Audiobook Review: Fireborne by Rosaria Munda

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on February 21, 2020 | 0 Comments


Audiobook Review: Fireborne by Rosaria MundaFireborne by Rosaria Munda
Series: The Aurelian Cycle #1
Published by GP Putnam's Sons (10.15.2019)
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: Audiobook, 448 pages
Length: 13 hours, 34 minutes
Narrator: Candice Moll, Christian Coulson, Steve West
Source: I own it


2 Stars

Annie and Lee were just children when a brutal revolution changed their world, giving everyone—even the lowborn—a chance to test into the governing class of dragonriders.

Now they are both rising stars in the new regime, despite backgrounds that couldn’t be more different. Annie’s lowborn family was executed by dragonfire, while Lee’s aristocratic family was murdered by revolutionaries. Growing up in the same orphanage forged their friendship, and seven years of training have made them rivals for the top position in the dragonriding fleet.

But everything changes when survivors from the old regime surface, bent on reclaiming the city.

With war on the horizon and his relationship with Annie changing fast, Lee must choose to kill the only family he has left or to betray everything he’s come to believe in. And Annie must decide whether to protect the boy she loves . . . or step up to be the champion her city needs.

From debut author Rosaria Munda comes a gripping adventure that calls into question which matters most: the family you were born into, or the one you’ve chosen.

My thoughts

Oh look, another dragon book that utterly disappointed me. *long suffering sigh*

First of all, STOP. COMPARING. BOOKS. TO. OTHER. BOOKS. This is compared to Red Rising and Game of Thrones in the blurb. THIS BOOK IS LITERALLY NOTHING LIKE RED RISING, which is a glorious masterpiece of a series. Or Game of Thrones, other than having dragons. This book has absolutely nothing in common with either, and is even more pitiful in comparison. I’m so tired of that marketing ploy.

I feel like this book was such a waste of potential. There’s DRAGONS, and the riders can emotionally communicate with them, for crying out loud! I wanted WAY more emotion and personality from the dragons, but in the end they’re basically just tools instead of powerful sentient creatures. There was zero depth to them. I saw another reviewer mention that Harry Potter was more excited about his broom, and that the dragons didn’t seem to be important to the story, and that was just so spot on and something that really bothered me. The dragons may as well have been brooms. What is it with “dragon” books not having hardly any ACTUAL DRAGON INTERACTION in them?! I mean, don’t get me wrong – there were plenty of dragon appearances. But there were very few REAL dragon scenes. They were almost always present, but not engaging to the story at all. They were just there. There were only a few action scenes featuring the dragons, and almost all of them were just training and tournaments. Borrrriiiing.

Actually, boring basically describes this entire book. Literally nothing happened for 90% of the novel?? There was a glaring lack of any plot or action – there were a handful of action scenes, and the rest was literally all world, politics, and character building. The world was relatively interesting, but honestly wasn’t all that special other than having dragons. And despite being heavy on character building, I didn’t give one single crap about any of the characters. They felt so bland to me! If I hadn’t listened to the audio, I wouldn’t have been able to even tell them apart.

I also hated the romance. It was basically an awkward love square, and there was no chemistry whatsoever between any of them. View Spoiler »

But, somehow basically everyone except me loved this book???? *scratches head in confusion* DID I READ A DIFFERENT BOOK THAN EVERYONE ELSE?! I feel like there’s something wrong with me. Or I got robbed. Sigh.

The audio

Honestly, this was literally the ONLY reason I finished this book at all, and the only thing I remotely liked about it. The narrators were FANTASTIC! Steve West narrates Lee’s backstory, so there was a clear distinction between Lee’s past and present narration. I loved that! I also really loved both Lee’s (Christian Coulson) and Annie’s (Candice Moll, aka Cat from Aurora Rising) narrators. I’m so sad that such talent was wasted on such a dull story.

Overall Assessment

Plot: 1/5
Premise: 4/5
Writing style: 2.5/5
Originality: 2.5/5
Characters: 1/5
World-building: 4/5
Pace: 2/5
Feels: 0/5
Cover: 5/5
Overall rating: 2/5

Jessi (Geo)

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