I really enjoyed the romance and the connection between the FMC and MMC! I adored the fact that he was flirty but also “touch her and die” when it came to Elowen. I’m a sucker for a broody man tbh.

I do think the dialogue was a little heavy and needed to be pared down. A lot of the book felt like I was being told something rather than experiencing something so that was a slight let down.

It also took me at least half way into the book before I felt really invested. I did appreciate the fact that some of the plot twists were unpredictable (at least for me!)
I’m definitely excited to read the next book. ◡̈

On paper, Fear the Flames should have hit every mark for me, but unfortunately its execution felt weak.

Without a doubt, my biggest issue with it was the writing and uneven pacing. I found myself having to re-read sections multiple times because it was so easy to miss how characters got from point A to point B, and then other times chapters and events were extremely drawn out.

I personally never found myself attached to the characters and wish we hadn't met the MMC so early on in the book. The dragons were a massive tease. I get why they're absent, for plot reasons, but even when we're given that taste, it felt lackluster imo.

I've been reading romantasy for so long that I think I'm just pickier with the books I read in this genre nowadays. It was an okay read and if you're just looking for something with romance, a hidden princess and a sprinkle of dragons, I think you'll like this.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Group Ballantine for the eARC.

Fear the Flames incorporated a variety of my favorite parts of fantasy, specifically dragons and a BA FMC. I am excited to continue this series.

This hurt so much. I was really looking forward to this book so this actually pains me. I've been trying to read this for weeks and I just have to call it quits. I felt like the writing was unnecessarily wordy and trying so hard to be eloquent. The amount of times things were repeated within the chapters I read, was very annoying. I think the concept is great, it just needed some reworking.

4.5. This story is beautiful and brave, sexy and funny, and gives us a female heroine we all deserve. Olivia Rose Darling has written a book that has made me fall in love with fantasy books while sneaking in the banter and love of my beloved romance books. Having now read both the indie version and traditional version of FTF, I have to say I love them both, but I want to merge them into one. While the books are obviously similar, there are moments I miss from the indie version, but I wouldn’t want to get rid of the new depth in the traditional version.

I’m obsessed with this book and I’m honored to own the indie, the ARC, and the traditionally published versions. Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group, and Olivia Rose Darling for the Advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

I didn’t enjoy the lack of dragons, which was probably my fault for expecting dragons to play a big part within the story. I wish there was a bit more world building for me to enjoy the plot and I also felt there was a lot of questions still left unanswered. Such as, how and why Elowen is bonded to 5 dragons; unknown tasks on usurping kingdoms, etc. I feel like ever since BookTok became popular some authors focus too much on tension, banter & spice and that’s great and all but I feel like the plot, setting and writing style should never come secondary to characters. Although I tolerated the characters, I loved the found family aspect. I didn’t enjoy the book and the lack of structure. I believe this is supposed to be a NA book but it does resemble YA.

I want to preface this by saying I LOVED this book when I read it indie, and I am HONORED to receive the ARC. I read this book back when it had less then 300 ratings, and I am lucky to have their OOP cover.

Liv Darling's 'Fear the Flames' is a captivating romantasy that will leave you breathless. With its thrilling plot, complex characters, and sizzling chemistry, this book is a must-read for fans of the genre.

Elowen, a former princess turned runaway, seeks revenge against her father's enemy kingdom. She forms an unlikely alliance with the feared warlord Cayden, embarking on a dangerous heist with a group of skilled thieves.

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Elowen Atarah: A fierce and independent heroine who defies expectations. Her strength, determination, and unwavering loyalty to her people make her a captivating protagonist. I love that she is a strong woman who still appreciates the girly things in life.

Cayden Veles: A brooding and enigmatic warlord with a hidden softer side. His unwavering devotion to Elowen is both heartwarming and intense. He very quickly moved up to my top ten book boyfriend list.

Finnian Eira: Elowen's loyal and witty best friend, who provides much-needed comic relief and emotional support. There was a little bit there where he was a little too whiny for my liking, but I understand someone needs to think that way.

Saskia Neredras: A brilliant strategist and skilled thief, who adds depth and complexity to the team. I immediately was drawn to her, I am excited to watch her character growth.

Ryder Caeredras: A charming and charismatic thief with a knack for getting into trouble.

Themes:

Found family: The novel explores the importance of chosen family and the bonds that can form through shared experiences. I am a huge found family lover, and this one is great. Also a big fan of the dragon to

Revenge and redemption: Elowen's quest for revenge drives the plot, but the story also delves into themes of forgiveness and redemption. I believe the books going forward will focus on this as a bigger plot point.

