Member Reviews
I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.
A beautiful story that transports the reader to a world filled with danger, fantasy, dragons, and a world that is so rich in detail it feels alive. Jenn Lyons' has done it again.
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
The Sky on Fire is an interesting story about a woman named Anahrod who teams up with a group of misfits to execute the biggest and most dangerous heist of all time. I had a good time with this one but I felt like a lot of the story was underdeveloped. I never felt connected to the characters or fully understood their motivations. I felt like there was a bit too much going on at times and we didn't get to spend enough time in one place or focus enough on certain aspects of the world. I would of liked a lot more from this story and would have loved to see this expanded into a series to be able to add more to the story.
Thank you to the publisher for gifting me an ARC of this book!
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Fun fantasy book in the realm of Forth Wing. I would recommend this book to most.
Good book, incredible world building and characters. I just wanted to see that this book would have been better fleshed out as a trilogy. One book was simply not enough for me especially when the ending left me wanting more about how the rebuilding world would be.
This felt kind of all over for me. You get thrown into a battle right off the beginning, but then there's dialogue that felt like it went on for ages. I liked the idea of the dragon riders and the non riders, but I just really struggled to get into this one.
I started this book, but it wasn’t for me. I didn’t care for the writing style, so I decided not to get all the way to the end of the book. I had similar issues with another book by this author, so I would actually recommend this book to people who like the author’s writing style and are interested in the premise!
Hot damn, I do not like this book. I had an eARC and tried for too long to get through it prior to its release date, but put it down at over 60%. I decided to wait for a library loan of the audiobook to try and finish it that way, and after ten days of trying that I’m pulling the plug.
What initially put me off was the constant insta-lust. It’s jarring and takes me right out of the story. Then, the story has a weird habit (trope? maybe?) of the FMC getting knocked unconscious. It seems like a lazy way of resolving conflict, and it just forces characters along in the plot. This happens at least three times that I can think of. The pacing itself had me constantly questioning why it was either dragging along or at a peak seemingly out of nowhere.
Outside of all that, there are a few characters that I can appreciate. I still don’t know for sure who is who when it comes to side characters, but a couple of them had funny quirks and were fairly witty.
I don’t typically like to write “negative” reviews, but maybe there’s someone out there who loves the things that I don’t about this book. I hope that’s the case because honestly the cover is really cool and I was genuinely excited about this one.
Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for allowing me to have this Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review!
The Sky on Fire follows our FMC Anahrod. She has grown accustomed to her solitary life when one day she is captured by the local warlord. Thankfully she is sprung from her capture by a band of misfits and after separating ways, Anahrod thought she was going back to her every day life. Much to her surprise, such was not the case. She is now being roped in to accomplish the biggest heist ever, stealing a dragon’s hoard. There’s just one major issue, this specific dragon wants Anahrod dead!
Although I have some degree of understanding of the story and the plot, I read 45% of the book before deciding to DNF. The synopsis was captivating and I really wanted to read a heist story that would blow my socks off but half way through the book I didn’t understand what was going on! There were so many characters and so many pieces of the story given to us that I couldn’t figure out what was relevant to the overarching plot. I wish the story wasn’t so muddled with information so it would be easier to follow. Maybe I will try this again in the future but for now I’ll have to leave it behind.
I think it’s been a while since I read a fantasy book with dragons, even though I do love them quite a bit. I was definitely glad this is a stand-alone because I’ve become horrible at keeping track with series. And this was quite enjoyable.
Firstly the narration of the audiobook was very good, and especially helped me with the pronunciations of everything. But I did get too impatient in the second half of the book and just read my ebook instead of the audio, coz I just wanted to get to know what was gonna happen, as soon as possible. The writing itself was easy to read, full of fun banter and humor, and some great friendships and romantic entanglements, that it made for a lovely read which had me smiling while also being quite edge of the seat.
While there were places where we get a lot of info dumps about the world and the magic system, and some plotlines were just left hanging without satisfying exploration, I still thought the author did a good job making it an overall fun fantasy read. The dragon/dragonrider dynamics, the eclectic group banded together for an impossible heist, a very unexpected and instalovey but ultimately adorable throuple, and a very action packed last quarter, make this definitely one of the books that I had most fun reading this year.
I liked this one. I think it had a fun and unique approach to dragons while also hitting all the familiar tropes. As always, Lyons approaches sexuality in a unique and interesting way. My main issue was that this book was trying to do too many things at once to where you couldn't dig deep on any one element. I wanted a bit richer world building. I also felt like the pace was breakneck while not really moving the plot forward until about 40%. At that point, the plot moved, but it was still SOOOO fast that I didn't get to enjoy anything. Dig deeper into anything. I did like the plot and the characters I just wanted more depth
I didn’t get to finish this book, I got a new Amazon prime account and my kindle deleted everything associated with my previous account including all of my downloads and I only just figured out why it wasn’t appearing whenI tried re-sending to my kindle multiple times. Now I’ve finally found the source of my problem and changed/updated the kindle email and can now download books again. It really messed up my reviews for all of the books I’d requested over the past few months, I apologize. I liked what I was able to read so that’s what I’m rating. I will purchase finish and properly review this and thank NetGalley for the ARC at a later date.
I was able to read this because NetGalley provided with an arc. I loved this romantasy. Great Read. I would read more by this author.
