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foreverinastory's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Thank you to Wednesday books and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
2.5/5
Ugh this was such a chore to read.
Together We Burn is a Spanish inspired high fantasy. The world of Hispalia has an ancient tradition of dragon fighting. Zarela Zalvidar is a talented flamenco dancer and the daughter of the most famous Dragonador. When catastrophe strikes during their 500th anniversary performance, her father is gravely injured and La Giralda is left in almost complete ruin. Zarela has no choice but to take over running La Giralda and face her fears of dragons in order to keep her family's business running.
This was hard for me to read because of the animal cruelty towards dragons. Plus Zarela has such an apathy towards them and it just really put me off this book. Plus then we also get a good heaping of sexism, misogyny and traditional gender roles and I'm just so tired of that shit showing up in fantasy. Can we not imagine a better world than that?
I didn't particularly care about Zarela or her romance. Though I did like Arturo, the love interest. He's super grumpy and he's against dragon fighting completely. I didn't really see the chemistry or appeal for him to like Zarela but whatever, I'm not stressing over it.
The ending was predictable but it annoyed me that the option did not occur to Zarela until like 80% into the book. Really? All this time to finally use some common sense?
Ultimately, I did not particularly like this, and I wouldn't really recommend it, but the cover is pretty.
Rep: All Spanish inspired cast, cishet female MC, cishet male side character with a permanent injury from dragon fighting.
CWs: Kidnapping, fire/fire injury, death, death of parent, murder, sexism, misogyny, grief, violence, blood, animal cruelty, animal death. Moderate: sexual content.
2.5/5
Ugh this was such a chore to read.
Together We Burn is a Spanish inspired high fantasy. The world of Hispalia has an ancient tradition of dragon fighting. Zarela Zalvidar is a talented flamenco dancer and the daughter of the most famous Dragonador. When catastrophe strikes during their 500th anniversary performance, her father is gravely injured and La Giralda is left in almost complete ruin. Zarela has no choice but to take over running La Giralda and face her fears of dragons in order to keep her family's business running.
This was hard for me to read because of the animal cruelty towards dragons. Plus Zarela has such an apathy towards them and it just really put me off this book. Plus then we also get a good heaping of sexism, misogyny and traditional gender roles and I'm just so tired of that shit showing up in fantasy. Can we not imagine a better world than that?
I didn't particularly care about Zarela or her romance. Though I did like Arturo, the love interest. He's super grumpy and he's against dragon fighting completely. I didn't really see the chemistry or appeal for him to like Zarela but whatever, I'm not stressing over it.
The ending was predictable but it annoyed me that the option did not occur to Zarela until like 80% into the book. Really? All this time to finally use some common sense?
Ultimately, I did not particularly like this, and I wouldn't really recommend it, but the cover is pretty.
Rep: All Spanish inspired cast, cishet female MC, cishet male side character with a permanent injury from dragon fighting.
CWs: Kidnapping, fire/fire injury, death, death of parent, murder, sexism, misogyny, grief, violence, blood, animal cruelty, animal death. Moderate: sexual content.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Sexual content
jordansreadingnook's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
It was just so good. I’m really going to miss Hispalia. I’ll have to come back to it soon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent
missprint's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Wonderful characters, interesting and inventive world. Beautiful Spanish influence. Great writing, evocative imagery.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent
Moderate: Violence
stephbakerbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was a decent YA fantasy story, and while there weren't really any surprises in the plot, the unique setting and strong protagonist made it a compelling read.
Okay, so I figured out the bad guy early on in the story, though I was still interested in finding out the why behind the actions and in what would happen to our protagonist (but yes, the why ended up being too far-fetched and a little implausible for me, but it didn't bother me too much). The plot followed a fairly predictable young-adult arc.
That being said, I still really enjoyed it. There's something to be said for a book that hits the points you're expecting—it's familiar and comforting while still being new. Zarela was an easy main character to love and root for and I liked the romance story with Arturo, even if, again, it hit all those predictable points. There's not a ton of character development, but Zarela and Arturo both get some growth that made for nice touches to the story.
And I loved the setting! The dragon-fighting and this somewhat magical world inspired by medieval Spain were intriguing and kept me hooked. I appreciate a good moral dilemma conversation and I liked the discussion that our main characters were having over the morality of dragon-fighting, and if something being a long-held tradition is reason enough to continue doing it. These kinds of conversations make a fantasy book more relatable. I also like that this is a standalone. I don't read enough standalone fantasy novels.
I also loved all the Spanish throughout—made me realize I know more Spanish than I thought!
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for letting me read an early eARC!
Okay, so I figured out the bad guy early on in the story, though I was still interested in finding out the why behind the actions and in what would happen to our protagonist (but yes, the why ended up being too far-fetched and a little implausible for me, but it didn't bother me too much). The plot followed a fairly predictable young-adult arc.
That being said, I still really enjoyed it. There's something to be said for a book that hits the points you're expecting—it's familiar and comforting while still being new. Zarela was an easy main character to love and root for and I liked the romance story with Arturo, even if, again, it hit all those predictable points. There's not a ton of character development, but Zarela and Arturo both get some growth that made for nice touches to the story.
And I loved the setting! The dragon-fighting and this somewhat magical world inspired by medieval Spain were intriguing and kept me hooked. I appreciate a good moral dilemma conversation and I liked the discussion that our main characters were having over the morality of dragon-fighting, and if something being a long-held tradition is reason enough to continue doing it. These kinds of conversations make a fantasy book more relatable. I also like that this is a standalone. I don't read enough standalone fantasy novels.
I also loved all the Spanish throughout—made me realize I know more Spanish than I thought!
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for letting me read an early eARC!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Violence