Author: Olivia Rose Darling

Grade A #BookReview: Wrath of the Dragons by Olivia Rose Darling

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews
Grade A #BookReview: Wrath of the Dragons by Olivia Rose DarlingWrath of the Dragons (Fear the Flames, #2) by Olivia Rose Darling
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: hardcover, ebook, audiobook
Genres: epic fantasy, fantasy, fantasy romance, romantasy
Series: Fear the Flames #2
Pages: 544
Published by Delacorte Press on July 29, 2025
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

The second novel in Olivia Rose Darling's thrilling and steamy romantic fantasy series, following Fear the Flames.
In the explosive sequel to the bestselling romantasy Fear the Flames, two fated lovers must unite against warring kingdoms to defend their home and crowns from those who wish to destroy them.
Cayden Veles, renowned Demon Commander of Vareveth, overthrew the throne to save Elowen Atarah, the woman he searched for since childhood. Now he’s determined to fulfill his quest for revenge against her father, even if it means forcing the only person he’s ever wanted into a marriage of political convenience.
Elowen Atarah has everything she thought she’d ever want. Finally reunited with her dragons, she now has an army to enact vengeance, but as events transpire, she begins contemplating if she wants more. As her father’s only living heir, the Imirath throne is her right and destiny. But fighting and winning a war will require trusting Cayden Veles, her partner in crime and now king to her queen; the man she both longs for and doubts, especially after opening her heart only to become a pawn in his game.
Navigating the shifting allegiances amongst all the kingdoms of Ravaryn will require all their strategy and strength, with devastating and bloody attacks on one side and cutthroat diplomacy for alliances on the other. But Elowen and Cayden must find a way to stand strong within the power they’ve gained, or risk losing everything.
Delving deeper into a vast and ever-changing world, Wrath of the Dragons will take you on a journey filled with epic battles and a tender, angsty love for the ages.

My Review:

The story begun in Fear the Flames has grown considerably now that it is into its second volume in Wrath of the Dragons. Of course, the dragons are also quite a bit larger than they were at the opening of that first book, as they were babies then and they are adults now – and so is their bonded human, then Princess, now Queen, Elowen Atarah.

Fear the Flames ended with a crash – and clash – of expectations. Initially, Elowen threw her own and her people’s fate into the bloody hands of Cayden Veles, believing that the enemy of her enemy could both be her friend and help her people.

But the enemy of her enemy on one front can still be her personal nightmare on several others. Because Elowen has spent her whole life being manipulated, imprisoned and abused in one way or another and the last thing she wants or needs is yet another person taking away her choices. Which is EXACTLY what Cayden does – even if that’s not what he intended.

Putting it another way, the relationship between Elowen and Cayden, which looked so very promising in Fear the Flames, spends the first half of this book on the very rocky shoals of what happens in an enemies to lovers romance when the enemies don’t resolve all – or barely any – of the sources of their enmity before they become lovers and then have to deal with the consequences.

At the same time, Wrath of the Dragons takes the initial story of Elowen, Cayden, her driving need to rescue her imprisoned dragons and his compulsion to make her happy at all costs and turns it into a vast, sweeping saga of warring kingdoms, evil and corrupt kings, dynastic manipulations and a whole, entire pantheon of interfering deities, with Fate herself leading the charge to put Elowen and Cayden through the wringer until they save their world or die trying.

Not that Fate doesn’t have a contingency for even that outcome – and she’s not afraid to use it.

Escape Rating A: Wrath of the Dragons isn’t just a big, sprawling quasi-historical romance. It’s also a big, sprawling epic fantasy. The whole Fear the Flames series so far is what readers get gifted with when historical romance and epic fantasy get together and birth a book baby wreathed in dragonfire.

And in this second book, that generally uncomfortable seat that romantasy generally straddles on the fence between romance and fantasy has gotten surprisingly comfortable in one sense even though – or especially because – it’s frequently tension-filled and occasionally outright torturous for the participants.

I have mixed feelings about romantasy in general – because it’s generally difficult to straddle that fence. In Fear the Flames, it seemed like that uncomfortable position was a bit more weighted on the romance side and that the worldbuilding necessary for compelling epic fantasy needed to have a few more of its blanks filled in.

Which is what we have in this second book, as we get a much deeper understanding of this world – often through Elowen’s eyes as her education had been deliberately restricted and now she’s expanding her horizons along with the reader.

Also, and one of the strengths of this series, is that Elowen and Cayden don’t exist in isolation from the rest of their world. While they are ringed with enemies on ALL sides, they also have a core of friends and found family that keep them firmly grounded and provide many of the lighter moments in this frequently dark story – all while being giving the reader a perspective on the forces that shaped both of these characters who would otherwise be as dark as their world.

