Feature Friday ARC Review: Chaos & Flame by Justina Ireland & Tessa Gratton

 

*Feature Friday ARC Review is a meme hosted by The Tattered Page to review books not yet released.  

*Warning: This review may contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.

Publisher: PengiunTeen
Release Date: March 28, 2023

Pages: 336 

Source: E-ARC 

THE STORY:

From New York Times bestselling author Justina Ireland and Tessa Gratton comes the first book in a ferocious YA fantasy duology featuring ancient magic, warring factions, and a romance between the two people in the world with the most cause to hate one another.

Darling Seabreak cannot remember anything before the murder of her family at the hands of House Dragon, but she knows she owes her life to both the power of her Chaos Boon and House Kraken for liberating her from the sewers where she spent her childhood. So when her adoptive Kraken father is captured in battle, Darling vows to save him--even if that means killing each and every last member of House Dragon.

Talon Goldhoard has always been a dutiful War Prince for House Dragon, bravely leading the elite troops of his brother, the High Prince Regent. But lately his brother's erratic rule threatens to undo a hundred years of House Dragon's hard work, and factions are turning to Talon to unseat him. Talon resists, until he's ambushed by a fierce girl who looks exactly like the one his brother has painted obsessively, repeatedly, for years, and Talon knows she's the key to everything.

Together, Darling and Talon must navigate the treacherous waters of House politics, caught up in the complicated game the High Prince Regent is playing against everyone. The unlikeliest of allies, they'll have to stop fighting each other long enough to learn to fight together in order to survive the fiery prophecies and ancient blood magic threatening to devastate their entire world.

LINK: Goodreads 

RATING: 

ONE-WORD REVIEW: FEROCIOUS

TAG LINE: They were sworn enemies. Fate had other plans.

OPENING LINE: The first time the scion of House Dragon painted the eyeless girl, he was only six years old. 

REVIEW:

Huge thank you to James and PenguinTeen for sending me an ARC of CHAOS & FLAME!

𝒜𝓃 𝒶𝓈𝓈𝒶𝓈𝓈𝒾𝓃, 𝒶 𝓈𝑜𝓁𝒾𝒹𝑒𝓇, 𝒶 𝓅𝓇𝒾𝓃𝒸𝑒 . . . 𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝒶 𝒹𝑒𝒶𝒹𝓁𝓎 𝑔𝒶𝓂𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓅𝑜𝓌𝑒𝓇, 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝓃𝑜 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝓊𝓁𝑒𝓈.

CHAOS & FLAME was fast paced filled with romantic angst, stunning action scenes, dazzling prophesies, political intrigue, and dragons! The world building was so fun! The fantastical concepts were interesting and unique—there were separate house factions and each bloodline had unique abilities called boons. It was also written in dual POV—Talon’s and Darling’s.

𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝒹 𝒶 𝒹𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒹𝒶𝓇𝓀. 𝒩𝑜𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓃𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉,𝓌𝒽𝒾𝒸𝒽 𝒽𝒶𝓈 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓇𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓂𝑜𝑜𝓃 𝓉𝑜 𝒸𝒶𝓈𝓉 𝓈𝒽𝒶𝒹𝑜𝓌𝓈,𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒶𝓃 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓈𝓊𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒹𝒶𝓇𝓀, 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒹𝑒𝓋𝑜𝓊𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝓌𝒾𝓈𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒𝒹 𝒶 𝑔𝒾𝓇𝓁 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑒𝓁𝓈𝑒, 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒹𝑒𝒻𝒾𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓂𝑜𝓃𝓈𝓉𝓇𝑜𝓊𝓈.

Talon Goldhoard, the MMC, was the House Dragon King’s younger brother and the War Prince. He was serious, loyal to his family, a skilled warrior. Darling Seabreak, the FMC, was brave, a skilled assassin, loyal to her family. Original of House Sphinx she was orphaned at age 10 by the war led by House Dragon and adopted by the scion of House Kraken. To add the frosting to the cupcake, she was also a Black MC! Loved it! Their chemistry sizzled off the page between the two. Their romance started as enemies-to-lovers and turned into something more.

And that cliffhanger ending! Lord, I can’t wait for book two.

All in all, CHAOS & FLAME  was a quick, fun read that I recommend to fans of The Color of Dragons by R.A. Salvatore and Nemesis by Anna Banks!

TROPES:

- Enemies-to-lovers

- Forced proximity

- Warring House factions

- Ancient prophecies

- Found family

- Mythical creatures

- Supernatural abilities

- Dual alternating POVs

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tessa Gratton is the author of adult and YA SFF novels and short stories that have been translated into twenty-two languages, nominated twice for the Otherwise Award, and several have been Junior Library Guild Selections. Her most recent novels are the dark queer fairy tales Strange Grace and Night Shine, and queer the Shakespeare retelling Lady Hotspur. Her upcoming work includes the YA fantasy Chaos and Flame (2023), and novels of Star Wars: The High Republic. Though she has lived all over the world, she currently resides at the edge of the Kansas prairie with her wife. Queer, nonbinary, she/any.

Justina Ireland is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous books including Dread Nation and its sequel Deathless Divide, the middle-grade novel Ophie's Ghosts, which won the Scott O'Dell award for historical fiction, and a number of Star Wars books including Flight of the Falcon: Lando’s Luck, Spark of the Resistance, A Test of Courage, Out of the Shadows, and Mission to Disaster. She is a former editor in chief of FIYAH Literary Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, for which she won a World Fantasy Award. She holds a BA in History from Armstrong Atlantic State University (now Georgia Southern) and an MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University.

Happy Reading!