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lizgriffinwords's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Thank you NetGalley for the eARC and Libro FM for the early audio copy of TOGETHER WE BURN by Isabel Ibañez, available from Wednesday Books on May 31.
❤️🔥 What a mesmerizing book! Set in a Spanish-inspired fantasy kingdom, Dragonadors (dragon fighters) entertain crowds by facing off against captive dragons in arenas. Zarela is the daughter of one such Dragonador, but after two family tragedies, she finds herself managing the household and in need of more dragons and dragon tamers to uphold her family’s legacy. She recruits Arturo, a surly but handsome dragon tamer with a soft spot for the dragons he hunts, and sparks inevitably fly!
What I loved so much about this sunshine-and-grump-romance book is how feisty Zarela is, and she didn’t have to make herself less for love. Arturo succeeded in being protective without being controlling, which I applaud. And nobody writes mouth-watering food and gorgeous attire quite like Isabel.
For those curious about the steam level, I’d say quantity-wise, it’s about equivalent to Lakesedge, or a little less than Serpent & Dove. There is a lot of great tension and sizzle and build-up between our romantic leads. ❤️🔥
❤️🔥 What a mesmerizing book! Set in a Spanish-inspired fantasy kingdom, Dragonadors (dragon fighters) entertain crowds by facing off against captive dragons in arenas. Zarela is the daughter of one such Dragonador, but after two family tragedies, she finds herself managing the household and in need of more dragons and dragon tamers to uphold her family’s legacy. She recruits Arturo, a surly but handsome dragon tamer with a soft spot for the dragons he hunts, and sparks inevitably fly!
What I loved so much about this sunshine-and-grump-romance book is how feisty Zarela is, and she didn’t have to make herself less for love. Arturo succeeded in being protective without being controlling, which I applaud. And nobody writes mouth-watering food and gorgeous attire quite like Isabel.
For those curious about the steam level, I’d say quantity-wise, it’s about equivalent to Lakesedge, or a little less than Serpent & Dove. There is a lot of great tension and sizzle and build-up between our romantic leads. ❤️🔥
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Sexual content
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
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