Oh! This story was so interesting. I loved watching the slow burn of the romance between Arturo and Zarela. The world beholding was phenomenal, and beautiful. The addition of dragons made it fun and mysterious, and I loved the themes of family and legacy.

I think I don’t ever expect sexual content other than fade to black in YA, so would this be NA? I’m not sure, I still don’t understand the designations.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5

𝙂𝙚𝙣𝙧𝙚: Fantasy
𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙩: eARC

𝙁𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙌𝙪𝙤𝙩𝙚:
“We catch on fire under a million stars. Together we burn.”

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙙:
Oh so slow burn, enemies to lovers romance
Dragons!!
Spanish inspired setting
Balance between tradition and modern

𝙁𝙪𝙡𝙡 𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬:
This was an easy and wonderful read that I finished in a day! My absolute favorite thing about this book was the enemies to lovers, incredibly slow burn romance that was so infuriating and fulfilling. Zarela and Arturo have such great banter, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching their relationship develop. I also liked the vivid Spanish inspired setting (the flamenco dancing, clothing and food descriptions were wonderful!), and how strongly Zarela was tied to her family and closest friends. And of course, who doesn’t love a book with dragons??

Dragons are used in dragon fights similar to bull fighting, and are mercilessly killed by the Dragonadores. While it is a cruel and violent practice, I really felt that the author made it clear that this was a horrible tradition and that our characters had to go on their own journey to understand this. There are strong themes of protesting animal cruelty and understanding the positive relationship humans can have with animals, and by the end of the book I felt like this was established very well.

The last 50 pages or so felt a little rushed, and I wanted a little more development of the villain and the final resolution. BUT, overall this was a great book and is a perfect read if you’re looking for a shorter fantasy standalone with romance *and dragons*. I am so glad I had this between a few of my longer books/series!

It's paining me to say that I wanted to like this more than I did. The concept of the story was great! I loved Isabel's writing as usual and the magical feel of the world she created. But, overall, the story just fell a little flat for me. I had some issues with the "killing animals for entertainment" premise for so long in the beginning that I think I started to feel a little jaded about the story as a whole (I did love how all that turned out in the end, though, but I think it needed to happen sooner for me to be fully on board). Arturo and Zarela's grumpiness with each other and their relationship was definitely cute at times, and I did love Zarela's determination and the fact that she never gave up! But her personality was just tough to swallow a lot of the time for me personally. I also wish the mystery of sabotage could have been fleshed out more or taken more seriously by the characters. However, if you love dragons, hate to love, and coming of age stories, this might be for you!

Magic, light romance, dragons, and espionage. What more can one ask for?

In the footsteps of her late mother, Zarela Zalvidar is a performer. She along with her father regale their audience with flamenco and dragonfighting. It is a tradition steeped in history that has spanned at least 500 years. But that tradition is threatened when a terrible tragedy strikes, leaving the Zalidars on the brink of losing everything they’ve worked for.

In order to save the estate and their reputation, Zarela is forced to learn the art of dragonfighting — becoming a dragonador. But that task may be more difficult than Zarela realizes.

Together We Burn combines all of the wonderful elements of fantasy, historical fiction, and romance in a perfectly executed novel. Dragons, magic, action, and romance are deftly blended together to form a magnificent retelling of the toreadors and the flamenco dancers of old.

With a generous sprinkling of Spanish words and phrases, Together We Burn is rich in atmosphere with colorful characters to match.

The story is full of adventure and intrigue. It is a page-turner that will have you wanting more, and never wanting it to end. Together We Burn is definitely a novel that should be on everyone’s TBR. I can’t wait to read more novels from this superb author, Isabel Ibañez — a name to be remembered. Five outstanding stars.

I received a digital ARC from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing an eARC of this fabulous book!

Together We Burn had many familiar elements - a determined and fiery heroine, a grumpy and secretive love interest, the red herring villain and a mystery subplot. Having said that, this world that the author built, felt fresh and new. It takes a lot of inspiration from Spanish traditions, such as flamenco dancing and 'dragon fighting'. Yes, dragons play a huge role in this story and I LOVED it!

