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Heiress of Fire
The kingdom of Bellatorm is coming to an end.
Davina Almenara finds herself forced to wage a war against the Predators and their Dark Mistress. For centuries they've terrorized the islands with their dark magic. And the islanders are losing faith in their silent King and their own magical powers.
Davina must win the war or risk losing everything. She is willing to sacrifice whatever it takes even if it costs her a chance at true love.
Only Davina Almenara, the child of fire, stands between Bellatorm and destruction.
Davina Almenara finds herself forced to wage a war against the Predators and their Dark Mistress. For centuries they've terrorized the islands with their dark magic. And the islanders are losing faith in their silent King and their own magical powers.
Davina must win the war or risk losing everything. She is willing to sacrifice whatever it takes even if it costs her a chance at true love.
Only Davina Almenara, the child of fire, stands between Bellatorm and destruction.
543 pages, Paperback
Published August 17, 2024
17 people are currently reading
497 people want to read
About the author
Sherlyn Garcia
2 books20 followersSherlyn's love for books has been flourishing for as long as she can remember. She finds herself surrounded by a vault of ideas for different fantasy worlds. She aspires to be able to write more books with relatable, yet loveable, characters, magical storylines, and good angsty romances. If you'd love to know more about her future plans for Heiress of Fire make sure to check out her TikTok and Instagram @sherlynsvault.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 102 reviews
August 17, 2024
If u wanna read a book for the vibes, I would recommend it. However if it’s for the writing, maybe not.
The first chapters are immensely confusing. It starts off with literally ALL characters, places and magical system names. It’s a lot and I had to push through. It started to make more sense while I kept on reading but the world building was lacking a bit imo. Some things weren’t properly explained or even addressed. It lacked context, which made it very confusing.
Immediately there’s action and honestly, it never stops. Which is a good thing, if you are up for it. The romance is also a very big plot point.
Personally I struggled with the writing style.
I like my books a bit more descriptive. There was way too much dialogue (but this also made it read quicker).
Couldn’t connect to the characters, even though there was some emotional depth. It just didn’t really hit me.
Probably bcs it’s explained too much rather than felt.
Whenever there was some tension or problem, it immediately got resolved and I kinda lost intrest because of this.
Also there were huge time jumps that weren’t always very clear or necessary.
To summarise: this had great potential. Overall it was a good concept but could have been better executed.
This is the author’s first book and self published so I am still interested to read more of her. This was definitely not bad, but had room for improvement.
Disclaimer: I read the ARC m, so perhaps there were adjustments made for the final version. Thank you Sherlyn for giving me the opportunity to review ur book!
The first chapters are immensely confusing. It starts off with literally ALL characters, places and magical system names. It’s a lot and I had to push through. It started to make more sense while I kept on reading but the world building was lacking a bit imo. Some things weren’t properly explained or even addressed. It lacked context, which made it very confusing.
Immediately there’s action and honestly, it never stops. Which is a good thing, if you are up for it. The romance is also a very big plot point.
Personally I struggled with the writing style.
I like my books a bit more descriptive. There was way too much dialogue (but this also made it read quicker).
Couldn’t connect to the characters, even though there was some emotional depth. It just didn’t really hit me.
Probably bcs it’s explained too much rather than felt.
Whenever there was some tension or problem, it immediately got resolved and I kinda lost intrest because of this.
Also there were huge time jumps that weren’t always very clear or necessary.
To summarise: this had great potential. Overall it was a good concept but could have been better executed.
This is the author’s first book and self published so I am still interested to read more of her. This was definitely not bad, but had room for improvement.
Disclaimer: I read the ARC m, so perhaps there were adjustments made for the final version. Thank you Sherlyn for giving me the opportunity to review ur book!
July 18, 2024
As an ARC reader, my rating and review of the book are based solely on my experience while reading. It is simply an opinion and does not define the author's talent, work, or the book's prestige. In no way am I trying to hate on the book, just state what I was feeling and what my opinion of it was.
I feel that I am in the minority, but I couldn't truly like the book. Heiress of Fire was marketed to me and my fellow ARC readers as a found family, lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers, war/political conflict book with an angry eldest daughter. I would like to address some of these points as well as what I did and did not like about the book.
First of all, the story was enchanting. It was refreshing. It's been a long time since I was so engrossed in a book, good or bad. Heiress of Fire truly captured my attention and Sherlyn crafted an excellent story. It was not something I could easily put down.
I most enjoyed Davina's inner struggles. She is a strong character battling being hated by the people of Bellatorm and it was interesting to read her navigating wanting to save people who treated her poorly. Her thoughts, while repetitive, carried the book. I wish they had been explored more. Her connection to her siblings was very well done and I was captivated by how much they affected her motivations in the book. Davina's one goal was to protect her siblings and it was written perfectly.
I appreciated her faith* as well. It's not often you find a fantasy where the MC has faith in the gods/god. Most that I read the characters hate them, want to kill them, or are angry with them in some way. Davina's devout faith in the King was refreshing.
These are some wonderful aspects of the story and if you like a fantasy with tension and plot twists, this is for you!
As far as some of the things I didn't like about it, I would say that the writing was confusing. I found myself having to read word-by-word in some places because I couldn't quite grasp what was being said. It was very dialogue heavy and it lacked descriptions where descriptions were needed, then provided too much that it became confusing in other places.
The characters were very one-dimensional and I couldn't connect with most of them. The only fleshed-out character was Davina, mostly because we could see her clear motivation and how she grew. Second was Ron, but in an unfortunately generic love-interest type of way and he only 'grew' in a period we saw no development from. The others were easily described as 'Snow is mean for no reason other than that she has ice powers and that makes her icy' or 'Leilani is a good friend' and they don't really grow anymore until the end where suddenly things are different.
I couldn't sense the urgency in the book at all and guessed the ending 40% of the way through. (there is NOTHING WRONG with readers guessing plot twists, it's just something I figured out early on) and the pacing felt off. One moment there's a battle, and the next they're flirting. One moment we see an emotional touch point, then it isn't explored and switches to something else.
*This is a Christian fantasy book, down to the use of consecration oil. The King is god, the villain is the devil who felt cast out and was 'banished,' and the only way to be 'saved' from the evil is to believe in the King and have faith by activating your elemental powers. The exploration of religion was interesting, and it was a neat perspective on Christianity; it was just something that pulled me out of the story and I didn't really take to. It was not marketed as a Christian fantasy, and if I had known how similar it was to the Christian faith, I don't think I would have requested an ARC copy.
As for some of the tropes:
-This didn't feel like a lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers because they were hardly lovers, they 'broke up' but also weren't dating and shared one kiss, and the 'enemies' portion of the book was a six month time jump. There were maybe four chapters where they were 'enemies' but really it was just Davina didn't want to be with him anymore because he didn't have faith in her, and Ron was being a jerk for no reason, then they made up in a few sentences.
