Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Together We Burn by Isabel Ibañez

12 reviews

jontel's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent and Violence

gabibrose's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.25

A wholly enjoyable adventure tale with a cast of lovable characters and unique world building. I was swept away by Isabel Ibañez's Together We Burn from the start. 18-year-old Zarela Zalvidar, following in her late mother's footsteps, has become a talented flamenco dancer performing alongside her father, one of Hispalia's most famous Dragonador's. They perform dragon fights for the public, putting on a spectacle for ticket buyers, but when disaster strikes during their five hundredth anniversary show, leaving Zarela's father and many others injured, the Dragon Guild requires they pay retribution. Zarela enlists the help of a broody dragon hunter to train and prepare her as she decides to step in her father's place and save her ancestral home from ruin. But there is something or someone determined to destroy Zarela's family, and they won't stop until fire rains down on everyone. 

 

The concept of dragon fighting in a historical society and the business behind owning and operating a dragon ring was fascinating. Ibañez mastered the world building, adding in details like dragon ring owners referring to dragons as "investments." These details helped flesh out the occupation of owning a dragon ring and made the business side of things believable. The tension between Zarela and dragon hunter Arturo was built up nicely, and one of my favorite parts of the reading experience was watching their relationship shift from enemies, to reluctant allies, to more. The fashion, food, and cultural details that were woven throughout made the story come alive in a rich, vivid way. This was such an exciting, romantic read and I enjoyed every minute of it. 

 

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for a review copy in exchange for my honest thoughts. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

betweentheshelves's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? Yes

4.0

This reminded me of How to Train Your Dragon but for older readers and I am here for it. I didn't even realize this was about dragons until I started readin git, but yay! We need more YA dragon books, honestly. They don't get nearly the amount of attention that they deserve.

I basically listened to this book in one sitting because it was so on the edge of your seat. I needed to know what happened next! Ibañez does such a great job with world building, and even if the plot was a little predictable, I found I didn't mind. I was engrossed in what was happening and the chemistry between Zarela and Arturo. So well done.

All in all, if you think you'd like an aged up version of How to Train Your Dragon with Spanish influences, you'll definitely love this book!  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Death of parent

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Vomit, Self harm, and Confinement

beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder

Moderate: Gore, Medical content, Sexual content, Blood, and Child death

Scenes of immolation causing death via dragon fire,

including Zarela's mother

. Non-graphic descriptions of bodily mutilation. There are sexually-charged moments (including one

sex scene

) but these are tastefully done and not very graphic.

roget's review

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, and Sexism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Violence, Emotional abuse, Excrement, and Sexual content

Minor: Self harm, Terminal illness, and Vomit

More info on the SA tags:

****There are scenes where the Zarela assumes Arturo is resisting out of trying to make a decision for her, rather than because he just doesn’t want to kiss her or be close to her. In these cases, she does push him for more after hearing a clear “no,” and while the specific “women are owned by their male relatives” context should be taken into account (because that impacts cues in romantic situations, even though it should not), I wish those scenes had practiced the same respect for consent that we see Zarela herself offered by Arturo. On paper, she does assault him, even if the tensions and plot and everything don’t make it out like she did. (Tldr: it’s the surprise kiss/I know you like me tropes). Even if he wanted more, she should have respected the “no.” I don’t think the writer intended the scenes to carry that sort of negative meaning, but it’s important to mention. This writer isn’t the first or thousandth author to use these tropes romantically, but I think it’s important to talk about when it comes up. I loved so much about this story—the setting, the characters, the world—but I wish those moments had been done differently.

averyconfusedhomosapiensbooks's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Kidnapping, Violence, Animal death, and Death

Moderate: Grief and Sexual content

Minor: Murder

patricktreads's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Animal death, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Sexism, Kidnapping, and Murder

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. 

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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

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Misogyny, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content

jordansreadingnook's review

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

It was just so good. I’m really going to miss Hispalia. I’ll have to come back to it soon.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Blood, and Grief