I’m in love ❤️‍🔥 This is a really well written Romantasy with characters that are easy to love. The prologue is so magically written, that it feels like the opening storybook of a Disney movie. This story is filled with adventure, danger, and overcoming.

I love the adventure, the dragons, the characters, the tension 🔥 such a great 5+⭐️ read!!

I saw this recommended on booktok and I’m SO glad I picked it up. It was right after I finished Throne of Glass and was in a major reading hangover. This included a lot of the tropes that I enjoy but I also thought the characters were lovable and enjoyed the banter. I can’t wait for the next one!

I know Fear the Flames was an indie book that has been traditionally published—so the book I read was a condensed, more compact version of the first edition. I haven't read the original, but I did feel this was over-edited and missing a lot of important conversations, interactions, and descriptions that would have kept this from feeling so completely barebones in some areas.

For example, the way Cayden (icky name) fell in love with Elowen (ickier name) made no sense. From the very beginning, she dislikes and distrusts him, but he immediately begins flirting with her and making everyone who knows and loves him confused over how he seems to be so wrapped up in Elowen. At first, it seems like he's flirtatiously teasing her in a very middle school way, and then it's like oh…wait. He actually loves her?? And it's confusing????

Another underdeveloped area was the entire ~we're going to get your dragons~ arc. Going to get the dragons surely couldn't be a walk in the park, but this process took wayyyyyy too long and was drawn out unnecessarily. Some of the action scenes surrounding the dragons were completely muddled to me and hard to make sense of. As a matter of fact, a lot of the magic was muddled in my opinion and needed some tweaking. Also, why did it take so long for the treaty to get signed? It made no sense other to allow Cayden and Elowen moments to bicker and flirt and allow Elowen time to fall in love with Cayden. The will-they-won't-they in this was very…flat, so much so that the "slow burn" elements only ring true when it comes to actual sex scenes, even one that takes place beside a dead corpse in an alley (?!). For how scary Basileus was made to seem, he is a completely underwhelming villain when the action comes to a peak.

With all that said, I had a soft spot for Elowen and her dragons, and I wish we'd had more time with them. I'm looking forward to reading about them in book 2, and I hope that now that this condensed re-release of the original is out of the way, Darling is able to put together book 2 well, because I did enjoy a lot about her writing style, even the parts that were a little purple prose-y. I think this is a great fantasy for people like me who are very recently getting into fantasy and are figuring out what we like and dislike.

3 ⭐️s
2.5 🌶️

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group, Ballantine, Delacorte Press, and NetGalley for providing an ARC!

This book is one that I have been waiting for all year! It is my most highly anticipated read of 2024 and it did not disappoint!
I read the independently published version last year and really enjoyed the concept and characters so I was ecstatic to hear it was being officially published this year. Overall I loved the improvements and small changes made to the story as it made the plot more streamlined and seamless.
For example, the side quest for the key to get Elowen’s dragons added to the challenges the characters faced without seeming out of the way or unnecessary.

This book is a reluctant allies to lovers, romantasy, he falls first, found family bonded dragons, epic adventure!

A solid debut fantasy romance, with an intriguing premise and strong found family. I really enjoyed the heist aspect but found the romance lacking and the plot was slow to build.

Fantastic read kept me entertained. Truly enjoyed the relationships and banter and everything about this book. Can’t wait to read book 2!

➸ 5 stars

“For those who carry the weight of the world with a smile and never stop chasing dreams that others deem unrealistic, too big, or impractical. Every word is for you. Your dreams are alive, and so are dragons.”

this book will forever be my favorite book ever. i’ve read it 3 times and will never get tired of it. the traditionally published version is amazing and i LOVED all the newly added scenes so so much and just fell more deeply in love with this story.

🗡️ reluctant allies to lovers
⛰️ forbidden romance
🪻 found family
🐉 dragons
⚔️ princess x bodyguard
🪷 heists
☁️ touch her/him and you die

full on depth review is up on my goodreads!!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘬𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭. 𝘐’𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘺.”

