So I was very excited to read this one as I have enjoyed Sophie Jordan's historical romances. I am also a lover of romantasy especially involving dragons. I really enjoyed this book. I am excited to see where the story goes as this book ends with a cliffhanger. Is this a perfect book, no. Honestly it does suffer from a repetitive inner monologue. Yes, I did figure out the "twist" very early.
However, it is an enjoyable quick read. Did I mention there are dragons! I enjoyed this book so much that I bought the hardcover edition as well (love the flipbook illustrations) and also bought the tangential series, Firelight.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon for this opportunity to read this ARC and share my opinions.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon and Harper Voyager, and Sophie Jordan for the ARC.

In a world where everyone believes dragons to be extinct and magic to be dying out if not dead, daughter of the king (only due to her role as the whipping girl) Tamsyn was forced into an arranged marriage with the Borderland Beast. But Lord Drythen believes he’s is marrying one of the king’s true daughters. Realizing he was deceived, Lord Drythen accepts Tamsyn as his wife and they head north to home. Along the way the group runs into trouble and Tamsyn discovers new things about herself and has to figure out how to go about huge development that could change everything.

I really enjoyed the multiple POVs and can see how other characters could have written from their point of view in later books. There were some parts where the writing was repeated for dramatic effect whether it be a phrase or word, and I felt that was a bit overdone. Maybe some additional editing or possibly just the writers style, that was my only main complaint. Over all I really enjoyed the book and THAT CLIFFHANGER!

What a fantastic read! The dual POV in this one hit just right. I loved the underdog story of a beautiful soul who just doesn’t quite belong, and gave me some feels of the From Blood and Ash series. I loved the character depth and the accessible fantasy world. I did not see the twist coming and loved every second. I don’t want to say too much and give anything away, so if you love fantasy, romantasy, spice, and dragons, you will enjoy this read.

This is a 5⭐️ 🌶️🌶️ (open door, medium spice) read

This book was a decent romantasy offering. The writing is solid, but it could benefit from another round of editing to reduce the repetition of thoughts, exposition, and the main conflict, which sometimes slows down the pacing. While it doesn’t offer anything revolutionary in the genre, the plot is ok, and even though I guessed the major twist within the first few chapters, the journey to get there was still worth it. Tamsyn can be a bit of an irritating heroine, but I found Fell to be a great character. The romance scenes are quite well done, and I’m particularly intrigued by the dragons—I’d love to learn more about them. Overall, there’s a lot to appreciate, and I’m probably going to read the next book whenever it comes out.

I want to be clear - while I have a lot to say about this book, I did enjoy it overall. It kept me hooked from start to finish, I generally like the two main characters, and the worldbuilding is interesting, if a little underdeveloped. I plan on reading the second book, and would recommend this to fans of romantasy (especially JLA fans). The writing of this book left a little to be desired, and I'm looking forward to seeing how Jordan's fantasy writing skills develop as the series go on.

First, this book relied heavily on internal monologue to tell the story. This led to a lot of "telling" and very little "showing" of what was happening. While there were frequently long passages of characters lamenting exactly how they were feeling, I also felt like there were a lot of emotional jumps, with the two protagonists going from one extreme to the other without reason or explanation. This made the chemistry feel a little underdeveloped and the whole thing overall kind of insta-lovey. I'm guessing this is going to be explained with some sort of fated mates thing in a future book, but I don't think having fated mates is a substitute for real emotional development.

Since the book consisted so much of monologuing, not all that much happened. The two characters spent basically the entire book together, yet didn't actually interact all that much. There also are no supporting characters that we get to know, other than Stig who frankly had zero redeeming qualities from start to finish. That's not a criticism, I think he was meant to be insufferable. But he's certainly not very complex. I would have loved to get to know characters like Mari or Tamsyn's sisters. I hope we spend more time with them in future books. It's a little hard to feel invested in the world and its people when I know so little about it.

Overall, I thought this one was fun and enjoyable. However, I'm hoping to see a little more from future books.

3 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Avon for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

This was incredible! I can’t wait for the next one. This was a book I didn’t know I needed in my life but so happy I have it now.

