Ignited

This novel was a very enjoyable read. The novel has several points of view from various characters told in third person point of view. It brings together abilities using air, fire, water, earth, and blood. Several characters are keeping secrets and nothing is at it seems. Someone wants to cause war and will kill anyone who gets in their way.
Jura, daughter of the First of the Thirteen, keeps her father's "illness" from the council. He tried to kill her since he is bound by a blood chain, which puts the wearer under complete control of another person. She wants to be strong, but also has compassion and prefers to read. She becomes the interim for the First and tries to show strength by condemning a man to death even though there is no proof of his crime but rather the word of a council member. Tylak, a former slave was accused of stealing from the Everflame, sentenced to death, but Jara saved him from the prison and promised to return his birthstone to him. Tylak is able to bend light and plans to flee the Republic once he gets it back. However, he sees the situation Jara is in and decides to help her. Jara needs to save her father and makes a deal with the Prince of Shadows. However, not everyone is who they appear to be: friends are enemies and enemies become allies. When Jara's life is almost taken, she knows she must discover the truth of what is going on and prevent war between the 3 kingdoms. With Tylak, they head to Kitio to discover how to stop these blood chains and save the kingdoms. I cannot wait to see where their adventures take them in the next book!!

This story is filled with intrigues, betrayal and secrets. It also centers on politics, which even though not really my favorite plot point on other books, this one ade it so interesting and yeah, intriguing. Imagine a politician (for that was Jura is, a politician) in a world where the water is the currency. Where there are people who can bend fire and do other things. Let's throw a bit of romance(it's only first book), friendship and family issues. And yeah DRAGONS and some other creatures we still don't know the names. It's an interesting and definitely engaging plot.

For a first book in a series, this one did a good job. Ignited makes you wanna read the next book right away, only to be disappointed that you maybe still have to wait for another year. Needless to say, the writing was okay. I don't know if this is a debut novel but if it is, it was a good one.

Though there are parts that a little cliche, overall, it wasn't predictable. The fictional world must have something to do with that. As for the Romance, I liked it. It was smooth. There were cliched conversations (more like banters) but they still make me smile and giggle.

And oh, at first the story was a little confusing, maybe because of multi POV narration. I even thought at first why on earth their POVs are needed. But it seemed like there are still so many things to be revealed to us that's why their stories are needed. And sometimes, the narration would become slow and then pick ups and everything's alright.
JURA: Naive at first. Understandable. She turned out to be smarter than I expected, thank Heavens. I say she's an interesting character and I'll sure looked out for her in the next book, especially because of that little exhibition she did in the last 20% of the story. It was something to look forward.

TYLAK: I like him more. Oh I like him. He's sweet but also a little cocky. Bound to find his brother, he's willing to do everything even help a rich bratty who is Jura.

KAY: This little kid is veeeery promising. I'm so sure she'll be badass. She already is.

The other characters are all promising. And I liked most of them.
This is a good instalment in a promising series. Not grandiose but engaging enough. I wouldn't say exactly that it's filled with action, but it's not also boring. It's not slow. It's just AVERAGE. I like this book and enjoyed it and will recommend it to anyone.

It took me a few chapters to really get into the flow of this book. It was pretty unclear how most of these characters were connected for most of the book, but once it was more clear this book everything got far more interesting. I'm still struggling with how scarce water is, and how the less fortunate continue to be alive if they don't have daily access to water of any kind. It's really the only thing I struggle with accepting in any reality, despite that there are dragons in this world.

Gotta say Jura took some getting used to for me. But she is a stand out character. As the heir to the first house of the thirteen, she's expected to know the ins and outs of the council, but she's not very good at it. She's very bookish and far too kind to really work the scheming of the Thirteen. But she's really endearing and I kind of love how she's always needing to adjust her glasses, it's just a small thing that makes her character seem more real.

Kay is a spitfire of a little girl, and I really loved her character. I look forward to her being in future books.

Tylak, I like his character, and how he fits into things. He's a little cocky, a little selfish, but not a bad person. A lot has been taken from him, so his attitude is understandable. I don't want to give too much away on that.

Amira, well, I kind of saw that coming but not in the way that it came about. Though it wasn't revealed until much later what her deal was, her behavior through the rest of the book shows me that she was never really a good friend to Jura. Mocking her at times, belittling her at others.

