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A review by the_one_and_only_lyra
The Ones We Burn by Rebecca Mix
3.0
—3 stars—
“My strength is not owed to the wounds you gave me, but my willingness to let them scar.”
————about the book————
Age: YA
Genres: Fantasy, Witches,
Cliffhanger: no
Writing: 6/10
Quotes: 7/10
World building: 6/10
Characters: 6/10 (all for Percy)
Romance: 5/10
My rating: 6/10
⚠️TRIGGER WARNINGS⚠️: abuse (emotional and physical abuse from a parent & sibling), human experimentation, death by burning, child death, etc.
‼️spoilers below‼️
———my thoughts———
When Ranka is named Bloodwinn, the next treaty bride to the kingdom of Isodal, her coven sends her with one order: kill the prince.
Except, Ranka is tired of death, and living at the palace, she grows closer to both the prince—Galen—and his wickedly smart and devastatingly beautiful sister, Aramis.
But when witches begin turning up dead, murdered by a magical plague, Ranka, Galen and Aramis must find a cure, and fast...
When a girl has an entire goodreads shelf dedicated to witches, you can safely assume she likes them.
And I do.
I was excited about this for a few reasons, the witches, the cover, and the quotes on the cover.
I was slightly deceived.
I’m not saying this was a bad book, but it definitely wasn’t my favourite.
The quotes remained the best part of this book (except for the epilogue), powerful, and just simply pretty.
Now, perhaps because this is a debut, the writing felt a little clunky—it went from those beautiful quotes to the characters talking like 21-century teenagers! I don’t mind modern dialogue in some fantasy novels, but it just felt out of place in this world! I can’t quite imagine a courtier in a castle saying “like, ever.” and “congrats!”, but apparently they do...this is just me being picky though, the rest of the writing was quite engaging, and fairly quick and fun to read.
One thing I really liked was how different Ranka is from the witch stereotype, she’s blonde, muscular, and tall—she’s 6’2!
Ranka herself was an interesting character, but I felt like she was very naive and a little too caring? I was expecting her to be ruthless and morally grey, but she’s not at all.
Honestly, all the characters felt too young—they’re seventeen, but they felt even younger than that!
My favourite character was Percy—he was sarcastic and witty, and I loved it!
For the romance, STEP ASIDE MISCOMMUNICATION, here we have, to quote Percy, “the commutation skills of a dead fish.” I mean, why would you need to communicate at all? Why talk to your girlfriend? The girlfriend you kind of betrayed?
While Aramis and Ranka were sweet yes, I just couldn’t connect with them and much preferred Percy and Galen’s cute little flirtation!
All in all, while this book had quite a few flaws, it was an engaging read and I enjoyed it.
———characters ———
Ranka: loyal and brave, she’s sweet and afraid of her own power.
Aramis: smart and caring, I think if we’d had her POV too, I would have liked it more...bcos she’s pretty amazing!
Percy: sarcastic and witty, I LOVE HIM SO MUCHHHHH! The best characterrrrr
Galen: shy and quiet, he’s very sweet and I would GREATLY enjoy a book about his and Percy’s adventures!
————quotes————
“To be born a witch is to be born afraid.”
“Letting someone go doesn’t mean you stop loving them. It just means you’re giving yourself permission to keep living.”
”Would you choose me, still?
Would you throw it all away, for a monster of a girl?”
“She was so tired of failing. Of letting the ones she was meant to save burn or die.”
“Out here, she was no one. Out here, she was free.”
———random extra thoughts———
Tbh that epilogue made it a 3...so cute!
Thanks for reading!❤️
“My strength is not owed to the wounds you gave me, but my willingness to let them scar.”
————about the book————
Age: YA
Genres: Fantasy, Witches,
Cliffhanger: no
Writing: 6/10
Quotes: 7/10
World building: 6/10
Characters: 6/10 (all for Percy)
Romance: 5/10
My rating: 6/10
⚠️TRIGGER WARNINGS⚠️: abuse (emotional and physical abuse from a parent & sibling), human experimentation, death by burning, child death, etc.
‼️spoilers below‼️
———my thoughts———
When Ranka is named Bloodwinn, the next treaty bride to the kingdom of Isodal, her coven sends her with one order: kill the prince.
Except, Ranka is tired of death, and living at the palace, she grows closer to both the prince—Galen—and his wickedly smart and devastatingly beautiful sister, Aramis.
But when witches begin turning up dead, murdered by a magical plague, Ranka, Galen and Aramis must find a cure, and fast...
When a girl has an entire goodreads shelf dedicated to witches, you can safely assume she likes them.
And I do.
I was excited about this for a few reasons, the witches, the cover, and the quotes on the cover.
I was slightly deceived.
I’m not saying this was a bad book, but it definitely wasn’t my favourite.
The quotes remained the best part of this book (except for the epilogue), powerful, and just simply pretty.
Now, perhaps because this is a debut, the writing felt a little clunky—it went from those beautiful quotes to the characters talking like 21-century teenagers! I don’t mind modern dialogue in some fantasy novels, but it just felt out of place in this world! I can’t quite imagine a courtier in a castle saying “like, ever.” and “congrats!”, but apparently they do...this is just me being picky though, the rest of the writing was quite engaging, and fairly quick and fun to read.
One thing I really liked was how different Ranka is from the witch stereotype, she’s blonde, muscular, and tall—she’s 6’2!
Ranka herself was an interesting character, but I felt like she was very naive and a little too caring? I was expecting her to be ruthless and morally grey, but she’s not at all.
Honestly, all the characters felt too young—they’re seventeen, but they felt even younger than that!
My favourite character was Percy—he was sarcastic and witty, and I loved it!
For the romance, STEP ASIDE MISCOMMUNICATION, here we have, to quote Percy, “the commutation skills of a dead fish.” I mean, why would you need to communicate at all? Why talk to your girlfriend? The girlfriend you kind of betrayed?
While Aramis and Ranka were sweet yes, I just couldn’t connect with them and much preferred Percy and Galen’s cute little flirtation!
All in all, while this book had quite a few flaws, it was an engaging read and I enjoyed it.
———characters ———
Ranka: loyal and brave, she’s sweet and afraid of her own power.
Aramis: smart and caring, I think if we’d had her POV too, I would have liked it more...bcos she’s pretty amazing!
Percy: sarcastic and witty, I LOVE HIM SO MUCHHHHH! The best characterrrrr
Galen: shy and quiet, he’s very sweet and I would GREATLY enjoy a book about his and Percy’s adventures!
————quotes————
“To be born a witch is to be born afraid.”
“Letting someone go doesn’t mean you stop loving them. It just means you’re giving yourself permission to keep living.”
”Would you choose me, still?
Would you throw it all away, for a monster of a girl?”
“She was so tired of failing. Of letting the ones she was meant to save burn or die.”
“Out here, she was no one. Out here, she was free.”
———random extra thoughts———
Tbh that epilogue made it a 3...so cute!
Thanks for reading!❤️