A Promise of Fire
Ratings59
Average rating3.4
I inhaled this book! Cat was an absolute delight, and her friction with Beta Team was absolutely hilarious and completely engaging. The tension between her and Griffin (Beta Sinta) was palpable from the second they meet. The romance was very slow burn, with plenty of banter leading up to their eventual coming together. Even better than the romance though, was the actual plot and worldbuilding in this book! There are so many fantasy-romance novels out there where the plot and world takes a backseat to the romance; my biggest pet peeve is when the hero and heroine are indulging in a moment of romance that makes absolutely no sense given what's going on around them. Griffin and Cat keep their eyes on the ball, and the author does a great job of weaving the romance with the plot. I loved this world that Amanda Bouchet built; the mix of tribes with Greek gods, magic, and creatures was chef's kiss perfection. In particular, I loved her description of what dragons look like in this world. I won't spoil it, but it was completely unique!
My only gripe with this story was Griffin's alpha-male-ness. Which, a certain amount of, you expect in a romance novel. But I was definitely feeling uneasy with how much emotional manipulation Griffin was exerting over Cat throughout the story. The story is written in a way where you know that Cat wants to make the decision, but is being held back by very real fears, and Griffin just coaxes her past her fear. But they way he was doing that was very clearly problematic behavior. I truly think it's possible for us to have alpha male heroes that still respect the heroine's right to make her own decisions.
I was so invested in this book that I sometimes forgot to breathe.
Fantasy romance, Greek mythology, magic, mystery, and adventure. World building and exposition that's informative and clear but feels very natural.
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I am on a quest to find adult fantasy romances that are actually worth recommending on my blog. A Promise of Fire is one that sits on the border between recommend, and just move right on by. If it helps you decide if you're going to read this one, I don't think I'll be picking up the rest of the series any time soon. The writing just wasn't there for me – it reads as very extremely modern when the world it's set in is clearly inspired by Ancient Greece/Rome. The main character, Cat, frequently says ‘Gag' (and I mean FREQUENTLY.) in response to things she doesn't like, and just...overall it felt like she had been ripped from modern day and dropped into this setting. The author also mentions hairties at one point which just yanked me out of the setting real fast.
The hero, Griffin, was rather nice, but felt a bit...overly likeable? Like he had a bit of a protective side, was jealous, but also warm and kind. He was fantastic in battle, and wanted the country that he took over to make changes for the better. I don't know, friends, he felt almost unrealistic to me. His family is also extremely welcoming, friendly, and again, felt rather idealized.
The plot was there, but its not something that has me begging for answers, or reaching for the next book in a hurry. The steam is fairly steamy, but nothing to write home about, I don't think. One detailed scene, and a couple almost-there-but-not-quite scenes, too.
Overall, this particular novel is mediocre in my eyes. We can do better, pals.
Solid 3 star read.
This is almost exactly what I was in the mood for because it reminds me a lot of the typical fantasy where a woman is escaping her family legacy and is in hiding when something pulls her out and shenanigans ensues. I wasn't expecting the main romantic interest to be introduced so early on in the story and the catalyst to propell the protagonist out of hiding to be something as flimsy as a magic rope. The romance built up fairly quickly (which was surprising only because I was thinking this would be more fantasy than fantasy/romance) but the main couple did make a solid match.
While the characters' banter was funny and enjoyable, there were the typical plot holes where the protagonist doesn't use any of her god-fearing powers to escape because she's too captivated with her captors, the predictable “tension” because the protagonist can't let herself fall in love with the romantic interest because she doesn't want to put him in danger, etc. The author doesn't bring anything new to this narrative besides a different decoration to mask the world-building and political intrigue.
I won't be continuing on with this series, as there wasn't anything memorable about it since it reminded of so many woman-led fantasies I've read previously, and none of the characters were more than their roles.
I don't think that you should pass violent behavior and lack of consent as romantic behavior.
When I looked at this like a Greek work of liturature it was a fun read. Just on its own through the main characters are too much. He is overly possesive, she is ‘independent' but quickly falls for her kidnapper (felt a little Stockholm syndrome to me). The world building was fun and was just enough to pull me past the winney main characters.
MY EYES TRIP OVER A MAN AND GET STUCK.
This was the first sentence in my copy of the book. Just like that, in all caps. Never before have I wanted to DNF a book after the very first sentence. It turns out, it wasn't the first sentence; it and a few of the paragraphs that followed it were lifted from the chapter and used as a foreword of sorts. I thought it was a bit odd, but whatever. The point is, omg that sentence. I rolled my eyes so hard I gave myself a headache.
But it was a buddy read and a book club selection and I'd just joined the book club and I wanted to participate and Felicia Day and ... well, you know how it is. So I took some Excedrin and kept reading. I figured there'd be more eye rolling soon enough, and I may as well get it all out of the way before the meds kicked in.
There was a lot of eye rolling.
Eventually, as usually happens with a good story, I got interested enough to put aside the snark. Mostly. There was a lot of oooh, he touched me, so hot, I burn, scorching, etc. which was irritating. There was a lot of mild rape fantasy stuff, wherein woman—despite her strength and self-reliance—falls for big, bad, burly, manly man who, let's not forget, kidnaps her, and that was frankly hugely problematic for me.
But it is in fact a good story; or, at least, it is a story with many goodish and enjoyable elements. There's the fun take on Greek mythology and godsly shenanigans, there's all sorts of fun magic that I've not seen before, there's a fantastic chapter in which our protagonist is completely high and it's spectacularly hilarious, and there's a really stellar supporting cast. And a circus! I wish we'd gotten to see more of that.
A lot of the writing feels really young, and that's probably what irked me in the beginning, because I'm a grumpy old. But in time, I came around to thinking that it works here, for these characters and this story, and I guess maybe they don't have to get off my lawn. For now.