This was a fantastic book, I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

I really enjoyed this novel. Deese did a great job of designing a unique world and bringing in the concept of the fire dancer. I did, however, feel that the circumstances of the world were revealed a little slower than I would like, and the dialogue occasionally felt a little predictable.

That said, I very much enjoyed this book and looked forward to reading it each day. I think my students - especially fantasy lovers - will like it as well. I’m eager to see what this author does in book 2!

SO much of this story was unexpected for me. This will definitely find an audience with my teens who are clamoring for more like Red Queen, An Ember in the Ashes. and Rebel of the Sands.

This book is an exceptionally enjoyable read that left me wanting for more! I requested this book on netgalley because I liked its premise and the pretty cover but I really wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. It has an interesting story line and unique fantasy elements. It actually started as a three star read for me but eventually it became a four star read. The characters were pretty interesting and I loved the main protagonists Jura and Tylak. It has an intriguing fantasy world that seems to have a persian vibe. I loved the magical system and OMG, it also has fire breathing dragons which came as a total surprise to me. I love dragons and this book has lots of it. Although I love this book, It doesn’t mean that it was a perfect read without flaws. There were some cliched and predictable parts which can be overlooked if you enjoy the story. Anyway, it was really a solid start to a new series and I want more of it.

Seventeen Year old Jura is the daughter of the first of thirteen, successive rulers of the Republic of the Sand Sea. When her father was blood chained by an unknown enemy who can now control him like a puppet, She was forced to attend the council meetings. Jura has never been to the council meetings, but in order to save their place as the first she needs to stand in his place as the ruler without revealing her father’s condition. On the first day, she was forced to give a death sentence to a man named Tylak, a former slave who was accused for stealing everflame but later he becomes her reluctant ally. To free her father from the ancient blood chain she needs to track down the prince of shadows and Tylak is the only one who can lead her to him. To survive the council and the new threat, Jura needs to be coy and smart because no one can be trusted. With enemies lurking everywhere, Jura searches to find the answers which eventually leads her to dangerous secrets and she realizes that they’ve been facing a bigger threat that can ignite a world war.

I liked all the characters in this book but my favorite was the little girl Kay. I actually expected this book to be about Jura and Tylak but we have three more interesting characters Ash, Kay and Beshar. Jura is a strong protagonist but she’s not perfect. She’s fearless and smart but she seemed a bit naive when it comes to trusting people. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed her character. I liked how she handled every difficult situation, despite her naivety. I absolutely loved Tylak! His cocky, sweet, and smart personality totally appealed to me and I can’t wait to know more about him. The relationship between Jura and Tylak was definitely a slow burn. They haven’t realized their feelings yet but I’m so looking forward to know how their relationship develops further. Coming to the other characters, I also loved Kay. She’s seven year old fire dancer and I quite enjoyed her chapters. She’s adorable, sweet, and oh so powerful. I can’t wait to see her kicking ass. Ash and Beshar were interesting characters too and I’d love to know how they play their roles in the next book.

The plot was very intriguing and engaging throughout. This book actually has two subplots which is somehow connected to the main story It took some time for me to get into the story because of the shifting pov’s, but as the story progressed everything became clear to me and I started to enjoy the story and the characters. The story began with a slow start to get oriented with the world and everything but eventually the pace picks up speed. I liked the mystery and political intrigue in the plot. The Villain in this book is kinda predictable but the twists totally surprised me. The writing is pretty good and I liked the multiple POV’s(third person). This book has five multiple POV’s and I really enjoyed reading the story from different perspectives. At the beginning, I was a bit annoyed with so many POV’s but as I get to know them better, I started to like them because everyone has a major role in this book. The author created an interesting world filled with magic and political intrigue. The Republic of the sand sea is a desert world where water is the highest commodity. This world seemed like a mix of Persian and Indian setting. The magical system was pretty awesome in this book. I really liked the aspect of shadow dancers, fire dancers and also not to forget about the dragons. I would love to explore more of this world, magic, and the other creatures living in it.

Overall, I loved this book! It’s an entertaining fantasy read filled with magic, political intrigue, suspense, mystery, and a dash of romance. This book doesn’t have any huge cliffhanger at the end but it does conclude with a surprising twist that’ll make you desperate for the next book. So yeah, I’ll definitely look forward to the next book.

