Book Review : Fear the Flames

Fear the Flames by Olivia Rose Darling
Series: Fear the Flames #1
Published by Delacorte Press on September 17, 2024
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Romantasy
Pages: 373
Buy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Bookshop.org
Find on Goodreads

An exiled princess teams up with the last man she thought she could trust in the start of a dazzling and unforgettable epic fantasy romance series.
As a child, Elowen Atarah was ripped away from her dragons and imprisoned by her father, King Garrick of Imirath. Years later, Elowen is now a woman determined to free her dragons. Having established a secret kingdom of her own called Aestilian, she’s ready to do what’s necessary to save her people and seek vengeance. Even if that means having to align herself with the Commander of Vareveth, Cayden Veles, the most feared and dangerous man in all the kingdoms of Ravaryn.
Cayden is ruthless, lethal, and secretive, promising to help Elowen if she will stand with him and all of Vareveth in the pending war against Imirath. Despite their contrasting motives, Elowen can’t ignore their undeniable attraction as they combine their efforts and plot to infiltrate the impenetrable castle of Imirath to steal back her dragons and seek revenge on their common enemy.
As the world tries to keep them apart, the pull between Elowen and Cayden becomes impossible to resist. Working together with their crew over clandestine schemes, the threat of war looms, making the imminent heist to free her dragons their most dangerous adventure yet. But for Elowen, her vengeance is a promise signed in blood, and she’ll stop at nothing to see that promise through.
An immersive fantasy filled with a sizzling reluctant-allies-to-lovers romance, a world to get lost in, dangerous quests, dragon bonds, and an entertaining band of characters to root for, Fear the Flames marks the stunning debut of Olivia Rose Darling.

I was drawn to picking up Fear the Flames because I am a simple woman, I always want to read anything with dragons in it. And the premise seemed pretty interesting, a lost heir/princess trying to take back her five dragons from her evil king of a father with the help of a bloodthirsty commander of another nation. What’s not to like? Well it turns out for me, mostly everything, unfortunately. 

 

Now I know that a lot of romantasy novels like to focus on the romantic part and simply have the fantasy as mere window dressing. Fear the Flames makes Fourth Wing’s world-building look intricate. There are constant references to the female main character, Elowen, being the fire of the gods or something, but we have no idea who the gods even are. I don’t think their names were mentioned even in passing or merely as a swear or anything, but to be fair, I did start skimming like crazy once I hit about 35% of the way through the book. 

 

“I want to intertwine my fate with my dragons and alter the course of this world.”

 

The other thing that I could not get over was that a pretty big contradictory detail. Elowen, who was kept in her father’s dungeon and tortured since the ripe old age of four. She was rescued by her uncle in the middle of the night and spirited away, but somehow, Elowen has created an entire people in a new nation. And not only that, but she is also the queen of this new country, despite seemingly having no other qualifications for the role other than her birth and that she once had a bond to five dragons. Plus, she’s supposed to be in hiding from his father’s kingdom. He even has a bounty on her head, so being a queen (aka a public figure) of a new nation, is certainly an interesting choice when so much is at stake. Make it make sense. What’s more, is that she speaks of her and her people making a journey through the mists of the deadly mountains, but I have no idea how these people found her in the first place (or how she even knew any of the skills to survive in the wilderness after a life in the dungeons), when she was rescued secretly and taken away for her safety. It’s not like she was able to take her dragons with her or was out recruiting for followers. 

 

I also was confused that a woman who was kept in almost total isolation except for her jailers and abusive parent has social skills developed enough to charm an entire group of people to follow her. This entire plotline seemed like a poor rip off of Aelin from Throne of Glass and Daenerys from A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones. There are so many things about Elowen that seem like an outright copy of Aelin, such as her love of finery and books, in spite being a world-famous deadly assassin. She also throws knives just like Violet Sorrengail from Fourth Wing. And when she finally reunites with her five dragons, what a surprise, the male dragon is the one who remembers her and displays a special bond with her, just like Dany and Drogon. I suppose her having a people is Fear the Flames’s paltry attempt at establishing her as a Khaleesi-like figure without any of the actual shown on page—we don’t see her doing any of the work or development to earn this respect and loyalty from the “Dothraki,” so to speak. It’s all just based on her birthright and dragons. There’s also a spicy public scene between her and the male main character, Cayden, where they have to pretend to be in love (more like lust) for er, reasons, which immediately put me to mind of Rhysand and Feyre in the Night Court from the A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) without the remnants of any actual logic behind this show of power. 

 

If readers don’t mind these glaring hallmarks of almost every other popular work without any of the nuance, then they might very well like Fear the Flames. And those readers who prefer their romantasy novel with a focus on romance, might find plenty to scratch their itch. Unfortunately for me, the plot and the romance itself really didn’t improve my opinion on the novel. There’s a heist to get Elowen’s dragons back, but blink and you’ll almost miss it. It gets pretty lost in the endlessly over the top (not to mention cringey) flirting and sexual innuendos. The dragons themselves don’t come into play until almost the very end of Fear the Flames and Elowen is immediately using her traumatized dragons to burn people to death left and right to show how bad@ss and strong she is. 

 

“The hood of his cloak is pulled down, and tousled chocolate waves spill onto his forehead and kiss the tops of his ears. I scan the scar on his angular cheek that stands out against his deep-olive-toned skin, but not before meeting the piercing emerald gaze that gleams through the night and dances across my features.”

