A girl has got to get her dragon fix somewhere, and this time, I picked A Fate Forged in Fire by Hazel McBride. Reading the synopsis gave me Game of Thrones vibes and follows a bisexual female lead that has been forced into hiding so that she can eventually claim her true throne. There’s also chosen one, enemies to lovers, and marriage of convenience tropes. With the Celtic-inspiration, I was sure that this was going to be a book that I absolutely adored. While I did get into it about midway through, this is one that I would recommend for a reader that is looking for something heavier to read and with more political scheming, religious oppression, and gore than I was expecting.
The blurb to this book is quite long, so I will do my best to summarise the most important bits. Essentially, Tir Teine is a land that was once ruled by matriarchs, but unfortunately has fallen to misrule under several fruitless kings. The current of which has fallen prey to the “True Religion” who are strictly against magic and oppress anyone they find practicing the pagan ways. Aemyra was born to rule and blessed by fire, but forced to hide and work as a blacksmith to wait for the right moment to reclaim her throne. When the current king dies, she’s thrust into the middle of a game of politics, where Prince Fiorean is her number one adversary. When the kingdom is thrown into further chaos, they must join forces, and their alliance may have more consequences than they bargained for.
Whilst I did enjoy the book, especially toward the end…I will not lie to you, I despised Aemyra as a character. There was an arrogance to her that drove me absolutely insane, and it got her into a lot of trouble, which was justified in my opinion. It is very rare that I’m rooting for consequences for main characters, but in this case, it’s like her middle name was trouble, and she was going to run into it if it didn’t find her first. I wish we’d gotten more about the relationships that she had with her family because a lot of her big emotions regarding them did not resonate the way that I thought they would. Her brother was the only one that I felt like I could resonate with, and that was partially because he was the voice of reason.
Romance-wise, I am still unsure of how I feel about it, if I’m honest. The relationship is a slow burn, naturally, because they’re enemies. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out Prince Fiorean’s angle, and each time that I felt like I understood, the rug got pulled out from under me. Once we got to the spicy scenes, it was very spicy, so if you’re expecting something, you will not be disappointed here. There is a big cliff-hanger at the end of this book that left a lot of questions that need to be answered, so I am very curious how this will continue on. This book felt like it leaned more toward high fantasy than romantasy in my opinion, so if you’re expecting a lot of romance or something that’s not as heavy, I would find another book to read.
Dragons were a primary selling point of this book, and I felt like there wasn’t enough of them on the page to enjoy the story. I wanted to know more about them, whether there was something else to the dragons like the story was implying, but we got more of the political machinations of the humans than anything else. Still though, I liked Aemyra’s dragon a lot, and hopeful that the sequel to this book will have a bit more about them. The book is quite dense, so I can imagine it would have added a lot more to the book if more detail was added.
Although an enjoyable read, there were many elements to the book that I felt would need some more work before it can become an immersive world where a badass woman reclaims her birthright throne and has a dragon ruling alongside. Nevertheless, I will be looking forward to seeing where this story will go.
A Fate Forged in Fire is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis
To become the first queen in centuries, a powerfully blessed blacksmith must use her wits and fire magic to overthrow the corrupt powers ruling her kingdom—while also fighting her growing desire for one of her dragon-riding adversaries—in the first book of a sizzling Celtic-inspired fantasy romance duology.
Once a territory built on matriarchal rule and values, Tìr Teine has since grown frail from a long line of fruitless kings, the most recent of which have ruled under the influence of the True Religion, an oppressive group who have steadily poisoned the region with their anti-magic teachings.
Born to rule and blessed by fire, Aemyra has begrudgingly lived in hiding rather than risk her life in court, waiting in anticipation for the current king’s death so she can bond to his dragon, claim her throne, and protect her people. But when the king dies and Aemyra is ready to take what is rightfully hers, her ambitious plan is foiled, and she is thrust into a game of vicious politics and plots.
Her biggest adversary is Prince Fiorean, a dragon rider and one of the most powerful fire wielders in the territory. Cold, arrogant, and blindly supportive of his corrupt family, he is everything Aemyra despises. But as chaos engulfs the court, they find themselves reluctantly entwined, forced to forge an uneasy alliance—one that quickly ignites into something more dangerous than either of them expected.
Behind enemy lines and slowly falling for her so-called adversary, Aemyra uncovers just how far the rot of corruption has spread, and what she may have to sacrifice to claim her throne.