Fear the Flames has so many of my favorite things- a morally grey MMC, stabby FMC, and dragons.
The banter between Elowen and Cayden was EVERYTHING to me, I loved their dynamic.
The world building and plot were also easy to follow. Highly recommend for someone who's wanting to get into Romantasy!!

Read if you enjoy::
🐉 Stabby FMC
🐉 Dragons
🐉 He Falls First
🐉 Found Family
🐉 Only one bed

Thank you Netgalley, Olivia Rose Darling, and Random Penguin House (Delacorte Press) for an eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Ok, wow - I really enjoyed this one!!

A story surrounding a princess in hiding and an army commander who finds hers to enter into an agreement to help each other - save her dragons from captivity and take on her evil father in an upcoming war.

There was so much to enjoy about this!

🐉 a badass FMC who earned respect from her people and demanded it from others. She can also kick ass when needed!
🐉 a protective MMC who would do anything to support the FMC and is the definition of "touch her and die" vibes
🐉 great banter
🐉 found family
🐉 dragons
🐉 political intrigue

I can't believe this was a debut novel! I can't wait to see where the series goes from here!

Fear the Flames was a good read. It follows current trends as a romantasy and, in some ways, reminded me of Daenarys from Games of Thrones but with way more emphasis on the romance than on the epic fantasy elements. With that in mind, the plot could have used more development as this is more of a character-driven story with a milder approach to fantasy...as in the main thing a reader may be hoping to see (dragons) happens much later in the story. In a funny way, this reminded me of viewers' desperation to see the dragons in the Game of Thrones TV series. 😄 I also thought that the pacing was lengthy at times as if there was a struggle to find a comfortable pace/flow. Overall, this was a good book.

Romantasy lovers will eat this up! Instead of the FMC bonding to one dragon she’s bonded to five dragons! I. Order to get her dragons back she makes a deal with a feared commander. If you love your fmcs stabby and your mmc with “touch her and die” vibes this is the book for you. The book was enjoyable but at times it felt flat for me. Will continue the series.

"...I’m yours. All of me, every darkened part. Until the moon crashes into the sea and all the stars blink out of existence.”

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and its epic plot filled with tension, banter, and high-stakes action and adventure!

I have so many highlights it's not even funny. What can I say, Cayden is one loveable, swoonworthy MMC 🔥🤷‍♀️. He and Elowen are perfect together. The sassiness between those two (and their band of friends) had me chuckling throughout the book.

I will also say that Fear the Flames had a great ending. There are a couple of interesting twists leading up to the end. There isn't a heart-stopping cliffhanger, but I'm so excited to see how the next book unfolds! If you love any of the tropes below, check out Fear the Flames!

Tropes:
✨️Allies to lovers
✨️Fierce FMC
✨️Touch her & 💀
✨️Forced proximity
✨️Wit & banter
✨️Found family
✨️Political intrigue
✨️Spice 🌶

“If you are to be my damnation , it’s an end I’ll happily meet.”

“𝐼 𝑤𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑙𝑖𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢; 𝐼’𝑙𝑙 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑏𝑒ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑑. 𝐼𝑡’𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑒 𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑑—𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑦 𝑏𝑒. 𝐼𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢’𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑖𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎 𝑏𝑙𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝐼’𝑚 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑖𝑒 𝑏𝑦 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎 𝑠𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑒.”

This is one of those books where you will always wish you could read it again for the first time. It was absolutely freaking magical. I loved every second of it, Ellie was amazing and Cayden?? Cayden is 🔥🔥🔥

This has everything a person could want in a romantasy. It’s got reluctant allies to lovers, dragons, touch her and die, and found family! Literally I could want nothing more than what this book delivered. It is the first in a series but best of all? It didn’t end on a true cliffhanger. Like yes, the story is not wrapped up. No one is in mortal peril though, and while Ellie is going to have to come to grips with some things nothing was like soul crushing or destroyed my opinion of the characters. Such a win. I am so thankful I got a chance to read this one!

A huge huge huge thank you to @netgalley @itslivdarling and @delacortepress for granting me a copy. I cannot rave about this book enough!!

I didn’t love this. During so many parts, it felt like the reader was thrown into this world being expected to know the background. I never felt like I got enough backstory.

