Inferno´s Heir by Tiffany Wang is a YA Fantasy book that focus on Teia, who us an outcast princess who is trying to join a rebel alliance called the Dawnbreakers. Her brother, Jura is about to be crowned prince and since their relationship is not the best Teia sees her only option for freedom to infiltrate the Dawnbreakers as a way to bargain for her freedom.

Let me just start by saying I truly liked this book, I found Teia refreshing, as it was my first time where the main character is morally grey. I would describe Teia as an anti-hero and she never tries to pretend to actually be a hero, at the end of the day she will choose what is best for herself.

This book had really great female side characters my favorites were Alara (poison expert) and Enna (master thief), I loved every interaction between Teia and Enna, they were always very amusing.

For me this was a very fast read, I kept wanting to know what would happen in this book. Although, I thought this was a stand alone book, with how the book ended I can definitely tell that there is an idea for a sequel, as the ending left the door open for one.

Overall, this book was a 4.5 stars read for me, I rounded to 5 stars as there are no half stars here and it is definitely closer to a 5 star read then a 4 star one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bindery Books for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Teia has zero faith in humanity and despises the monarchy. Her parents’ death means her half brother Jura rules Erisia. And he is ruthless. When ruthless leaders rule, rebellions form. A rebellion tries to overthrow Jura and his cronies to create a democracy in Erisia. Teia befriends the rebels and helps them overthrow the monarchy, and her powers are in full swing. But what if Teia wants the throne? Will greed take over?

Omg I can’t say enough good things about this book! I loved it. Once I got into it, I couldn’t put it down. Can’t wait for the sequel!

Read from October 8th, 2024 to October 14th, 2024. Written on October 15th, 2024.

~3.5~

Happy release day!

Looking for a fantasy book with a rebel group trying to overthrow a monarchy? Royal families from different kingdoms with powers? A heartless Crown Prince? And a princess with a difficult decision? Well you've got it all and more in this book.

I genuinely had a great time reading this story. The world-building wasn't overbearing, and yet I am craving more about each kingdom and how the powers came to be. The characters are intriguing, the situations are nerve-wrecking, there is so much going on pretty much at all times.

Now, I do have to say that I felt like I could read 100 more pages of this, mainly because the ending felt rushed. Personally, I think that the build-up for the ending is so big throughout the book (which I love) but in the end it gets settled in, what felt like, less than 10 pages. I wanted the drag, the emotion, the big showdown(?) and it was sort of just thrown in there just because. I don't think I would mind reading that moment in a second book, especially since the actual ending already creates a bridge for a continuation of the first book. In general, I felt like most of the real action happened in the last 100-150 pages, and somehow it still felt like it could have had more time to digest everything and work it all out more smoothly.

I am very happy I got to read this book and I am excited for (hopefully) a second story. There is still so much that could be told and explored by the author and it deserves to be shown.

Thank you for the opportunity!

Signing off,
B.

(Free ARC from NetGalley and Bindery Books that I chose to review after reading - Cross-posted on Goodreads on October 15th, 2024)

This book was so good. I loved to read Teia's story. She is feisty, a bit egoistic and just not your typical heroine. But I kind of loved her. The story ist amazing, there were just a few inconsistencies in my opinion (mostly concerning her plan involving Jura and the dawnbreakers). But what I loved most was the writing! It was just so good!
Would have preferred to get a bit more romance involved because the possibilities were there.
But all in all really enjoyed this one.

An absolutely riveting debut from author Tiffany Wang.

Despite being a princess, Teia has been doing whatever it takes to survive for years. Her parents are dead and her half brother, Jura, is set to ascend to her father's throne. But Jura's cruelty knows no bounds so Teia has learned to cope the best way that she can. As his coronation nears, Jura seeks to destroy any and all resistance to his rule, including the rebellious movement known as the Dawnbreakers.

But, thus far, the Dawnbreakers have proven illusive. He sets a reward for information on the rebels and their champion that is so tempting even Teia takes notice. Perhaps if she can weasel out the location of these rebels and earn that reward for herself she will finally be safe. But as she infiltrates their ranks, second thoughts begin to surface. Teia suddenly finds herself becoming friends with these rebels and they leave her questioning her plan. Maybe, just maybe, there is another way for her to proceed?

This. Book. Was. EVERYTHING.

Words cannot describe how brilliant this debut is. The world that Wang has created is rich and colorful, full of magic and political intrigue. We see a blending of fantasy and real world elements in the creation of this setting from the ability to wield the elements to firearms, trains, and indoor plumbing. Wang paints such a vivid picture of the city of Bahnot that it was almost like I was walking the streets myself.

