Luna and Fowler have escaped the kingdom of Relhok, but they haven’t escaped the darkness. When a battle against the dark dwellers mortally injures Fowler, Luna is faced with a choice: put their fate in the hands of mysterious strangers or risk losing Fowler forever.
Desperate to keep the one bright part of her life alive, Luna accepts the help of soldiers from a nearby kingdom. Lagonia’s castle offers reprieve from the dangerous outside world—until the king discovers both Fowler's and Luna’s true ties to Relhok and their influence over the throne.
Now pawns in each kingdom’s political game, Luna and Fowler are more determined than ever to escape and build the life they’ve been dreaming of. But their own pasts have a tight hold on their hearts and their destinies. Luna must embrace the darkness and fire within her before she loses not only Fowler, but the power she was destined to inherit.
It was no surprise to me that Sophie Jordan’s Rise of Fire was just as stunning and wonderful as the first book, Reign of Shadows! This duology tugged at all my heartstrings, I loved it! I loved it so purely and truly! It’s hard to describe precisely why I was so enchanted with this series, I guess it’s fairy tale elements played a part in it and the fact that it’s so different from the original fairy tales!
We pick up right where we left off, that’s one thing I loved about these books, the chapters flow together seamlessly. We start off with Luna on her way to rescue Fowler—who she now knows is Cullan’s son, the son of the man who murdered her parents and took everything from her—from a horde of dwellers who had taken him when he sacrificed himself to save her. Luna is not sure how she feels what with everything that was just dumped on her regarding Fowler’s identity, but she knows she can’t let him sacrifice himself for her, so here’s the part where the princess (because she is still a princess despite not having her kingdom) rescues the prince.
Naturally, Luna rescues Fowler, but he doesn’t come out unscathed. In fact, he’s been poisoned by the toxins dwellers have. Fate throws them a bone when emissaries from Lagonia stumble upon them and decide to bring them back with them so that Fowler can see their healer. But when they arrive at the castle, all doesn’t go as planned. Fowler’s identity is known right away when he’s there, even unconscious and Fowler just so happens to be betrothed to Maris, King Tebald’s daughter. Luna’s gender is revealed quickly as well, for it’s Prince Chasan who is able to tell that she is not a boy and she’s treated kindly at the castle as well, except for the fact that she’s not allowed to see Fowler for some reason.
Thus the game continues as more royalty intrigue and politics come into play. Things are happening all around Luna and she’s being given no choice in any of the matters either, which really churns my gourd! Not being allowed to make your own decisions really enrages me and I know that given the time period women weren’t really given choices in such matters, but when you’re dealing with the strong and fiery heroine like Luna, seeing her being reduced to so little really upset me.
Luna’s blindness is kept a secret as well, I don’t think King Tebald ever knew about it, at least it was never really mentioned. That Luna is able to sense things so accurately still amazes me! This girl is tough as nails and I love her to pieces! She reminds me a little of Rapunzel from Tangled, Rapunzel was a fighter too! She wasn’t invincible though and neither is Luna which just makes them both so lovable and relatable!
I’ll advise that the story might not mesh well for some readers. While I enjoyed it immensely and wasn’t bothered by the pacing there is a sort of stillness to it. Luna and Fowler spend the majority of the book in Tebald’s castle in Lagonia. They talk of escaping, they plan for it too, although Luna still wants to turn herself over to Fowler’s father so that the kill order will be ceased. Fowler must come up with a way to change her mind on that matter though.
I think one reason why I love this book so much was that it was very fairy tale like but not your ordinary fairy tale. As I mentioned, the princess saves the prince in this one and then they both save each other. Luna may be blind but she is far from helpless, this girl is brave, strong, and determined and I loved that about her. Then you have Fowler who is as equally brave and willing to do anything to protect Luna and yet, he’s not treating her as helpless, his need to protect her comes from love and that just makes it all the more swoonworthy! Chasan’s character was a surprise for me! When he first came onto the page, I hated him immediately. He was a pretentious prince who thought all women should fawn over him and whatnot. He wanted Luna for himself and was even anticipating a marriage with her and threw it in Fowler’s face constantly. It wasn’t until the last 1/3 of the novel or so that that started to change, in baby steps, mind you.
The conclusion to this book was soooo freaking amazing! It was shocking as well, there was a huge happening that proved to play a critical role. Though I do still have some mild confusion as to some of the hows and whys before it came into play, but it’s nothing that really kept me from turning those pages as fast as I could! The ending leaves no stone unturned, just as I started wondering about a few loose-ends, all those points were addressed promptly. It was a perfect kind of fairy tale ending…minus the zombie like dwellers and larger than life bats!
Truly, the only complaint I have, once again, is that this book wasn’t long enough! I was so engrossed with the story and eating up the pages that when it came time for The End, I wasn’t ready for goodbyes just yet, but they were made! This is the perfect duology for fans of fairy tales! It was a story that kept me enticed the whole way through. I am literally at a loss for words here as I try to emulate my feelings over this book, it’s left me speechless which should tell you a lot by that alone!
Overall Rating 5/5 stars
Thanks for posting about this duology. I found this one at my library - but they didn't have the first book. I emailed them and they're going to add the first one to their collection AND they've put me down to be first when it comes in. Thank you, again! I can't wait to read them both!
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