This was an interesting read - a bit on the dark side with a slave/owner theme however I didn’t think it was as dark as it could have been because Julian didn’t really treat her as a slave in most situations.

I thought Cross approached this in a sensitive enough way that it wasn’t portrayed in a way that was offensive.

Definitely will be looking for the next when it comes out

Thanks for the chance to read this one early

Absolutely love the range and ideas Juliette Cross delivers on in her fantasy books. Was a fan of her Stay a Spell series but was absolutely obsessed with The Wraith King and so was excited to see her writing more in that realm with heavier world building and politics. I am ALWAYS down for any book with dragons and the Roman Empire, and this book definitely delivered with that niche combination.
The parts I wasn't as much of a fan of--and this is 100% a preference thing-- is the "mine" or "mate" aspect of the love story. It isn't for me and often I get taken out of the story when that is used, but I know a TON of people who are feral for it, so if that is you, you will love this book.

🔥🖤 Firebird ARC Review 🖤🔥

Thank you so much to Juliette Cross and Tor Publishing group for the opportunity to read and review this book!

Firebird is a fantasy romance novel and book 1 on The Fire That Binds series. Malina is a witch and an empath…seen as dangerous in the world and needs to keep her identity hidden. But when she sees Julian in the crowd during her show, she knows he’s dangerous but she’s unable to resist showing off a little. Can she handle the ramifications of provoking the dragon??

This book was such a fun read! Malina was such a fantastic character! I adored her determination and strength in this book. Julian was such a great character and such a good match for Malina. I enjoyed the influence of Ancient Roman history in this book. It was a really fun interpretation of mythical lore and I really enjoyed the world building

Overall this was a five star read! I loved these characters and this world! I can’t wait for more in this series!! This book does have some potential triggers, so please check if you’re sensitive. This book was a bit of a slow burn, but did have some great tension throughout and smutty scenes later in the book, so overall three flames for spice

If you’re a fan of enemies to lovers, interesting characters, and Roman lore, then absolutely pick this one up!

Dark, fantasy romance set in Ancient Rome with dragon shifters, magic tied to emotions and forbidden romance between Master/slave. This has been one of my most anticipated reads of the year and it did not disappoint!

Where are my fantasy readers that are still in their dragon/ shifter era? Also, do you want ties of ancient Rome?

I give you Firebird!

I enjoyed this one! It was different than other ancient Rome books I've read with dragon shifters but still gave that feeling of living during that brutal time.

I've been a fan of Juliette Cross for a while, and I've read a lot of her backlog, and this was so different.

I can't wait to own the physical copy of this one!

Overall ☆☆☆☆☆/5
Spice ★★★/5

Juliette Cross does it again. The queen of fantasy is back. This book did not disappoint, you need to pick it up!

🐉 Dragon shifter MMC + ✨ Magical, fierce FMC = instant forbidden connection! When Julianus saves Malina from danger, he “protects” her… by keeping her as his slave 👀. But as tension (and sparks) fly, she realizes he’s not as cold as he seems.

💀 Fated mates
🔥 Touch her and die vibes
🏛 Ancient Rome-inspired world
⚔️ Political intrigue & scheming
⏩ Fast-paced & addictive
🚨 Cliffhanger alert! Need book 2 ASAP!

For dark romantasy lovers! 🐉✨

Full review will be up on Blog linked in bio.

DNF @6%

One mention of SA, (no CWs btw) and I was out. Also, reading reviews and seeing this is a slave x master “romance” when that isn’t in the synopsis WHATSOEVER?! Do better.

Malina is a Dacian dancer in her family's travelling troupe. She is blessed with the magical ability to control emotions in others. While preforming, her dance ensnares the attention of Julianus Dakkia, a Roman general dragon shifter.

Fast forward some years and Julianus is on the battlefield and his men have a girl in their clutches about to do ungodly things to her. He spots his treasure, Malina, and takes her away to be his body slave at his house. We slowly unravel a political plot that could change everything. All while seeing the relationship between Julianus and Malina bloom.

I am just going to throw it out there, but Firebird is a dark romantasy that will not be for everyone. It is slow paced and has plenty of trigger warnings you should look into before you read this. I had some issues with it and while I am glad I tried, it just was not for me. If you are a fan of dark romances and enjoy dragons and Rome, you might enjoy this book.