 

But even though Fear the Flames tries to capture the fire of Daenerys, it’s glaringly apparent that she can’t hold even a candle to her. Everything in Fear the Flames lacks the impact it should have because of how quickly it happens, the repetitive nature of events and dialogue, and because of the emphasis on telling and not showing. I have lost track of how many attempted assassinations Elowen survived and how many men instantly wanted to sleep with her the moment they laid eyes on her because she was just that beautiful and irresistible. It honestly reads like Wattpad wish fulfillment, complete with physical descriptions of characters comparing the appearances of their skins to foods and their eyes to gemstones. 

 

Other moments, characters who have never been referenced before show up in a moment purely for the sake of drama. This is clearly to make the heroine look like a boss bitch, as she can overcome her past trauma and deal with the big bad man from her past on her own. But unfortunately, it falls flat because this kind of scene happens so often and always unfolds so quickly, just to be dealt with easily and typically for it to never be mentioned again. The same is true for the friendships in the story, which are clearly supposed to be an attempt at the found family trope, distinctly reminding me of a poor imitation of ACOTAR’s Night Court, but considering each side character only has one or two traits, I didn’t feel any connection to them and was indifferent to whether they lived or died.

 

“’There are rumors about us,’ I settle on saying.

‘If you have an issue with false gossip, then I humbly offer you my services to make it true.'”

 

The romance was more annoying to me than anything. I think it was supposed to be enemies or rivals to lovers, but the switch from the male character, Cayden, going from physically fighting with her and arguing with her to letting her know at every given opportunity that he’d love to sleep with her means that the romance blatantly doesn’t achieve this trope. This lack of build up or getting to know one another before diving into constant sexual suggestions honestly gave me the ick. I don’t understand how this flirting works on Elowen, especially when she theoretically has royal suitors vying for her hand and every man who lays eyes on her wants her. But I guess the girl did grow up in a dungeon and then lived in hiding in a secret city, so perhaps it’s not too surprising that she falls for Cayden’s over-the-top proclamations of love mixed in with his constant sexual overtures.

 

Cayden is notoriously known as a demon for his ruthlessness, so naturally when Elowen starts referring to him as such, he decides to fling back the title of “angel,” on her. If I had a dollar for every time they refer to each other by their nicknames, I’d easily have my money back for this book (if I had bought it, but luckily I got it from the library), and then some. Like the side characters, Cayden doesn’t have a whole lot of development. His main character traits are that he lusts after Elowen and falls in instalove with her, he’s violent, and he doesn’t think he’s a good person. So the novel spends a lot of time having other characters tell not only him, but also the reader through Elowen, what a good character he is. It gets stale very fast. Though Fear the Flames tries to give him a tragic backstory, it’s not until the eleventh hour of the book, and I was completely indifferent to it. 

 

I definitely did not want to read any of their spicy scenes because the slow burn or tension wasn’t ever there for me and I didn’t particularly care about either character. As I said in my review for another romance novel, Under Loch and Key, If I don’t care about the characters, I definitely don’t want to picture them getting intimate. I skipped past these scenes. There are quite a few of these detailed spicy scenes, so readers looking for smut should find plenty to appeal. 

 

“’Careful, angel. You give a man a taste of salvation, and he might keep coming back for more.’ His arms are shaking from restraint.

‘Is that what I am to you? Your salvation?’ I whisper, brushing my lips against his. ‘If you are to be my damnation, it’s an end I’ll happily meet.'”

 

Many of the dialogue lines in general, but especially those between Elowen and Cayden are clearly trying to be quotable, but they’re so overdramatic and said so often that it takes away what little punch they might have packed. Fear the Flames swings from trying to be a bit more flowery and fantasy-like with word-choices such as “fiend,” and declarations of love like, “Your presence is agonizing and yet I’ll beg for the pain if it means I can have a moment with you” or “Angel, you are the sickness of my thoughts and I have no intention of finding the cure” to characters saying lines like, “I’m a fucking goner” and “that’s my girl!” 

 

In the same breath characters unironically say things like, “Shoot straight, bloodthirsty archer,” and “You will beg for death long before it embraces you” and “‘I’ve always loved the sound of water,’ he says. ‘It’s calming yet powerful. It’s like listening to the sound of life after being surrounded by never-ending death.’” There’s also some very interesting metaphors sprinkled in, such as “She smiles at me like she found a trinket she wants to take home,” or “just because I’m cracked, doesn’t mean I’m broken,” “He doesn’t remove his eyes from my smile and takes a sip of whiskey to sober himself” and “Men are like carriages. If you miss one, then you just get on the next. Eventually they all start to blend together, so you’ll have to be more specific.” I didn’t even know there were carriages in this world, but I guess I’m supposed to ignore that in favor of thinking the female protagonist is witty. The switch from Fear the Flames presenting itself like what it thinks a fantasy novel should sound like to a contemporary new adult novel is whiplash inducing. 

 

Honestly, it took every ounce of willpower I had to get through this novel and I’d say I’m the target audience as a woman who loves dragons and enjoys romantasy novels. The premise was such a great idea, but the execution did not work for me at all. Readers who don’t mind reading a messy plot, cheesy dialogue, and pale imitations of other successful and popular works and their tropes, might find plenty to love in Fear the Flames, but I fear I won’t be reading any future novels in the series, pun intended.

 

This post may contain affiliate links. I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Related Posts