-It didn't really feel like a found family, partly because of the ending and partly because it felt like every character that wasn't Davina was only centered around Davina, and they weren't their own characters. I often forgot that characters were in the same room as her until Davina spoke to them and they hardly had any personalities of their own beyond the generic.
-There is little to no politics/war in the book. There were I believe four to five fight scenes total - most of which I couldn't picture and happened in the last 30% of the book. The actual war existed within that six to twelve month gap (I can't be sure on the timeline), and we saw none of it. The politics were Davina being in charge and that was pretty much it.
-The eldest daughter was done SO WELL. Highly recommend for those of you who want to feel that angst.
I am very grateful to have been given an ARC and to be part of the community that Sherlyn grew, and I truly wish that I liked the book. The STORY was amazing, but most of what I enjoyed was overshadowed by confusing writing and a love story that made me cringe more than swoon. I was left with a lot more questions than answers.
I am very sorry I didn't enjoy the book. However, I will be purchasing a copy when it is released in support of Sherlyn. I am very proud of her achievement. She has done something amazing and touched the hearts of already so many people, and I commend her for that. I wish her the absolute best.
I feel that I am in the minority, but I couldn't truly like the book. Heiress of Fire was marketed to me and my fellow ARC readers as a found family, lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers, war/political conflict book with an angry eldest daughter. I would like to address some of these points as well as what I did and did not like about the book.
First of all, the story was enchanting. It was refreshing. It's been a long time since I was so engrossed in a book, good or bad. Heiress of Fire truly captured my attention and Sherlyn crafted an excellent story. It was not something I could easily put down.
I most enjoyed Davina's inner struggles. She is a strong character battling being hated by the people of Bellatorm and it was interesting to read her navigating wanting to save people who treated her poorly. Her thoughts, while repetitive, carried the book. I wish they had been explored more. Her connection to her siblings was very well done and I was captivated by how much they affected her motivations in the book. Davina's one goal was to protect her siblings and it was written perfectly.
I appreciated her faith* as well. It's not often you find a fantasy where the MC has faith in the gods/god. Most that I read the characters hate them, want to kill them, or are angry with them in some way. Davina's devout faith in the King was refreshing.
These are some wonderful aspects of the story and if you like a fantasy with tension and plot twists, this is for you!
As far as some of the things I didn't like about it, I would say that the writing was confusing. I found myself having to read word-by-word in some places because I couldn't quite grasp what was being said. It was very dialogue heavy and it lacked descriptions where descriptions were needed, then provided too much that it became confusing in other places.
The characters were very one-dimensional and I couldn't connect with most of them. The only fleshed-out character was Davina, mostly because we could see her clear motivation and how she grew. Second was Ron, but in an unfortunately generic love-interest type of way and he only 'grew' in a period we saw no development from. The others were easily described as 'Snow is mean for no reason other than that she has ice powers and that makes her icy' or 'Leilani is a good friend' and they don't really grow anymore until the end where suddenly things are different.
I couldn't sense the urgency in the book at all and guessed the ending 40% of the way through. (there is NOTHING WRONG with readers guessing plot twists, it's just something I figured out early on) and the pacing felt off. One moment there's a battle, and the next they're flirting. One moment we see an emotional touch point, then it isn't explored and switches to something else.
*This is a Christian fantasy book, down to the use of consecration oil. The King is god, the villain is the devil who felt cast out and was 'banished,' and the only way to be 'saved' from the evil is to believe in the King and have faith by activating your elemental powers. The exploration of religion was interesting, and it was a neat perspective on Christianity; it was just something that pulled me out of the story and I didn't really take to. It was not marketed as a Christian fantasy, and if I had known how similar it was to the Christian faith, I don't think I would have requested an ARC copy.
As for some of the tropes:
-This didn't feel like a lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers because they were hardly lovers, they 'broke up' but also weren't dating and shared one kiss, and the 'enemies' portion of the book was a six month time jump. There were maybe four chapters where they were 'enemies' but really it was just Davina didn't want to be with him anymore because he didn't have faith in her, and Ron was being a jerk for no reason, then they made up in a few sentences.
-It didn't really feel like a found family, partly because of the ending and partly because it felt like every character that wasn't Davina was only centered around Davina, and they weren't their own characters. I often forgot that characters were in the same room as her until Davina spoke to them and they hardly had any personalities of their own beyond the generic.
-There is little to no politics/war in the book. There were I believe four to five fight scenes total - most of which I couldn't picture and happened in the last 30% of the book. The actual war existed within that six to twelve month gap (I can't be sure on the timeline), and we saw none of it. The politics were Davina being in charge and that was pretty much it.
-The eldest daughter was done SO WELL. Highly recommend for those of you who want to feel that angst.
I am very grateful to have been given an ARC and to be part of the community that Sherlyn grew, and I truly wish that I liked the book. The STORY was amazing, but most of what I enjoyed was overshadowed by confusing writing and a love story that made me cringe more than swoon. I was left with a lot more questions than answers.
I am very sorry I didn't enjoy the book. However, I will be purchasing a copy when it is released in support of Sherlyn. I am very proud of her achievement. She has done something amazing and touched the hearts of already so many people, and I commend her for that. I wish her the absolute best.
July 26, 2024
As an ARC reader, I was lucky enough to receive an early copy of this book and while I was nervous at first, I quickly fell in love with it. I am giving it 5 stars because the world that Sherlyn creates and the characters that she writes definitely touched my heart. It did take me awhile to get into the book, but once I was pulled in I could not stop. I did not predict the ending of the story but the way she pulls it all together really gave me an "I can't believe I didn't notice that" moment. I'm doing my best to keep this spoiler free, but all in all I enjoyed the romance and angst Sherlyn incorporates in her book and just the way she writes the ending is beautiful, absolutely brought me to tears forsure.
I am so excited to get my hands on a physical copy of this book and to see the world she continues to build. I wish her best in any and all books she writes.
So proud of you Lynnie Pooh <3
I am so excited to get my hands on a physical copy of this book and to see the world she continues to build. I wish her best in any and all books she writes.
So proud of you Lynnie Pooh <3
July 20, 2024
I received this book as an ARC in exchange for my honest review, and while I really wanted to love this book, if I’m being honest I didn’t enjoy it.
Heiress of Fire is an emotionally packed book that explores trauma from abusive parents in a way that will unravel you. I found myself gripped by the main characters struggles and flaws as she deals with things in a refreshing and realistic way. The main character was very well fleshed out and made me want to give her a hug.
