Today’s the day! It’s the end of a journey that started waaaaay back in 2009 when I wrote the first draft of Dragon Whisperer for NaNoWriMo. If you’re the sort who waits for a series to end before starting it, today is your day! If you’ve been following me excitedly since the beginning, today is also your day! Insert Oprah gif Everyone Gets A Book!

You can check out more about the individual books in the journey here:

Dragon Whisperer
Trueflame
Fireborn
Firebound
Dragon Next Door

This final installment of the Fireborn series brings together old favourites and new faces for one last, explosive adventure.

The fireborn women discover they aren’t alone with their unusual talents when demonborn aquamancer Tollar and her polycule and dragon daughter stumble into the dragon city for the young dragon’s naming. Despite general mistrust and suspicion from having a powerful aquamancer in the dragon city, Neesha becomes fast friends with the newcomers. While Neesha is used to being distant with her mother, the mistrust brews a new and uncomfortable gulf between her and Spark.

Tollar is used to a hero’s welcome, gaining trust and friends everywhere she goes—and she’s been just about everywhere—so finding neither on her first visit to the incomparable dragon city leaves her with doubt gnawing at her confidence. All she wants to do is go home.

But news of Loch’s whereabouts and plans have the demonborn women all scrambling to learn new skills and to trust each other. In a long journey that takes them across the world, sacrifices must be made if they hope to stop Loch’s expansion, save an innocent island nation from obliteration, and save themselves and their families.

I’ve said many times that when I wrote Dragon Whisperer, I never intended for it to be the start of the series. In my mind, Dionelle’s story was done. I was very wrong! Even now, I’m sure she’s still got journeys ahead of her, some maybe with her daughter and granddaughter. I put her through a lot, but she’s finally in a place of peace.

Another thing I got wrong early on (in planning for this to be a series) was that I was initially going to kill Neesha in Firebound. I got too caught up in the insistence that if it doesn’t have a high body count, is it even really fantasy? And ignored what would actually be interesting. Killing off characters is easy. Keeping them alive and helping them cope with the shit that’s happening? Now there’s a challenge, and a fascinating one!

Neesha woke up after seventeen years no less angry. Possibly angrier? Who can say! I love my rage-filled little disaster and I’m so happy with my decision to keep her around to let her grow and embrace her flaws as something she can use for good. For her to figure out how to be a mother and how to find her place in the world. And then I gave her another disaster as a best friend! If you haven’t read The Dragon Next Door, you’re going to want to before you get to Favour Fire. While DND is a side quest that stands alone, it also feeds into Favour Fire, where I bring all my little dragon riding weirdoes together.

I have always loved Tollar and I have been excited to bring all these characters together since I finished Fireborn and finally knew where this series was really headed. And if I don’t quit writing and publishing entirely, there will very definitely be more adventures with these characters, particularly Neesha and Tollar who I just had absolutely so much fun writing together.

And then there’s Loch. Fuck that guy. Yeet him into the sun. Everything about what I’ve done with him has been intentional. In part as a reminder to everyone that these shitty edgelords ruining the world don’t actually have the power they think they do or that they’ve convinced so many of us they have. That the right people at the right time with just the right amount of push can knock these bastards over more easily than we generally think.

Yes, this is a fun book about dragons, with quirky characters having quippy adventures. But it’s also very much a product of our times. And that’s why along with the struggle, I’ve been sure to include more quiet character moments, of these characters supporting each other and finding joy.

I hope you’ll check it out and that you’ll love it and that it can be a light in the dark and an inspiration for you to join with your community and fight back however you can to hold on to the beauty around us.

If you’d like to learn more about it or add it to your TBR, check out its Goodreads page. 

And Favour Fire (and the whole Fireborn series) is available widely at most major online retailers!