Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you, NetGalley and publishers.

A Fire in the Sky is a historical romantasy. Tamsyn has been raised alongside the three princesses of her kingdom, and the price she pays for her luxurious life is to be the whipping girl and bear the punishment her sisters earned. Then she is married to the barbarian Fell, lord of the northern border. He’s not pleased that she has helped to deceive him into thinking she’s one of the princesses. But on the journey home, they will discover that dragons are not as gone as everyone believes….

Intense in everything, intensely lush, fantastic, romantic, adventurous! I hope this just the beginning and far, far, from the end!

A very quick and enjoyable read. I didn't realize this is a prequel to another series so I had zero knowledge of what I was getting into, other than dragons. The main POVs were good but Stig could've been better fleshed out; I know that the triangle needs to resolve itself and he wasn't going to get the leg up over Fell but it felt sort of forced and weird the way that POV and eventual storyline played out. Honestly he couldn't even be in the book and the story wouldn't suffer. 3.5 stars rounded up.

I flew through this in less than 24 hours! I really enjoyed the storyline, and the plot definitely picks up speed towards the end of the book!

This book includes a classic enemies-to-lovers trope, which I love, and the main characters definitely had good chemistry. I wish we had been able to explore more of their relationship, but this book establishes a good foundation for the future. It also hints at there being something special about their bond, which will likely be explored in future books!

This book was a little predictable at times, but I enjoyed the timing of when certain twists were revealed. I liked having different POVs throughout the book, and of course, I loved the dragons!! (Would've maybe enjoyed a little more detail regarding what the dragons look like..)

Overall, I loved this story, and I will definitely pick up the next book!

Thank you NetGalley, Avon publishing, and Sophie Jordan for this ARC!

A Fire in the Sky Is a romance and a fantasy. Tamsyn is the royal whipping girl raised with the Princesses but whipped for their transgressions. When a border lord demands marriage to a princess the King and Queen deceive him - he marries Tamsyn. On the way to the Borderlands something unexpected happens which changes everything.
Unexpected ending but I loved it. Can’t wait to read more! Great beginning for a new series.

4.75/5
Amazing arranged marriage romance. One of my favorite tropes and did not disappoint. This book is a fantasy romance NOT a romantasy. It focuses on the people and does have a plot but it is NOT like Fourth Wing or things like that. It has great chemistry for the characters, multiple POVs, and does build the world pretty well. I just wish there was more interaction with other characters and more banter with Fell and Tamsyn. It is super easy to follow and for those dragon lover girlies it does not disappoint!

Thank you NetGalley and Avon for the opportunity to read this E-ARC! This is my honest opinion and I loved it!

I ate this up!

The tension between the main characters is everything. They built it up from the moment they meet and sparks fly. I love that they feel such a strong pull towards each other, it gives fated mates right off the bat but neither characters seems to know what it means which is delicious. This was a fast read with a unique storyline, it was a little predictable in places but so fun. I couldn’t put it down. I would give this a 3.5/3.75 but I’m rounding up to 4 because I accidentally whacked my friend a few times when I got excited.

A Fire in the Sky is a fun time, there is forced proximity, marriage of convenience (forced marriage? Arranged marriage? Really all of them), dragon shifters, fated mates (vibes and speculation though they never call each other that), a silly little adventure, and lots of Fell standing around naked.

I do wish was that there was more in the first book. I have a lot of questions about the magic and the dragons and even the world. The story is very focused on the romance and I think that leaves a lot open in the world building/plot. I found myself wanting to know more about the witches and the threshing and how all of that came to be. After reading I feel like I only read half what I was supposed to read, like there needed to be more for the book to feel complete. I think if this story was a little more fleshed out it would have easily been a 5 star read for me. That being said I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and that’s what I value most.

I have hope there will be more answers and details in future books. I will definitely be reading the sequels and I’ve already started recommending this to friends.

Thank you to Net Galley, Avon publishing, and Sophie Jordan for this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I’m definitely in the minority on this one, but Sophie Jordan’s newest fantasy novel was a complete miss for me. At best, it was predictable and boring; at worst, it was painful, embarrassing, and cringe-worthy.

So we have Tamysn, the royal whipping girl, who is forced to marry Fell, a warrior from the northern part of the kingdom. Fell is tricked into married Tamsyn, who isn’t exactly pleased about the arrangement either, and he takes a while to warm to her. They have lots of repetitive and cringy sex, which is the only real chemistry shown between characters (if you can even call it chemistry) and otherwise Tamsyn is ignored and dismissed by Fell. After something happens on their journey from the palace to The Borg, Fell suddenly realizes how much he loves Tamsyn and goes insane trying to rescue her. Blah blah blah. The whole “she’s mine and no one else can have her” trope, despite Fell’s character literally doing absolutely nothing to show that he has any sort of feelings towards her otherwise. To me, that trope doesn’t work when the MC obviously dislikes the character in question- or at least is indifferent to her as an individual person with thoughts, feelings, and needs. Fell only cared that he was deceived and that she was good at pleasing him sexually; he didn’t care about her as a person, which l made the trope feel out of place and unbelievable.