For some reason I could not get into this book. I thought the concept was intriguing but my brain couldn't getting my head into the game. This is 100% a me thing and not the book. What I did read was good, but sadly I DNF'd.

Thank you so much to Tor Publishing Group for my ARC!

I was able to read this immersively as I was also gifted the audiobook, and honestly, this was the best way to consume it!

This has a unique twist on Roman history complete with magic and dragon shifters. Julian, is everything you want in a broody, dragon shifter, and I could not get enough of him and his "touch her and die" vibes. I loved the tension and build-up between him and Malina, too.

The storyline was fast-paced and exciting the whole way through. I definitely recommend this for all my fantasy lovers! Also, the narrators were great, and I really enjoyed the audiobook

There is SO much I loved about this book!
This is a super fast paced Romantasy set in Roman times with Dragon Shifters, brutality and Magic.

Our FMC, Malina, is a witch with Empath powers (loved this) and I would absolutely LOVE to see more of this as the series progresses with a powerful FMC moment 🤭
She is fabulous!

I love our MMC, Julian, a powerful Roman dragon shifter.
He falls fast and hard!!
I feel like you could feel his emotions and how he couldn’t hold it in lol

I love the Roman setting!!
I’m a history lover and that just hits for me.
That being said there is master/slave in this book and I know that won’t be for everyone so I do recommend a warning before you read.

I would’ve loved a little more world building, but I also get that the romance here is the plot.

Expect a slow burn, touch her and 💀, forbidden love, dragon shifters and magic ✨
I’m very excited to see what’s to come!!

Definitely not for me, I did not expect the master/slave dynamic to be such a big part of the story, and the insta love in chapter 1 made me want to DNF immediately but I held out hoping it would maybe get better. Overall finishing this book, I can say that it was fine, but that’s about it. I understand it’s a the Roman Empire in a fantasy world with dragons, but at this point it just feels like this was a dragon book for the sake of being put on a list of books with dragons in it. This could have easily just been a fantasy with magic, but honestly the dragons felt so out of place and I just didn’t care about that aspect of the world building.

Read this if you like:
•dark romantasy
•master/slave romance
•history & politics of ancient times

I truly wasn’t expecting the master/slave part of the book and that was a huge storyline. The power imbalance was icky. If you can get past that, you’ll read about a strong MFC. I was hoping for more witchiness vs her just having power. There is spice but I since I didn’t like the power imbalance I didn’t love this. Overall, proceed with caution. Thank you Bramble for eARC!

3.5 Stars Rounded

This was presented as House of Dragons meets From Blood and Ash and honestly, I don’t see it. I’d say Gladiator meets WebToon’s SubZero (dragon shifters).

Malina is a dancer who’s separated from her family. Julianus is a Roman general and conquers anything within his path. When their paths meet again, plans Julianus had been making for a long time quickly need to be put into motion.

Ok. I have some pros and cons about this book.

Pros:
- Excellent detailed writing. I did feel immersed in the story and I loved the spin on the Romulus & Remus story, instead of being nursed by a wolf, they were nursed by a dragon.
- Dragon shifters. I enjoyed the dragon shifters and their political hierarchy.
- Interesting magic.

Cons:
- I felt like there was little progression.
- Insta-love/mate…literally chapter 1, right out the gate.
- Master / slave dynamic and not in a kinky way. Like, he literally owns her. There were moments where she says he “commanded” or “demanded” something from her and while it seems clear she consents it still felt iffy to me.
- I felt the spice was just there for the sake of spice. It was ok spice just, oddly placed.
- I think the end sort of ends abruptly. Not really a cliffhanger but also nothing to really draw me back to book 2.

Overall, I think it’s a good start to a series. I’d be more interested in the magical development of Malina’s powers. This book really was a building block for a series so, there is definitely potential.

With inspiration from the brutal and bloody Roman Empire and the cautious tales of their gods, Firebird is a new fantasy read rooted in action and romance.

Going into this book, I was excited about a Roman-influenced romantasy with magic, mysticism, mythology, and dragons, but the story itself is one that shows the hardships and cruelty of this time period. The slave and master trope is not one I generally read, and it was a surprise to me that it was in this book. Even though, as it goes on, the romance becomes more about their fated connection, I had a difficult time getting past the circumstances that led to them reuniting, the instant love, and the brutality of the world, especially towards women.