Unfortunately, I feel this book would benefit from several more rounds of edits. There were many developmental and line level mistakes that I found frustrating to look beyond and it ultimately took away from the story. I feel like Heiress of Fire is at the alpha/ beta reader stage, not ready for arcs/ publishing.
Also, I wasn’t expecting this to be a Christian fantasy. Had I known that, I probably would’ve passed on the ARC. Being a Christian myself, I appreciated the clean aspect of everything and felt safe while reading, but I personally prefer to keep the two separate and found myself more uncomfortable than anything.
Those are my honest thoughts and overall, I wish Sherlyn the best in her writing endeavors!
Heiress of Fire is an emotionally packed book that explores trauma from abusive parents in a way that will unravel you. I found myself gripped by the main characters struggles and flaws as she deals with things in a refreshing and realistic way. The main character was very well fleshed out and made me want to give her a hug.
Unfortunately, I feel this book would benefit from several more rounds of edits. There were many developmental and line level mistakes that I found frustrating to look beyond and it ultimately took away from the story. I feel like Heiress of Fire is at the alpha/ beta reader stage, not ready for arcs/ publishing.
Also, I wasn’t expecting this to be a Christian fantasy. Had I known that, I probably would’ve passed on the ARC. Being a Christian myself, I appreciated the clean aspect of everything and felt safe while reading, but I personally prefer to keep the two separate and found myself more uncomfortable than anything.
Those are my honest thoughts and overall, I wish Sherlyn the best in her writing endeavors!
July 22, 2024
The author clearly put a lot of love and care into crafting Davina, and I applaud her for it! However, the writing style and underlying thematic elements made it somewhat challenging for me to follow the story and left me feeling “indifferent” about most of the reveals and characters. This may very well be due to personal taste.
Thank you to Sherlyn for providing me with the ARC. Best of luck with the rest of the series!
Thank you to Sherlyn for providing me with the ARC. Best of luck with the rest of the series!
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September 7, 2024Heiress of Fire by Sherlyn Garcia
Spoiler free review:
-First off I absolutely loved this book. I was intrigued from the very first post that I saw on Instagram about it. The cover enchanted me, and this was a story I knew I just had to read. This story captivated me through every page, and I read it the very day I got it and did not put this 532 page book down until I finished. And while I adored this book, and would highly recommend it, it's definitely not without its faults. But that does not change the fact of how much I love book. The Christian allegory in it was one of my favorite parts and was very well done. I would recommend this book, to anyone who loves fantasy, with a christian allegory and a heroine that is worth rooting for and that would do anything for their siblings, even if it meant going to war.
Slight Spoiler Review:
What I didn't like
-I feel like her writing jumped quite a bit in the story, and it felt like a lot of stuff was just glossed over, especially a lot of the time when Davina got hurt. Like she would almost die at the end of chapter and then the next chapter would not even mention it, it was like it never happened. I would not be surprised if Sherlyn was maybe trying to cut down her word count some sense how long her book already was. Through I read it in only a couple hours, I feel like this book was too long, and not long enough. It felt like some parts of this story was rushed, especially the villain because it seems like this book was only setting up the real big bad that will take place in the next books.
-Most of the characters felt flat, while I loved Davina, she and Ron were really the only characters that really had any depth. None of the side characters were memorable. And their relationship to our main character Davina didn't really develop. Even though they were her closest friends.
-The beginning of the novel felt very confusing, and the world building kinda just didn't make sense for a little bit. It felt like we were thrown into a story that was already a quarter of the way in.
-I feel like this book would have been better focusing on the characters and their relationship with each other, and Davina training to become an apprentice and realizing that's what she wants to do and why. And her struggles, personality and the obstacles in the way of her dreams, and then the first novel ending with the King making them the protectors and her the captain. I feel like that would have better shown how she did deserve to be captain. And also would have been a good setup for the next book.
-I feel like the betrayal at the end wasn't set up enough. Also the motives of every single one of these villains just fall flat.
-I do feel like this book could have gone through a few more edits. And maybe that would have fixed some of the plot holes and confusing line of events that I saw.
-Also Davina and Ron's relationship felt like we were just thrown into it. Which I guess is different and unique. But I feel like how she did it, she should have made them a couple at the start instead of almost a couple with a good relationship, but then we watch slowly as strings unravel, but then shown how they can be pulled back together. And it basically felt like they were together in the beginning but they weren't. Through at times it felt like they just met.
-Also I really didn't like how Davina handled the villain in the end. Or more especially she did not care what happened because of how she defeated the villain. Also how she dealt with one of the other characters as well, it felt out of character.
-I really wish we saw more of Davina's relationship with her siblings, it's very clear how much she loves them, and her love for them is a big part of who she is, and her main driving point. And is crucial to the plot. But we aren't really shown much of their relationship.
-It felt like Davina and her friends didn't really uncover anything, it was just given to them. Like we wouldn't be able to see the pieces slowly come together in Davina's head. It was like there were no pieces but all of sudden a second later there was a puzzle.
-Also this is a personal opinion, I did not like Ron in the beginning, and felt like he did not even know what love is. He had a selfish love but I think that was kinda the point but I felt like it could have been done better.
Now that I have talked about what I didn't like let me finish with what I loved
What I loved
-I loved Davina. I loved her strength and kindness. And to be honest I liked how she eventually pushed Ron away. I feel like her feelings were valid. He didn't stand by her at first, and it didn't really seem like he cared much for her siblings. The siblings that she would give anything for.
-I did like Rons arc, but it felt kinda just thrown in there as a side plot. I felt like it needed more spotlight to really show how he grew. But I did like how he grew.
-I loved the King part of the story line, it was probably my favorite part. I found it to be a very good Christian Allegory. And it made me feel hope, it made me feel inspired. I just can't not express how much I loved this part. I found that she weaved it in there very well, and it was definitely an expert of where she showed.
-I liked how Davina cared about what others thought but did not let their opinions define her. It didn't make her cower, it made her what to prove that they were wrong. And I wish this was more ̃focused on.
-I love the internal battle waging inside of Davina, and wish that we got to see more of it.
-I loved how much she cared and loved her siblings. My heart went out to the abuse she experienced by her step father and the neglect of her mother. But I love how that didn't stop her from loving her siblings. In fact it made her love them more.
-I love how much of a fighter Davina is. She never gives up, yet she sees when she needs to walk away.
-I know I mentioned that her worldbuilding was confusing early, and it was. But at the same time it was brilliant. It just needed more time to catch its balance but it couldn't because of the non stop action.
I enjoyed how unique this story was, and I truly can't wait for the next
Also books that don’t give me a chance to breathe during it, and won’t let me put it down, that's a special kind of book.
Thank you so much Sherlyn for writing a fantastic book. I truly loved it, and it was an honor to read it. I can't wait to read your next one.
