes choose unlikely partners to help them reach your goals. Some characters are hard to fully grasp who they are. At times you wonder, why do I like/hate this character or what is the true motivation of this character, what does he/she want? It keeps you wondering and makes you want to know what will happen next in the story.

As a teacher, I like this book as a way to explain revolutions and how things are not always clear cut. Lee and Annie have to figure out whether the world they live in and know is better than what had been before and make a choice between the lesser of two evils. They have tough choices ahead of them and it is not always clear, even to the characters themselves, what choices they are going to make. Life is hard and we are defined by the choices we make. The literal text is also not overly complex which makes it an easier read to allow students to focus on the deeper meaning of what is going on.

Overall, I loved reading Fireborne by Rosaria Munda and can't wait till she works on and releases the sequel, because I know I will not be the only one disappointed if there is not sequel. Hopefully you will enjoy the story as much as I did.

As for cosplay ideas, I could see this series being turned into a movie and would love to dress up in Annie's firesuit or even the cape of the Firstrider. With a little more description, these could be awesome cosplays. Just imagining the crests for each of the groups and characters is pretty cool.

Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/Fireborne-AURELIAN-CYCLE-Book-1-ebook/dp/B07MYGW4K3/

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Forbidden Griffin by Zoe Chant

I received "Forbidden Griffin" by Zoe Chant as an ARC.  "Forbidden Griffin" is a shifter romance between two exiled griffins.  While trying to avoid too many spoilers, Cela is exiled from Griffin Island because her babies were not born griffins.  A nice enforcer suggests she find Tyr to help her out.  Needless to say, Cela and Tyr get a lot more than they bargained for when they meet and Tyr helps Cela get used to living in a human world, as Cela had never been off the island.  They'd make a nice family... if only they could touch.  The story follows Tyr and Cela's journey to break their curse and become a family along the way.  It's a sweet story of new beginnings and second chances, as well as new and blended families.  Though this is the 8th book in Chant's Bodyguard Shifters series, it is easily read as a standalone, though there are a few references to things that happened in prior books.  I will definitely be going back to read the othe...

Words of Caution: Why I No Longer Endorse the Group Cosplay Reviews

Hey everyone from Cosplay Reviewers, Cosplay Deals by Cosplay Reviewers, Cosplay Super Influencers & Cosplay Sponsored Alliance, both current and prior members, and any of the associated groups and pages - If you haven't noticed, myself along with most of the other Admins are no longer in any of the groups. The state of the group has not been good for a while and we attempted to fix it. The group has become more and more unprofessional and the admins have spent a lot of time behind the scenes cleaning up various situations created by what we believe to be Lorna’s unprofessional behavior. We were accused of not helping out the group when most of our efforts were ignored. We were lied to on various occasions and each admin would be told different things. Many of us had considered quitting the group at one point or another but we stayed because we care about the group and wanted to help it succeed and flourish as there really isn’t another one like it. The group was like a...