Zarela Zalvidar will do anything to save her family's dragon fighting arena, La Giralda. But, after a mysterious incident that led to dozens of killed and injured spectators, including her own father, Zarela is fighting an uphill battle.

With the public now against Zarela's once beloved family due to the massacre, and trying to appease the dragon fighting guild in order to keep her business afloat, Zarela turns to Arturo, a secretive and caustic dragon hunter for help. The DRAGONS were amazing. Loved all the various descriptions and the evolution Zarela goes through during the course of the story in relation to her views on dragons and traditions.

The forbidden love/enemies to lovers storyline could be seen coming from a mile away. However, I was all there for it! The tension and longing that the author built was perfect and the dash of spice when these two finally came together was a nice surprise.

I did suspect the main villain right from the start and I knew Zarela's main suspect was nothing more than a red herring. Having said that, there was one other secret twist that I didn't see coming!

I can't recommend this book enough - great world building, fabulous main characters and some good plotting.

Step into a world of dragon rage and glory full of fierce passion and fiery celebrations. The risk is great, but the reward even greater…if all goes well. The infuriatingly stubborn heroine, Zarela, refuses to give up the dragon-fighting ring that has been in her family for centuries, no matter what she must sacrifice, including the only life she has ever known. With an antagonist that is just as stubborn and determined not to give in to any of Zarela’s demands, the story is driven by a battle of wills with two combatants that refuse to give an inch.

What a delightful surprise of a book. The premise is great from the outset: bullfighting BUT WITH DRAGONS, but then the book offers up some real character development and difficult themes. Family, responsibility, personal ideals and equitable, human treatment.

Ibañez tackles the history and culture of bullfighting exceedingly well, placing the two main character at opposite ends of the political spectrum in regards to the rightness/fairness of a cultural hot topic. is it right to do a thing because it has always been done? How can a practice be evolved to honor tradition while stepping back from the inhumane aspects? These two stances are represented well in Zarela and Arturo, argued almost to the point of exhaustion, but Ibañez never let's her characters, or the reader, off easy. Opinions are changed, yes. Secrets revealed that define their leanings, yes. But in the end, it is a novel about true compromise. About what is possible when you practice healthy debate, and how the world can be moved forwards, for the better.

What a fun fantasy! I really enjoyed the world-building in this. I found myself immersed in a world where dragons plague people every day, and I loved it! The MC was great. I enjoyed her inner strength that really grew as the story progressed. She's a determined young lady, and I liked her! I would recommend this one for readers that enjoy YA fantasy!

Together We Burn follows 18-year-old Zarela Zalvidar who lives in Hispalia. I really like the Spaniard inspiration for the story and how it adds dragons in. When something awful happens and all of the dragons are released into the city/wild, Zarela must save her home from being overrun. So she replaces her father in a dragon pit which is where people go to have their dragons essentially go fight to the death. To learn how to survive the pit, she hires a trainer to help her. I wasn't really feeling the romance here and it felt rushed to me. But he does help Zarela and they also begin investigating the "why" of everything that has happened. All in all, a great read, and I would recommend it to folks!

For some reason I didn't realize this was centered around fighting/killing dragons (dragon-fighting like bull-fighting), so that's hugely on me. That being said, I didn't like this book for a myriad of reasons, and not just the central premise. The MC's privilege and relationships were hard to read as well.

Really strong and impressive world building! It can be hard to create a new world let alone execute it well, and this book was fabulous. I loved the characters and the magic and the plot.

I really enjoyed this book! It was so lovely to see the mix of Spanish influence with magic and dragons! I really loved the growth that both Arturo and Zarela both showed through the book. The slight hint of romance was very sweet and I felt it was the perfect amount to allow the story to shine more so than this new OTP I have.

I'd like to thank #netgalley and #stmartinspress for giving me the opportunity to read an eArc of #TogetherWeBurn. This one was a bit of a harder read for me. Turns out as much as I love Dragons I don't enjoy Dragon fighting. The world building was very well done, the characters however seemed a little on the bland side. I had a hard time really connecting with any of them and my concentration waned several times. However I think that part of that was just that the book didn't turn out to be my cup of tea, which everyone has differing tastes. Overall the book was decent enough and I think for the right person it would be very enjoyable.