Love and loyalty: The passionate and unwavering love between Elowen and Cayden is a central theme of the book. I am a huge romance reader, if I read something there has to be romance in it. I especially love when the MMC is obsessed with the FMC.

Writing Style:

Darling's writing is vivid and engaging, drawing readers into the world of Ravaryn. The pace is well-balanced, with a perfect blend of action, romance, and character development. I do think she has the potential to be HUGE in the romantasy world. I am very excited to see what she has coming next. I hate that I have to wait for the next books in this series.

Conclusion:

Fear the Flames is a thrilling and unforgettable read. With its complex characters, captivating plot, and sizzling romance, it is sure to leave a lasting impression on readers. I do believe that Liv Darling has potential to be the next big thing in the romantasy genre.

I read Fear the Flames by @itslivdarling for the second time, and I love the republished version just as much as the indie one!
In this fantasy romance, Elowen, a princess turned prisoner and runaway, becomes a queen of a kingdom she forged, seeking revenge. She allies with Cayden, the most feared commander of her father's enemy kingdom! Hoping to pull off the greatest heist together.
Cayden, Elowen and their three friends are the epitome of found family, bringing heart and humor to the story.
The banter between them is simply amazing and adds so much depth and enjoyment to the book.
Elowen's bond with her dragons is profound, adding an emotional layer to her journey and highlighting her strength and resilience.
The slow burn romance between Elowen and the Cayden is filled with tension and chemistry, making their reluctant alliance even more captivating.
Expect tension, banter, found family, political intrigue, morally grey FMC & MMC, 'touch her/him and you die, rivals/allies to lovers, one bed trope, and some spice!
I'm so excited for the next book in the series and can't wait to chat with you about this one in the comments below!
Thank you @itslivdarling and @netgalley for this arc

This book is about our FMC Elowen, who was born a princess to a kingdom. Princess Elowen is essentially exiled from her kingdom by the King (her father) and the five dragons she was linked with are trapped there. During her exile, Elowen becomes Queen of secret kingdom with the support of her uncle. Their secret kingdom has been struggling to survive due to lack of resources especially with her father working against all. Since her exile, Elowne's ultimate goal is to get revenge, reunite with her dragons, and lead her new kingdom to prosperity.. In order to accomplish this she has no choice but to agree to a deal with the commander of a neighboring kingdom. With Cayden and a group of allies they develop a plan to sneak into enemy territory and complete their mission/heist.

The elements of the book I liked were: the concept. I love fantasy/romantasy. I was excited to read about an independent and tough FMC and her journey to infiltrate enemy lines. I did mostly like Elowen, she's strong, angry and she wants revenge. However she also cares deeply for her friends, kingdom, and of course her imprisoned dragons. I really enjoyed the found family element of the friend group. Some of the things I struggled with: the world building. I wanted more intricate world building and detail. Another was the insta love. Elowen and Cayden's relatonship felt a little bit flat to me. There was some banter and spice, but I think I was looking for a stronger connection/spark between them. I also wanted to get more insight into his character as more than just obsessed/possessive of Elowen.

Overall, I think this book was decent for a debut book. I think more of the heist, relationship, and world could have been fleshed out to add to the story. It has a lot of potential to continue develop in the next book(s).

If you watched house of the dragon and thought it needed more (less taboo) spice, you’ll likely have a lot of fun with this one.

The concept here was really promising, as our FMC is an ex-princess wanted (dead!) by her home kingdom due to her soulbond from childhood with 5 dangerous, deadly dragons – all currently shackled in a dungeon, unable to stretch their wings. Elowen wants to reunite with her dragons at any cost – and take down her father and his kingdom in one fell dragonly swoop, teaming up with a hot, notorious commander of another kingdom to do so.

This was a fun read, with excellent potential for book two, but ultimately I struggled with the pacing of this. The spice is delicious, the dragons are wonderful (and I can’t wait to see more of them in the next book!), but the inner monologues of the characters felt a little stilted and one dimensional, making it hard to fully immerse into the story and connect with the main characters. That in conjunction with a slow build through the middle of the book made it a bit of a struggle to want to pick up. The ending is a blast, though – literally! – and worth reading through for that alone.

Give this a whirl if you love a spicy romantasy, are craving some dragon content, and love a powerful, unrepentantly badass FMC – and her MMC who encourages her to be a little stabby.

This was so much fun! It’s truly been awhile since I’ve been completely immersed inside a fantasy book, and this story hooked me from the start. It’s swoons worthy, with a strong willed FMC and quite the morally grey MMC (and we like them very morally grey over here). I found myself unable to put this down, with the vivid imagery of the world and an easily to consume story, this is fantastic for someone looking to dip their toes into fantasy and romantasy books,

Thank you for the arc for this honest review.

