This is a wonderfully original story and I’m grateful to have been able to read both the indie and traditionally published versions. It’s a well crafted tale of becoming, as well as overcoming, and is one of my favorite found family books.

The FMC is Elowen Atarah, and from the outset you know she’s an independent woman, lethal, strategic, flirtatious, and loyal. She is also a lover of books and coffee, and has a sweet and soft side she rarely shows to anyone. She is selfless and empathetic, and her new found family gives her the security to open up and trust others, truly stepping into her power. She works steadily through the trauma from the heartbreaking childhood she endured under her father, a jealous king, at the side of the most lethal warrior in the known lands. Their alliance was forged in their common hatred of her father, but is a powerful grounding force for Elowen. She feels hope for the first time in a long time to be able to protect her kingdom and reunite with her dragons.

The MMC Commander Cayden Veles is THE suavest, most flirtatious, most scrumptious morally grey bad boy. He’s a very deep well of a man, he’s respectful and loyal, and charming and well read, self aware, and selfless too. He’s a smooth and deadly assassin, a strategic warrior, a dedicated brother and friend. Getting to watch him learn new things about his ability to open up and trust his friends as well as Elowen was a wonderful experience. He would burn the world down for her, and she would go to the ends of the earth for him. Watching them help heal one another in the midst of their quest was a lovely thing.

This book very emotional, it’s a powerful story full of the best of found family, we get beautiful depth with each character. The court intrigue, action, slow burn romance, spice, banter, world building, all is in perfect balance. AND DRAGONS! I’m so excited for book two so we can get more more more of everything!!

“I didn’t think you paid such close attention to me. What makes you think I’ve ever looked away?”

I meannnn anything with flirty-banter is going to have me hooked..but THIS book took it to an even more enjoyable level.

The way the author laid out the relationships made this book enjoyable and easy to find interest in.

The only critique I have is that it just felt like there was a lot of repetitive moments where things that were said in chapter 1, 4, and 5 are said again in the following chapters.

Overall, this was a fun and quick read while I was in between others.

This story follows a princess in hiding who teams up with her enemy, the commander of a neighboring kingdom. Together, they plot an adventure to free her dragons that are locked up in her kingdom that she has fled.

This book has many tropes including enemies to lovers, dragons, lost princess, touch her and die and found family! Olivia Rose Darling took all of the tropes I hold dear to my heart and put them together in a story I could not put down!

While I really enjoyed the story line and the character (Cayden 🤤), it felt a little one dimensional so that’s why it was down graded to a 4 star. I’m not sure if I was missing the emotion from a first person point of view or maybe some side character depth but it needed just a little bit more.

I hope in the next one we get some more story behind some of the other character and maybe some more back story! This was an easy read and for people who aren’t a fan of large amounts of world building, this is for you!

I really enjoyed this book. I feel bad it took me this long to read it. The banter was BANTERING alright. Cayden makes me just giggle like a freaking school girl with his remarks. Tension and spice was *immaculate*.
Looking forward to deepening the dragon bond and also see/learn more about the dragons in general.

3.5 - Dragons!! but not nearly enough i need more. The plot had good potential but i didn’t see much growth in the characters and the romantic interactions felt forced. Overall enjoyable and looking forward to the next one!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book was EVERYTHING. Ellowyn and Cayden have my heart forever and ever. If I met Cayden and he said jump it would be right into his arms because DAMN. I wish y’all could see my highlights but it would just be every single page because this man was straight up horny for her. The banter was chef’s kiss and had me kicking my feet, giggling and dreading the current state of men. I’m ready to for them to burn it all to the ground and really need some of that rage, especially after the election.

Ellowyn has been training her entire life to 1. Rescue her dragons, 2. Intact revenge over those who have kept her from them. Born a princess, due to a prophecy stating she would either save the kingdom for ruin it, she’s been on the lamb since, till Commander of a neighboring kingdom finds her and offers her everything she wanted in return for fighting for his kingdom. She will do what she must to get her dragons back, even if it means fighting her attraction from the Commander who will scorch the world at her whim.

This is definitely the year of dragon books, having read banger after banger this is so one of my top books this year. Please do yourself a favor and give it a read!

In this book you will find: abusive parents, mentions of torture, dragons, touch her and die, touch him and die, bandaging of wounds, depictions of death and torture, monsters, found family, betrayal, banter galore, queer characters, and so much more!!

