Buddy Read: Of Fire and Stars

We start off our buddy reads with Of Fire and Stars, and the L of LGBT in the form of a lesbian mc. This book has been on both our TBRs for a while, for a number of reasons. (By which I mean reasons we wanted to read it, not reasons why we waited until now. That’s just called having a way too long TBR.)

It’s a fantasy! With an f/f romance! It’s ownvoices! Given our taste in books, we honestly thought we couldn’t ask for more!

Read on to see if we were right.

Of Fire and Stars

Audrey Coulthurst

Goodreads

Rep: lesbian mc, bi mc

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.

Anna’s Review

Rating: 2/5 🌈

I was actually very excited about this book. If you follow me on twitter, you probably already know. I kept shouting about how gay it is and how much I love that. Because oh boy, is this book gay! This is exactly why we wanted to read only ownvoices books for this project. The feelings, that overwhelming pining, that fear of wanting what you want… It’s all right there in Of Fire and Stars, laid bare for us to see. And relate to.

In this way, it’s magnificent.

(Not to spoil anything, but there’s a beautiful happy ending, the kind that we deserve, and that made my heart melt yet again.)

So Anna, if you loved the romance so much, what’s up with your rating? Well… To tell you the truth… this book is just… really boring. If you’ve ever read a fantasy book in your life, you’ve read this one. And if you haven’t, you will still be able to figure out who’s the villain with your eyes closed. You will still be able to realise that the worldbuilding is lacking, honestly more like an idea of it, a draft than anything else. And you definitely could see how all the characters but the main two girls are pretty much cardboard (but that just comes from reading in general).

Yes, I had high hopes & I was disappointed in the most brutal way. But hey, if you’re really big on romance and don’t mind a silly story that won’t keep your attention for long – go for it! You just might have some fun! Hopefully more than I did…

Charlotte’s Review

Rating: 1/5 🌈

When I say I was bored out of my mind for a lot of this book, I mean it. The worldbuilding just feels like your generic, bland fantasy world (especially if you’ve been reading so much more diverse fantasies recently), and the characters feel fairly boring as well. Not even the gay pining could save it for me. And where the worldbuilding could be interesting and different (the magic system, the Six), there’s little or no explanation of it. Who are the Six? Why does Dennaleia have so many powers? Why don’t they like magic? These questions are all hinted at being answered in the next book, but if I don’t have the patience for the first book, why would I bother with the second?

It probably didn’t help the worldbuilding that I just couldn’t get anyone’s or any country’s names straight while I was reading. I could read the first few syllables then I just skimmed the rest and never really learnt their names. And I don’t know why! It’s not usually a problem, but here it was. In the end, I moved on from skimming names to skimming the whole book I was that bored.

So the worldbuidling’s boring in itself, but then the entire plot rests on the fact that all the adults are completely stupid and just ignore any evidence! Mare repeatedly makes reference to how stupid they are! I wouldn’t care if they were stupid if there was a better reason, but the whole reason here is they’re just willing to blatantly ignore people who come to them with tangible evidence and the whole plot seems to rest on that. Like I know I shouldn’t be expecting a whole amount of depth from a YA fantasy, but Jesus fucking Christ. And you can tell who the bad guy is so easily because he’s the only adult who isn’t stupid.

I didn’t actually mind the characters despite all that. Sure, only two of them (Mare and Denna) really got anything approaching three-dimensionality (and even then it was still fairly weak), and we got told a lot more than we were shown, but they were alright characters. And they even grew on me a little, I’ll admit – I started out thinking Denna was a wet drip, but she actually became a bit less of one as time went on – but the lack of development became so glaring by the end. At the point where they’re being separated (for no real discernible reason except, hey!, all men are dickbags), they hug and are like I’ll miss you. And I could honestly not tell you when their relationship became anything more than acquaintances. This was the first sign of it.

I don’t really like to give books a single star unless they’re real dumpster fires, but in this case, I was bored to death and angry about it, and there was no way I was going to rate it higher. So, yeah. I really hope the next books we’ve chosen are a lot better.

So. We weren’t right, sadly. We can’t always be, as much as we would like to pretend otherwise.

Did you read this book with us, though? Are you ready to chat with us about it?

Next week will be back with our thoughts on Swimming in the Monsoon Sea by Shyam Selvadurai, so see you then and have fun reading!

• 

•