Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - The Flames of Albiyon

I truly fell in love with this world and the characters, especially the dragons! Be forewarned that this book does not wrap everything up and you will desperately want to keep reading to find out what happens next. I am early awaiting sequels! This book picks up some of my favourite fantasy elements - like the importance of universities or libraries, dragons, and soft magic systems - expands on them and the mixes them up with things I didn’t even realize I was missing in my fantasy worlds - like queer rep and non-monarchal governments - and the result is a delight.

It is self published, and you can tell at times. There are more typos and grammatical issues that in a traditionally published book, and there are some places where the structure feels a little clunky, but the story is so gripping, and the world so interesting, that I didn’t mind any of this.

I wanted to know so much more about this world, but I think to satisfy my curiosity, this would have been an absolute tome. The world building in the book is wonderful, and this desire for more comes from curiosity and wonder tether than any sense of lack. I will have to patiently wait for the next instalment

Content Warnings

ikillsunflowers's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted 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? No

4.0

This was a lovely read and I really enjoyed it. I found out about this book through the author's tiktok and knew nothing about it other than it was Scottish, sapphic, and fantasy and I was not disappointed. I loved the use of Scots throughout the story. It made me feel so at home while reading hundreds of miles from where I'm from.

This is a lot of representation in this book. I loved the queer romance and characters. However, the story really focuses on Adaria and Isla and I think it would have been nice to have more development of some of the side characters which would really bolster the representation.

Additionally, I grew to love all the side characters but I still don't feel like I know them well, despite their importance to the main character.

I really hope we don't have to wait too long for the sequel though, because I need to know what happens!

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roodborstje's review

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious 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? No

4.0

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athiker10's review

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adventurous lighthearted medium-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? No

3.0

I liked the premise of the book and the characters and tropes used, but it felt like there needed to be another draft and some outside editing because everything felt a little clunky and underdeveloped.

Looking forward to seeing future writing and hoping it’ll steadily improve.

Content Warnings

lucadonta's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious 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? No

4.5

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