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A review by booksandladders
The Last of the Firedrakes by Farah Oomerbhoy
3.0
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I thought this one was okay. It started off kind of slow and picked up a bit of pace as we went through the story. But I did think it had some hiccups along the way. Including the romance and the mid-break for "training."
I'm not even going to touch on the human world to fantasy land stuff with the abusive family because I wasn't a fan of it. It was jarring and unsettling (and very familiar...).
So first, let me start off by saying that I love fantasy books, especially ones where we get to see the person train and learn magic and they aren't extremely good at it but learn it over time. But it was a little odd to me that Aurora would be this important Princess and start being trained by her uncle only to then go onto a magical academy. And have no one recognize her. And the staff knows about her but doesn't give her extra lessons until after she "proves" herself? No there is no way that would happen. She is a princess, she should have been given those extra lessons right away. I also thought that it was just awkwardly placed in the story. There was no flow between being in one place to the next except that the author obviously wanted the story to go some place else.
I liked some of the characters though. I am intrigued with the side characters more than the main characters, but I am also glad that there doesn't seem to be a love triangle yet. I do hope that there isn't one. But the romance portion was just okay. I like Rafe and think he is a good character, well written. However, he isn't swoonworthy in my opinion. But maybe that is because I never really felt a connection to Aurora. I thought she was kind of bratty and stuck up and we never really bonded.
What redeemed this for me was the world building and the magic. The world is HUGE and I am so glad that a map was included because there are so many places and people that get discussed without ever really being introduced. We meet so many different people throughout the novel, especially at the Ball, and I was having a hard time keeping them straight. But the politics was thoroughly explained and I found myself wanting to know more about the ruling of the land and how the areas all intertwined. I also thought that a lot of this was well explained without having too many info-dumps. And the magic was well written. I mean, of course, Aurora has incredible magic that is far superior than everyone else, but I am excited to see how fae magic works. I am a sucker for well written magic, and I do think this was up there in terms of well written magic. Better than some that I have read.
Overall: 3/5 stars. The pacing was off, the romance was meh, and it was pretty predictable. But it was still okay.
I thought this one was okay. It started off kind of slow and picked up a bit of pace as we went through the story. But I did think it had some hiccups along the way. Including the romance and the mid-break for "training."
I'm not even going to touch on the human world to fantasy land stuff with the abusive family because I wasn't a fan of it. It was jarring and unsettling (and very familiar...).
So first, let me start off by saying that I love fantasy books, especially ones where we get to see the person train and learn magic and they aren't extremely good at it but learn it over time. But it was a little odd to me that Aurora would be this important Princess and start being trained by her uncle only to then go onto a magical academy. And have no one recognize her. And the staff knows about her but doesn't give her extra lessons until after she "proves" herself? No there is no way that would happen. She is a princess, she should have been given those extra lessons right away. I also thought that it was just awkwardly placed in the story. There was no flow between being in one place to the next except that the author obviously wanted the story to go some place else.
I liked some of the characters though. I am intrigued with the side characters more than the main characters, but I am also glad that there doesn't seem to be a love triangle yet. I do hope that there isn't one. But the romance portion was just okay. I like Rafe and think he is a good character, well written. However, he isn't swoonworthy in my opinion. But maybe that is because I never really felt a connection to Aurora. I thought she was kind of bratty and stuck up and we never really bonded.
What redeemed this for me was the world building and the magic. The world is HUGE and I am so glad that a map was included because there are so many places and people that get discussed without ever really being introduced. We meet so many different people throughout the novel, especially at the Ball, and I was having a hard time keeping them straight. But the politics was thoroughly explained and I found myself wanting to know more about the ruling of the land and how the areas all intertwined. I also thought that a lot of this was well explained without having too many info-dumps. And the magic was well written. I mean, of course, Aurora has incredible magic that is far superior than everyone else, but I am excited to see how fae magic works. I am a sucker for well written magic, and I do think this was up there in terms of well written magic. Better than some that I have read.
Overall: 3/5 stars. The pacing was off, the romance was meh, and it was pretty predictable. But it was still okay.