Teia was such a strong and compelling character. Torn between two worlds in more ways than one, it was so interesting to see the way Teia grew and changed throughout the course of the novel. Constantly reminding everyone that Jura is only her half brother, I think Teia fails to realize that she might be a little like him after all. The events of the ending definitely came as a bit of a surprise. However, things have been left incredibly open ended and I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see another novel and continued growth for our heroine.

The rest of the cast of characters were equally as compelling. The way they talked and related to each other kept me fully engaged the whole time I was reading. I love good witty banter and this novel was rife with it. Wang balance a lot of complex motivations and emotions and it will be interesting to see how these continue to coalesce and develop should we get another installment in this tale. And the action! Don't even get me started on the way the events of this book kept me on the edge of my seat!

I already want to read this story again and I am praying for more. Please don't leave me hanging!

I really enjoyed this book! I thought the characters were compelling and the story had me hooked from start to finish. Although I managed to anticipate a few plot points, the unexpected conclusion took me by surprise. I'm very excited for the next book!

Thank you, Bindery Books, NetGalley, and Tiffany Wang for allowing me the opportunity to review this book!

"Teia would survive this, just as she had everything else. She would take her fear and wield it as a weapon."

Actual Rating: 4.5/5

Thank you to NetGalley, Tiffany Wang, and Blindery Books for the E-ARC!

If you liked The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller you need to pick up this book! A book filled with politics, heists, unlikely allies, and a morally grey FMC, this is a must-read.

Teia is a Princess without any of the bonuses, with assassination attempts done to her by her own half-brother, Jura. She's tired of living in his shadow, her hand promised in marriage by Jura to a man who's known to have killed his previous wives. That's why when Teia hears that Jura will give a favour to any person who brings him a key member of a rebel group called the Dawnbreakers, she knows what she has to do. When she finally finds this group though, her plans go out the window and she's forced to enact a heist she thinks is almost impossible to succeed.

This book was a bit slow going for me at the start (the fact I've been in a reading slump didn't help), but when it picks up, it's impossible to put down. I went from being only 17% in to finishing the rest in one sitting. Safe to say, I think it's gotten me out of the slump I was in. As you get into the book, there are so many things going on, mountains of schemes and alliances, new enemies and allies, and Teia is at the center of everything.

Speaking of Teia, I absolutely adored her as the protagonist. A morally grey character who just wants what's best for her. She doesn't care for the needs of other's and isn't afraid to use or even blackmail them if it helps her with her personal causes. She's intelligent, brutal and doesn't waiver from what she wants. I loved experiencing her journey throughout the story as she meets new people and takes on challenge after challenge.

I really hope there'll be a second book to this, because I really want to read more from these characters and the universe! I highly recommend picking this up if you enjoy fantasy, adventure, heists and plots upon plots.

If you enjoy found family, heists, and some spiteful forced proximity to something more, this is the perfect book for you! With incredibly detailed world-building world-building that adds to the fantastical nature of the book, Inferno’s Heir transports you directly into the world of Erisia. It is truly the perfect balance between a complex, scheming heist and magnificent and breathtaking magic. Teia, a fiery princess who feels like a black sheep in her own kingdom, discovers a rebel group has infiltrated the castle. Her half-brother Jura, the future king who is bound to be a cruel ruthless ruler is about to take the throne. And Teia is not exactly thrilled. Instead of turning them in or banishing their presence, she joins forces with them. But someone will be betrayed in the end… Teia just has to decide who.

This was a really excellent Fantasy debut! I loved the world, the creation myth, the elemental magic. I also really love reading a main female character that is flawed and knows it. Teia is a woman who isn't going to let anything keep her from getting what she wants. She lives a double life, living in the palace and attending court, and sneaking out at night to aid her side business: blackmail. She sees an opportunity arise to get out from under her sadistic brother's thumb, and stumbles across a group of rebels that quickly become friends. We see plans that go awry, people lost, and backs stabbed. For me personally, I LOVED that this was not romantasy, as the pace of the story was nearly perfect and any side romances would have ruined it. Highly recommend!

