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bandysbooks's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Together We Burn features a young female character who is the heir to her mother’s flamenco legacy and her father’s dragon fighting legacy. When tragedy strikes, she must face the dragons she’s feared to save her inheritance. In order to learn how, she solicits the help of a retired, disenchanted dragon fighter to train her.
I really wanted to love this book, but it ended up just being okay for me. I had issues with the characterization, the setting, the plot twists, and the pacing.
First of all, the setting. The country in the story is called Hispalia and is pretty much Spain. I don’t really understand the point of making up a country if it’s literally going to be a country that already exists. I kept waiting to see what would differentiate it from Spain and it’s never really made clear…aside from dragons existing.
Second, it’s incredibly hard to relate to or feel sympathy for the main character. Her father is a famous dragon fighter and initially that isn’t so bothersome…but then they talk about how the dragons are treated and it makes it hard to feel any sympathy for anything bad that happens. Additionally, the MC comes across quite entitled. Clearly, she comes from a rich family and I can see how that would make her out of touch…but at times she comes across as spoiled and inconsiderate.
Third, I was able to figure out who the bad guy was pretty early on. I also figured out what would happen when the MC faced a dragon. It just felt like a pretty predictable plot. Add to it pacing issues and it gets kind of difficult to stay engaged at points.
All in all, I think the idea was good, but the execution was a miss. There were definitely moments of engagement that I wish the author would have built upon more. A quick enough read if you want something fairly light about dragons.
I really wanted to love this book, but it ended up just being okay for me. I had issues with the characterization, the setting, the plot twists, and the pacing.
First of all, the setting. The country in the story is called Hispalia and is pretty much Spain. I don’t really understand the point of making up a country if it’s literally going to be a country that already exists. I kept waiting to see what would differentiate it from Spain and it’s never really made clear…aside from dragons existing.
Second, it’s incredibly hard to relate to or feel sympathy for the main character. Her father is a famous dragon fighter and initially that isn’t so bothersome…but then they talk about how the dragons are treated and it makes it hard to feel any sympathy for anything bad that happens. Additionally, the MC comes across quite entitled. Clearly, she comes from a rich family and I can see how that would make her out of touch…but at times she comes across as spoiled and inconsiderate.
Third, I was able to figure out who the bad guy was pretty early on. I also figured out what would happen when the MC faced a dragon. It just felt like a pretty predictable plot. Add to it pacing issues and it gets kind of difficult to stay engaged at points.
All in all, I think the idea was good, but the execution was a miss. There were definitely moments of engagement that I wish the author would have built upon more. A quick enough read if you want something fairly light about dragons.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence
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, Fire/Fire injury, and Death of parent
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 death, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Misogyny, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content
thebakerbookworm'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, Death of parent, and Grief
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Violence
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