[Bre’s Review]: Fireborne by Rosaria Munda

Fireborne
by Rosaria Munda
Series: The Aurelian Cycle #1
Pages: 448
Release Date: October 15 2019
Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Military, Romance
Source: Publisher
Format Read: ARC
Goodreads

Game of Thrones meets Red Rising in a debut young adult fantasy that's full of rivalry, romance... and dragons.

Annie and Lee were just children when a brutal revolution changed their world, giving everyone—even the lowborn—a chance to test into the governing class of dragonriders.

Now they are both rising stars in the new regime, despite backgrounds that couldn’t be more different. Annie’s lowborn family was executed by dragonfire, while Lee’s aristocratic family was murdered by revolutionaries. Growing up in the same orphanage forged their friendship, and seven years of training have made them rivals for the top position in the dragonriding fleet.

But everything changes when survivors from the old regime surface, bent on reclaiming the city.

With war on the horizon and his relationship with Annie changing fast, Lee must choose to kill the only family he has left or to betray everything he’s come to believe in. And Annie must decide whether to protect the boy she loves . . . or step up to be the champion her city needs.

From debut author Rosaria Munda comes a gripping adventure that calls into question which matters most: the family you were born into, or the one you’ve chosen.

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

“And as she turned, it was revealed by her tread that she was fireborne.”

There hasn’t been a fantasy book that has captivated me so intently in a long time. This book was pretty darn perfect. And I’m not saying that because everything works out beautifully. In fact, I think the best part about this book is that everything doesn’t work out according to plan. But any book that can get you to see the beauty in the midst of the brokenness is one that I am grateful to read.

Also…dragons and fighting with dragons! Love!

“Moments like this, it hits me like it did the first time: that the life I have begun to think of as routine is, in fact, extraordinary.”

The plot was so well thought out and detailed, yet not confusing. The world building was slow and thoroughly explained. The most intriguing part was the push and pull between right and wrong, good and evil. The choices they made had consequences either way and sometimes it was just a matter of choosing to be the lesser of two evils.

“Even if we’re a little evil, we’re still better than the evil they were, before.”

I absolutely loved Annie. She had every reason to give up and quit, yet it only made her push harder. For a young adult book there were a ton of opportunities for her as a teenage girl to be petty but I was happy to see that there is a maturity to the characters.

“There is a moment when it happens, usually somewhere between summoning and launch, where Annie transforms from the person she is on the ground to the one she becomes in the air. Where the hesitation vanishes, the awkwardness falls away, and suddenly she’s free. Unleashed.”

Lee was an amazing hero and I want to know more about him! He had such a composed exterior but was broken on the inside. During the book we get to see his constant battle with who he was before, and who he wants to be now. Oh my gahhhh. This story was amazing and beautiful!

“Together we’ll defy them, step by step through this fire, to the end.”