Spoiler free review:
-First off I absolutely loved this book. I was intrigued from the very first post that I saw on Instagram about it. The cover enchanted me, and this was a story I knew I just had to read. This story captivated me through every page, and I read it the very day I got it and did not put this 532 page book down until I finished. And while I adored this book, and would highly recommend it, it's definitely not without its faults. But that does not change the fact of how much I love book. The Christian allegory in it was one of my favorite parts and was very well done. I would recommend this book, to anyone who loves fantasy, with a christian allegory and a heroine that is worth rooting for and that would do anything for their siblings, even if it meant going to war.
Slight Spoiler Review:
What I didn't like
-I feel like her writing jumped quite a bit in the story, and it felt like a lot of stuff was just glossed over, especially a lot of the time when Davina got hurt. Like she would almost die at the end of chapter and then the next chapter would not even mention it, it was like it never happened. I would not be surprised if Sherlyn was maybe trying to cut down her word count some sense how long her book already was. Through I read it in only a couple hours, I feel like this book was too long, and not long enough. It felt like some parts of this story was rushed, especially the villain because it seems like this book was only setting up the real big bad that will take place in the next books.
-Most of the characters felt flat, while I loved Davina, she and Ron were really the only characters that really had any depth. None of the side characters were memorable. And their relationship to our main character Davina didn't really develop. Even though they were her closest friends.
-The beginning of the novel felt very confusing, and the world building kinda just didn't make sense for a little bit. It felt like we were thrown into a story that was already a quarter of the way in.
-I feel like this book would have been better focusing on the characters and their relationship with each other, and Davina training to become an apprentice and realizing that's what she wants to do and why. And her struggles, personality and the obstacles in the way of her dreams, and then the first novel ending with the King making them the protectors and her the captain. I feel like that would have better shown how she did deserve to be captain. And also would have been a good setup for the next book.
-I feel like the betrayal at the end wasn't set up enough. Also the motives of every single one of these villains just fall flat.
-I do feel like this book could have gone through a few more edits. And maybe that would have fixed some of the plot holes and confusing line of events that I saw.
-Also Davina and Ron's relationship felt like we were just thrown into it. Which I guess is different and unique. But I feel like how she did it, she should have made them a couple at the start instead of almost a couple with a good relationship, but then we watch slowly as strings unravel, but then shown how they can be pulled back together. And it basically felt like they were together in the beginning but they weren't. Through at times it felt like they just met.
-Also I really didn't like how Davina handled the villain in the end. Or more especially she did not care what happened because of how she defeated the villain. Also how she dealt with one of the other characters as well, it felt out of character.
-I really wish we saw more of Davina's relationship with her siblings, it's very clear how much she loves them, and her love for them is a big part of who she is, and her main driving point. And is crucial to the plot. But we aren't really shown much of their relationship.
-It felt like Davina and her friends didn't really uncover anything, it was just given to them. Like we wouldn't be able to see the pieces slowly come together in Davina's head. It was like there were no pieces but all of sudden a second later there was a puzzle.
-Also this is a personal opinion, I did not like Ron in the beginning, and felt like he did not even know what love is. He had a selfish love but I think that was kinda the point but I felt like it could have been done better.
Now that I have talked about what I didn't like let me finish with what I loved
What I loved
-I loved Davina. I loved her strength and kindness. And to be honest I liked how she eventually pushed Ron away. I feel like her feelings were valid. He didn't stand by her at first, and it didn't really seem like he cared much for her siblings. The siblings that she would give anything for.
-I did like Rons arc, but it felt kinda just thrown in there as a side plot. I felt like it needed more spotlight to really show how he grew. But I did like how he grew.
-I loved the King part of the story line, it was probably my favorite part. I found it to be a very good Christian Allegory. And it made me feel hope, it made me feel inspired. I just can't not express how much I loved this part. I found that she weaved it in there very well, and it was definitely an expert of where she showed.
-I liked how Davina cared about what others thought but did not let their opinions define her. It didn't make her cower, it made her what to prove that they were wrong. And I wish this was more ̃focused on.
-I love the internal battle waging inside of Davina, and wish that we got to see more of it.
-I loved how much she cared and loved her siblings. My heart went out to the abuse she experienced by her step father and the neglect of her mother. But I love how that didn't stop her from loving her siblings. In fact it made her love them more.
-I love how much of a fighter Davina is. She never gives up, yet she sees when she needs to walk away.
-I know I mentioned that her worldbuilding was confusing early, and it was. But at the same time it was brilliant. It just needed more time to catch its balance but it couldn't because of the non stop action.
I enjoyed how unique this story was, and I truly can't wait for the next
Also books that don’t give me a chance to breathe during it, and won’t let me put it down, that's a special kind of book.
Thank you so much Sherlyn for writing a fantastic book. I truly loved it, and it was an honor to read it. I can't wait to read your next one.
August 17, 2024
3.5 ⭐️
First of all, I am very happy I could ARC read this. I had fun, I enjoyed the characters and the whole idea is truly amazing. I must say I enjoyed the second half of the book WAY more than I did the first. I had a bit of trouble getting into the whole world and all, but eventually it all worked out!!
However, I am a bit sad that I only liked this book when I was expecting to love it. Also I wasn’t always a fan of the writing, but that’s my personal preference
Some parts felt a little too fast paced for me and since the action starts almost immediately it felt a little confusing at first. I think it would be better if the book was separated into two parts, that way there wouldn't be such huge time skip jumps.
YI know there will be some adjustments to the FINAL version so I am excited to see those!!
First of all, I am very happy I could ARC read this. I had fun, I enjoyed the characters and the whole idea is truly amazing. I must say I enjoyed the second half of the book WAY more than I did the first. I had a bit of trouble getting into the whole world and all, but eventually it all worked out!!
However, I am a bit sad that I only liked this book when I was expecting to love it. Also I wasn’t always a fan of the writing, but that’s my personal preference
Some parts felt a little too fast paced for me and since the action starts almost immediately it felt a little confusing at first. I think it would be better if the book was separated into two parts, that way there wouldn't be such huge time skip jumps.
YI know there will be some adjustments to the FINAL version so I am excited to see those!!
July 17, 2024
ARC REVIEW:
I really had to get into this book. The beginning was a bit confusing and I had to get used to the writing style. A lot happened in this book and I feel like many small events were not very necessary for the story. However, I absolutely loved the ending of the book and it is totally worth reading.
Heiress of fire is about a group of young people being chosen to protect their islands in the war. Davina is the main character and from the start there is a clear connection between Roy and Davina. However I feel like Roy was a bit of a wimp and there was so much going on between them it felt like I missed some backstory (even though their background story gets explained later in the beginning of the book). I just had a bit of an ick for Roy and his whining, because he was the only individual in the group without powers. I have to add that Isaiah is not a very good alternative man either sadly. The men in this book are just not it.
