Generally, liked the story here - FMC who wants to thwart her brother's (the crown prince's) plan for her arranged marriage infiltrates the rebellion with the intent to sell them out. I love a ruthless main character.
Was Teia that ruthless though? At the very beginning, we see her murdering a sellsword after not getting her way, which would imply it, but then she meets the rebellion and immediately goes soft. Now she's thinking about improving the world and joining the rebellion for good. That would be fine if there was some sort of natural progression to it, but it was like a flipped switch. (And no spoilers, but at the end of the book, the switch flips back without warning again).
Disappointed in the inconsistent characterization.
Also this book had a lot of telling, not showing. Kyra is the champion and everyone rallies around her. Why? Because we said so. Alara is the best Poison's Master we've ever seen.
Does she ever use her poisons? No, but just trust us.
Also Jura is cartoonishly evil, making you wonder how he didn't get deposed as a kid when other people on the council had the opportunity to get rid of him. Somehow people didn't notice that he is a complete psychopath until one month before his coronation?
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing twice and expecting different results, which is how I felt when the author just ran the same main story point back again and then somehow everything was magically resolved.
There were some things to like about this book. It was fast paced, there was some good banter, and I like the geopolitical set up for the story in the next book and beyond. I think this series has promise, but I was just a bit disappointed in the set-up in this book. If you are willing to overlook a little bit of wonky characterization and like heist stories and/or the magic system of Avatar: The Last Airbender, then this book might be for you.

First off, the cover is absolutely stunning and perfectly captures the essence of the book. What an impressive debut for this author—bravo! The storytelling is brilliant.
The world-building and background information are effectively woven into the storytelling versus given all at once, which I love. I appreciate how the details about Teia, our protagonist & princess, are revealed gradually rather than all at once. Her morally gray nature adds depth and keeps the reading engaging. She's also a bad ass. The rebel characters are likable and enjoyable to read, with their backstories to explain more about the rebellion.
The plot, centered on the rebellion against Jura, the ruler and Teia's half-brother, is filled with heists and strategic maneuvers that keep the tension high. & wow!
-The final chapters were especially surprising and left a lasting impression. I hope there will be a sequel!
Thank you NetGalley, Tiffany Wang, and Bindery Book for the e-ARC.

This has the makings of a great fantasy book. I see its potential to be one of the biggest books out there. One thing I would like to highlight is the writing style. It's easy to read. It's not big words and phrases that are very confusing to understand. The vocabulary used are easy to distinguish and comprehend. It's a great read for anyone who wants to venture into fantasy for the first time.

Tiffany Wang has made one hell of a debut with Inferno’s Heir; this book is easily among the top 5 best books I’ve read this year, and I loved every moment of it.

One of Wang’s main strengths was the way she wrote each character; everyone felt unique and had their own depth and quirks, and I appreciated how much each character grew throughout the book.

I can’t wait for the next installment in the series. …It IS going to be a series, right?

Thank you NetGalley and Bindery Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

(But seriously, when does book 2 release?)

3.5 ⭐️

First I’d like to thank NetGalley and Bindery books for gifting me with an early copy of Inferno’s Heir in exchange for an honest review.

Here are a few things you can look forward to in this book:

🔥 Morally Grey FMC
🔥 Budding Romance
🔥 Schemes and Deals
🔥 Betrayal
🔥 Heists
🔥 Court Politics
🔥 Reluctant Allies
🔥 Elemental Magic
🔥 Found Family

This book was a good time. It was heavily character driven and in the best way. I really connected with our FMC Teia. I thought she was so resourceful, empowering and incredibly brilliant! If you ever need a lesson in blackmailing, then she’s your girl.

The constant plotting in this book was so entertaining and so clever. I also really enjoyed the budding romance we see between our two reluctant allies. I’m a sucker for a book with intriguing court politics and maneuvering, and Inferno’s Heir delivers this in spades!

Because I became so attached to the found family in this story, it made the ending hurt so much worse! Talk about a cliffhanger! I’m officially anxious for book two to see what happens and I can’t wait for you all to get your hands on this book when it releases.

Well, what a delightful surprise. This book intrigued me from the very first chapters and once I started I just couldn't stop. Teia was such a good protagonist, she was everything I hope to find in a morally gray FMC (which is hard to find nowadays). For me the only flaw was the ending, I felt that at a certain point the book got a bit rushed and some things could’ve been better developed but it was so good anyway!!

Teia is the Princess of Erisia, and while one would think that would mean she lives a life of leisure that would be far from her reality. The mixed race daughter of the former King and Queen Teia is treated as an outsider in her own home, what's worse her brother Jura, the crown prince has spent all of Teia's life finding ways to eliminate her. His most recent attempt is to marry her off to a noble who killed both of his wives. As Jura's coronation day draws closer Teia is desperate to find a way out of her impending marriage and she's find the perfect way to do it; she'll discover the hideout of The Dawnbreakers a group of revolutionaries that have so far escaped Jura's grasp. With only weeks before she is sentenced to death for all intents and purposes, she will use whatever means necessary to befriend and then destroy The Dawnbreakers.