Thank you Netgalley for this eARC. This was harder for me to rate as it was enjoyable and I enjoyed the banter between the FMC and MMC, however it then became a little too insta-lust for me. I didn’t understand a lot of the world building as she is bonded to 5 dragons but how did this happen and why. There was hardly any explanation on the magic system. I had so many questions about this book and don’t want to give away any spoilers. I thought the pacing was rocky, things happen then we have chapters about pastry and dress shopping. Also, the dragons don’t come in until the end and some things seemed way too easy.

This is such a great story and what a fabulous debut novel. I read the trad version and then this rerelease and anything I had wanted changed in the trad version was changed. Lost princess turned vengeful queen who will stop at nothing to get her dragons back, Reluctant allies to lovers with my favourite book boyfriend Commander Cayden Veles. Found family. I loved seeing more of her bond with the dragons, then THE BETRAYAL!! If Elowen turned into a villain after the bs she’s gone through I would happily follow. I am dying to get my hands on book two! 4 stars because the world building is quite surface level and there’s some improvement that will happen but I’m honestly very excited to see her writing grow and progress, I’m hooked and excited to be along for the ride!

if it has dragons in it I’m going to read it. I’ve seen this book floating around for the longest time and when I saw it was getting published I knew I had to read it and OH MY GOD. like the start was definitely slow going but was it got into the story more I was hooked. Absolutely loved it.

I received a free copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Delacorte Press; all opinions expressed are exclusively my own.

I don't know that I would call this story groundbreaking or unique, but I will say I was entertained the entire way through and thoroughly enjoyed the story and the characters. I would definitely compare Fear the Flames to the Throne of Glass series, and feel neither is done a disservice. I'd recommend this easily to anyone who enjoys tough, sassy heroines with a troubled past; found families; and not-quite-enemies-to-lovers tropes. The only reason this is 4 stars instead of 5 is the feeling of reading something pretty formulaic, especially with some of the specific lines reading as perhaps overly dramatic, but the formula is good and well executed on the whole.

Note on content warnings: I will say the nature of the warnings made me pause and consider whether or not this was a book I would enjoy. If anyone finds themself in a similar position, I would say the way those things are handled was such as to not hinder my enjoyment of the book. Obviously everyone's mileage may vary, so this is not me saying to ignore those warnings! But like Throne of Glass, the end goal is a power fantasy/found family story.

For sensitive readers, this books contains references to sexual assault of children (not depicted on page) and depictions of torture done to children. It also contains graphic depictions of violence, torture, abuse, drugging, trauma, betrayal, animal cruelty, and graphic sexuality.

This book is not for me. The writing is very clunky and there is no chemistry between the two MCs. There is also no world building whatsoever so I know nothing about this world other than there are caged dragons and some kingdoms at war. Nothing is explained within the first 6 chapters (where I gave up). I hate to DNF this one but I think it would do this book harm if I continued to read just to review. Thank you for this ARC copy.

Fantastic debut! Loved the contrast of the soft romance to the harsh reality that was the violent fantasy world built by this author

What a wonderful romantasy to add to some of the best ones out there. I was a little slower getting into it but once the story really got rolling it was impossible to put down. I think that the author did a great job with the plot and what story isn’t great if there are dragons in it. The slowburn romance was phenomenal and I think it was done so well, I think our two mains were perfect for each other and I was very impressed with the spicy scenes which were done so well. I really hope to read more from this author!

The first few pages set the scene with Queen Elowen of Aestilian (the kingdom she created after running away from Imirath). We quickly learn in the first chapter that a prophecy was written when she was born and she was bestowed 5 dragon eggs (she's princess of Imirath). Howmever, her power hungry asshole of a father, that happens to be the king of Imirath *sigh* locked her away because he wanted the dragons for himself....hence why she ran. There was a LOT of flipping back and forth to the map because I was so confused with all of the world building in the first 5 pages but after I understood the plot, I was HOOKED by page 6.

Tension is brewing between Imirath & another kindgom, Vareveth, so enter hot & sexy Commander of Varaveth aka Cayden Veres....and he's looking for the long lost princess of Imirath to strike up a deal that might include finding her dragons if she helps Vareveth win the war against the dumb ass Tyrant of Imirath.

I read the independent version first a few months before I was given the opportunity to read the new version. I had no notes from the first version, I thought it was literally perfect. From my understanding, Olivia Rose Darling wanted to change a few things and shorten it. I honestly think she cut out more than she should have. Some parts feel rushed, some of my favorite parts got cut out, and a key detail from the beginning is completely missing. Even with the missing info and completely changed parts, I still love this book. This version is just not as good as I thought the first one was. Below I linked my more detailed but spoiler filled review from goodreads.

