Thanks to NetGalley & Tor Publishing Group for the copy in exchange for an honest review. Sadly, I DNF"ed 20% of the way through.

There was too much happening jammed into each chapter. I had no emotional connection to anything that was going on, the characters were extremely flat and uninteresting.

The only reason I finished this book was that it was so short, and I hoped it would make sense in the end. It didn't. The story jumps around in time, and I could never get the exact timeline straight. I liked that the knight was female, and that the good guys won in the end.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book.

A twist on a classic knights tale with dragons. This novella follows a female knight on a quest to get a blade back from a dragon and reclaim her honor. This was good overall. I enjoyed the dual timelines, the dragon lore, the mystery and twists and a kickass woman.

DNFd at 20%. It was just… boring. Might be the right book for someone, it just wasn’t me.

I found Maddileh to be stubborn but with no interiority worth interrogating, and the magic system dry. How do you make dragons boring? I don't understand.

Dragons, knights and wizards always pique my interest. The Fireborne Blade relies on general knowledge of knights, wizards and dragons as the world building is lacking in some ways. This does not take away from the story. Bond's writing is very strong and has woven together a quick entertaining story. The story does jump around a bit in time with sections of dragon and knight history sprinkled in between. These additions do bring more depth to the story; however, they did make it more difficult for me to connect to the characters and overall plot. I think this is because once I was immersed in what was happening, a history story section would pop up and pull me away. I did like the twist at the end. I think this is a nice read for those who are being introduced to the fantasy genre. It's not overcomplicated in it's story, magic, or world building. There is a limited amount of characters that makes it easy to track especially in a novella. Despite only being just over 170 pages, the story felt full and complete.

This book did not hold my attention and I was not able to finish it. I do think this book would be great for other people but it was not for me. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read it!

I received a copy from Netgalley / tor publishing group in exchange for an honest review.

This was short, descriptive, with just enough world building to keep me wanting more without feeling lost. I love a lady knight story. Theres not a whole ton I can say without major spoilers, but an easy read that almost makes you think. If you enjoyed Gideon the 9th, this is a lovely story you might enjoy as well.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy.

I quite enjoyed this story. It has an interesting story about women making their places in a world that feels live in.

Rating: 4/5

This was a very quick and entertaining read/listen. There isn't anything too complicated here but the characters are easy to like and the story is well thought out and fun. I look forward to reading more from Bond.

I’m not septain if this book was the first in a series: it reads as though it isn’t. The build up is long for the eventual pay off, twisty and difficult high fantasy with less interaction between female characters than I hoped. I generally dislike stories that run backwards and forwards in the timeline as this does. The saving grace is the way the story concludes, which leads me to hope that the next book in the series (hoping there is one) will deliver on the investment required by this book. I want to know what happens next between the two primary characters as they are at the end of the book.

An intriguing twist on classic dragon fantasy that ultimately - and surprisingly - suffers from lacking world-building and being too short.

The bones of The Fireborne Blade are incredibly intriguing even if they're nothing new to the genre. A female knight sets out on an epic quest to retrieve a mythical sword from a legendary dragon to redeem herself. There's a bunch of classic medieval fantasy and dragon lore, and an interesting but rushed twist at the end.

I ended up soft DNF-ing the digital ARC I received because I couldn't stay engaged or keep up with what was happening. The first half of the novella (just under 200 pages) switches between Knight Maddileh's present quest, her past, and archival accounts of other's experiences with dragons. But even with all that context in a relatively short book, I still couldn't fully process the characters and what they were experiencing until the last quarter or so of the audiobook I got from Libby.

Still, I'm obsessed with the concept, the cover, and the tiny bit of world-building presented in The Fireborne Blade. So, I will continue this series.

This was an interesting novella. I thought the way this story was told was intriguing, but it also made it all flow less easily. Basically we jump between written transcripts of knights and dragon encounters, Maddileh’s journey from months ago, and Maddileh’s journey now.

It takes most of the novella for the pieces to truly fall into place, and I didn’t even see it coming until it was revealed to Maddileh, although obviously, I am not going to speak to specifics because I try to avoid discussing spoilers in my reviews.

Honestly, I was a little disappointed that this was only a novella, because I did want to know more, but considering the split story and timelines, I don’t know that this story would have worked as well if it had been longer.

We met some interesting characters in this story, and some I liked, some I thought were fun and fascinating, and some I definitely disliked, so I always appreciate when the characters make me feel something. That is especially true in a novella where there’s only a couple hundred pages to really get a reader invested in the characters and the plot.

I read this pretty quickly, and I think it was a good introduction to this world and the magic and the dragons, as well as some of the deceptions and betrayals. I will say that I already put the next installment on my anticipated releases list, and I’m looking forward to reading it in October. I want to know what will happen next for Maddileh and Saralene.

This one was just not for me. I just struggled to get into it and found it very confusing.

Thank you for giving me the chance to read and review The Fireborn Blade.

The Fireborne Blade is a fantasy novella following Maddileh, a Knight who is going to attempt to kill the dragon White Lady, in order to steal back the Fireborne Blade. Getting the Fireborne Blade is Maddileh's chance to reclaim her honor after an incident that tarnished her reputation, which is already on the rocks because she is a woman.

