From action fans to romance fans, political junkies to fantasy lovers, many different audiences will find something rewarding here.”— The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books I can’t believe this trilogy is about to end. I’m not ready to say goodbye to these characters, or witness whatever pain they still have to endure. Fireborne is an exceptional first installment of The Aurelian Cycle, a series full of political commentary and moral ambiguity. This reminded me a lot of the Scythe series, if you enjoyed that, this will be an instant 5 stars The author does not shy away from violent and horrific imagery in the past and current day. The narrative truly makes you feel deep empathy for both Lee and Annie's life circumstances and gives you true pause when considering what to believe about the world they inhabit. Fireborne's world is a brutal one, and one of the harshest and most realistic portrayals of a complex government I have seen in a book. Nobody here is framed as all good or all bad, and Rosaria Munda asks you to be critical of every character and power structure. Fourth time reading this book and I just continue to be amazed by it. I sincerely don't think there will ever be a book that I love more than this one.

Thanks to BookishFirst and the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review. It has not influenced my opinions. The politics. The morally gray characters. The angst. The longing. The complex character dynamics. The DRAGONS.Annie and Lee's new world involves book burnings, tightly spun propaganda, and a clear overclass that still has privilege over the expendable lowest class. Their rulers believe that murdering children from the old regime is okay. and yet...things were truly worse under the DragonLords Emotional turmoil, political intrigue, the horrors of the past and the hopes of future peace may rest on the shoulders of young dragonriders who have trained together and are now faced with heart wrenching decisions. Do they follow their hearts, the stations in life they came from or do they forge into a new future and do what is best for their world? With war on the horizon and his relationship with Annie changing fast, Lee must choose to kill the only family he has left or to betray everything he’s come to believe in. And Annie must decide whether to protect the boy she loves . . . or step up to be the champion her city needs Dystopia with a fantastical twist. Love, friendship, trust, honesty, bravery, and life done correctly. It's learning the lesson and moving forward into the next. It's forsaking a terrible past and forging a new, and better future. I can't wait to see what happens next. They thought the same things, but giving them voice would have been admitting to their cowardice. Until it was forced upon them, neither were ready to admit what they already knew. And when they do, it only goes to show how much real truth can change the world.

Annie and Lee were just children when a brutal revolution changed their world, giving everyone—even the lowborn—a chance to test into the governing class of dragonriders. Game of Thrones meets Fourth Wing in a debut young adult fantasy that's full of rivalry, romance . . . and dragons. With war on the horizon and his relationship with Annie changing fast, Lee must choose to kill the only family he has left or to betray everything he's come to believe in. And Annie must decide whether to protect the boy she loves . . . or step up to be the champion her city needs. I was very partial to Lee, both a victim of the new government and a privileged benefactor of the old. His perspective was really interesting to watch evolve.That's not even considering the explanation to the synopsis: And then what pulled it all together was Plato's Republic, which I studied a bit in college. I was captivated by its dystopian/utopian approach to propaganda and meritocracy. What would a society look like that granted political power unequally according to intelligence, rather than unequally according to birthright? I said "Sort of" above because we get snippets of the revolution, and Lee's story, along with Annie's. She is our secondary protagonist, once a serf. As a serf she would never have been permitted near a dragon, but now she and Lee are dragon riders, for the revolution made it possible for commoners to test for dragon riding. Game of Thrones meets Red Rising in a debut young adult fantasy that's full of rivalry, romance... and dragons."