A Fire in the Sky
A Novel
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3.8 • 5 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan returns to the high-stakes, sweeping world of dragons, romance, and drama first evoked in her bestselling young adult Firelight series, in a brand-new epic adult romantasy series.
Dragons are extinct. Witches are outcast. Magic is dying.
But human lust for power is immortal.
Dragon fire no longer blisters the skies over Penterra, but inside the lavish palace, life is still perilous…especially for Tamsyn. Raised in the glittering court alongside the princesses, it's her duty to be punished for their misdeeds. Treated as part of the royal family but also as the lowliest servant, Tamsyn fits nowhere. Her only friend is Stig, Captain of the Guard...though sometimes she thinks he wants more than friendship.
When Fell, the Beast of the Borderlands, descends on her home, Tamsyn’s world becomes even more dangerous. To save the pampered princesses from a fate worse than death, she is commanded to don a veil and marry the brutal warrior. She agrees to the deception even though it means leaving Stig, and the only life she’s ever known, behind.
The wedding night begins with unexpected passion—and ends in near violence when her trickery is exposed. Rather than start a war, Fell accepts Tamsyn as his bride...but can he accept the dark secrets she harbors—secrets buried so deep even she doesn’t know they exist? For Tamsyn is more than a royal whipping girl, more than the false wife of a man who now sees her as his enemy. And when those secrets emerge, they will ignite a flame bright enough to burn the entire kingdom to the bone.
Magic is not dead...it is only sleeping. And it will take one ordinary girl with an extraordinary destiny to awaken it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jordan revisits the world of her Firelight YA series (begun in 2010's Firelight) with a seductive adult prequel set 100 years after the Threshing that essentially eliminated dragons from the world. Tamsyn, who heals remarkably and mysteriously quickly, is raised as a sister of the princesses of Penterra, but used as their whipping girl. When the terrifying Fell, the Beast of the Borderlands, demands one of the princesses as a bride in exchange for his continued protection of the kingdom's northern border, the royal family deceive him by sending Tamsyn instead. Though furious about the trickery, Fell finds himself surprisingly both protective and fond of his new wife, while she discovers the dangerous, wild magic that exists beyond the walls of the castle—and maybe also within herself. Jordan's protagonists fit nicely into outsider tropes—Fell as the violent warrior with a righteous heart, Tamsyn as the pampered fish out of water who finds her inner strength—while also exhibiting complexity beyond the stereotypes. Jordan keeps the politics and the action simple to instead center the love story and Tamsyn's self-discovery, leaving the novel with something of a YA feel despite the notably adult sex scenes. The final reveal, meanwhile, will keep readers on the hook for future installments. Fans who grew up with the original series are sure to be delighted.
