I didn’t realize this was a novella/short story so that’s on me. It was interesting but I did feel like I need more information or backstory/build up. The audio was great and I’d be interested in exploring something full length by the author.

Maddileh, a knight, stands amidst a scarce few women in her profession of dragon slaying. A minor transgression compels Maddileh to restore her tarnished honor in the most spectacular manner possible: retrieving the legendary Fireborne Blade from its guardian, the fabled dragon known as the White Lady. Maddileh's narrative weaves dragon lore, doomed knights, a tale of sapphic love, and betrayals. You will quickly fall in love with her. I love that she is not interested in traditional general roles. I was instantly intrigued by her and the storyline. She provides an example of how you can desire to be something other than what society says you can be. Each character adds to the rich story. The story has added a few new, unique ideas to dragons. Not only did it focus on dragons, but it also had a paranormal and magical element. The writing made me feel I was reading a legend or a mythological tale. I hope this storyline is continued through other books. One of the best-written female characters I have read this year. The audio narration was phenomenal!

I received an ARC audiobook copy from Netgalley and MacMillan Audio in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity.

It’s so much easier for me to devote time to novellas these days coz I can get the satisfaction of finishing something quicker, so naturally I had to read/listen to this one. It’s a well narrated audiobook, though it did take me a bit to get used to the accent.

This is a very typical old school dragon fantasy tale where the dragons have hoards, knights participate in tourneys and also become dragon hunters when called upon, with all the magic being the domain of the mages. The narrative follows our MC Sir Madileh across two timelines, mainly her quest to defeat an infamous dragon and acquire a very mythical blade. It’s fun and entertaining, with a gobsmacking twist I didn’t see coming. The story is also interspersed with older tales of knights and their encounters with dragons, and I found this part very interesting because these tales were the only world building we get here.

This book is quick and short and while maybe it could have been better if we got to know the world better or the characters were more fleshed out, it’s still pretty contained and enjoyable. It was only after I finished reading did I realize that there’s another book in this series. It releases this year, so maybe I will check it out.

I finished this audiobook yesterday and I'm not sure what to make of it.

This is the classic fantasy tale of a knight's quest but with a strong woman leading and some unusual twists.

The story was good and very well told, surprisingly packed for a novella. I liked how the narrator was able to give very distinct vibes to each characters.
Not a lot of time is dedicated to world building but the world still feels fleshed out.

I have only compliments about this book but still I wasn't very engaged and it somehow felt bland. I can't single out something that left a strong impression.

So 3.5 rounded up to 4 because I might be the problem here.

The Fireborne Blade brings back classic fantasy using equal parts evident research into dragons, knighthood and magic with a strong storyline. It's refreshing to have strong female characters, but done in a way that is not cookie cutter as so many strong female character books are lately. I am already looking forward to the sequel and for more dragons.

The fantasy novel “The Fireborne Blade” by Charlotte Bond follows the female knight Maddileh on her quest to slay an ancient dragon and recover the renowned Fireborne Blade in order to reclaim her honor- but not everything is as it seems.

This relatively short novel really surprised me! I loved the narration style and structure of the story. It has interludes between the main story chapters that are accounts of other knights and scholars that greatly contributed to the worldbuilding. I also enjoyed the different timelines and the big twist was well executed.

The different dragon abilities and the magic system were really interesting and kept me wanting more. I also found the characters to be memorable without being too complex.

My only critique here is that the ending felt a bit too drawn out. In my opinion the story would have had a greater impact if it ended shortly after the climax, but that is just my personal preference.

Overall I loved seeing a female knight and was really intrigued by the story all the way to the great confrontation. I would recommend it for fans of dragon fantasy and those who want to have an engaging short read.

I had the pleasure to listen to the audiobook narration by Helen McAlpine and have to say she was perfect for voicing Maddileh.

A big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Macmillan Audio for giving me the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for the Audio ARC!

I really enjoyed this. It lacks the rich world building and lore of a lot of epic fantasies, but it's less than 200 pages so that's to be expected. It exhibits excellent story telling and I love the snippets of the past and pieces of interviews and books from the archives - it fills in gaps without feeling info dumpy. The story was compelling and accomplishes quite a bit in sub-200 pages.

The twist....now that I was not expecting. I am not sure how I feel about the resolution of the twist and plot, and I wish I had a bit more information about the magic system that wrought the results, but I still feel as though it was very effective and it definitely caught me off guard. I had a lot of theories....but none of them proved true.

I will definitely read more in this world should Bond write more, or really any more of her stories. Especially if there are dragons...

I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would. I’m an avid fantasy reader, so I feel like I’ve pretty much seen it all in terms of plots and lore, but a lot of this was pretty original and the history you learn along the way is fascinating.

The Dragons are explained in such a way that they seem easier to imagine than a lot of other books I’ve read, this is what I almost wish Fourth Wing had done. I love the way that they show that these dangerous beasts may have more to them than they originally thought.

I liked the Characters, but I didn’t love them, they had some witty banter, and some decent dialogue but nothing about them was really memorable, and not to be that person who reads a fantasy novel about dragons and is like “Where’s the romance?”. But, where is the romance? I mean the author delivered on everything but the sapphic romance, but other than that the plot was solid and the double cross actually took me by surprise.

I LOVED the voice actor, I would listen to them read anything.

I would be interested in reading a sequel of this to see where the plot goes! 4/5⭐️

Thank you to the Author Charlotte Bond, and the Narrator Helen McAlpine for your wonderful work!

Also huge thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for my free audiobook copy of “The Fireborne Blade”.

