This was such a fun book, and I’m really excited for the sequel!!!

This story takes place in a really interesting time. 5 years prior, Faron (who was 12 years old) got powers from the gods and she managed to help her country win a war against their colonizers. Most fantasy stories show the build-up to a war, and then the actual battle itself. It’s really interesting for an author to choose to show the aftermath and set the story several years after said big war. And, for the most part, this worked! The author managed to weave an interesting story here. However, I have to say: whenever we saw a snippet of what happened 5 years ago I always thought “Damn! Now THAT’s a cool story!”. While I enjoyed the story we got, I also would’ve liked to read about the 12 y/o who got powers from the gods. The 13 y/o who fought in a war. The 16 y/o who found out she was royal despite being raised as a commoner and had to suddenly became queen of a warring nation. The 13 y/o who ran across the enemy’s land with his dad’s battle plans betraying his country to help the enemy! That all sounded sooooo interesting!!! I genuinely think this could’ve started as a book about the war, and “So Let Them Burn” could’ve been a sequel (though I don’t think, right now, writing a prequel would work very well, since we already know how it all ends).

The setting for this story was quite unique: I’ve never seen a Jamaican-inspired country in a fantasy world, so I really enjoyed that! I also liked the Hearthstone Academy in Langley (I honestly wouldn’t have minded seeing a whole book taking place in a cool dragon academy, tbh)! I also reeeeally liked the themes of colonization and war, and I think they were well integrated into this story.

The MCs were really nice! Elara was definitely my favourite. Faron did get on my nerves a bit, sometimes, like when she didn’t care about trying to help get Elara back (I was really happy when Reeve called her out on that lol) or when she kept secrets from everyone (which eventually led to BIG PROBLEMS, which………. DUH!!!! 🙄); but I still really enjoyed her. While I usually preferred Elara’s POVs at the Academy, I also enjoyed Faron’s POVs. I think, in general, the book was really well balanced, in that aspect. Something I also absolutely LOOOOVED was the LGBT representation! Elara is a lesbian, and Faron is demisexual (ace spec rep my beloved!!!!!!!!!! 🥹). I really really REEEALLY love seeing not 1, but 2 unapologetically queer MCs in a queernorm fantasy book!

While I unfortunately didn’t really care for the romances themselves (although they were quite sweet!), I really liked Reeve and Signey as characters, and I hope to see more of them in the sequel.



I had some qualms with the writing. Nothing massive!!!!! I DID really enjoy the book! But just some things that were a little distracting:

➤ Something that happened often: someone would speak, there would be a long description of something, and only afterwards would someone respond; but, by that point, I had already forgotten what they were even talking about lolllll. 🥴 Sometimes the response would literally be in another page, because there would be 4 paragraphs of text in the middle of the conversation. This broke the flow of scenes, sometimes.

➤ Faron mentioning she’s a liar a hundred times became eyeroll inducing, ngl.

➤ Some interesting things were skipped over, like Elara’s 1st month at the Academy. Apparently her classmates had been bullying and threatening her (literally: “she woke up in the middle of the night to someone holding a dagger to her throat and threatening to carve her open if she “tried anything,” or when someone set fire to a tree while she was sitting under it.”), which I would’ve liked to see. Her classes (like history and combat lessons) were also mentioned, but never shown.



I also have to say that the ending didn’t gag me. Like, sure, some things I didn’t see coming (

like Iya/Gael making Faron his co-Rider, which means she’s bonded with him and the First Dragon, Lightbringer. Or the fact that Reeve’s parents had promised Iya/Gael to release the First Dragon and to give Iya Reeve’s body when he was sick and dying, but didn’t manage to fulfill their end of the bargain. Or Elara asking the gods for powers, now that Faron had lost hers, and becoming the Maiden Empyrean

). But, while I didn’t guess *every little thing* that was going to happen, I still knew enough as to not be shocked in the end,

because, honestly, it was really obvious Gael wasn’t trustworthy, which made Faron’s decisions reeeeally frustrating. Like, girl, PLEASE talk to someone about your encounters with Gael! Tell people he’s becoming more and more material! Tell them what he tells YOU! Do some research about this whole situation! Stop with the unnecessary miscommunication!!!! 😭😭😭

Faron was constantly making dumb decisions (like, she knowingly released the super dangerous First Dragon in the middle of a busy square full of people??? Like????? Warn them??? Tell them to leave??? Girl….), which was not only a little annoying to read, but it also made the ending a bit unimpressive. Like, even the fact that Iya/Gael was gonna possess Reeve’s body was quite obvious lol. 😅🫤 I did like the fact that Faron decided to go with Iya/Gael in the end, though.

These seem like a lot of negatives, but, trust me, I DID enjoy the book! 😅 I definitely recommend it, and I’m excited for the sequel!!!