Okay so this was a complete gem to read! First things first… this book has dragons in. If you’re anything like me then that will be enough to make you want to read this but just in case…

This book largely follows the story of Jura, whilst she has to stand in as ‘First of the Thirteen’ as her father isn’t able to. In the world this is set in, the Republic, the Thirteen are essentially the reigning government. The world is set up as a very cut throat one where power is of complete importance. The first we see of the dragons is that they’re used in gladiator style tournaments, and we also have a little glimpse into their upbringing to go with this.

A. M. Deese has managed to fit so much into this fantasy world by using quite a lot of different points of view, but each chapter is marked with the name of who’s point of view it is in so it’s fairly easy to follow. Points of view included are: Jura (which is the bulk of the story); Ash; Tylak; Kay; and Beshar. Five is quite a lot but the way they’re used makes sense, the stories all come together in such a fascinating way and it’s left me eager for the next book in the series!

Little bit more about the dragons… as said they’re used in a gladiator style arena against people who are trained as ‘Fire Dancers’ – they’re capable of manipulating fire to bend it and Ash who we follow is a retired Fire Dancer. As he wants to still be involved, he wants a cadet to train which is where Kay eventually comes in. Kay originally lived with her mother and father, and her father captured and trained wild dragons. She was probably my favourite of the characters as she’s just such a sweet character right down to her thoughts.

Beshar has an interest in raising fighting dragons and also owning promising cadets. He’s also another member of the Thirteen as Jura is but he’s Tenth, meaning that he isn’t from as powerful of a standing as Jura is. Tylak is the man mentioned who Jura has to sentence to death, I can’t say much about him without revealing too much but he’s quite an interesting and funny character, with a side story of trying to find his brother somehow. I think the reason why I liked these different perspectives narrows down to the characters themselves – I liked all of those who we follow and so when it changed to them I didn’t mind, I was just happy to see where that character was going in the story!

There are other forms of magic too – we get a glimpse at earth magic, blood magic and there are even those who can seemingly disappear at will. I definitely felt like this was comparable to a young adult version of Games of Thrones whilst reading. The focus of power and betrayals and even a couple of the characters reminded me of it heavily.

Heads up, the eBook also comes with this exclusive content… (Which is basically yet more awesome history from the series!):
Character Bios
The World of Jangbahar
The House of Josper the Usurper
End of the Border Wars (Year 1341): JOSPER
Which Ignited Character Are You?

I think that just about sums up my thoughts on Ignited anyway but honestly I really did love it. It was full of surprises towards the end and everything came together so well, most definitely a 5 star read and I really hope you pick it up if you’re a lover of young adult fantasy like me!

This is a solid read. While I only gave it 3 stars (maybe 3.5) the reasons are not to do with plot, characters or world building. Instead it's the ending. Once you get to the end of the book you feel like you only read a prelude; not a full book. It's not that the page count is particularly short (however for fantasy it is) but more that the major plot points are not resolved AT ALL by the end. This really bothered me. Yes it will get me to read the second book but it annoys me as a reader and certainly is a huge part of why this is not a four star book.

Characters, Plot & World Building
A. M. Deese gives us characters that are all quite interesting. There is perhaps a bit of cliche and YA trope in many of them but overall I liked our lead gal. I felt compassion for her at times, and was overall cheering for her which is not always the case for me with female heroine YA books.
The sort-of romantic interest is an interesting set-up. In general the use of flirtations and feminine wile's (if you will) is exactly what one would expect the women to use in male-power society and Deese does a good job of keeping these in line with what a teenage girl (our lead gal) might know or do.
One of the major highlights for are chapters from Kay's POV. She is a younger child and her narrative is written perfectly. It feels just like the young girl is speaking to me the reader and telling me her reasons and side of the story. I adored this and couldn't help but feel like there was some true magic to Deese's ability to capture a child's thoughts and voice so well. Certainly all the characters felt like their own people but Kay's chapters really stood out to me.
The actual plot and world building of this fantasy novel are very intricate and well done. I love that water is the currency. It's going to be our future Earth currency one day (as prophesied by many sci-fi writers and scientists) and so it felt like the perfect type of trade currency. The intricate council politics and in-fighting of families is wonderfully done and feels like solid, political high fantasy to me.

