Fireborne by Rosaria Munda

Reviewed by Sam!

**We picked up an advanced copy of this book at ALA in exchange for an honest review. We’d like to thank Rosaria and G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers for the opportunity. This book comes out on Oct 15th and you can get it here**

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Synopsis

Game of Thrones meets Red Rising in a debut young adult fantasy that’s full of rivalry, romance… and dragons.

Annie and Lee were just children when a brutal revolution changed their world, giving everyone—even the lowborn—a chance to test into the governing class of dragonriders.

Now they are both rising stars in the new regime, despite backgrounds that couldn’t be more different. Annie’s lowborn family was executed by dragonfire, while Lee’s aristocratic family was murdered by revolutionaries. Growing up in the same orphanage forged their friendship, and seven years of training have made them rivals for the top position in the dragonriding fleet.

But everything changes when survivors from the old regime surface, bent on reclaiming the city.

With war on the horizon and his relationship with Annie changing fast, Lee must choose to kill the only family he has left or to betray everything he’s come to believe in. And Annie must decide whether to protect the boy she loves . . . or step up to be the champion her city needs.

From debut author Rosaria Munda comes a gripping adventure that calls into question which matters most: the family you were born into, or the one you’ve chosen.

Synopsis from Goodreads

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What I drank prior: A bottle of wine and some change. I’ve had a week. There was some shit that went down in my office, there was a shooting at another (where one of my staff was). I needed a drink. Badly.

Spoiler-free Overview: so this is a dragon story *squeels*. Our main man, Lee, is secretly the last of his line of dragonborne. There was a revolution not unlike the Russian revolution against the Romanovs, yet one survived (like Anastasia… get it?). He was an orphan at a young age in the slums, made friends with our leading lady, Annie, and made there way into dragon riding school. In this “new world” folk get separated into castes based off test scores, so there’s at least the appearance of upward mobility. Annie and Lee are in a competition for First Rider, aka leader of the dragon corps. They both have their own motivations and shit goes down.

Spoiler-free Thoughts: I liked this a lot guys. It kept me engaged, the characters were engaging, and the world was scary enticing.

Characters: so… I liked Lee a lot as a character. He was so very torn between worlds, but he made a choice when he needed to. Annie was a different story, she was so fucking annoying at first. She didn’t get interesting until the last third of the book. With that said, that lady third was bad fucking ass. Annie and Lee’s friendship and angst was IDEAL. I loved it. The secondary characters were also super endearing and I loved them, especially Duck.

Plot: the plot had some pacing issues. There were times where I was like,….. k guys… let’s do something… but it was parallel to war. We know SOMETHING is gonna happen, just not what or when. That was key.

Writing Style: normal? I guess?

World Building: I’m still sorta confused about some aspects of the world, but I think I’m supposed to be confused. I love the dragons and their complexities. I love that we’re living in a post-rebellion world. I love that they are working through learning to govern and making tough choices. It’s normal. Reminds me of the second and third Mistborns… cool we’ve won the war, now what??

What to pair it with: feels a lot like a red wine story. There’re angsty romance and bloody dragon battles.

Rating: 3/5 shots

Until next time, we remain forever drunkenly yours,
Sam