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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.
MY THOUGHTS
I went into A Fire in the Sky with fresh eyes, having skipped the synopsis, and it turned out to be better than I anticipated. The reviews for the book weren’t great, but I’m so glad I gave it a chance. The main plot, featuring tropes like hidden identity, secret power, and a marriage of convenience (a personal weakness of mine), may have been done countless times before, yet I found myself invested in Tamsyn and Fell’s story.
The world-building was straightforward and easy to follow but, at the same time, fairly basic. The setting revolves around a central kingdom with Viking-esque clans where humans, witches, and dragons coexist. While intriguing, the story took a while to truly get going. Despite the month-long journey Tamsyn undertakes to reach the Borderlands with the clan, little to nothing significant happens until about the midpoint of the book.
Apart from the main couple, there was another love interest, Stig the guard. I didn’t understand why the author included him, as he added no real value to the story. He only appeared in two scenes as a plot device, and even then, his role barely advanced the narrative. On top of that, Stig came across as a creep from page one, and I never felt any real connection between him and Tamsyn.
Although the book was 336 pages long, the story felt incomplete, especially with the major cliffhanger ending. I wish there had been more interaction between Tamsyn and Fell to develop their relationship further. Despite its issues, I’m still interested in continuing their journey and look forward to the next book. I just hope it offers deeper character development and more robust world-building.
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