Teia is a sociopath. That's it. That's the whole story. There are a lot of attempts to show that her absolutely horrific behavior are a byproduct of growing up with an older brother whose basically a serial killer with magic, but they fall flat. At no point was I ever convinced that Teia was truly afraid of Jura, oh sure it's mentioned multiple times that just the sound of his voice "terrified" her but honestly by the time we get to that point we've established that Teia is just as sociopathic as he is so it's not believable. Basically, it's just another face she's wearing to get what she wants. But that's it, that's all Teia is. She doesn't change either into a better person or a worse one she just a slimeball from beginning to end. If there had been some character development, if just one of her schemes had crashed and burned (and yeah the ending should have been one of those instances but it wasn't Teia one more time didn't seem worried in the least), had she shown any genuine emotion at all at any point in this book this would easily be five stars. But she doesn't, not really. Everything works out according to plan because Teia is the smartest person in the room. Everything is just too perfect. And what makes this even harder to swallow is that even when things don't work out perfectly, they somehow do.

In terms of world building and dialogue, this was extremely well done. I read it in just a few hours because even though I spent half the book wanting to punch Teia in the face, it kept you on your toes. There is so much plotting, backstabbing, and just mayhem that reading it was almost like watching a train wreck, you realize that it isn't going to end well but you can't help but watch and have this faint glimmer of hope that maybe the car on the tracks will miraculously start and move before the train barrels into it. That being said, it did feel like the end was a bit rushed. I'm not gonna lie it almost felt like the author didn't want to spend too much time on Teia's extremely messed up decisions.


Overall, I guarantee a lot of people are going to love this one, and Wang truly is a talented author, but for me, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

As always thanks to NetGalley and Bindery Books for the eArc!

I enjoyed this read. It includes the found family trope, which I always adore. Teia is definitely a morally gray character, who is clever and strong. She does things to protect others, but she also does things to serve her own interests. I loved the banter between her and other side characters, like Enna, Tobias, and Kyra. The ending wraps up the major problem of the story, but it also gives enough for at least a 2nd novel without leaving you on a massive cliffhanger. This is a cliffhanger done right.

this was fine for YA fantasy. it reminded me a lot of six of crows and the cruel prince.

there were a few shortcomings, like the world building (very vague) and the pacing (half of the book is dedicated to two heists which take place in a couple of hours but the events told from beginning to end cover multiple weeks? months?). the characters mostly made up for that, they were fun. a morally gray mc does the trick for me usually.

a second installment is hinted at by the end and i do hope tiffany wang will be able to get that out because this debut proves she has a lot of potential.

thank you netgalley for the arc !

Thank you to Netgalley and Bindery Books for access to an advance reader copy of this book.

Wow! I couldn't put this book down. It has heists, political intrigue, a morally-grey main character who is steps ahead of everyone, elements of Found Family, a touch of romance and a great setup for more books in the series.

Teia is the second-born, female princess of her royal family and she's an outsider for a multitude of reasons. The world is broken into five countries, each of which is known for weilding a different element - water, fire, air, earth and metal. The book takes place in the Fire Country and we don't see or hear much about the other countries, but there is potential to explore more as the series progresses. This is similar to Avatar: The Last Airbender without feeling like a direct copy.

Teia is smart, but morally grey. She's all about survival and keeping herself alive in her Court, which is no easy task, since her brother Jura, is the absolute worst. There were so many moments where I wanted to yell at Teia to share what she's learned with her allies or SOMEONE. I thought for sure she was going to get screwed but Teia is two steps ahead of everyone else most of the time. Other characters have the moral high ground over Teia, but damn, is it fun to root for Teia. Teia is like Cersei in Game of Thrones, but way more likeable.

I really couldn't put it down and am looking forward to whatever happens next.

I loved this! It's definitely a slow burner, and at times it could be quite hard to track as there were various different pieces to try to follow and put together. I did love the plot and the relationships that developed between characters.

I also struggled to picture things, as it could be quite confusing with the descriptions, and I feel like the world building could be executed better, but overall it was a good read.

DNF 40%, this book is just not for me but it definitely is for other people. It’s very high stakes with a lot going on and I can tell from how much I read there’s a lot of setting pieces down, that will soon come all together.

one my smallest problems that frustrates me as i read is that i cant picture the setting at all. is it asian inspired? what time period? or is it western? like old london?

I am unfortunately DNF-ing this at 21%. The book had potential, but the pace was too slow for my liking. The beginning was quite confusing, and I struggled to stay engaged. I often felt lost and unsure about the plot, which made me want to put it down more than pick it up. I haven’t had the desire to continue reading it for four days, and I honestly don’t see myself picking it up again. While the idea was interesting, it didn’t feel unique or new in any way. The writing was fine, but the story just didn’t capture my interest, and I couldn’t force myself to keep reading.