Spicy, male female, multiple points of view, romantasy. This was a quick and easy read full of witches, dragons, magic, twists, and romance. I enjoyed the premise and worldbuilding. The characters were interesting - the female lead especially. I'm looking forward to the next book!

This new adult romantic fantasy series has a captivating world of dragons, magic, and high-stakes drama. In a kingdom where dragons are extinct and magic is dying, Tamsyn, a royal whipping girl, is forced into a perilous marriage with Fell, the Beast of the Borderlands, to protect the princesses she serves. Raised in the palace but treated as a servant, Tamsyn’s life combines privilege and punishment. Her journey from a pawn in a dangerous game to a key player with hidden powers is gripping and emotional. The intense romance and Tamsyn’s evolving strength make this a thrilling start to a series that promises even more intrigue and magic.

I’m DNF’ing this at 65%. I know it’s close to the end but life is too short to read books that bore you. The way the characters monologue everything, show me don’t tell me please. There’s no chemistry with anyone in this book. As a fan of Top Gear I can’t get over a character named Stig, and I really want to punch that man in the face. Half of this book could’ve been cut out with some more succinct dialogue and we could’ve introduced the action and blatant plot twist. I wanted to enjoy this but I don’t.

What a ride! I really enjoyed this book. The multiple POV’s were awesome and well placed. The plot had good pacing and the characters were just right. The backstory was told well without too much info-dumping which I always appreciate. The plot twists were twisty and that ending!!

This definitely has some spice! Not for the faint of heart. Overall, I really enjoyed it!

Originally had thought this was good time, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized this story was just not for me. I don’t really think the main couple had a connection, they could have explored the family dynamics more, and Stig was obviously written to be disliked but not in a fun way. Not to say there were no good parts (ie world building and what we did see between her and her sisters) but not enough to save it. Overall it has potential but did not leave up to them. May be I’ll pick up book 2 when it comes out in the library.

I remember reading and enjoying Sophie Jordan’s YA dragon series a couple of years ago so I was thrilled to get an ARC for her new adult fantasy book expanding on this world (I think at least lol). Thanks so much to NetGalley, Sophie Jordan, and her publisher, Avon for the ARC!
 
Fire in the Sky follows Tamsyn, the whipping girl for the royal family. She has 3 “sisters” that she takes the punishment for. When Fell, the leader of the border group that keeps their kingdom safe (previously from dragons, now thought to be extinct, and outsiders) shows up to court demanding a bride, the King and Queen trick him by giving him Tamsyn instead of one of the three princesses. This book follows their journey as they travel back to Fell’s home and deal with the sudden feelings between them as well as the betrayal Fell feels at not having been given a princess. This book was a short, easy, and fun read perfect for fall! I can’t wait for book 2!

I went into this book not really knowing what to expect, and I was happily surprised. My heart hurts for Tamsin, how could her parents do such a thing to her. I was happy to see her get married to fell, even if he was a rough man he was better then what her 'family' ever was to her. He saw a likeness in her. He saw she struggled and was treated differently but he also so a strong women that wanted to protect those she loved. I like this book it had it's ups and downs it had it's foes and betrayals and even a few twist! I'm eager to see where the next installment will take readers.

This wasn’t a bad book but also wasn’t a great book. The book was very predictable and some of the dialogue was repetitive. I don’t think I would read the next books

★★★★★

I heard so many people raving about it, so I preordered months ago. Let me tell you, it did NOT disappoint. I mean an arranged marriage in a world where dragons have been hunted to 'extinction' between the royal whipping girl and the famous brute from the treacherous border region? Count me in!

We get to see a lot of build up to the marriage, the actual marriage, and then the long journey back to the north. Definitely a lot of world building happening, but it's done in such a way that gets you attached to the characters and world to really prepare you for that cliffhanger. I'm a big world building gal, so honestly it was almost refreshing to take that time with the characters and see the things that a normally skipped over. And let me tell you, loved the characters. I'm obsessed with Fell and Tamsyn. I am upset about Stig bc I didn't automatically hate his character, but then his actions during the bedding ceremony flipped the switch which did making the ending with him less impactful for me.