**Thank you to NetGalley for letting me read an uncorrected edition**
This story follows Zalera, an 18 year old Flamenco dancer, who after a horrifying accident must figure out a way to save her ancestral home. There are dragons, broody men, and a mystery to solve.
I'm going to start off with the things I loved about this book. First off, loved all the ways the author managed to bring together the rich culture into this book and how wonderfully Spanish was woven into the story. Secondly, I'm always a sucker for an enemies to lovers romance and add a grumpy aloof character into it and bam I'm sold! The story pacing was good, it kept me interested and I thought things went along nicely. The characters were well written, I especially loved Lola (seriously, she needs her own book!! haha). Overall, this book was really light and fun read!
Okay now for the things I wish could have been better; first of all I think the most important thing in this type of fantasy genre is the world building. It's just one of those areas where I think to do it badly makes the whole book suffer. Now I don't think the world building was bad, but it also wasn't great... especially when you have such an amazing plot (freaking dragons, flamingo dancing, arenas where they fight against dragons!!). It just could have been developed much better, as it stands I was often left frustrated by how bare minimum the information was described. Just things in general weren't explained that well, to the point where it really took me a few chapters (and mind you so much had already happened!) to try to piece together what this world looked like.

That being said I still think this was a really sweet story, and I loved how interwoven the characters culture was into the story.

Together We Burn by Isabel Ibañez is a breath-taking, fiery fantasy romance adventure. 18-year-old Zarela Zalvidar lives in Hispalia, a lush city inspired by Spain, but instead of bull-fighting taking center stage in this city, you'll find dragon-fighting taking the spotlight. Zarela's father is the most famous Dragonador in the country, drawing huge crowds each show to see him slay a dragon at their family-owned ring. Zarela is terrified of the creatures, and rightly so, and she lost her mother to one years ago.
The story takes off when disaster strikes their arena on their 500th anniversary show. Their dragons have escaped and chaos reigns. With her father out-of-commission and their family name in smoky ruins, Zarela must step up in order to restore her family's honor and save their ancestral home and arena from being taken by the unforgiving Guild of Dragons.
Zarela decides she must become her father's replacement in the ring, and hires a questionable, mysterious ex-Dragonador to train her in the art of dragon-slaying. But this brooding young man is rude, resistant, and totally a match for stubborn Zarela. With his help, Zarela might just save her family from total ruin, and maybe even uncover the sinister truth that led to this situation in the first place.
I gave Together We Burn a solid 4-star rating. I liked this story for many reasons. The prose is elegant without being stuffy. Our protagonist is strong without being annoying, while also having faults that make her personable. The romance--and it's twist--were a joy to read, and are an example of somewhat enemies-to-lovers done right.
My only complaints, using that word lightly, is that one, I saw the main twist coming very early on, so while it was interesting, it wasn't a shock to me. Second, I do believe that the romance did feel a bit rushed and inorganic at parts. It felt that there was more of a physical desire pushing them, rather than leading with an emotional connection, which caused Zarela to seem a little naive which seemed inconsistent with her intelligent characterization that she lead with.

All in all, a great read that I would recommend to anyone. I'd argue that this is the author's best book to date!

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Net Galley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

I enjoyed this book. The setting was beautifully described and I could picture my self in Zarela's world, the sights, sounds, and smells. I loved the dancing, the dragon aspect, especially the change in the end with the dragons in the arena (don't want to give it away). I loved the fierceness and determination of Zarela. I enjoyed the enemies to lovers trope. I will recommend this book to my students and purchase it for the library.

I fell in love with this author after her last duet and was so excited to get to read this one. I have to say it has the magic and the imagination of the previous stories and I had just as much fun reading it.

Without spoilers I don’t think I have read a book like this before and that is always a treat. The story was full of magic and gasping moments, action, and heart. I really loved the world building and the characters came to life. The story had dragons too! I mean a fierce lead character who dances with dragons, can hold her own and is smart as well as full of heart? What more does one need?