I have to say the book immediately dives into the story and action. I liked that but it took me some time to orientate myself. The thing I did notice when reading is that the events are not really connected, making it difficult to follow the whole line of the story. Events happen without a real connection and even plot twist come out of nowhere but not like twists should come (ex chapter 37 no spoilers but honestly wth). Okay I had to add that some plottwist are so good!!! (LOVE ch38, 40&42!!!) That does not take away from the fact that the idea and story behind this beautiful girl with purple fire is amazing and I did not want to put the story down.
Davina has a very difficult situation at home and this is the heart of her problems when making any decision. She choses to protect the islands, partly because she cannot leave her siblings unprotected. I thought this part was absolutely adorable. I do have to say I found it weird that the moment her home situation changed, there were no more references to her worries for her siblings.
I have to say I feel like some parts of the story were really forced into the book, such as the negative body image of Davina and her quirkiness. It made me roll my eyes.. Also I feel like the plot was great but the huge part that the romance plays in this story takes away from the fantasy. I would have loves the have the romance between Ron and Davina play a bit more in the background and the big fights and fantasy take the front.
If you are a big fan of romance and fantasy than this is totally for you. There is a big fight, a lot of action and a great group of friends to get to know. The romance takes a great turn in the book and the total story is full of twists and turns, which will keep you surprised.
I started to enjoy this book more towards the ending, because I missed the connection to the characters and I felt like there were too many people that do not get enough attention, so the story lacks connection in many aspects. There are many small features presented that take away from the main story, while the overall plot is sooo good!! This all made me give this book 3.5⭐️⭐️⭐️ overall, just bc I did not really feel the vibe and only enjoyed the ending.
Thank you Sherlyn for sending me the ARC of your book and for all the direct connection you have with your fans, I absolutely adore that❤️
I really had to get into this book. The beginning was a bit confusing and I had to get used to the writing style. A lot happened in this book and I feel like many small events were not very necessary for the story. However, I absolutely loved the ending of the book and it is totally worth reading.
Heiress of fire is about a group of young people being chosen to protect their islands in the war. Davina is the main character and from the start there is a clear connection between Roy and Davina. However I feel like Roy was a bit of a wimp and there was so much going on between them it felt like I missed some backstory (even though their background story gets explained later in the beginning of the book). I just had a bit of an ick for Roy and his whining, because he was the only individual in the group without powers. I have to add that Isaiah is not a very good alternative man either sadly. The men in this book are just not it.
I have to say the book immediately dives into the story and action. I liked that but it took me some time to orientate myself. The thing I did notice when reading is that the events are not really connected, making it difficult to follow the whole line of the story. Events happen without a real connection and even plot twist come out of nowhere but not like twists should come (ex chapter 37 no spoilers but honestly wth). Okay I had to add that some plottwist are so good!!! (LOVE ch38, 40&42!!!) That does not take away from the fact that the idea and story behind this beautiful girl with purple fire is amazing and I did not want to put the story down.
Davina has a very difficult situation at home and this is the heart of her problems when making any decision. She choses to protect the islands, partly because she cannot leave her siblings unprotected. I thought this part was absolutely adorable. I do have to say I found it weird that the moment her home situation changed, there were no more references to her worries for her siblings.
I have to say I feel like some parts of the story were really forced into the book, such as the negative body image of Davina and her quirkiness. It made me roll my eyes.. Also I feel like the plot was great but the huge part that the romance plays in this story takes away from the fantasy. I would have loves the have the romance between Ron and Davina play a bit more in the background and the big fights and fantasy take the front.
If you are a big fan of romance and fantasy than this is totally for you. There is a big fight, a lot of action and a great group of friends to get to know. The romance takes a great turn in the book and the total story is full of twists and turns, which will keep you surprised.
I started to enjoy this book more towards the ending, because I missed the connection to the characters and I felt like there were too many people that do not get enough attention, so the story lacks connection in many aspects. There are many small features presented that take away from the main story, while the overall plot is sooo good!! This all made me give this book 3.5⭐️⭐️⭐️ overall, just bc I did not really feel the vibe and only enjoyed the ending.
Thank you Sherlyn for sending me the ARC of your book and for all the direct connection you have with your fans, I absolutely adore that❤️
July 24, 2024
4.5⭐️
⚠️mild spoilers⚠️
*this review was originally written in Spanish, so I apologize for any grammatical errors :)
First of all, I am very grateful to have been an ARC reader, it is my first time being part of this type of thing and being able to discuss with other people and the author herself made the reading experience more enjoyable.
As for the story, what I liked the most while reading was the way the places, characters and the world in general are described. Normally it is difficult for me to imagine or understand well how fantasy worlds work, but with this concise but detailed writing it became quite easy for me to understand everything, especially in the first chapters. However, one of the things I arguably liked the least was the relationship between the protagonists, Davina and Ron. It's not that I didn't like their dynamic, but that I didn't feel that they were very loving from the beginning and although I know that all human relationships are complex, the amount of MISCOMMUNICATION got me a little annoyed, but I think that's personal preference.
As for the plot, I felt that it was advancing at a good pace, it was just that I was taken by surprise by the extensive time jumps, for example, between Davina and Ron's “breakup” to their reconciliation, 6 months passed and that made that lost the flow of the story a little for me.
I'm an inconsistent reader, so the amount of time it takes me to read always varies, but I read this book pretty quickly.
Lastly, I found the characters charming and their dynamic as a group entertained me throughout the book, but I would like to get to know them in more depth (this is my impatience speaking because I know how it works when you read a saga) and the way in which each one becomes indispensable for the functioning of the group is great. My favorite characters were Val and Ron (they are so cute and I felt seen in them).
Also (I’m sorry I was born to yap), there were multiple times throughout the book were I was so impressed by the writing, I know I already mentioned it but Sherlyn is really talented ☺️
Thank you again Sherlyn for giving me the opportunity to read your book and it is a very worthwhile read.
⚠️mild spoilers⚠️
*this review was originally written in Spanish, so I apologize for any grammatical errors :)
First of all, I am very grateful to have been an ARC reader, it is my first time being part of this type of thing and being able to discuss with other people and the author herself made the reading experience more enjoyable.
As for the story, what I liked the most while reading was the way the places, characters and the world in general are described. Normally it is difficult for me to imagine or understand well how fantasy worlds work, but with this concise but detailed writing it became quite easy for me to understand everything, especially in the first chapters. However, one of the things I arguably liked the least was the relationship between the protagonists, Davina and Ron. It's not that I didn't like their dynamic, but that I didn't feel that they were very loving from the beginning and although I know that all human relationships are complex, the amount of MISCOMMUNICATION got me a little annoyed, but I think that's personal preference.