Why is this YA?
This was an unusual read for me in that I wanted it to be adult fantasy and not YA. Not because I don't like YA; but because the plot, politics, hierarchy, fighting and other elements all felt like they would be amazing if written at a 'higher' level. That's not to say that YA books can't have these things (and should have them of course) but it just seemed like Deese had dumbed down some elements (like possible romances and narrative of our lead gal) in order to make it a YA book. When instead it could have easily been written at the adult level with the characters voices still representing their age. I'd be curious to know if Deese intended this to be a YA book initially or not. It seems to me that her writing style would be best served if it was elevated to a Sanderson, Martin, Goodkind level of fantasy storytelling. That said it is good reading for older teens or adults (like me!) that love YA.

A Bit Choppy
There were points in which the chapter swaps (including POV change) were a bit stilted. Now this may be because it appears my Kobo ARC was missing some pages that my Kindle app ARC was not... so forgive me in advance if this is not true in the final publication. There were times where I wanted more of a transition to remind me of who the next POV voice was. Especially near the beginning when a name wasn't necessarily enough to remind me of which character was which (there are a fair number of POVs in the book).

Overall
The biggest reason for my three stars is the sudden ending that really frustrated me.. I just wanted so much more! Now that may not seem like a bad thing; but this is such a cliffhanger with no major plot resolution and so it's not at all satisfying. It's not the kind of 'ahhh I learned things but now I want more' cliffhanger; and instead feels like it just ends in the middle of the climax. Maybe it's more that the ending is a bit rushed? I'm not sure but something about the end and it's drop off really took the enjoyment out of the whole book for me.
I am definitely going to watch for this series to continue and hope to read more from Deese. I think there is a great future in store for Deese and hope she continues to improve into the type of fantasy writing she seems to be headed towards.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

I really enjoyed Ignited - while I kept getting distracted by (and finishing) other books, I kept coming back to Ignited. Seventeen-year-old Jura is struggling to maintain her family's status as the Firsts among Thirteen while seeking the solution of her father's "illness". Involved in the complicated and deadly politics, Jura is put in a position she must navigate closely along with a handsome criminal she sentenced to death. I'd love to read the sequel as soon as its available, since the first ended with so many questions I need answered!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy to review.

Originally, I had most of this book review done but then Wordpress decided to not save it so I am stressed and a little mad that I need to rewrite it. 

But it does not change the fact that this book was really good. Not Children of Blood and Bone good (COB&B is now my new standard for amazing) but still good. I went into this book debating whether or not I was going to like it. But I was sucked in from the first chapter.

AND THE SYNOPSIS DOES NOT DO THIS BOOK JUSTICE!! And since I only talk about the plot in detail when the synopsis does not work, here we go. 

First, Jura's father is not dead, so I don't know why they said Jura was looking for his assassin. She is, however, looking for the person(s) who put on her father's blood chain, a bracelet that makes the wearer a puppet to someone else (it is explained better in the book), hence why she needs the Prince of Shadows. Also, this book has multiple POVs, which should definitely be mentioned. There is:

the Fire Dancer, Ash, who is basically a gladiator that slays dragons and can bend fire but not produce it 
Kay, the daughter of a Dragon breeder (this girl is adorable and witty and to be protected) 
Tylak, Jura sentences him to death but then the narrative changes and he become her ally 
Beshar, a member of the Thirteen (the government) and a complete slimeball (that is my opinion but it is totally on grounds of his character)
Though Jura's POV is the majority of the story, all of the POVs do interweave nicely together though Kay's is a bit out there until the end of the book and then it all makes sense. 

I loved that Jura was unsure of herself and that she was very naive. She was trying to keep her family's place in society while her father is incapacitated. In this world having rank in the Thirteen is everything and since Jura's family is the First, they are the most important. SO WHY IN ALL OF HADES IS JURA NOT FLUENT IN THE WAYS OF POLITICS?!?!?!!? This made me really mad. The rank seems to be passed down through heirs and since Jura is her father's only heir then why wouldn't she know how to be a part of politics. Yes, I love her character for being real and not being perfect but really this is the one thing that she is not taught!

And that is another thing, this system is really weird. The Thirteen is made up of Seven Ruling Kingdoms and six members of the merchant class. Deese doesn't go into how one becomes a member and other small but important details as to how the government works, which I think is a bit important considering how politics is such a large part of this book. I am hoping that Deese will go into more detail about this in the next book. 

And there is one hell of a plot twist. This was actually really fun because I was texting my friend while reading and I was saying "I got the plot twist!!" (I love figuring out the plot twists beforehand and it's a bit of a joke between us) and then I was like "I did not see the even bigger plot twist behind it". All in all, this was a fun read and I can't wait for the next one!