I did think there were a lot of convenient aspects to the story as well as moments that were predictable but for me that didn’t take away from how we got there, it was as the story was so enjoyable, I didn’t mind.
This author has magic in creating unique and realistic worlds in which I feel like I am part of them. I was very much another character in this story, and I am grateful for that opportunity.

I received an ARC via NetGalley and Wednesday Books and I am leaving an honest review.

This romantic fantasy kept me entertained reading late into the night. The plot involves some mystery as well as elements of drama, action and romance. Zarela was fierce and showed a lot of courage, but there were times she also seemed to be illogical and maybe a bit selfish in getting her way but overall I admired her strength, especially in such dire circumstances and her determination not to give up hope. To fight the fight, literally and figuratively. The book does have some gruesome and violent descriptions, after all it's taking the dangerous sport of bull fighting and replacing the bulls with dragons, but I found that to be such an intriguing concept. I love how the setting was in Spain and learning about the culture and traditions of the country, flamenco and cuisine included. I enjoyed the complexity of Arturo's character, and yes, his attractiveness as well. I love a good sidekick too and Lola didn't disappoint. She helped balance out some of the heavier themes in the story as well as the romantic storyline. This was a little spicier than Ibanez's previous books but with a title like Together We Burn I'd say that should be a given there's a little more sizzle, and not just from the dragons. I enjoyed the substance behind this enemies-to-lovers story too.

In a world where people fight dragons for entertainment and money, the daughter of a famous flamenco dancer and a Dragonador, 18 year old Zarela Zalvidar is about to have her entire world go up in flames. After the death of her mother Zarela has taken up her mother’s mantle and become a flamenco dancer herself. After a disastrous show in which dragons escape and many audience members die and her father is left too injured to even work she’ll have to find a way to not only save her family’s reputation but the arena and uncover what actually happened that day. In order to do that she’ll have to get the help of a dragon hunter, but the only dragon hunter who will even have a chance of helping her is Arturo Montserrat and he absolutely hates her and what her family stands for. Arturo wants to rescue dragons, he abhors the killing of them and everything that Zarela’s family does, but what does she do? Strong arm her way and essentially force him into help her. She will have him train her to become a Dargonador and she’ll also be trying to uncover the murders that are happening around her. This was an enemies to lovers story set in an intriguing world of dragon battles and a little bit of mystery. My biggest issue with the book unfortunately was just how much I found Zarela to be irritating. Yes she is suppose to be a spoiled, selfish, and self righteous 18 year old, but my god it was hard reading from her POV. I honestly don’t see what Arturo even saw in her. For romance to be one of the main parts of this book it sure didn’t seem like it. The only reason I was able to finish the book was because I had already read about 50% of it and was determined to see how the mystery resolved itself. While the world and premise itself seemed interesting, the execution was lacking for me. So despite it not working out for me, definitely give it a go, mayb you’ll have a better experience then I did.

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

The beginning of this book was quite slow and depressing.

If there’s anything you should know about me, it’s that I don’t like depressing books. I don’t even like conflict about main characters feeling bad. So a book that opens with the main character’s mom getting burned to death by a dragon and then immediately following it up with the main character’s dad getting seriously injured by a different dragon years later took me a while to get into.

I wasn’t actually enjoying myself until Arturo gets introduced a while later. All the death and destruction of the first part of this book were cancelled out by this sort of mini enemies-to-lovers (more like “annoyed-to-lovers”) plot that starts once Arturo is introduced.

That being said, I wasn’t entirely a fan of the romance. While yes, I do enjoy enemies-to-lovers and yes, I did find Arturo attractive, there was still something missing there for me. It didn’t feel real.

This book also had weird sex scenes I skimmed over, but that’s not unusual. I just don’t like the sex scenes in most fantasies.

There was a lot of surprising twists throughout this story, but I was mostly surprised that I correctly guessed the villain of this story early on. I’m sure it was entirely a fluke, as this book vaguely reminds me of another book I’ve read within the past year (and will not name for spoilers reasons), but the bad feeling I was getting from the villain character may also appear in other readers’ interactions with this book if they’re savvy.

The ending to this story is wild and something readers will just have to read to believe. But even flabbergasted, I could tell once I finished this book that this was something I really enjoyed.