And the writing style absolutely did not work for me. When there wasn’t direct action happening in a chapter, the rest of it was written like a never ending monologue. I also hated how the different point of views retold the same events with little to no added information or substance.

The entire thing just fell flat for me. The ending felt forced and cringy, and I was honestly more pleased by the fact it was over than by the final scenes themselves.


Thank you NetGalley and Avon publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This one was good. This one has a great story IMO. I enjoyed the characters, the story, the world, the ending. Everything!!

This is an attention grabbing fantasy romance. The romance in this book starts out reluctant due To some deceiving actions with a instant connection. The book is spicy while there isnt a ton of spicy scenes, one does happen fairly quickly in the beginning of the book. The scenes are detailed to a spice lovers enjoyment. I he book does move at a steady to quicker pace as it follows Tamsyn as she is set on a course to marry the brutal boarder land leader Fell. Along their journey to his lands things will take a drastic turn leaving Tamsyn in more danger than she ever was before. Tamsyn is the royal whipping girl who has been treated other than her requirements with love and respect.
Fell is known for his brutality. and doing what he has to do to get what he wants. The kingdom has hunted dragons to extinction, or have they? This book will have you flipping pages to find out what is going to happen next!

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. This had a lot of elements that I love in fantasy novels like arranged marriage, and the history in the world of their kind of dragons and witches. I wish there was more though. I feel like some things could have been broadened and I would have felt more for what was happening in the plot and for the characters. I didn’t expect what was going to happen in the end.

A Fire in the Sky, by Sophie Jordan, is a spin on Dragons that I really liked, but couldn’t love, no matter how much I wanted to, I loved the premise, with its whipping girl heroine, but something just felt…incomplete, down to its abrupt ending. I did love the setting and world-building, the glimpses at the heroines “birth parents” left me titillated for more, but it just didn’t quite get me there.
3/5 stars.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

A fire in the sky is a new adult fantasy romance. All I needed to hear was fantasy, romance, and dragons, and I wanted to read this book. This is my first read from this author.

This is multiple pov between Tamsyn, Fell, and Stig. I enjoyed both Tamsyn and Fell’s pov but I honestly had no connection to Stig and would have been fine without his perspective. This book read like a historical romance with magic mixed in. The language and world definitely gave it that vibe rather than feeling like a fantasy novel first.

I’m always a sucker for enemies to lovers and tension and angst so I definitely enjoyed this between Tamsyn and Fell. I really did enjoy the romance aspect of this book. I liked both of our main characters and the tension between the two was done well and you could feel the connection that they have with each other. Their romance was definitely my favorite part of this story.

This is a personal preference and I know as the first in a fantasy series there is explanation needed to describe the world and backstory. But there was a lot of internal dialog rather than out loud conversations and it gave the story a bit of disconnect in my opinion. Too much internal dialog descriptions always disconnects me from the book and by the halfway point I could feel myself losing interest. The beginning of the book had a good start and I was reading fast and enjoying it but like I said by about the halfway point I could feel my interest stalling. I feel like the potential was really there but the last half lost its speed, I guess? Even though there were things happening the plot really moved at a slower pace and my attention wained because of this.

Overall I did enjoy this book, the characters, the romance, and the story itself. I even liked the writing style but the internal dialogue and amount of explanation going on really pulled me from the story itself for me, hence my rating. It was a solid 3.5 star read for me.

**ARC received in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you so much to the publisher Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for the review copy.**

4.2/5 ⭐️
🌶🌶/5 Spice

I read the Firelight series when I was younger, so I do remember some bits of the world, but honestly still felt like a new world since it has been so long.

I think this book did a lot of things right! Tamsyn, the FMC, was the whipping girl for the royal family since the princesses were not allowed to be harmed for their antics. Fell, The Beast and King of the Borderlands, came to the city to demand to marry a princess. The King, not wanting any of the true princesses to become Fell's bride, tricks Fell into marrying Tamsyn by keeping a vail over her face when getting married. When Fell finds out he has been tricked, he now looks at Tamsyn as the enemy as they venture back to his kingdom.