Absolutely loved this book. The characters all had great depth, interesting motives, and the plot twists were awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed the protagonist’s romance(s), the flirting & emotional turmoil she went through as she tried to sort through her feelings. The ending was extremely satisfying, without the overdone “and they lived happily ever after.”
One aspect I really adored throughout the book was the garden rings— how individuals ‘shared’ their gender identity, including whether they were trans, and both their romantic and sexual orientations. It was a brilliant way to show how normalized & accepted queerness was in the book, as well as being a great bit of worldbuilding.
I'm a big Jenn Lyons fan and though I long her longer series, I thought this was a great standalone (though I would love to return to the world to see what trouble her brother gets himself into as he gets older)! Lyons always serves with her love triangles and this was no different. I thought the dragons were interesting and the world-building was fun. Really my only issue was that I didn't love the way the novel handled the story of an abused character (Jaime). I understand that he was making questionable choices but I thought at the only main character who was suffered that type of abuse the narrative was very unforgiving towards him.
I have always loved reading about dragons. T.A. Barron, the Hobbit, pretty much anything fantasy I absorbed and devoured as a kid and into adulthood. I do read many different genres, but sometimes it's comforting to come back to an old favorite. The Sky on Fire by Jenn Lyons scratched the missing dragons in my life itch.
I admit, I did struggle a little bit after the initial introduction to the characters. The pacing of the story was a little off, but nothing that was too distracting from the story. It wasn't difficult to follow, it was more that things went very very very fast or very very very slow with not a lot of in between. There were moments I felt a little jerked around and it was a little choppy in portions of the storytelling.
In my opinion, the book potentially could have benefited from being split, whether that's into two or three I'm not sure but it could have really been a more series with all the storylines that the author explored. There were pieces of the book that I wish had been moved around, and it felt like there were several distinct story lines that did not get the full depth they could have if it were split. We get a lot of lore in the end of the novel, that I think would have been better placed in the beginning or middle as it helps give context to events. Overall, if you're looking for a dragon fantasy novel, this was a fun read, and I enjoyed the unveiling of the characters and their motivations and priorities as the book went on. There is a resurgence in the dragon fantasy novel, and this is great for any reader that wants to lose themselves in the political intrigues of dragons. As a heads up, there are some spicy scenes and discussions in the latter half of the novel.
Please be advised that I received an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book.*
I am sorry to say that I could not get into this book at all. The beginning confused me and even though things started to make more sense soon, I disliked all characters and did not care for world or story. Not sure if I'm the problem because this book has a lot of things that I usually enjoy, but somehow it did not grow on me at all.
So maybe ignore this review. Sorry!
2.5 stars because DRAGONS
I received an advanced copy of The Sky on Fire from Netgalley and the publisher and am leaving this review voluntarily.
The Sky on Fire is a book that has everything I love: dragons, heists, adventure, and magic. However, something about it left me unsatisfied, and I had to mark this book as a DNF.
The prologue reeled me in, leaving me with so many questions. Knowing that the book is about Anahrod, having those first characters talk about her the way they did left me intrigued. I needed to know what happened, and I wanted to understand more about this world that is separated by those who live in the sky and those who live on the ground. And the dragon/dragon-rider relationship? Fascinating. But then ...
I honestly couldn't tell you what happened. The first chapter throws you into the action and doesn't let up. I had no issues with the writing style and can't say that the story wasn't pulling me along. There was something about it, though, that left me not wanting to pick the book back up, and every time I did, I would only get a couple of pages in before wanting to do something else.
There was a lot of information thrown at you at once. I love starting with action scenes, but that means the author needs to find a way to integrate the world-building with those action scenes so the reader can follow what's going on. I didn't get that seamless flow here. It felt like the information interrupted the scenes, pulling me from what was supposed to be an intense moment. I have no problem with that happening occasionally, but the consistency started getting to me. I'm the person who wants all the world-building the author can give me, but, like most, I'm not too fond of it all at once in undigestible chunks in the middle of the action.
Furthermore, none of the characters resonated with me. They may get better as the story goes on, but they fell particularly flat in those chapters I read, their personalities feeling too reliant on familiar group tropes. I'm sure I've said it in other reviews, but I have no problem with authors relying on tropes for characters. They're popular for a reason, and I enjoy them. My issue is that sometimes, the trope is the only part of their personality. Again, this may get better as the story continues, but the characters needed to engage me more initially to want to continue to read about them.
While The Sky on Fire was a DNF for me, I believe it has the potential to draw others in. The first chapters didn't align with my reading preferences, leading to frustration that persisted until I eventually gave up. However, I encourage you to give it a chance, as it may work for you in ways it didn't for me.
I thought I’d love The Sky on Fire because it has magic, dragons, the whole shebang. While I did enjoy aspects of it, I found the majority of the tropes to feel like they were lacking. I found the pacing to be really odd and kind of off putting at times, some parts really dragged on. I wasn’t super engaged in the story or the outcome for the characters. I did find the world building and fantasy elements interesting!
Thank you Tor Books and netgalley for my copy!
The Sky on Fire is the newest book from Jenn Lyons, the author of the A Chorus of Dragons series. I really enjoyed the world-building and characters in this book. The plot felt a little predictable at times, but I still very much enjoyed the ride and look forward to more in the series (hopefully).