Name: tori 👻's review of Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst
Item: Of Fire and Stars
Rating: 1
Author: tori 👻

Audrey Coulthurst

An atmospheric and romantic debut fantasy perfect for fans of Ash and The Winner’s Curse. 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 kingdoms. But Denna has a secret. She possesses an Affinity for fire—a dangerous gift for the future queen of a land where magic is forbidden. Now Denna has to learn the ways of her new kingdom while trying to hide her growing magic. To make matters worse, she must learn to ride Mynaria’s formidable warhorses before her coronation—and her teacher is the person who intimidates her most, the prickly and unconventional Princess Amaranthine, 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 work together, they discover there is more to one another than they thought—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. Plus don't miss the sequel: Of Ice and Shadows!

Of Fire and Stars

An atmospheric and romantic debut fantasy perfect for fans of Ash and The Winner’s Curse. 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 kingdoms. But Denna has a secret. She possesses an Affinity for fire—a dangerous gift for the future queen of a land where magic is forbidden. Now Denna has to learn the ways of her new kingdom while trying to hide her growing magic. To make matters worse, she must learn to ride Mynaria’s formidable warhorses before her coronation—and her teacher is the person who intimidates her most, the prickly and unconventional Princess Amaranthine, 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 work together, they discover there is more to one another than they thought—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.

Julia Rutgers

For the first time in my life, I finally felt free—because some things are more important than a crown.

Or riding into the sunrise with a girl on a red horse.

Kelsey Holtaway

tori 👻

I had to sleep on this so I could sit down and write an actual review.

I honestly cannot read the word "horse" again for the next couple of weeks.
This won't be long because, well, nothing happens in this book. The world-building is nonexistent, there is no getting to know (let alone understand) the magic system, or the politics, or the culture. I was really excited for the lesbian romance in a ya fantasy novel, but holy christ was this boring. and dull. It felt very juvenile, in my opinion, the 18 year old acts like a 12 year old, the 16 year old acts like a 10 year old. And the adults are just a group of completely and utterly incompetent people.

There's also no character development and when things do happen, it's out of nowhere and it doesn't make any fucking sense.

My main thought while going through the pages was: for the love of all things good and pure, stop with the horse talks already.

Melissa J

I loved this book. To be honest I don't understand why so many people hate it like not all books have to be the most world-building fantasy thing in the world. You can enjoy everything with the little knowledge about magic there is. 

Yes, the fact that the rulers here were very stupid is annoying, but it's real, they are like that in real life lol and there are examples in all these years. One of my favs to read.

Jamieson

3.5*, which is my issue not the books. not sure which way to round it yet. review to come

grace richards

i really enjoyed this book. i just wish that denna had revealed her powers to mare in a more dramatic way like by saving her or in a fight or something. but other than that this book was a lovely little read

Izza

5 stars, give me more pleaase! | This book, guys. It gave me so many feels. So glad it was my thestoryinside bookclub March pick! I love how strong and independant Denna and Mare were, and how gentle and beautiful their love was. So much love for this book! I'm so happy the Princess finally falls in love with the Princess! I can't wait to see what Audrey Coulthurst comes up with next, I'll definitely be there for it!

daisy

Of fire and stars” was a book where I knew what to expect. I came in expecting a royal romance with elements of magic. It wasn't exactly original, but well written indeed, and there were so many horses and since I didn't care for them I didn't quite enjoy their presence. It was predictable and the characters could have been crafted better. I know it was this super cheesy book that gave you butterflies, so why did I bother giving it 4 stars. Because i stand by this philosophy that says, “If it is going to be cheesy, it could at least be gay”. The absolute gayness of this book spoke to me as did the enemies to lovers trope. We live in a heteronormative world and that means that most LGBTQ+ identifying individuals dont get to enjoy a cheesy romance in their lives, something that makes them want to chase their partner to the airport or ask them out, crying in the rain. Why should all romances featuring homosexuality have features of only tragedy and heavy literature? So did I enjoy this book despite its cliche language and poor world building, I did. I loved it and I would gladly say it again.

Nicole Dykeman

This was definitely an easy read. The writing is good, but simple, so I flew through it. The book wasn’t quite what I was expecting, though. Given that the main selling point of this is that the main character falls in love with another princess instead of the prince, I was expecting a bit more romance (and I was expecting it to happen much more quickly). Actually, Denna and Mare have much more to worry about than just their budding attraction to one another—a volatile tension between magic users and the rest of the world, a brewing war between kingdoms. Even so, the romantic scenes were very cute, and the twists and turns at the ending were great. 

I have to say that Mare was my favorite character. The side characters, like Nils, could have been better developed, but for the length of the book, it was okay. 

I would rate this higher, and I really wanted to, but I just can’t condone the amount of horse content in this book. The riding lessons were a cute way to bring Denna and Mare together, but it just. Kept. Going. The horses got mentioned like every other page. If you’re a horse lover, this is the book for you (okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but there were a lot of horses).

jess

I just want to say that I love the premise of this book. Seriously, a book where a princess is bethrothed to a prince and falls in love with a princess is like ... everything I have ever wanted in life. Unfortunately, the execution of this was poorly done. The romance between the two girls didn't let me down in theory; (view spoiler)[they ended up happily ever after in the end and they're incredibly drawn to each other throughout the novel. However, it was so slow-going it was frustrating.  (hide spoiler)] 

While I don't think that Mare and Denna had a lot of chemistry together, that was due to how shallow their characters - and everyone's was. I felt like they were very one-dimensional; Mare is the firey sporty one and Denna is the girly smart one. It's also sort of stereotypical, which was kind of disappointing. I would have liked to know a lot more about both of them, and I was left with not knowing much about either. 