Now I’m saying that I normally take debut novels with a grain of salt since there is a lot to learn when writing a novel and not every story is original nowadays, that hasn’t gotten inspiration from somewhere. But this book just seem like Aelin from ToG and Kahleesi from GoT just mixed together. She even screams out WHERE ARE MY DRAGONS at one point. Being called queen of dragons, queen of fire and flame. Just seems very interesting that’s all.

Princess Elowen lives under a prophecy with her five dragons in that she will either unite or completely destroy her kingdom. When her father becomes obsessed with said prophecy, he locks her and her dragons away in the castle’s dungeons. With the help of her guards, Elowen escapes and grows up to rule another kingdom. Never forgetting the bonds with her dragons, she agrees to a revenge alliance with the enemy to free her beasts and take her rightful place as Queen.

Rating: 5/5
Spice 2/5

Tropes:
Prophecy
Revenge Plot
Alliance to Lovers

Triggers:
Captivity
Child Neglect
War
Family Manipulation

My thoughts:
This book is going to be the next fantasy hit everyone is talking about. Take Throne of Glass and add Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones, add in a prophecy, and you get a morally black FMC that needs NO ONE to fight her battles for her. Go read this book. It’s fantastic.

What I loved about this?
- The fast pace
- The ruthless characters
- Dragons
- I’ll be the villain FOR you, not to you MMC


What I wish this had?
- Unfortunately, more originality in the dialogue. its quickly become a pet peeve of mine over the last few years with the increase of romantasy TikTok to essentially copy and paste dialogue from other authors into their stories but it’s so jolting to read a line and be able to identify the exact other books I’ve read it in. It takes the authenticity from the moment and the character development and just makes my eye twitch. It’s one thing to have common tropes, it’s another to utilize the same lines.

Overall, I was able look past those bits of dialogue and really enjoy the story, but it really did take away my ability to immerse myself into the story and characters the way I wish I would’ve been able to.

If you like Throne of Glass and Game of Thrones, this is for you.

Book: Fear the Flames
Author: Olivia Rose Darling
Rating: 4/5 stars

Fear the Flames is a romantasy novel that is character-driven and entertaining!
The synopsis of the book is what drew me in, as well as the fact that the book includes dragons. The cover art is also beautiful, and I had to pick up a physical copy for my bookshelf once I was finished the eARC.
There was lots of banter, that is made even more intriguing as the romance is forbidden based on politics within the story. I enjoyed the world-building aspect of the story, and the found family theme was emotionally touching.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an adult romantasy story with lots of tropes intertwined within.
This is also the first book in the series, and I look forward to reading the other books in the future when they are released.

Thank you to Dell Romance and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an eARC Fear the Flames.

Thank you netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I highly enjoyed this book. If you're a fan of TOG, GOT, and Fourth Wing, you will love this book. The tension, banter, and spice was everything a romantasy needs to make it romantic. The plot was wonderful and fast paced. I really, really enjoyed this.

A teensy bit underwhelmed with this one unfortunately. It read incredibly YA and just lacked a lot of substance. Not bad, but not great. I saw a lot of booktok videos really hyping this one up and it was just fine! Also there is about 2% interaction with the dragons (or anything dragon related)…

Fine!! Didn't re-invent the wheel, but it did entertain. The writing was a touch dramatic and the heroine occasionally got on my nerves. But all in all, no regrets.

i ended up really enjoying this book! I really grew attached to the characters, especially our core 5 <3 wow I love their found family so much. I always find it hard to connect or love characters in a first installment of a fantasy series, but ms. olivia crafted such vivid characters that I couldn't help not to love them! there were great sibling relationships, friendships and romantic relationships (!!!) that have me so excited for the next book, especially because that ending was so epic! i'm so intrigued about the main couple because they have really great banter and cayden is just so obsessed with our queen elowen (as he should), and I can't wait to see where their story goes.

i gotta say though, i was not expecting such gore from a romantasy but wow there was gore. this book does not shy away from descriptive fight scenes so keep that in mind when reading. The plot was slow moving at times, so it lost me there a couple times, but once we reached the climax I could not stop reading!

the only thing that took me out of the story a little was the writing style. I don't know what it was about it but the dragging inner monologue and overly descriptive sentences are not my preferred narrative style.

overall, this was such a fun epic fantasy romance with DRAGONS (!!) they're basically sky puppies and i love them so much.

Thank you Dell and Netgalley for the ARC, it's out now

Overall, I thought this book was okay. Most of the time reading this book I felt bored. I read a lot of the romantasy genre and this book felt like it was just hitting all the major tropes. I really wanted to love this book and I felt like towards the end the book did get better. I would continue this series to see what happens next since this is a debut author.