Of Fire and Stars by 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.

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.

Having read the prequel to this book already, I can see why a lot of people complained about the lack of worldbuilding. Even though the prequel is based in a neighboring country, there's a lot in this book that I understood based on events in Inkmistress. I definitely recommend reading that one first.

That said, I enjoyed this book a lot. I think Inkmistress is better, but that happens often with new authors. I think the sequel, Of Ice and Shadows, due out this summer, will probably be even better, and should bring the events of the previous two books together.

Like Inkmistress, bisexuality seems to be absolutely normal in Denna's country, with Denna not expressing a preference, Mare having had male and female lovers, and one of Denna's ladies having a female lover. (There is a brief mention of a gay couple as well.) I do wish nonbinary people would make an appearance, but it's something, at least.

There are a lot of twists and turns to the plot in this book, so while Inkmistress was fairly straightforward, this one took me by surprise multiple times. It also makes it much harder to talk about the plot without giving anything away!

I wish we'd discovered more about the King's council - several members of it seemed to have ulterior motives but we never got to see what those were. If we knew their motivations, some things might make a lot more sense and be a lot more satisfying.

Read Inkmistress. If you like the world, go ahead and read this book, because the events of this will be necessary to understand the third book, which takes us back to the country featured in Inkmistress. And I want to know more about that country!

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

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!

DNF - PG 17 (roughly)

Why?

I listened to the audiobook while I was at work (which is why the page count is a rough estimate) until I couldn't put up with it any more.

First of all, I disliked the narrators - both of them. So, because we deal with royalty, they both, naturally have to have a British accent. The first one was okay (Denna's) if a little odd in pronouncing things sometimes. The second one (Mare's) sounded more like a pirate accent than a princess. So, that contributed a little (but only a little) to my problems.

I went into this book having read several one or two star reviews, so I knew what the common complaints were. Or, rather, I knew that the most common complaint was lack of world building. In was still interested in the story - though I don't know if that was despite or because of that complaint. I love fantasy books, but I hate the habit so many fantasy authors has of infodumps and page upon page of boring nothingness and what reads more like stroking their own ego over ‘look how awesome my world building is.' I don't need to know (or, honestly, want to know) what the economy is like, what the politic situation is ect. unless it directly pertains to the story. (I read The Fellowship of the Ring and I truly believe it was the most boring fantasy book I've ever read.)

So, I knew what I was getting into. In fact, I was reading the book as a romance as opposed to expecting anything else from it. But, I have to believe in and support the main couple for a romance story to work for me. Instead, it was the romance that made me drop the book.

Let's set the scene: Denna and Mare's second meeting, first introduction, and we already have Denna feeling things (tm).

We are, for the first time, inside Mare's (very pirate sounding) head. Denna seems to talk a lot when she gets nervous and Mare thinks (lightly paraphrasing) ‘As soon as she started talking, I quit listening.'

...

If you like the more antagonistic, enemies-to-lovers romances, you might not have a problem here, but I have a hair trigger when it comes to lack of respect between love interests and one being dismissive and not listening to the other is a big one for me.

(Also, I do have an early impression of Mare that she will be dismissive of Denna because Denna isn't as tomboyish (aka: not like the other girls) as Mare is.)