Empire of Flame and Thorns (Flame and Thorns, # 1)
By: Marion Blackwood
Publication: October 21, 2024 by Black Dagger Publishing
366 pages
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Dragons, Fae, Romantasy
Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)
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Goodreads description--A fae rebel. A ruthless dragon commander.And a deadly trial that will turn their lives upside down.
Trapped in the Seelie Court by a forest of thorns, Selena Hale lives at the mercy of the dragon shifters. Her only chance to gain her freedom is by entering the Atonement Trials: a deadly competition that pits fae magic users against each other. Only three people can win, and Selena intends to be one of them.
There is only one problem. Draven Ryat, the ruthless commander of the dragon shifter army, is determined to make her lose.
He symbolizes everything that she hates, and if he finds out that she is also a member of the secret fae rebellion, he will not only mess with her chances to win, he will kill her. But the more time she spends with him, the more she finds herself inexplicably drawn to him.
And nothing is more dangerous in a lethal trial than a distracted heart.
Especially one that beats for the enemy…
I know that not all main characters are going to be like me. But I always try to see myself in the characters. Or at the very least understand the character's actions. Selena is very different from me. And her decisions are very different from ones I would make. Selena is a fae that's roughly 160ish years old. In this world the fae who were once the ruling class have become subservient to the dragon shifters. The fae in Selena's city are assigned jobs and are alloted one meal per day. Selena is working for the rebellion, but she's never trusted with much outside of guard duty or lookout. Selena has emotion magic which means she can manipulate what people feel, not by creating emotion, but basically by turning up or down what they already feel. This can't be done without people knowing for the most part as when a fae uses their power, their eyes glow. Yet people continually accuse Selena of manipulating their emotions. She isn't trusted by nearly everyone. And that leaves her with a desire to connect to others. She ends up trying to be a people pleaser for the most part. She even has a non-existent relationship with her parents because she couldn't control her power when she was younger, and they blame her for the rifts in their marriage where they can't trust their own emotions.
Selena decides that joining the Attonrment Trials will be the only way to prove her worth to the rebellion and earn their trust. The Attonment Trials are a set of trials/games that have three winners each year which are finally allowed to leave their home city to travel to other cities and anywhere they want. Basically they earn their freedom. I have a lot of questions about this because the Emporer and Emperess seem to have a lot more land and cities to rule over, why is it only this city that has the Attonment Trials? Is this where all the fae of the entire realm live? Also, how is there a forest under a forest? But that's a side note for another paragraph. I had questions that I wondered why these didn't occur to the characters, but you know...that would ruin the plot.
So then there's Draven. He is a dragon shifter from the Black Dragon clan. He's the leader of the clan, and the commander of the forces. He stumbles upon the rebellion meeting that Selena is a lookout for, Selena tries to distract him so the leaders of the rebellion can escape, and she throws a drink in Draven's face. He goes after her and of course recognizes her as one of the contestants of the Attonment Trials. He actively works to sabotage her. And he's attracted to her smart mouth and how she tends to treat him differently from how she treats everyone else. She doesn't like him so she doesn't care what he thinks about her, and therefore, she tends to think and speak however she wants without care of how he will receive it. The two have many interactions and I appreciate that the characters only "like" each other, not love each other by the end of the book. Because even though they do have enough interactions to create a like they have not have enough interactions of substance to create love. Obviously, there is more to Draven than we've seen up to this point. I am curious about what more there is to his story and his limitations.
There are on-page physical scenes that I prefer to skim. That's not why I read books. Language was also high. The world seems to have religious "gods" that are referenced, but we know nothing about them except references to one of their body parts in a derogitory fashion. All of these things are drawbacks for me. But not dealbreakers necessarily.
Favorite quotes:
-I still remember the vicious smugness in my teacher's voice as he told us that this is what we deserve. That it is our turn to live in poverty. To live as slaves. Our turn to suffer so that we might pay for our ancestors' crimes.
This is so stupid. How can an entire society go along with doing to others what was done to them? This isn't "fair", if that's what is trying to be portrayed. I can tell the author and the character doesn't agree, but it's also just stupid that this is the backstory.
-But I don't. Because no matter how much I try to convince myself otherwise, I still desperately want people to like me. I want them to trust me. I want to be accepted. So I force a smile and pick up my plate and say, "Sure." Pain and frustration swirl like a restless storm behind my rib cage as I walk away with my plate. I hate that I am this way. I hate that I desperately want people's approval. I hate that I make myself less so that others won't feel uncomfortable around me.
Oh my goodness. I can understand...intellectually...how someone might feel this way. I think I might even know one or two people personally who feel this way. But it frustrates me to no end. Trying to get people to like you by not being truthful isn't helping those people to like you at all. I'm trying not to judge her too harshly. I'm trying to enter the stage of life where I love people where they are...characters in books as well. But since this is fiction, I don't have to read characters like this. But thankfully, this goes to further the plot between Selena and Draven that she doesn't act like this with him.
-Being slim and being fit are not the same thing.
I read Empire of Flame and Thorns quickly. I found most of the issue with the main character's decision making, and the things being used to build a relationship between the main characters. But I wasn't expecting too much, so the book exceeded my expectations. And my desire to keep reading and ability to do so in the moment helped my overall enjoyment of the book. I am giving Empire of Flame and Thorns a tentative 4 Stars. Have you read Empire and Flame and Thorns? What did you think? Let me know!
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