This is one of the best books I have read this year. The world that Darling created is gorgeous and intricate. The world building was not too heavy, and fit into the plot line smoothly. From the various countries, religious cults, and dragons the world of Ravaryn is simply amazing, and I am super excited to see how the world and its lore grows as the series continues. I have only read a few books with characters as relatable as the core five in this story. Despite being from a fantasy world and dealing with situations I will never encounter, I found myself relating with the characters often, especially the FMC, Elowen. Elowen is the embodiment of everything I love in an FMC, she is kind, funny, courageous, loyal, and a fierce friend. She is also a goal oriented queen! She knows what she wants and isn’t going to let anyone stop her from obtaining it. Her MMC counterpart, Cayden, is the ultimate book boyfriend. He would go to the ends of the earth and destroy the world if she asked him. Trust me you will definitely fall in love with him. The main side characters Saskia, Ryder, and Finnian are amazing and elevate the found family aspect of this story. I quickly found myself feeling as if these characters were also my family, and I became very attached to them all. The plot of this story moved very quickly, and had me engaged in it from the start. There was a lot of political intrigue, which I loved, and the heists were amazing and had me on the edge of my seat. The romance was a nice slow burn with lots of pinning that had me giggling. As I said the plot moved very quickly, so there was a few time where I wished everything had slowed down a bit and we got a bit more description on what was happening. Over all this book is amazing, and I am super excited to read the rest of the series! If Fear the Flames isn’t already on your tbr you need to put it on there right away!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75/5
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 I felt that I was able to easily skip the spice scenes and still enjoy the plot and romance very much! All the spice scenes were only a few pages long and took place in chapters: 27 32 38 43 46
tropes:
Forbidden romance
Banter
Found family
Touch her/him and die
Dragons
Political intrigue
Dragons

Wow, Fear the Flames totally hooked me! Olivia Rose Darling knows how to create a story that’s both exciting and emotional. The characters are relatable, and watching them face their fears while navigating a thrilling plot kept me glued to the pages.

The chemistry between them is sizzling, adding a fun layer to the suspense. I loved how the story balanced danger with heartfelt moments. It’s a wild ride that will keep you guessing!

If you’re into a mix of romance and action, you definitely need to check this one out. It’s a fiery page-turner you won’t want to miss!

Thank you for the arc, here is my honest review.

DNF 37%. The prologue was good and then this book really dragged. I hated the protagonist Elowen. She just irked me the wrong way from the start. She felt very entitled. Besides the characters that I didn’t like, what ultimately caused me to stop was the complete lack of world building. Nothing made sense. Her dragons nor her new kingdom, virtually nothing was explained and we are just thrown in this world where it doesn’t matter anymore because we don’t know anything to make us care. I thought I would love this but it really was just a disappointment.

If you love medieval fantasy with a side of snarky romance, grab this book—it’s a total must-read!

Fear the Flames a captivating medieval fantasy that weaves a thrilling tale of revenge, magic, and unexpected alliances. We’re drawn into a world where power dynamics shift like the tides, and the stakes are as high as the castle walls.

Their chemistry between the 2 main characters is off the charts, Their flirty banter? Chef’s kiss! With plenty of witty exchanges that kept me laughing. Cayden’s snarky charm is the perfect foil to Elowen’s fiery determination, making their partnership all the more fun to follow.

I was looking forward to Fear the Flame because I've been following the author for updates since before it got picked up to be traditionally published. The premise didn't sound like the most unique idea in the world, but the way the author promoted it stood out to me compared to other romantasy books. In general, I'm quite picky with romantasy books. I do love romance and fantasy when they're mixed together, but I feel like all the books I've read that were explicitly labelled as romantasy have been misses. Fear the Flames isn't entirely a miss, it's a decent read with decent moments, but I was hoping for something more. The writing also felt a bit clunky at times which made it hard to get into the story. Don't get me wrong, the writing is a big improvement from the indie published version which I read a few chapters of, but it wasn't writing that wowed me. I probably won't read another Olivia Rose Darling book in the future, but I think she has an audience out there.

I have a lot of conflicting thoughts with this. I'm going with 3.5 stars.

I enjoyed this title. I think I only enjoyed it because I switched over to the audio. The first few chapters were rough TBH. And that hurts. I try to be as easy going as I can with books but the print version has issues (and I'm reading the trad version).

I was entertained though. I liked the characters for the most part and the story is what it is. It's a pretty standard issue romantasy. I can see why so many people enjoy it. I am people. I just think it needs more time being polished.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to review this work. I am looking forward to the continuation of this story.

Thanks to the author, Random House and Netgalley for this eARC.