I love that so many things went wrong in this book. No, for real, hear me out.

Meet Aemyra, a trained blacksmith blessed with fire magic, who seeks to overthrow the corrupt regime ruling her kingdom and become the first queen in centuries. Aemyra was raised with her brother, hiding in plain sight of the castle with a loving foster family. Aemyra’s family were waiting for the day the king would die and Aemyra would have a chance to claim his dragon as her beathaichean and increase her fire-wielding powers. Her chance does eventually come, and while the plan is put into motion, it is not without cost for her followers.

This was a refreshing take, for me. Aemyra is neither stupid nor completely naïve, but what she and her advisors think are good ideas are not always correct, and she is not always the one to bear the cost of her mistakes. If you were secretly planning to overthrow the reigning monarchy with a smaller army, everything would need to go perfectly in order for you to succeed. And life rarely goes perfectly. Aemyra’s story is mostly dealing with the fall-out of complex plans gone awry because the enemy isn’t an idiot.

This book tells of the struggle of a goddess-worshiping culture whose society has been infiltrated and changed by the introduction of a patriarchal religion. You see this conflict not just through the violent clashes between the factions, but in the way the society fails to condemn certain attitudes and actions towards women as they have in the past. Some parts might be hard to read, not necessarily due to their graphic nature, but because Aemyra’s inner dialogue and circumstances might ring too true for some readers. There are deeper themes of family and childhood loyalty that are exposed for both of our lead characters, Aemyra and Fiorean, which enables Aemyra to widen her narrow perspective.

The dragon (beathaichean)- relationship was what kept me reading at first: will Aemyra claim a dragon? What will happen if she fails? And then the romance was what kept me turning pages for that want you/hate you forced-marriage-tenterhooks vibe. This novel tells a surprisingly complex story. There is the personal level, where we become sympathetic to the characters we know and watch them struggle and change, the societal and religious conflict, and the broader political and military conflict taking place. And we see it all through the filter of Aemyra. So, while what drew me to the book most was the romance, there is also a more nuanced social and political aspect to it.

Because of the violent heat between the lead characters, some traumatic scenes and the political overtones, I would recommend this book to fans of Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker and The Serpent and the Wolf by Rebecca Robinson. A solid 4-star review, with plenty more story to come.

A Fate Forged in Fire is due for release 27th May from Dialogue Books, you can pre-order your copy HERE