The pace was quite slow. The worldbuilding was nice, with a Directorate instead of any other governing system, which was unique, but otherwise nothing special.

Sarahi

I went into this book with unreasonably low expectations, but it freaking blew me away. The actual storyline is so wonderfully and carefully woven; the romance aspect was so well done. Just, Brava.

alexia

Dilayra Verbrugh

Arranged marriage, magic and wlw. 

This has to be one of the cutest love stories, but it’s not revolved around it. Magic users are being imprisoned and are hated by non-magic users. 
It’s a lot horses, but it fits the story.

Valentina dossi

** spoiler alert **
           Creo que para que un libro me guste MUCHO me debe meter más en el mundo de los personajes, y en este caso, no pudo lograr eso; pero igual disfruté muchas partes del libro, por eso 3 estrellas.
Me gustó que la relación entre Denna y Mare no tenía desdén al principio, era solo renuencia de parte de Mare, pero no verdadero disgusto. 
Me hubiese gustado conocer más detalles del mundo, a veces sentía como que este libro era la continuación de otro porque no había tantas explicaciones del contexto, entonces me aburría un poco. 
El príncipe me pareció muy seco; la forma en la que descubrió lo que pasaba entre Mare y Denna me pareció muy anticlimático, y lo mismo con cómo se enteró de los poderes de Denna. 

No planeo leer el siguiente libro, pero no me arrepiento de haber leído este.

Alexa Jade

Actual rating: 2.5. 

Overall this book was very meh for me. I enjoyed it more once the relationship started but even then I found myself bored. 

I’m not sure yet if I’m planning on reading the next book.

Laura Kehoe

Review coming soon. BUT THAT WAS SO CUTE AND WONDERFUL I THINK MY HEART MIGHT EXPLODE!!!

Milo Jean

So I really wanted to like this, because I mean, lesbian romance! That’s one of my favorite things but... 

This book dragged for me. None of the characters felt real to me at all, there was very little world building, and the plot was barely there? I felt like the book was way too long for what happened in it. The story was almost 400 pages and I felt the whole plot could have been done in half that. 

I was so excited for this but in the end it wasn’t for me.

Sophia De La Garza

Full RTC 
4.5 stars 
LGBT 
Awesome romance 
Epic Political involvement 
Magic 
Sequel??

Antonia Sonntag 

3.5 stars

Plot and writing were a bit mediocre but the romance gave me life

Danni’s Badass Books

⭐ 4.5 Stars ⭐

When I first read the description I was really looking forward to reading this with a promise of a lesbian romance, and I was not disappointed. 

The story was interesting, it was essentially battling the choice between who people want you to be and who you want to be. A few places did seem dragged out but I did enjoy it on the whole. First third/half or the book did feel slow but it definitely picked up later on. 

I do wish that the world was explored a little more, places were mentioned without really any context so I'm glad there was a map XD. Hopefully the next book develops the world better than this one and we get to explore more.

laura

Such a good book. I really loved the focus on politics but also such a fun LBTQ relationship was so nice! I really grew to enjoy both characters but i adored the world building. The story had so many twists and turns and i hope we one day get more. I thought it was well potted and so many twists and turns!

Nikki K

2.5 
weeeell ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 
this is what i expected. and that’s okay. 
although, i did live for the complete lack of homophobia in this world 🤠 yeehaw. more of that please

lilly <3

so many feelings omg. i loved this book. it was incredible. mare and dennas love story was perfectly written and they fit so well together. i couldn’t have asked for anything better. 

the ending was amazing, and i can’t wait to eventually read the sequel. those two girls own my heart.

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I got this book in an Owlcrate subscription (aka I bought it on my own lol). All opinions are my own.

Rating: 5/5

Publication Date: November 22, 2016

Genre: YA Fantasy

Recommended Age: 14+ (some sexual content and language)

Publisher: Balzer and Bray

Pages: 389

Amazon Link

Synopsis: 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.

Review: Holy crap what can I say about this book? I instantly feel in love with the novel from the beginning. The characters were very well developed and likable. The world building was fantastic. The book didn’t have unnecessary drama, the main characters were very thoughtful of each other and they came to logical conclusions. The writing was fantastic and the pace was very well done. I also have the praise the book on being one of the very very few to be a lesbian romance ya fantasy book in a genre that’s dominated by straight romances. It was very refreshing (and very hot!)

My only complaint is that I felt that we missed some of the development with the side characters and there were a ton of characters in a short novel. It felt a tad overwhelming, but not much. I also hated having the book end and I wish that book 2 could be here ASAP!

Verdict: Fantastic amazing lesbian romance and fantasy book! Loved it!

Crystal Counterman

This book was just "Meh" for me. At times I felt the mystery within the story was taking too long to gain new developments and progress. I also found the conclusion of the mystery very predictable. I'm not at all interested in romance stories but this was an OwlCrate so I figured since I already owned it I might as well give it a try and stay open minded. 

I found the characters easy to care for and I enjoyed the writing style and the magic. The story is just not really my kind of thing and I know I won't be re-reading it so I'll probably be donating it or giving it to a friend.

I finally read this book and it was so incredibly amazing! There were princesses and fire and the most heart-warming slow burn F/F romance I have ever come across!

Kelsey Holtaway &
Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst

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