The Fireborne Blade is a magical story about knighthood and deception. I really enjoyed the world and the characters Maddlieh encounters as she works to get to White Lady.

The story does jump around a bit in terms of time. Accounts of past dragon encounters throughout history gives readers examples of the dangerous journey Maddileh finds herself on. I really like the budding relationship between Maddileh and Saralene.

This was a great start to a fantasy novella series and I'm looking forward to reading more!

I received a copy of this from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This was fun! For a rather short novella, the pacing didn't feel rushed nor did it feel like anything was left out plot-wise. While the way the magic worked wasn't fully explained, I thought it's usage was fairly original. Blood magic is always interesting to read about. I also did not see that final twist coming. I'll definitely continue on with this series.

A queer knight who's also a dragonslayer but there's a whole host of intrigue happening?

I really liked how this was laid out, with a slow burn story that was aided in worldbuilding by archival segments. The plot twist didn't quite work out for me, but I'm intrigued to see where the second novella is going to go, and how the whole dragon thing is going to be handled, because I need more dragon.

The way the dragon slaying knight genre was tweaked and examined was fascinating, but the novella length wasn't long enough to go into much detail.

I received an ARC from NetGalley

Si es que no aprendo, veo una cubierta hiperrealista y me siento atraída por el libro, aunque en ocasiones como con The Fireborne Blade la cubierta sea lo mejor de la novela, lo cual es un poquito triste para los que nos gusta leer.


Charlotte Bond pretendía, o al menos así pienso yo, condensar en menos de 200 páginas todo lo entretenido de una novela de dragones con algo de magia, pero me temo que ha querido resumir tanto que al final se ha quedado casi sin material. La construcción del mundo en la novela es prácticamente inexistente, solo hace bastante referencia a los ¡14! reinos, pero vamos por no entretenerse ni siquiera sabemos el nombre ni sus relaciones, solo sabemos que son ¡14!, porque eso sí que lo recalca bien.

Una novela corta que no puede o no quiere extenderse mucho en el entorno debería dedicarse más a los personajes o los diálogos, o en algo que llame la atención del lector, como por ejemplo The Builders. En fin, algo que haga destacar tu historia dentro del maremágnum de fantasía que hay disponible en la actualidad. Pues tampoco, a pesar de que a priori elegir una protagonista femenina empeñada en cazar un dragón para limpiar su honor se sale algo de lo normal, pero para protagonista femenina fuerte prefiero cien mil veces a Briar de The Last Shield por mencionar un libro que he leído recientemente. Si me pongo a pensar me saldrían bastantes más y seguro que más memorables que Maddileh, que no sale muy bien parada de su periplo en busca del dragón. Los personajes que aparecen en toda la historias son pocos y la verdad, muy prescindibles. Vale que al final intentan dar un giro de “¡oh, sorpresa!” pero ya os digo yo que tampoco es que te caigas de culo con la revelación.

The Fireborne Blade es un producto de consumo rápido y como tal, no dejará ninguna huella en la memoria del lector.

The Fireborne Blade was a quick fantasy novella that did a pretty decent job of setting up the characters and their struggles. I think there definitely needs to be an expansion on the world-building, as I didn't get a very keen sense of where things were located in terms of countries/territories and just general settings for all the important places. The twist at the end was a big shock, and it's rare for me to say that because 9 times out of 10 I can guess the way a story's going. I'm eager to read the next installment to see what Maddileh does with her newfound status.

The Fireborne Blade is a short, but a very engaging novella that follows Maddileh, a knight that is looking to reclaim her honor. It was very easy to fall into the desperation that Maddileh was feeling throughout her quest, her desperate need to make things right.

I also loved reading the sections that told of previous knights that has slain dragons. It was a great way to get me sucked into the world and eager to learn more of it. The way the dragons were portrayed in The Fireborne Blade was also really interesting and it brought a feeling of epic to the novella. The way that ghosts linger in the Dragon's nest after they die, how death comes instantly to those touched by dragonfire. It was really interesting!

My only small, small gripe with this wonderful novella, and maybe it's a bit selfish as well, but I would've absolutely loved if this was a full novel. There are so many interesting pieces here, but it feels as if the pacing breaks into full sprint at the 90% mark to wrap everything up. However, I do realize that this is a series, and I am more than grateful that there's possibilities to spend more time in this world.

I am very much looking forward to the sequel!

Thank you so much for approving my request.

The Fireborne Blade 2.75⭐️ .5🌶️

High Fantasy Novella
Flashbacks/dual timeline
historical dictation
Dragon slayer FMC
Magic



There was a lot of repetitiveness in the writing, I understand it was a tool and on purpose, but I didn’t like it. I did enjoy the historical/first hand encounters of other dragon slayers. I think it really helped with the world building. There was so much potential, I just wish it had been a full length book.

The character work was fairly shallow, the plot was really good and I think deserved a longer book, to be honest. I wanted a better feel of who I was reading about. I know VeRY little about the FMC, still. And it made me care less about what happened to her.

The twist at the end was really good, but felt cheapened by the lack of character foundation.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the eARC of this novella. All opinions are my own.