Reviews with content warning for Murder - Together We Burn

In theory I loved this book. When I read the description I thought that it was going to be a mix between How to Train Your Dragon and the Hunger Games which was not completely wrong but didn’t come through as much as I wanted. It was incredibly slow until the last 50 pages which held most of the plot. The author kept repeating things and pointing out things that were seemingly obvious. I felt that the enemies to livers slow burn was also not well illustrated. Zarela had no reason to hate Arturo at the beginning of the book but something that is revealed much later would give her plenty of cause. However by the time that this has been revised they are in love. Overall it was a unsatisfying read that j would not recommend.

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beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

~~I'll have more to say later, but for now all I'll say is I enjoyed the heck out of this.~~

Overall, I really enjoyed this.

Zarela Zalvidar is a character who kind of sneaks up on you. At first, I disliked her initial attitude towards the protestors who oppose dragon-fighting - a traditional sport in the fictional land of Hispalia, rather like bullfighting in Spain - but I understood her fear of dragons. But as the novel progresses, her determination, toughness, and stubbornness made me root for her. And it did seem that she

changed her attitude at the end

, which I appreciated. I also enjoyed her relationship with her father, it is obvious how much she cares about him.

Of note too, is that Isabel Ibañez takes care to show us that Zarela's opinion is not the only one to be valid, and she does that with the character of Arturo Díaz de Montserrat, Zarela's reluctant trainer and

eventual love interest

. Arturo, a brooding and rough-hewn ex-dragon fighter is now vehemently against dragon fighting, and both he and Zarela are stubborn to a fault. Their growing relationship was a beautifully written slow burn.

It is here that I need to warn you - do not read this book if you are hungry. Ibañez describes food - Spanish food, in this instance - in a way that truly makes your mouth water. I'd like a slice of toasted bread with Jamon, tomatoes, and a generous slathering of olive oil, please.

Having said all of the above, there were ways in which I think the novel fell ever so slightly short. The climax - although I loved the way in which the tension slowly built - felt ever-so-slightly rushed. And the eventual villain reveal was a bit unbelievable, which I thought could have been helped by Ibañez showing us more of his character. The timeline also occasionally confused me (

how many years ago did Zarela's mother die?

).

But that ending? Where Zarela ended up

dancing with the dragon instead of fighting it

. Chef's kiss.

A good YA read for anyone who is a fan of spicy slow-burn relationships and Spanish culture.

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averyconfusedhomosapiensbooks's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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patricktreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The jump in on this work was very quick. Immediate fight situation which sucked me into real quick. I kind of wish the chapters were slightly longer, but they were still good.

I loved the representation, and I was honestly very excited with the Spanish being spread throughout. As someone who doesn’t know much, it wasn’t hard to follow along and still be able to understand. Honestly, I probably learned a lot just from the way the book mixed the language.

It was technically long page wise but it was still a very quick and easy read with constant motion. It wasn’t a….slow burn 🔥 if you will. I really wish there was a second one.

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foreverinastory's review against another edition

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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.

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