Inferno's Heir follows 17 year old Teia, princess to the kingdom of Erisia as she struggles to find her power in a world where she feels she has none. Teia is the second child from a second marriage of the late king. While the royal line of Erisia possesses the ability to wield fire, since her mother was from the royal line of a different nation she can also control water. Her older brother Jura is about to take the thrown and has made it his life's mission to get rid of her one way or another before he becomes king. Now that his coronation is but days away, Teia must resort to more extreme methods than her usual petty blackmail to find a way out of marriage to a murderous courtier setup by her brother Jura and decides to infiltrate the Dawnbreakers, a rebel group that has been gaining notoriety, so she can use that information as leverage with Jura and get out from under his thumb. However, as she gets to know the members of the Dawnbreakers, Teia starts to wonder if maybe power can come from sources other than secrets or fire.

Starting with the good: Tiffany Wang constructs beautiful sentences and has great prose. The construction of this was very good. I also really liked the lore. The multiple kingdoms and elemental powers gifted from the goddess was well set up and very interesting. I also thought the heist elements of this were pretty well done.

That said, I really struggled with this book. I found Teia an exceptionally confusing character. I did not understand her motivation one bit and cannot tell you for the life of me if that's because she's supposed to be a flighty 17 year old, or if she is just spoiled and more like her brother than she wants to believe. I feel like the author was so worried about over explaining character points that she left too much out. I liked all of the characters and what we got of their stories, but I never felt like I had enough information to really be bought in to who they were, let alone their relationships with each other.

Minor spoilers below:

The continuity of world and systems and respective abilities was very confusing to me. For example Teia establishes early she can't work a lot of water, then floods a whole room in minutes, no one cares about the fire power, but apparently people are sort of scared about the water power, but only for the first chapter. Then trains exist I guess?

End spoilers.

There were so many setups that I could see how they could be built to mean something or flesh out a character, then they would just never be mentioned again and an exceptionally convenient thing would happen instead to keep things moving forward.

I think if you really like edgy heist YA this would be worth picking up, and I am interested in seeing where this author goes, but this book was just not for me.

this book was promising from the beginning but it moved too slow for me.

i’m starting to think the new fantasyish novels are just not for me.

Okay, first things first: WOW.

I had honestly no expectations when I started reading this book but it has simply blown my mind.
This was absolutely fantastic, I was hooked from the start, I LOVED all the characters and the plot (this is a heist story about a princess joining a group of rebels to take down her half brother!!!! what is there not to love?!).
So, do yourself a favour and READ IT!!!!

thank you netgalley for the eARC!

I found the start very slow and confusing and barely understood what was going on. However, it progressed to make more sense but the world-building was still poor. Nevertheless I loved the characters and found them very unique and likeable!

I really enjoyed this story and liked the main character's personality. I did find that there was a little too much pure chatting to my liking, i.e. the sort where characters sit around having fun banter as a way of relationship development, instead of merging that sort of talking with more interesting action. I glazed over these parts but other than that the rest of the book was filled with exciting action and I'm looking forward to the next part!

A princess joining a rebellion to betray her own family. That’s certainly enough to pique any fantasy reader’s interest.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Two heists in one story—exciting! I loved the whole cast; Enna was most especially my favorite. I love the little found family thing they had going on. My main issue was that it was repeatedly stated that Teia’s morals have gone out the window, but I wasn’t convinced of it until the last few chapters. That twist had me in a chokehold because I didn’t see the story go in that direction. Still, on the flip side, I wasn’t sold on Teia & Tobias’s relationship, and I feel like the magic system and worldbuilding could be explained/explored more.

Despite this, I will be looking forward to Inferno Heir’s sequel. I can’t wait to see more of Teia and the other characters as they deal with such consequences of the book’s events.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bindery Books for the ARC! :>

In “Inferno’s Heir,” Teia navigates a path to survival from her half-brother. She decides to join the rebellion to, ultimately, betray them and gain freedom from her brother. However, she finds herself doubting her intentions. Now, she must choose between betrayal or loyalty to her newfound allies. “Inferno’s Heir” is a YA fantasy on politics, rebellion, and revenge.

It is an easy read for a fantasy book (fantasy books can get confusing!!). I had so much reading this! I was fully immersed in the world and its characters. My favorite aspect of the book is the characters, especially the protagonist. All of them are multidimensional and nuanced– each of them has their reasons for their actions/beliefs. They are far from perfect which I love!! I always say this, but I love it when characters are humanized. While enjoyable, the story suffered from a lack of depth in its magic system and uneven pacing. The narrative started slowly, only to pick up speed abruptly in some parts and the end.

I can't say too much without spoiling it, but this book is a must-read! I am excited to read more from Tiffany Wang. Thanks to Bindery Books and Netgalley for the ARC.

Review posted on Goodreads and Instagram.