Title: TOf Fire and Stars By Audrey Coulthurst
Pages: 389
Published by: Balzer + Bray
Published: November 22nd 2016
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, and Lgbt
Format: Hardcover
“Betrothed since childhood to the prince of Mynaria, Princess Dennaleia has always known what her future holds. Her marriage will seal the alliance between Mynaria and her homeland, protecting her people from other hostile lands. But Denna has a secret. She possesses an Affinity for fire—a dangerous gift for the future queen of a kingdom where magic is forbidden.
Now, Denna must learn the ways of her new home while trying to hide her growing magic. To make matters worse, she must learn to ride Mynaria’s formidable warhorses—and her teacher is the person who intimidates her most, the prickly and unconventional Princess Amaranthine—called Mare—the sister of her betrothed.
When a shocking assassination leaves the kingdom reeling, Mare and Denna reluctantly join forces to search for the culprit. As the two become closer, Mare is surprised by Denna’s intelligence and bravery, while Denna is drawn to Mare’s independent streak. And soon their friendship is threatening to blossom into something more.
But with dangerous conflict brewing that makes the alliance more important than ever, acting on their feelings could be deadly. Forced to choose between their duty and their hearts, Mare and Denna must find a way to save their kingdoms—and each other.”
Spoiler free review of Of Fire and Stars
This review is going to be pretty negative and that makes me so sad. Of Fire and Stars could have been great. Should have been great. Unfortunately it was anything but. The plot was boring and generic, there was zero worldbuilding and the romance (while still cute) was fairly stereotypical.
If you were to take away the lesbian romance from this book, all that would be left is the most generic and unremarkable ya fantasy book ever: “A princess, with secret magical powers, is engaged to a prince and sent to live in a kingdom where magic is forbidden.” While nothing is wrong with this type of plot at all, Of fire and Stars just lacks any depth that would have made it interesting.
Speaking of lacking depth, worldbuilding anyone? We’re just told things. The magic, religion and why the marriage/alliance is even necessary gets no explanation. We don’t even get a description of any of the different countries or kingdoms. Even the characters have no depth. They’re one dimensional and are simply there to play a part.
The romance may the only good part of this book but it was not with out flaws. Both Mare and Denna quickly fell into very common (and boring) lesbian relationship stereotypes. Denna is the gentle, sweet and feminine one, while Mare is more masculine and hot-headed. They don’t grow beyond those stereotypes either.
Here’s a couple of minors things I didn’t like:
- The deaths in this book were purely meant to shock you and that in turn made them cheap and devoid of emotion.
- The names of places and people were so silly sounded, I couldn’t even pronounce them.
- All of the adults is this book were so frustratingly stupid. They were all so bull headed and made illogical decisions for the sake of ~plot~
I wish I had nicer things to say about this book but overall Of Fire and Stars was very lackluster and left a lot to be desired.
Ideal reads 