First of all, I wanna thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book. Sorry I couldn't manage to read it earlier but I just read it and it's so good!
First of all, our main character Teia... She has to endure so much from her scum of a brother. I love the dynamic of her friendship with Enna from the start. Next enters Kyra and she's absolutely adorable, she passed me little sister vibes.
I was skeptical at the Dawnbreakers at first and I had the feeling at least one of them would be revealed to be a traitor. As she got closer to them, I LOVED the found family in them: Teia, Kyra, Tobias, Alara and Enna. They made me smile so much when they were together, either scheming or just in each other's company.
The last 50 pages left me jawdropped with the twists and what Teia found out and all she did until the end of the book.
I started this book with no expectations and without knowing if it was a standalone or not. With this ending of course there'll be at least another book and I can't wait for it. This was such a great surprise 👌🏻

Teia is an outcast in her own kingdom but after her parents’ death she sees a great threat from her remaining brother who is in line for the throne. So she decides to join the rebellion in order to secure her own safety. But when she gets to know the rebels, she gets more than she bargained for - friendships and doubt about all she ever knows. This was an enjoyable fantasy to read. Thank you Bindery Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Teia has inherited both fire and water magic from her parents and has to use her powers as well as her wits to stay two steps ahead of her sadistic half brother, Crown Prince Jura. When Jura puts a price on the head of a local rebel leader, Teia decides to infiltrate the rebel cause in order to ensure herself safety from her half-brother's whims. As she begins to help the rebels, she has to decide, does she actually want to join their cause or does she want the throne for herself?

I would like to applaud Wang as she made Teia everything that I had wanted Shan from Mistress of Lies to be. Thank you for giving us a morally gray, backstabbing and intelligent female lead. And also, what a fantastic use of an unreliable narrator as Teia definitely pulls the wool over the reader's eyes until the very end. I thought this book was going in one direction and was annoyed at it being so obvious. But then, Wang executes a fantastic twist in the end that left my jaw on the floor. Obviously, I was pleasantly surprised.

Teia oscillates between being an antiheroine to an anti-villain throughout the book in a way that made her enjoyably complex. Although she is an unreliable narrator, we are shown how her childhood and abuse at the hands of her brother shapes her into the woman that she becomes. She is obviously cut throat but still longs for the safety and love that she experienced with her parents. I don't want to spoil anything but she makes it clear by the end that power is more important than love (and does that make her more like her half brother than she realizes? Absolutely but she doesn't have the level of self awareness to recognize that).

For the most part, the character development was well done throughout with the exception of the 'evil coded' characters: Jura and the rebel leader Cornelius. Jura is given very little to flesh him out beyond painting him as a psychopath (like literally mentioning that he tortures animals and loves playing with fire). I know we are supposed to be rooting against him but I like when villains are given something beyond the villainy. In the same vein, Cornelius just screams 'I can't be trusted and will double cross my own followers at any chance' from his very first introduction. Please give me a reason to root for Teia beyond: well obviously she's better than those two men with antisocial personality disorder.

Overall, a fun action packed read that kept the tension up throughout.

Reviews will be posted on Goodreads, Fable and Storygraph 10/13 and on TIktok either 10/14 or 15.

We follow the main character, Teia, who feels trapped when her half brother and heir to the throne, Jura announces a marriage contract to an abusive man. Teia will do anything to get out of this contract and escape (kinda) her evil brother. Jura is evil, manipulative, and enjoys causing pain- a psychopath who Teia is terrified of. Teia gets the chance to infiltrate the rebel group in hopes to eventually turn them in to Jura so that she can get out of the marriage contract.

The beginning was gripping and I was able to flow with the pacing. But Teia’s character was difficult for me to connect with. It felt like she was trying to have a big and sneaky reason to infiltrate the rebels but it fell flat. All that for a favor that you honestly believe Jura would uphold? When he gives no reason to follow his word. I think this would be a great book with a little more development into Teia’s and the side characters. It felt like a decent set up to a series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in return for an honest review

This reads like Avatar the Last Airbender meets Six of Crows, and those are two of my favorite things ever!!! Incredible that this is a debut, it's packed with a tightly paced story rich with political intrigue, worldbuilding, and a fierce FMC that you can't help but root for. I need the sequel EXPEDITIOUSLY!

This is a well-written book with a quickly paced plot. I enjoyed reading it. Tiffany Wang blends reality and fiction well enough to keep you immersed in the story. The characters were well developed and you want to follow them through to the end. This book is addictive as you want to keep reading to discover what is happening with all of the characters' scheming and don't even realize you have read 30 pages at once! I would recommend it to anyone wanting to read a quick paced book.

This was a fun read. It was an easy, fantasy full of political intrigue that kept you guessing. I loved the characters, but I wish we had gotten a bit more information on some of them. They were all so unique and such great personalities & backstories. The story felt a bit slow in the beginning, and then, by the end, it was moving a bit too quickly. That being said, overall, i enjoyed this book. I will definitely be reading the next book in this series.

Wang’s debut novel oozes vengeance, ambition and betrayals. Teia is our protagonist in this novel. A daughter of the king and his second wife. After her parents die, her cruel brother Jura becomes the heir apparent.