Wrath of the Dragons turned out to be an absolutely compelling read, even more so than Fear the Flames – and that’s saying something. I finished this book, all 544 pages, in a single day, because I couldn’t put the damn thing down and had to see how it all worked out. IF it all worked out.

Leaving me frustrated and cursing a blue streak at the end, because it doesn’t. End that is. It runs out of pages in a literal cliffhanger from HELL. Now I’m stuck biting my nails in anticipation until book three comes out – hopefully, please, fingers crossed and everything – this time next year.

A- #BookReview: Fear the Flames by Olivia Rose Darling

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A- Reviews> book reviews
A- #BookReview: Fear the Flames by Olivia Rose DarlingFear the Flames (Fear the Flames, #1) by Olivia Rose Darling
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: epic fantasy, fantasy, fantasy romance, romantasy
Series: Fear the Flames #1
Pages: 384
Published by Delacorte Press on September 17, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
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.

My Review:

Historically and fictionally speaking, there seem to be two types of prophecies. Some prophecies are vague and mysterious and mysteriously vague – think of Nostradamus – and resemble 20/20 hindsight, in that they are only able to be interpreted after the fact – which one would think would be a bit beside the point by that point!

Then there’s the other kind, the prophecies that seem really specific – which they kind of are. But they’re specific because they are self-fulfilling. The classic example is Oedipus Rex. The poor man was prophesied to kill his father and marry his mother – but it only comes about because dear old dad tries to prevent it from coming about. There’s also that truly dreadful prophecy about Harry Potter and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named that totally and utterly derails Potter’s whole, entire life.

I’d say I’m digressing but I’m actually not, because Princess Elowen of Imirath’s life was thrown into an equal and equally painful amount of chaos and destruction by an equally terrible prophecy that was brought about by the direct actions of her very own dear old dad attempting to thwart it.

At the celebration of her first birthday, Elowen was gifted with a quintet of dragon eggs. The eggs were positively ancient and assumed to be merely curious fossils at this point in their long existence.

But we wouldn’t have a story if that were true – so of course it’s not. The eggs hatch into not one or two but FIVE baby dragons who instantly imprint on and bond with the equally tiny princess. The prophecy that goes along with the event foretells that the bond between the little princess and her dragons will either doom her country, or bring it to even greater heights of glory – and nothing in either of those fates says anything about the fate of her father, the man who currently sits on the throne of Imirath. Whether doom or glory is coming – he seems to have no part in it at all.

Out of fear and jealousy, to save his country and his throne – or so he believes – King Garrick of Imirath, little Elowen’s father – does his absolute worst to thwart the prophecy. He should have known better.

Fear the Flames is the story of more-than-once-beaten and bloodied Princess Elowen coming home to deliver a brutal lesson that she’s spent her entire life preparing. In many stories, revenge is a dish best served cold, but for Elowen, the only way to achieve both justice and vengeance is in a blast of dragon fire.

Escape Rating A-: Romantasy as a genre, like its sister from another mister Science Fiction Romance, has to straddle the line between its two genres and has to dig itself deeply into that fence line to the point where its feet touch the ground on both sides. Which, all too often, ends up with splinters in some VERY uncomfortable places – even when it’s successful at that endeavor.

Which is pretty much the case in Fear the Flames. I have a couple of tiny quibbles, but for the most part Fear the Flames works and it works well. From my own personal perspective, it seemed that although it does successfully straddle that line between fantasy and romance, the foot on the romance side of the equation is just a bit more firmly planted. Your reading mileage, of course, may vary. I certainly found it impossible to put down!

The Elowen we meet at the beginning of her story is the product of long years of torture and darkness at the hands of her father and his henchmen – as well as a daring and desperate escape. She’s reached adulthood as queen, not of her birthright Imirath, but of the tiny hidden kingdom of Aestilian. But her little kingdom is a refuge for many fleeing from her father’s increasing tyranny, and with each new immigrant comes greater danger of either discovery or simple starvation. Or both.

To protect her people, Elowen leaves her kingdom to forge an alliance with neighboring Vareveth, seemingly in a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend as the hand of Imirath’s tyranny stretches further each year.

All of the above is political, and very. Just the kind of epic political warfare that epic fantasy is known for. Elowen’s rise from prisoner to power has the shadows of grimdarkness looming over it in the grandest of style.

And then there’s the romance, a fantastic – in more ways than one – story of enemies to lovers, with all the steamy intensity of forbidden passion and ringed round with the spikes and thorns of an epic betrayal.

That all of this – and it’s compelling pretty much every step of the way – is just the beginning of a truly sweeping story of love and revenge will leave readers panting for more. Which they’ll get in Wrath of the Dragons, coming not nearly soon enough in 2025.