2.25/5

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.*

This book suffered from the choice to start the story off with a particularly long myth and an even longer prologue with a very distant writing style. By the time I got into the actual plot I was just disinterested.

Thanks to the author and publisher for the eARC and Macmillan Audio for the ALC. This audiobook had me captivated immediately and I listened to it all in one day! I had to switch to the eARC toward the end because my heart was pounding and I had to consume it with my eyeballs 😂. Fans of fantasy romance and enemies to lovers will eat this up. Dragon shifters in Rome? Yes please.

I especially want to mention the care with which the author handled the main couple’s relationship. Because his soldiers destroyed her village and then her adoptive family. He saves her from a fate he doomed her to. She has to become his slave to survive in his world. These topics are all addressed and discussed by them before their relationship advances and obviously there’s a reason for his actions (mad dragon king, anyone?).

But it’s rightfully a slow burn and Malina is shown actively working through these issues. I loved her resilience and fierceness in standing up for herself and others. And Julian is such a cinnamon roll with a heart of gold I adored him. The way he treated his household and saved them 🥹. His dragon being all possessive 🔥. The touch her and be unalived moment was so perfectly unhinged and violent 🤣.

The premise of dragons in Rome was unique and refreshing. The Roman gods were mentioned as an important part of society but played a minor role in the plot which I was more than okay with, that the focus remained on our main characters.

PSA this does not end on a cliffhanger with Malina and Julian getting an adorable ending. The main overarching plot will continue in the next book and I am so excited with that hint at the end!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bramble for supplying me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Let me start by saying I have been a Juliette Cross fan for a very long time. Before anyone really knew who she was. I love her writing and her stories. This one had such promise with it's setting in the Roman empire to the fact that dragons were included as the new history. I was excited to see how the world was built and how Cross would bring the dragons into that time period.
Unfortunately, this one was just not for me despite the excitement I had to read it.
What I did like:
The prologue and what it could potentially mean.
The idea of the book and it's setting. This time period is very intriguing to me as I haven't studied as much as others. I was looking forward to learning more.
Dual point of view is always something that I adore. It helps me to understand the characters so much more when I get to be in their heads.
Men who become dragons. Yes, please! I love the idea of this transformation. And in the setting of war it's that much more fascinating.
What I was not fond of:
I'm totally and completely surprised there were no trigger warnings at the beginning of this book. I do not have any TW myself, but the contents of this book and quite a few of it's themes will definitely trigger some people. I know this is an ARC but at this point in the publishing phase, when they know exactly what the book contains, TW should be offered.
The world building just was not there. I didn't understand how the dragons were part of the world. Seeing as in history there were no dragons during this time period, I needed to truly see how things fit. The prologue did give us some understanding of it but the world building stopped there. Then the book became a journey of the romance. Don't get me wrong, I love romance and especially romantasy, but there has to be a story line to go with it. At over halfway through the book, I was still struggling to figure out just exactly what that storyline was. And when we were given any snippets of what the war was about, the information was told to us rather than shown. I was also confused by the magic in the book. I have no idea what it is about or how the system works.
I needed more character development. Same as with the world building, the characters were never shown to us but rather we are told about them over and over again from the FMC or MMC's point of view. While the dual point of view usually works for me, the characters didn't seem all that different when they were narrating, Their voices were practically the same.
The romance was also just not there for me. I needed chemistry between these two characters and by the time we had our first spicy romantic scene, I still didn't feel it. The FMC kept saying she was attracted to him, but it was never shown. Same with the MMC.
Finally, the pacing was just slow. I felt like nothing was happening. I found myself skimming paragraphs of narrative so I could get to the dialogue in the hopes of getting some information.
Overall I just felt like this book needed so much more tightening and fleshing out. I'm sad I didn't like it but I do see it's gotten many good reviews and I'm sure others will enjoy the story.
DNF at 60% but wanted to give my feed back here. I will not be featuring this one my socials or my blog.

This book was intense from start to finish, and I loved every second of it!!

A Roman general with a deadly secret and a powerful witch with an unexpected destiny are drawn together in a world where dragons rule and war rages.

This story had everything I wanted. Fated mates, dragon shifters, and magic blended into a romantasy that kept me hooked!

The tension and high stakes made it impossible to put down. I binge read the whole thing and now I need the next book immediately!

If you enjoy fantasy romance filled with action, destiny, and dragons, this is a must-read.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor for the ARC!