Jura was a pretty irredeemable character. I found Teia a bit morally grey. I really enjoyed the beginning and thought it was a very good book. I’m impressed by the story and I need to know what happens next.

I’d have liked a bit more punch. Some things seemed to come about a little too easy in my opinion. I’d also like to see more of the other kingdoms and explore Teia’s powers even more,

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC.

I love when a book hooks me right from the start! Especially when I cannot put it down.

Thank you for the opportunity to arc read this book!

Inferno's heir is a story of an orphan princess with the ability to control fire.. and water. She is the offspring of a "fire nation" (see what I did there:D) king and a "water nation" queen. Her half brother who is a sadist idiot and hates her, on the other hand, is the first born son of said king and the late queen who wasn't anything special I guess. The princess is to be wed to an awful man because her brother the future king said so, and to take matters on to her own hand, she decides to find the rebellion that causes problems in the kingdom and turn them in to her brother, so as a reward her brother might let her decide about her future herself. She ends up working with the rebellion trying to overturn her brother.

While the story is so familiar from countless other books, I still enjoyed it very much. A princess deciding to work with a rebellion and then falling in love with a guy from the said rebellion is nothing new, but this book pleasantly surprised me with amazing characters and new plot points you don't usually see in this type of stories. I loved Teia the orphan princess, Enna the thief, and Alara the rebellion member. I think these three carried the story so much. I didn't really care about the love interest (even though the love story is in very very very minor part) or Kyra, who also seem to posses fire abilities. The story had a few characters that were bit too black and white in their believes, but despite that most of them had complex personas.

I really enjoyed the story, especially the way the ending was done. I'm not sure if this is a standalone, as the ending was quite open, and I would love to see more of this story, and what will happen next. I think we just scratched the surface with world building and everything, and I'm eager to see more.

4,5 stars. Amazing fantasy debut!

Inferno's Heir
Tiffany Wang
YA Fantasy New Adult
NetGalley eARC
Pub Date: October 15, 2024
Bindery Books
Ages: 14+

Subject to Jura, her half-brother's sadist games all of her life, Teia knows that using the kingdom's politics and blackmailing those politicians is the only way she has to survive her brother's maliciousness when he takes the throne. He has sent assassins after her before, but now he has found a new way to abuse her, promising her hand in marriage to the worst of the kingdom's lords.

However, when Jura announces an extravagant reward, one favor from the kingdom, in exchange for the location of the rebel's base, Teia sees her chance to free herself from Jura so she can be in the kingdom without fear.

While infiltrating the rebels was easy, gaining their trust wasn't. But she finds herself liking and admiring the rebels, but their leader, not so much. He sends her and a few other rebels on a fool's mission, which they did not complete, but one of them was captured. Even though their leader was willing to trade, Teia knew Jura wouldn't keep to the terms and would kill everyone, including his own men, which, after his plans were laid out, the rebel leader was also willing to do.

Now suspicious of his true intentions, the idea Teia tried to push away begins to scream in her mind: What if she could take the crown?


When I started this book, I feared that it would be bogged down with pages and pages of political mumbo jumbo, but it was a pleasant surprise to find this story blended the politics, backstory, magic, characters, and main plot equally together so I was not bored!

While there were some slow spots, it still moved along at a good pace. It wasn't one of those books that I hated to put down, but I was not dreading reading it. I wanted to find out what was going to happen.

Most of the characters were great, though a few were predictable, (the romantic interest,) but Teia, the MC, was a great character. She knew what she was doing was wrong, and could/would get people killed, but it was either her or them. Her character makes you think about who you would betray to protect yourself/those you love.

I do wish the magic system was explained in more detail. Maybe it's in upcoming books, but I felt 'left out' because while I mostly understood the magic Teia and Jura could use, I don't remember much of the other kingdoms.

There were a few twists and of course obvious outcomes, and while there is violence, it isn't overly graphic, so it's suitable for readers fourteen and older.

Looking forward to the next book in the series.

4 Stars

Netgalley review, possible plot points mentioned below.

If you like six of Crows or Ace of Shades you might like Inferno's Heir, a mix of heist and found family.

I think the end half of the book was personally the more interesting part, I think sometimes I felt I was waiting for something to happen for too long.

The part I hated the most was the morals, every person apart of the dawnbreakers refused to kill or even harm the enemy in the slightest so much than the princess was the only one really killing people. How was even the poison master not always ready to kill? It just feels weird to be like we need to break into a prison where our friends are being held hostage and tortured BUT we can't harm anyone at all 🥺.

This book was entertaining enough but I do believe some plot points, dialogue, and character development needs to be worked on a little more.

I thank the authors and netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review this book.