As for the plot, I felt that it was advancing at a good pace, it was just that I was taken by surprise by the extensive time jumps, for example, between Davina and Ron's “breakup” to their reconciliation, 6 months passed and that made that lost the flow of the story a little for me.
I'm an inconsistent reader, so the amount of time it takes me to read always varies, but I read this book pretty quickly.
Lastly, I found the characters charming and their dynamic as a group entertained me throughout the book, but I would like to get to know them in more depth (this is my impatience speaking because I know how it works when you read a saga) and the way in which each one becomes indispensable for the functioning of the group is great. My favorite characters were Val and Ron (they are so cute and I felt seen in them).
Also (I’m sorry I was born to yap), there were multiple times throughout the book were I was so impressed by the writing, I know I already mentioned it but Sherlyn is really talented ☺️
Thank you again Sherlyn for giving me the opportunity to read your book and it is a very worthwhile read.
February 4, 2025
Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. I really struggled with the writing style (just a personal preference). One minute, the language was casual and contemporary, and then the next, it was a more formal, fantasy-typical style. There was also a lot of dialogue, which didn't always have a natural flow, so it was quite difficult to read.
The reader is introduced to most of the characters, the world, and the conflict immediately and what seemed like all at once. I found that to be a lot to process at once and ended up re-reading the first few chapters so I could get my head around what was happening.
I did enjoy the vibes of the book - it was a 10/10 for fantasy vibes. Additionally, I thought the handling of themes, such as domestic violence, was very well done.
I would like to thank Sherlyn Garcia and Bookworm Books PR for the copy of the book in exchange of an honest review.
The reader is introduced to most of the characters, the world, and the conflict immediately and what seemed like all at once. I found that to be a lot to process at once and ended up re-reading the first few chapters so I could get my head around what was happening.
I did enjoy the vibes of the book - it was a 10/10 for fantasy vibes. Additionally, I thought the handling of themes, such as domestic violence, was very well done.
I would like to thank Sherlyn Garcia and Bookworm Books PR for the copy of the book in exchange of an honest review.
August 17, 2024
SPOILERS BELOW!
This book should have been a DNF for me. The plot holds promise, swiftly introducing us to the kingdom of Bellatorm with its six unique islands, each possessing distinct properties and specialties. However, the world-building feels haphazard. It’s rushed, with some details never revisited or explained, while other elements are introduced without any prior context, leaving readers confused. Even now, I don’t fully grasp why Davina has wings, why Ron is powerless, or why the King is asleep. While not everything needs to be explained immediately, the information provided should still be clear and coherent.
Moreover, the sheer number of characters introduced in the initial chapters is overwhelming, making it difficult to keep track of who’s who. Not only that, but they are one-dimensional, which didn’t allow me to connect to any of them. The writing quality itself is inconsistent. The dialogue fluctuates between modern English and more archaic, royal language, often within the same conversation, disrupting the flow and immersion. This inconsistency stems from inadequate world-building and a lack of clear narrative control, causing potentially impactful scenes to fall flat. As readers, I feel like we should resonate with the characters’ emotions—anger, betrayal, sorrow—but that connection is frequently missing.
Davina and Ron’s relationship, for instance, feels superficial and rushed. They are nearly a couple at the book’s start, making their eventual union unremarkable. The only time I felt a genuine emotional response was during Ron’s death scene, which was beautifully written—only for it to be undercut by his sudden reappearance a few chapters later. While I understand the desire to keep characters alive in a trilogy, a truly impactful death could have significantly impacted the reader.
There are some redeeming qualities. As an eldest daughter, I could relate to the family dynamics and the burdens Davina bears, showcasing Garcia’s strength in writing these scenes. The story of the dormant King evoked thoughts about faith and religion, with the people of Bellatorm maintaining belief without ever seeing him. However, this theme could have been explored with greater depth and nuance.
In conclusion, while the ideas behind the book were strong and intriguing, the execution fell short, which was disappointing. The TikToks and the blurb had me excited for this book, but ultimately, it did not live up to my expectations.
This book should have been a DNF for me. The plot holds promise, swiftly introducing us to the kingdom of Bellatorm with its six unique islands, each possessing distinct properties and specialties. However, the world-building feels haphazard. It’s rushed, with some details never revisited or explained, while other elements are introduced without any prior context, leaving readers confused. Even now, I don’t fully grasp why Davina has wings, why Ron is powerless, or why the King is asleep. While not everything needs to be explained immediately, the information provided should still be clear and coherent.
Moreover, the sheer number of characters introduced in the initial chapters is overwhelming, making it difficult to keep track of who’s who. Not only that, but they are one-dimensional, which didn’t allow me to connect to any of them. The writing quality itself is inconsistent. The dialogue fluctuates between modern English and more archaic, royal language, often within the same conversation, disrupting the flow and immersion. This inconsistency stems from inadequate world-building and a lack of clear narrative control, causing potentially impactful scenes to fall flat. As readers, I feel like we should resonate with the characters’ emotions—anger, betrayal, sorrow—but that connection is frequently missing.
Davina and Ron’s relationship, for instance, feels superficial and rushed. They are nearly a couple at the book’s start, making their eventual union unremarkable. The only time I felt a genuine emotional response was during Ron’s death scene, which was beautifully written—only for it to be undercut by his sudden reappearance a few chapters later. While I understand the desire to keep characters alive in a trilogy, a truly impactful death could have significantly impacted the reader.
There are some redeeming qualities. As an eldest daughter, I could relate to the family dynamics and the burdens Davina bears, showcasing Garcia’s strength in writing these scenes. The story of the dormant King evoked thoughts about faith and religion, with the people of Bellatorm maintaining belief without ever seeing him. However, this theme could have been explored with greater depth and nuance.
In conclusion, while the ideas behind the book were strong and intriguing, the execution fell short, which was disappointing. The TikToks and the blurb had me excited for this book, but ultimately, it did not live up to my expectations.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 18, 2024
Heiress of Fire was such an amazing read! It drew me in with the trope of being the eldest sibling in a family (I am the oldest of 4 in my family) And I absolutely understood the pressure that the FMC had to go through as I have been through
The main character (Davina) and her love interest (Ron) really reminded me of my husband and I with some of the quotes that were said between them. You can really see the love that they have for each other and how they are truly meant for each other. The author really knew how to build the world around all of the characters and I was loving every second of it. I was definitely not expecting the plot twists that were there towards the last 1/3 of the book. My jaw dropped, my eyes started to tear up as I read the words on the pages
Thank you for letting me become an ARC reader for this! It was truly an amazing read and I can't wait to see what is to come next! (Also as a note, the playlist that Sherlyn made was so flawless! All of the songs went so well with each of the chapters and definitely helped me keep focused on the entire read!)