I receive this advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book has a surprising amount of story packed into less than 200 pages. Given this is a novella, I expect this story to be fairly straightforward, find the blade, slay the dragon, get out alive. Sure those things do happen, just not in the way you would expect them to. I enjoyed that a lot of the world building was done through other knights accounts of dragon slaying, this gives the necessary lore without info dumping at the beginning of the book.
Overall, there is not a lot of character development in this book, but the ending sets things up nicely for that character development to happen in the second book.

I read this via audiobook and I appreciated that the narrator, Helen McAlpine, gave each of the characters a distinct voice. I feel like it’s an aspect of the audiobook that really helps bring the characters to life.

A short, engaging fantasy with knights, dragons, and magic. The Fireborne Blade is definitely worth the read.

The writing style through me awful. I couldn't get the vibe of what the author was trying to explain. I did like the woman as the dragon slayer though!

♡𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰♡
4 🌟
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𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐬 :
•dragons
•magic
•ya fantasy
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Sometime I just NEED a book to get straight to the point and just jump into the story or just get straight to the point and doesn't do all the world building, etc that can sometimes take 100 or 200+ pages. I highly enjoyed this book just because it got straight to the point, lol. This is my first book by this author, Charlotte Blade, and this book is book one in The Fireborne Blade series and I will more than likely continue the series. This audiobook read super fast, which I highly LOVE! I dislike a short reading audiobook. But this audiobook was everything I needed and more.
The narrator, Helen McAlpine, did a great job bringing all the different characters alive and changing her voice to fit the different characters.
𝑰𝒇 𝒋𝒖𝒅𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒃𝒚 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏. 𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝑴𝑬! This cover is definitely giving me Rhaenyra House of the Dragon vibes, #TeamBlack lol.
♡𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 May.28♡
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Thank you, Netgalley, and MacmillanAudio for the (ALC)-Audiobook for my honest review.

Exhilarating, gripping, wildly inventive dark fantasy that twists the dragon slayer genre and all it's high fantasy tropes on its head. Ghosts, dragons, undead, and magic are all reinvented in new, shudder worthy grotesque ways that had me enthralled and on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. What, exactly is inverted and changed is so good, I'd never dream of spoiling it. Go into this one as blind and spoiler free as you can, just TRUST me. You won't regret it.

Charlotte Bond has the skills with story to put her up there with some of my genre favorites like George RR Martin's A Game of Thrones and Andrzej Sapkowski The Last Wish. Bond managed to say more with less than 200 pages than many authors can express in 500. Her writing is purposeful, action packed, and utterly gripping. The cast is small and well realized; each character has a place and purpose in the story. The choice to tell the story in such a nonlinear way was brilliant, allowing the world to feel lived in and authentic, and I was never able to guess the twists, even up to the very end. The narrator for the audiobook, Helen McAlpine, absolutely nailed it. She did different accents, raised or lowered the pitch of her voice, and even whispered when the characters were supposed to be whispering. She's up there for me as one of my favorite new audiobook narrators, I loved her performance so much.


This should be a classic in the dark fantasy genre, and I absolutely WILL be buying a physical copy of this and it's sequel The Bloodless Princes the minute they release. Absolutely, without a single doubt in my mind, one of THE best books so far in 2024. Easily earned its 5 stars and my personal recommendation.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, the narrator, and the publisher for an ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.

I recently listened to the audiobook ARC of "The Firebourne Blade," provided by the publisher MacMillan. It was an enjoyable experience; the narrator's soothing voice kept me engaged throughout. While the story may not have been groundbreaking, it was a pleasant, easy listen. The twist at the end was unexpected and added an exciting element to the narrative. Overall, "The Firebourne Blade" is a cozy fantasy novel that provides a nice escape into a world of dragons and magic.

I received an ARC copy of this audiobook free from the publisher MacMillan through NetGalley. The opinions in this review are my own. This audiobook is set to publish May 28, 2024.

3.5 out of 5 Stars

It was a fun time and very entertaining but at the same time was a little bit bluh and I kept forgetting I was reading it.

Thank you Netgalley and MacMillian Audio for this ARC.

I liked this. It was definitely fantasy and it was definitely fun, but I can say that it wasn’t mind-blowing. This is a story of dragons and ghosts and magic. But mix them together in this book and it was just…fine. Well-written and fast-paced, the twist ending was unexpected and threw me a little bit.
Overall, a good novella.

2.5

The Fireborne Blade has everything I love about classic fantasy. There's a lady knight and dragons and corrupt magician guilds and so much more. As someone who grew up obsessed with the Song of the Lioness Quartet, I was so looking forward to something that would take my nostalgia for that series and make it modern and/or more adult.

Unfortunately I think this really fell flat for me. I can't point at a specific aspect of it that didn't work because on paper, this is something I love, but ultimately I think it just didn't do enough that was new for my personal tastes. This book does a lot with its page count in exploring themes of power and identity, but the world building for me felt too reliant on nostalgia for classic dragon fantasies.

I think this was a well written book and clearly has and will work better for other readers, but I think I just expected more of a subversion of classic tropes than I got.

4.5 stars rounded up

This was great! I love a fantasy novella and The Fireborne Blade effectively encapsulates a complete story with interesting characters, while introducing us to a new world. I also didn't see the twist at the end coming. It follows a queer woman who is a knight, on a quest to get a blade back from a dragon and reclaim her honor. It's told in a split timeline, and in the past we also meet a woman who is secretly being trained by a mage, even though women aren't really supposed to be. It's an adventure story about ambitious, talented women trying to make space for themselves in a man's world. Definitely worth a read! It's fast paced and fun, and the audio narration is good too. I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher, all opinions are my own.