Review: Of Flame and Fury by Mikayla Bridge

Of Flame and Fury by Mikayla Bridge
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ALC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This was compared to Fourth Wing and Iron Widow, but I don't think those are fair comparisons.  The romance is very tame, the enemies to lovers aren't really enemies, and while Kel has her convictions about how the phoenixes should be treated there isn't a war going on and there aren't any battle scenes.  This isn't quite as action packed as those two books, so I don't want readers to expect one thing and get something else.  This is in my opinion YA whereas both of those books were New Adult/Adult when it came to the romance and violence.

I wanted more backstory on the phoenixes and the world.  The phoenix racing was a really cool concept, but the origin story of the creatures was missing as to how the creatures came to live among humans and it wasn't clear if they had magic or not and how that worked.  There is a poem or tale of sorts that Kel mentions several times, but it isn't clear where it came from.

This follows Kelyn aka Kel and her phoenix Savita.  Kel's father found Savita and raised her from a young age.  Kel is essentially a phoenix whisperer, she is Savita's handler and works with her and her team to race in elaborate and dangerous phoenix races.  Their team isn't sponsored so they don't have the best gear or tech like some of the other teams.  When a race goes sideways and they lose their rider, the team has to join forces with exiled members of a rival team.  They are also approached by a sponsor who can really help their racing progress.  The problem is Kel's least favorite person Warren Coupers aka Coup is their new rider.  She doesn't really like him for his reckless stunts.  Kel is a bit uptight and prickly and wants everyone to do things her way, it kind of makes her unlikable.  Coup is fun and has no fear and he wants Kel to loosen up and live a little.  As Kel actually gets to know Coup, she realizes he isn't that bad.  They also uncover some questionable practices within their sponsor's research facility that don't add up to what they were told.

Overall I think this book was enjoyable, but there were some things I felt were underdeveloped.  I wanted a bit more worldbuilding from the perspective of the magic system, the lore, and the character development.  The descriptions of the races was done well and that concept was really cool.  I think as an adult I want more from my books these days and I think a younger audience would really enjoy this.

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