The main character (Davina) and her love interest (Ron) really reminded me of my husband and I with some of the quotes that were said between them. You can really see the love that they have for each other and how they are truly meant for each other. The author really knew how to build the world around all of the characters and I was loving every second of it. I was definitely not expecting the plot twists that were there towards the last 1/3 of the book. My jaw dropped, my eyes started to tear up as I read the words on the pages
Thank you for letting me become an ARC reader for this! It was truly an amazing read and I can't wait to see what is to come next! (Also as a note, the playlist that Sherlyn made was so flawless! All of the songs went so well with each of the chapters and definitely helped me keep focused on the entire read!)
July 19, 2024
This review contains spoilers!!
First of all, Sherlyn THANK YOU for letting me be apart of this wonderful journey and the great community all of us build together as arc readers!! 🩷
I think there is a lot of positive things to say about the book, and I'll just recap a small fraction of things I truly enjoyed:
1. The World Building.
I adored the concept of HoF even before I got the book. The tropes, the islands, the magical system... But that didn't compare to the moment I dove into the world of Davina and her friends. Having different Islands and therefore different powers is a refreshing experience to read instead of the typical "being born with the powers and being the only one who has them" as well as the fact, that if not properly activated, that the Powers can spiral. Like I said, it's refreshing, new and full of potential!! The whole system isn't that hard to understand, tho I believe singular topics (like the predators..) could be dived into a bit more, and not only through telling, but also showing.
2. Symbolism Christianity
I'm no Christian myself, nor any type of religious person and normally I don't really associate myself with religious literature, if educational or fictional, but I found myself enjoying the relationship Davina has with the king. I was truly waiting for him to turn on her, and was positively surprised that it never happened. (It would be a good twist for future books but as far as I know, God doesn't do that so its rather unlikely;) )
3. Sibling Love & Eldest daughter
I love the fact that Davina is the eldest and driven by her motivation of protecting her siblings. She comes from an abusive household and would do anything for them. Even though I myself am a middle child, I felt like I could connect to her since I would too do anything to keep my sisters safe, even start a war. I love how she values her love for her siblings more the love she has for Ron and choses them again and again. It's just very cute and I think realistic, since i could connect :)
4. Diversity
I love the diversity in their friend group, whether it's the powers, looks or personalities. It's refreshing and fun to read, making it easy to connect with one of the characters. (Also after seeing the Art, they're all so hot!) And as a shout out: I LOVE BEACON AND VI!!! I need a spinoff from them!
5. Sherlyn as an author and her gifts
I could say many more things that I really like, but then this review would be way too long. What I simply HAVE to say, is that I absolutely loved being apart of Sherlyn's little community for this book. She is a truly kind person, who isn't driven on ONLY talking about her book. Yes, it's our main topic (as it should) but she has no problem whatsoever if we also talk about other books, or rant about private topics. But the best thing is: she gives us many gifts! Fanart, Character Charts, Playlists, Tiktoks, Chapter teasers.... and it's just been a beautiful journey! So THANK YOU SHERLYN, TRULY🩷
Now, since Sherlyn has put so much effort and love into her book and asked us to be truly honest in our review, I'm going to mention a few things that I think can be helpful for possible improvement :)
1 . The Writing
Sherlyn writes very literally, which isn't necessarily bad, but if you try to read the book in a short amount of time it can get a bit repetitive and hard to imagine what the scenery looks like. I'm no author myself, but I think the saying "Show not tell" could be a valuable skill for further books (ex: instead of saying that snow has white hair which is fitting to her ice powers, it could be said that the small pristine snowflakes cascading from her fingers blend seamlessly with the color of her hair as she waits for... (obviously with better words, like I said, I'm not an author hahah). Sometimes I didn't quite grasp how the scenery is, or who is in the room with them, so I had to go back or add a lot of imagination, so I think showing more duality between dialogue and scenery can be useful.
2 . The Relationship Dynamic between Davina, Ron and Isaiah
From early on it is pretty clear that that Ron has a very strong thing for Davina, and that she also likes him. I'm more of a slowburn kinda gyal so it was way too fast paced for me, not hidden and yearningly enough. I suppose it's because of the lovers-enemies-lover trope that happened, but I would've enjoyed it more if the book maybe ended with them being enemies, leaving potential for the next one. I also wasn't that big of a fan of Ron, since he was very selfish and whiny about Davina having to save her siblings, which was very annoying to me, which is where Isaiah comes in. He seems like the perfect guy, swooping in to help her with an alliance that turns into a marriage proposal. I actually really enjoyed his character and how he immediately understands Davinas needs and desires, a skill I wouldve wished for Ron, to make him more likeable. I think Isaiah turning out to be abusive was a smart move, and her breaking out of the circle was beautifully written. However, I think i think it was weird for him to not give any signs of being abusive in the beginning, but then showing signs later on that he wasn't aware of showing, was out of character in my opinion. In the end, I loved Davina and Ronald and he even grew onto me :) I just think overall the dynamics should've been a bit deeper.
3 . The Time jump
I have no problem with time jumps, but this one made me a little sad. The time during was meant to showcase their "enemy" phase which I was eager to see, but that whole part of their relationship was jumped over, and I think other components could've been left out to give us more insight of that time. Maybe room for future flashbacks?
4. Raven
Raven is a typical Villain who I mostly truly enjoyed, as well as the sibling revelation. I however was so confused as to why Raven always met up with the guardians and offered them to join her. Both parts of these situations seemed weak to me, because a simple kill would've been more than possible. I just never really understood why Raven did that. I think it would've been great seeing her talk to someone and swaying them, and then following the betrayal while Davina is clueless. I think future villains need to give more fear and uneasiness.
5. Her friends
I ADORE the friend group of Davina. I live how each Power is present in their circle of friends and how all of them are protectors of the Islands. However I sometimes thought that their characteristics were a bit shallow and could've been a bit deeper, as well as the betrayals a bit more foreshadowed, just to give an eerie feeling. I don't know if I just didn't see the hints, but I thought Leilani for example to be so out of character, and think that the envy couldve been shown a bit more frequently, just to round it up and give that AHH moment when rereading.
But guys, don't get me wrong!
This book is a truly great read and I will definitely read the second one! Despite my "negative" feedback, I seriously mean that this book is a fun read. I believe this is a perfectly first book to publish and the next one's can only get better!