This book was not for me. I really wanted to like it, but it just didn't land for me for the reasons listed below:

The entire prologue felt pointless as it was reiterated in its entirety within the first chapter. Either the prologue needed to be cut or the repeating information.

The FMC was frustrating. She was fire queen Aelin with magical dragons but none of the more endearing qualities of her inspiration character. The MMC was the perfect blob of manliness. He has a manly scar for the sake of scars and is, of course, both a commander and a pianist (because why not?). The telling vs showing of his entire personality and characteristics was not perfect. It was annoying. SHE DOES NOT KNOW HIM ENOUGH TO KNOW ANY IF THOSE CONJECTURES. Sorry for the yelling, but it was just constant and made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

The banter was inconsistent and annoying. In fact, there was a good bit of cringely annoying dialogue. The book also makes use of a wide breadth of weird similes that do not fit the world building or, well, anything really in the rest of the book. Also, why are they brushing their teeth and where are they getting coffee in a remote mountain kingdom?

This book features convenient magic that is convenient. The graphic torture scene sequence comes out of left field. It's significantly more graphic than you would expect from the rest of the book and just doesn't fit in well. That's the kind of thing you add in a later book, in my opinion. I'm not invested in these characters enough to care about that scene at all.

There is also a LOTR style "You have my bow" kind of scene that comes off very awkward. And that ending. Ugh. Why do we need to add in fake upset? And why is he telling her that she's upset suddenly about this thing she was okay with instead of there being, now hear me out, some SHOWING of her supposed emotions! It feels like drama for the sake of drama that makes no actual sense.

Also, if you are here for the dragons, there really aren't many scenes with the dragons, but I'm sure the next book will feature them more.

This review took me several go arounds to finish. This book was difficult to swallow and I kept reading hoping that it would get better. It did not, which is unfortunate because I really loved the premise.

Content: explicit s*x, m*sterbation, oral s*x, an excessive amount of killing just because they can, graphic torture, anxiety

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review is voluntarily written and the thoughts and opinions contained in this review are my own.

Estuvo entretenido, me gustó pero no lo suficiente, al inicio sí me estaba gustando mucho pero siento que decayó un poco, la química entre ellos no la sentí tan natural ¿? No se, algo faltó entre ellos, obviamente me encantaron los dragones creo que por eso le di 3 jaja, pero bueno, estuvo entretenido.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Fear the Flames jumps right in, sweeping through Elowen’s narrative and the difficulties she’ faced thus far in life. Born a normal princess, gifted 3 powerful dragons, prophesied to be savior or downfall of her own kingdom…

Elowen’s father the king can’t take that risk and ensues a harsh childhood filled with torture and cruelty until finally the princess escapes. Only she’s left ¾ of her heart behind, unable to free her dragons along with herself.

This story was a fun, fast paced read and the Allies to Lovers trope is top of the list for me, not to mention our simpering Cayden… But unfortunately, there was also a loottttt of reference to “my dragons”, just too much whether they are a main part of the story or not. It could have done with another round or two of editing, and since it is an advanced copy the spelling mistakes can be looked over but this very much reads as an under edited novel. I did see that this had once been self-published so hopefully that is the version sent out for ARCS and our final copy will be polished off because the STORY was great, and that is what I’m basing my review off of.

All in all I am excited to continue this story and can’t wait to see Cayden and Elowen kick ass in the next book.

Thank you to netgalley and random house publishing for sending me an arc! I was so excited when I got the notification and dived in immediately!

I’ve heard so much about this book, and I’ve been dying to get my hands on a copy. Eagerly waiting for the release of the revised copy! I was afraid it wouldn’t live up to the hype, but it totally did!! I’m blown away that this is a debut novel.

Dragons, broody men, crossing lines — I’m so there!

Fear the Flames seemed like such an interesting read but I unfortunately couldn't get past for the first 20%. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read an ARC but I will not be promoting online as I did not finish the entire book.

All my Fantasy faves. Dragons, badass FMC set on revenge and who loves books, banter between FMC and MMC, found family