Review--A Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan

 

New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan returns to the high-stakes, sweeping world of dragons, romance, and drama first evoked in her bestselling young adult Firelight series, in a brand-new epic adult romantasy series.

Dragons are extinct. Witches are outcast. Magic is dying.

But human lust for power is immortal.

Dragon fire no longer blisters the skies over Penterra, but inside the lavish palace, life is still perilous…especially for Tamsyn. Raised in the glittering court alongside the princesses, it's her duty to be punished for their misdeeds. Treated as part of the royal family but also as the lowliest servant, Tamsyn fits nowhere. Her only friend is Stig, Captain of the Guard...though sometimes she thinks he wants more than friendship.

When Fell, the Beast of the Borderlands, descends on her home, Tamsyn’s world becomes even more dangerous. To save the pampered princesses from a fate worse than death, she is commanded to don a veil and marry the brutal warrior. She agrees to the deception even though it means leaving Stig, and the only life she’s ever known, behind.

The wedding night begins with unexpected passion—and ends in near violence when her trickery is exposed. Rather than start a war, Fell accepts Tamsyn as his bride...but can he accept the dark secrets she harbors—secrets buried so deep even she doesn’t know they exist? For Tamsyn is more than a royal whipping girl, more than the false wife of a man who now sees her as his enemy. And when those secrets emerge, they will ignite a flame bright enough to burn the entire kingdom to the bone.

Magic is not dead...it is only sleeping. And it will take one ordinary girl with an extraordinary destiny to awaken it.

Well the long, chaotic, but wonderful week took me away from ardently reading Sophie Jordan's A Fire in the Sky but I finally finished late on Friday and found it to be a most wonderful read indeed! It's been AGES since I've read a good dragon book! Really only two series are coming to mind right away featuring dragons and Sophie's YA series was one of them! Lol.

A Fire in the Sky serves as a prequel story to the Firelight trilogy. It's the same world, but obviously ages before we get to Jacinda's story. In fact, it's been so very long since I read that series I can't even say with positivity if names from this book are mentioned in her story...it's been THAT long and wayyyy too many books since then! But anyway, this is a fresh start with familiar territory at least and it was an engaging and enchanting story to say the least!

Tamsyn was raised by royalty ever since she was a baby, found on the streets by the queen. She's not a princess herself but was raised with the three princesses as a sister of sorts. Except she was known as "the whipping girl." Tamsyn basically took on the punishment of the princesses should they misbehave. Since you cannot "strike" royalty, Tamsyn was left to pay the price should one of the princesses step out of line. You would think this would lead to lots of malicious intent from the princesses on their part, but that couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, the princesses did see Tamsyn as their sister, but children will be children, squabbles will happen and Tamsyn was left to pay the price. She never resented her "sisters" though, her position was seen as an honorable one and she saw it that way too.

Then one day, the Beast of the Borderlands, a fierce warlord/king, known as Fell, from a neighboring kingdom has come to collect his due. He has protected Tamsyn's parents' lands alongside his and now he's owed a wife and as far as he knows, the king has three eligible daughters. But naturally, the king and queen aren't too happy about giving one of their actual daughters to Fell and that's where Tamsyn steps in once again.

Tricking Fell into marrying and consummating the marriage to Tamsyn, he's left with no choice but to "keep her" as his wife when he was striving for a princess to help further his lands and provide royal heirs. Now he must bring Tamsyn back to his kingdom, which is a treacherous journey and his accompanying soldiers aren't too happy with Tamsyn and the role she played in becoming their queen.

For awhile we have the plot of your basic fantasy romance story. A forced marriage and a fantastical setting. There's mentions of dragons of course, but it's been years since anyone has seen them. They are long believed to be extinct. Which of course has the reader wondering just who the dragon in hiding could be. 

The story is told through three points of view, Tamsyn, Fell, and Stig. Stig is Tamsyn's childhood friend and captain of the guard in the palace she grew up in. Stig admits the night before Tamsyn is set to wed Fell that he's in love with her, and while she does have some feelings for him as well, she's obligated to marry Fell in order to protect her sisters, even if it means the cost of her own life. So like with Sophie's YA series, you get the air of a love triangle happening.

The pacing to this one was okay, I mean, for the most part you just have this buildup to the dragon reveal, because the cover tells it all. Here there be dragons! So you're waiting for it to happen, but alas, you will be waiting awhile, which I sort of expected too for the reveal needs to make a powerful impact! And while it does, the second punch is what really hooks you in just before the ending that will leave you breathless!

I quite enjoyed this one. Yes, at times it did drag a wee bit without there seeming to be any real direction for the characters. We know what the lovestruck couple is thinking due to the multiple points of view. Secrets abound, desire and foreboding battling each other. This was definitely a read to keep you on your toes in that area! I am definitely looking forward to seeing how things will play out in the sequel!

If you're looking for a slow burn fantasy romance read coupled with secrets and dragons abound then look no further than Sophie Jordan's A Fire in the Sky! It was a pleasantly delightful read with just the right amount of heat! 

Overall Rating 4/5 stars