I liked the way Tamsyn endured all of her punishments and never complained once. It was refreshing to read about a character that went from such a difference in her living situation, that she never whined. I hate reading about FMC's who whine and are needy when forced to endure. She even didn't complain in her inner thoughts because she knew this was her new life and she was built to endure.

Fell also was a very likable MMC. He very much was a softy at heart, (view spoiler) but struggled with seeing Tamsyn as the victim as well in the act of betrayal by the king.

This book is more character driven and less world building than I would have liked. I wanted more details, to know more about the world and even the side characters. I wanted to learn more about the close friends/soldiers that Fell kept close, and understand their dynamic. I could honestly say I wanted an extra hundred pages or more to dive deeper into this story.

I will definitely be picking up the next one with that cliff hanger though!

Tropes:
✅ Marriage of Convenience
✅ Touch her and 💀
✅ Dragons 🐉
✅ Hidden Identity
✅ Love Triangle (kind of)
✅ JP MMC
✅ Betrayal
✅ Enemies-to-Lovers (kind of)
✅ Magic
✅ Multiple POV in First Person
✅ Cliffhanger

*more on good reads but this review removed any minor spoilers.*

I think fans of Fourth Wing and Throne of Glass will really enjoy this newest novel from Sophie Jordan! Perfectly fits with current Fantasy trends and is a great pairing with HBO’s House of Dragon!

The moment I saw the cover, I loved this. It was everything I want in a book, fast paced, had spice, great world building. I absolutely loved this and cannot wait for what’s coming!

This book was excellent!!! It had everything...multiple POV'S,forced proximity, spice! I couldn't put it down...writing was amazing, loved the world building! Can't wait to see what's next!

This was such a fun, fast-paced romantasy with dragons, magic, and fan-favorite tropes! I really enjoyed the romantic setup and pacing of this book. Both Tamsyn and Fell are intriguing leads and I'm excited to learn more about them and their pasts in the next book. I also really enjoyed the different points of view in the story so we learned more about the world that the book is set in.
The writing was pretty juvenile at times and used a lot of modern language, which took away from the intricate worldbuilding. I would have liked to see a little more complexity from the main characters and the romance developed extremely quickly, leaving little room for development or tension.
Overall, I really enjoyed A Fire in the Sky and am very excited to read the next installment once it releases!

I actually really enjoyed this book! None of the concepts are ground breaking, but I loved it all, nonetheless.

Tamsyn is a generic “tougher than I look” FMC. We’ve done this a million times. She is the royal whipping girl who takes punishment for her “sisters” when they misbehave. But she loves them anyways? That’s the part I find very toxic. When a beast of a man demands a wife, a princess specifically, it’s no shock when she’s pawned off within a day.

Besides the fact that Tamsyn can be boring, her arranged husband, Fell, is a certified grump. I love grump who are secretly soft. It’s like the most perfect thing! You watch this frozen Northman slowly melt and I love it. He becomes tender with only her, and gives serious “touch her and die” vibes.

I knew from the get go that they were “mates” because they had an immediate sense of where the other was. I just wasn’t expecting both of them to be shifters! I could tell Tamsyn was, but I was glad Fell was too.

I could tell this author had previously written YA works. The entire book didn’t read as an adult fantasy book. I felt like some of the spicier parts were spliced in to the story line. She did do a good job of creating tension between the characters when they arrived north, but I felt that the coupling was lackluster.

I was utterly blown away by just how quickly I ate this up. While some of the writing is choppy, I was still thoroughly entertained A Fire in the Sky. The characters are wonderful and I am fully invested in Fell and Tamsyn. Even more so with an ending like that! 100% will be preordering this book and very highly anticipating the next one to come!

Holy moly. I just finished this book and I am so ready for book two!! The drama! The tension! The secrets! Seriously. This book was absolutely amazing.

Tamsyn, the Royal whipping girl, has been raised as a princess but is something apart from the Royal family. When Fell, Lord Dryhten, visits the king asking for a royal bride to increase his standing within the council, he is tricked into marrying Tamsyn instead. While the pair have undeniable chemistry, Fell is smarting from the deception and Tamsyn is coming to terms with a life no longer hers to choose.

The tension between these two. Holy crap. I cannot get over how well it was written. Tamsyn and Fell make for such a great pair. Theirs passion and attraction and they just work so well together. I loved watching the pair of them feel each other out.

The plot was also just amazing. The twists and turns all made sense and there was a lot of excellent dialogue and foreshadowing! I blasted through this book. I could not put it down.

Seriously, if you like
Enemies to lovers
Arranged marriage
Broody, warrior MMC
Fiery, intelligent FMC
Magic
Dragons

Then this is the book for you!!

Thank you SO MUCH to HarperVoyager and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review!