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A review by mspilesofpaper
A Fate Forged in Fire by Hazel McBride
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Thank you to NetGalley for granting me an eARC.
Born as the first daughter of the clan after over a century of being without a Queen, Aemyra bides her time until she can take her rightful throne. Yet, when the coup happens, she is thrown into a game of politics that she isn't prepared for.
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
I was utterly hyped for the book because I've been following the author for quite some time on Instagram now. Bisexual adult female main character? Yes, I'm in. Scottish/Celtic-inspired world-building? Hell yes! Unfortunately, the book just fell flat for me. The plot idea and the world-building are interesting on a superficial level, but if you think too much about either, it just unravels and leaves you with more questions than answers. I could forgive shoddy world-building if the writing style and the characters were great, but neither is great either. The writing is extremely wooden and sometimes reads like a first draft. The dialogue is cringy. The characters, though? Oh dear. Oh dear.
The side characters are utterly flat or fall into stereotypical tropes. I can forgive either if it were just one or two side characters, but it concerns every side character. There's no depth to any of them. (This is utterly sad because a bunch of them are the FMC's family.) The two main characters though? Haha, no. Aemyra is stupid, single-minded, utterly ruled by her emotions (to the point of never thinking about what she is doing, so she always ends up in worse situations), never listens to anyone, stubborn, so fucking arrogant and full of herself, acts almighty and edgy while also belittling everyone else, and doesn't behave like a 26-year-old woman. She acts as if she is 16 years old and is a typical Mary Sue character. She has special hair & eye colour, she is utterly powerful (to the point where she can't even control her power because she's so emotional), and she gets a special dragon, too. She is the queen of all pick-me female characters because, for all her feminine rage etc., she looks down on women who aren't like her. If you write a rage-fueled FMC: make her empowering and not looking down on other women.
The MMC has absolutely no character depth. He is loosely inspired by Varys/Little Finger from GoT by acting as if he is pulling all the strings in the background but there's not one single brain cell in his head. Of course, he's a feminist when it suits him.
The chemistry between them doesn't exist. They are the "enemies-to-lovers" trope and while they do have the "I want to kill you" aspect down, they don't have a logical development from "I want to kill you" to "I want to fuck you/I love you". It just happens out of nowhere and then they fuck like rabbits. The sex scenes are boring as hell, too.
I'm only giving this two stars because the dragons have more personality than dragons in other recent fantasy novels.
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
TWs & CWs: death, general violence and gore, sexual content, physical abuse of the FMC (by the ends of side characters), the death of parents and a sibling, attempt at a forced sterilisation of the FMC
Trope(s): enemies-to-lovers, feminine rage
Genre: Fantasy
Heat/Spice: 1 🌶️
Born as the first daughter of the clan after over a century of being without a Queen, Aemyra bides her time until she can take her rightful throne. Yet, when the coup happens, she is thrown into a game of politics that she isn't prepared for.
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
I was utterly hyped for the book because I've been following the author for quite some time on Instagram now. Bisexual adult female main character? Yes, I'm in. Scottish/Celtic-inspired world-building? Hell yes! Unfortunately, the book just fell flat for me. The plot idea and the world-building are interesting on a superficial level, but if you think too much about either, it just unravels and leaves you with more questions than answers. I could forgive shoddy world-building if the writing style and the characters were great, but neither is great either. The writing is extremely wooden and sometimes reads like a first draft. The dialogue is cringy. The characters, though? Oh dear. Oh dear.
The side characters are utterly flat or fall into stereotypical tropes. I can forgive either if it were just one or two side characters, but it concerns every side character. There's no depth to any of them. (This is utterly sad because a bunch of them are the FMC's family.) The two main characters though? Haha, no. Aemyra is stupid, single-minded, utterly ruled by her emotions (to the point of never thinking about what she is doing, so she always ends up in worse situations), never listens to anyone, stubborn, so fucking arrogant and full of herself, acts almighty and edgy while also belittling everyone else, and doesn't behave like a 26-year-old woman. She acts as if she is 16 years old and is a typical Mary Sue character. She has special hair & eye colour, she is utterly powerful (to the point where she can't even control her power because she's so emotional), and she gets a special dragon, too. She is the queen of all pick-me female characters because, for all her feminine rage etc., she looks down on women who aren't like her. If you write a rage-fueled FMC: make her empowering and not looking down on other women.
The MMC has absolutely no character depth. He is loosely inspired by Varys/Little Finger from GoT by acting as if he is pulling all the strings in the background but there's not one single brain cell in his head. Of course, he's a feminist when it suits him.
The chemistry between them doesn't exist. They are the "enemies-to-lovers" trope and while they do have the "I want to kill you" aspect down, they don't have a logical development from "I want to kill you" to "I want to fuck you/I love you". It just happens out of nowhere and then they fuck like rabbits. The sex scenes are boring as hell, too.
I'm only giving this two stars because the dragons have more personality than dragons in other recent fantasy novels.
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
TWs & CWs: death, general violence and gore, sexual content, physical abuse of the FMC (by the ends of side characters), the death of parents and a sibling, attempt at a forced sterilisation of the FMC
Trope(s): enemies-to-lovers, feminine rage
Genre: Fantasy
Heat/Spice: 1 🌶️