It was a little predictable at times BUT it didn't take away from how fun and entertaining the story was.

The world building was decent. There wasn't really anything that was too complicated that needed extra elaboration, and everything seemed pretty simple and easy to understand. But parts of me also wishes that it was more elaborate. A lot of the middle of the book was pretty bland because it was of their travels to the Borderlands, and I feel like it had a bunch of wasted space that could have been better utilized trying to enhance the plot.

This book also had some good tropes in it: arranged marriage, touch her and die, and of course, shifters and dragons. For the most part, they were done well. The arranged marriage had a lot of twists and turns in the beginning, but everything settled so fast. I was expecting a lot more conflict considering everything that happened.

Speaking of expecting more, the romance was a bit lackluster. They went from not speaking, looking at each other, or touching each other for weeks on end, and then suddenly he's willing to break all of his rules for her, go against his greatest warriors, who he's been with for a long time, for her, and putting off their plans of getting home safe, just to find her, and putting everyone else he is with at risk. It just didn't make any sense to me and there was a great lack of build up.

I was a bit disappointed by the ending. At first, it caught me off guard and I loved it, but then something else happened at the very end and everything was kind of doubled down, and I was not a fan. I do think it would have been better if the 2nd thing didn't happen and it went in a different direction.

I really loved this one, it was my first Sophie Jordan read and it definitely will not be my last. I loved the world within and found the characters well written and multidimensional. The romance within was really lovely, I was shocked by how much I enjoyed it in all honesty. It has one of my least favourite tropes but it was so well executed that I loved it here. I cannot wait for book two, and I’m so going back and reading all of Sophie Jordan’s books!!

Some fantasy worlds take a bit of preliminary world building to get into, but that was not the case with A Fire in the Sky. I was immediately swept up in the story of Tamsyn. The heat and the characters and the universe it takes place in were all absolutely delectable and I actually slowed down my reading to make it last longer! I hope the author is working on the next because I WILL impatiently blow up her DMs until I get more!

This was a fun little romantasy adventure! Here you have:
- A fast paced read with plenty of action that keeps the pages turning
- Dragons 🐉 and witches and magical creatures
- Some favorite tropes including enemies to lovers and arranged marriage
- Spice 🌶️
- Lies and trickery
- Political intrigue
- And did I say dragons? Because dragons 🐉😍
Here’s what a wanted a bit more of:
- More intricate world building-I didn’t feel connected to the world. One of my favorite things about reading fantasy is feeling immersed in the world, and I just didn’t get there here.
- More description. The writing fell a bit flat for me. This also would have helped the world building. It lacked the rich, imaginative prose and vivid details that helps draw the reader in. There’s reading a story and then there’s feeling engaged in the story. Feeling a part of. I was the former.

That said, I truly enjoyed it and definitely want to read the sequel so 4 solid ⭐️ Thank you to Avon Books and NetGalley for providing the arc for review! All opinions are my own.

This book really had the potential to be incredible. I did enjoy reading it, but I just felt it had too many plot holes and a lot of it was just unbelievable. The FMC & MMC were just too indifferent about almost everything. They just went along with anything for the sake of going along to further the plot. Anything that happened? They just said okay and then went on never really questioning anything. For example, at one point something happens to the FMC and it seems super traumatic and this other person is able to help her it seems, but she just gets up and leaves and is like "this terrible thing is probably going to happen again and I don't know how to fix it, but whatevs, I'll just leave and not ask for any help or guidance" It was just unbelievable. She should have been relentless in asking questions and looking for the answers. Digging for even the smallest hint on how to fix the problem in the future. Also, it felt as if almost nothing happened in the book, the first third is an arranged marriage, the second third is a road trip, and the final third is fairly anti-climatic after arriving at the destination. I feel like it was really missing some larger conflict, and I would have liked to see more interaction between the MMC and FFC, more dialogue and interactions to build their relationship.

The story was really fun, and I loved the concept. I will happily read the rest of the series, although I will be hoping for more world building, dialogue, action, and less repetitive descriptions. It's a fun easy read, and while theres not many spicy scenes(3 I think), they were probably my favorite parts of this book.