Sherlyn you can be very proud of yourself🩷🫶🏼
First of all, Sherlyn THANK YOU for letting me be apart of this wonderful journey and the great community all of us build together as arc readers!! 🩷
I think there is a lot of positive things to say about the book, and I'll just recap a small fraction of things I truly enjoyed:
1. The World Building.
I adored the concept of HoF even before I got the book. The tropes, the islands, the magical system... But that didn't compare to the moment I dove into the world of Davina and her friends. Having different Islands and therefore different powers is a refreshing experience to read instead of the typical "being born with the powers and being the only one who has them" as well as the fact, that if not properly activated, that the Powers can spiral. Like I said, it's refreshing, new and full of potential!! The whole system isn't that hard to understand, tho I believe singular topics (like the predators..) could be dived into a bit more, and not only through telling, but also showing.
2. Symbolism Christianity
I'm no Christian myself, nor any type of religious person and normally I don't really associate myself with religious literature, if educational or fictional, but I found myself enjoying the relationship Davina has with the king. I was truly waiting for him to turn on her, and was positively surprised that it never happened. (It would be a good twist for future books but as far as I know, God doesn't do that so its rather unlikely;) )
3. Sibling Love & Eldest daughter
I love the fact that Davina is the eldest and driven by her motivation of protecting her siblings. She comes from an abusive household and would do anything for them. Even though I myself am a middle child, I felt like I could connect to her since I would too do anything to keep my sisters safe, even start a war. I love how she values her love for her siblings more the love she has for Ron and choses them again and again. It's just very cute and I think realistic, since i could connect :)
4. Diversity
I love the diversity in their friend group, whether it's the powers, looks or personalities. It's refreshing and fun to read, making it easy to connect with one of the characters. (Also after seeing the Art, they're all so hot!) And as a shout out: I LOVE BEACON AND VI!!! I need a spinoff from them!
5. Sherlyn as an author and her gifts
I could say many more things that I really like, but then this review would be way too long. What I simply HAVE to say, is that I absolutely loved being apart of Sherlyn's little community for this book. She is a truly kind person, who isn't driven on ONLY talking about her book. Yes, it's our main topic (as it should) but she has no problem whatsoever if we also talk about other books, or rant about private topics. But the best thing is: she gives us many gifts! Fanart, Character Charts, Playlists, Tiktoks, Chapter teasers.... and it's just been a beautiful journey! So THANK YOU SHERLYN, TRULY🩷
Now, since Sherlyn has put so much effort and love into her book and asked us to be truly honest in our review, I'm going to mention a few things that I think can be helpful for possible improvement :)
1 . The Writing
Sherlyn writes very literally, which isn't necessarily bad, but if you try to read the book in a short amount of time it can get a bit repetitive and hard to imagine what the scenery looks like. I'm no author myself, but I think the saying "Show not tell" could be a valuable skill for further books (ex: instead of saying that snow has white hair which is fitting to her ice powers, it could be said that the small pristine snowflakes cascading from her fingers blend seamlessly with the color of her hair as she waits for... (obviously with better words, like I said, I'm not an author hahah). Sometimes I didn't quite grasp how the scenery is, or who is in the room with them, so I had to go back or add a lot of imagination, so I think showing more duality between dialogue and scenery can be useful.
2 . The Relationship Dynamic between Davina, Ron and Isaiah
From early on it is pretty clear that that Ron has a very strong thing for Davina, and that she also likes him. I'm more of a slowburn kinda gyal so it was way too fast paced for me, not hidden and yearningly enough. I suppose it's because of the lovers-enemies-lover trope that happened, but I would've enjoyed it more if the book maybe ended with them being enemies, leaving potential for the next one. I also wasn't that big of a fan of Ron, since he was very selfish and whiny about Davina having to save her siblings, which was very annoying to me, which is where Isaiah comes in. He seems like the perfect guy, swooping in to help her with an alliance that turns into a marriage proposal. I actually really enjoyed his character and how he immediately understands Davinas needs and desires, a skill I wouldve wished for Ron, to make him more likeable. I think Isaiah turning out to be abusive was a smart move, and her breaking out of the circle was beautifully written. However, I think i think it was weird for him to not give any signs of being abusive in the beginning, but then showing signs later on that he wasn't aware of showing, was out of character in my opinion. In the end, I loved Davina and Ronald and he even grew onto me :) I just think overall the dynamics should've been a bit deeper.
3 . The Time jump
I have no problem with time jumps, but this one made me a little sad. The time during was meant to showcase their "enemy" phase which I was eager to see, but that whole part of their relationship was jumped over, and I think other components could've been left out to give us more insight of that time. Maybe room for future flashbacks?
4. Raven
Raven is a typical Villain who I mostly truly enjoyed, as well as the sibling revelation. I however was so confused as to why Raven always met up with the guardians and offered them to join her. Both parts of these situations seemed weak to me, because a simple kill would've been more than possible. I just never really understood why Raven did that. I think it would've been great seeing her talk to someone and swaying them, and then following the betrayal while Davina is clueless. I think future villains need to give more fear and uneasiness.
5. Her friends
I ADORE the friend group of Davina. I live how each Power is present in their circle of friends and how all of them are protectors of the Islands. However I sometimes thought that their characteristics were a bit shallow and could've been a bit deeper, as well as the betrayals a bit more foreshadowed, just to give an eerie feeling. I don't know if I just didn't see the hints, but I thought Leilani for example to be so out of character, and think that the envy couldve been shown a bit more frequently, just to round it up and give that AHH moment when rereading.
But guys, don't get me wrong!
This book is a truly great read and I will definitely read the second one! Despite my "negative" feedback, I seriously mean that this book is a fun read. I believe this is a perfectly first book to publish and the next one's can only get better!
Sherlyn you can be very proud of yourself🩷🫶🏼
August 21, 2024
2⭐️
First of all I’d like to thank Sherlyn for providing me this book as my first ARC !
I’d like to start with the positive aspects I found in Heiress of fire.
In my opinion, the whole plot was very interesting, with a good world building, the entire oldest sister rep and the numerous fights and battles!!
One of my favorite thing was the wide range of abilities, of elemental powers. Each character had their own and it was fun to see how they used it in a way to truly help each other.
To go back to the characters, I found very enjoyable the fact that you could easily found a unique personality in each of them and you could really identify them as their own person !
Finally I think Sherlyn’s writing really improved as we went deeper into the book !!
However, as much as I liked the numerous characters I really struggled to connect with them and the relationships between them (except for Davina and Ron).
I also found an issue with words’ repetition and some confusion with the tenses used and unfortunately this really set me back from the reading ☹️
Ultimately I had the feeling that there were huge time jump that I got lost into and maybe that’s why I didn’t make those connections with the characters and their relationships
To conclude I’d like to applause Sherlyn for her hard work and the love she put into her characters, especially Davina, and the story she gave life to !
Even if it wasn’t for me, I hope it finds others and that she’ll reach her goals and I wish her the best for the rest of the series and her writing career 🫶🏼
First of all I’d like to thank Sherlyn for providing me this book as my first ARC !
I’d like to start with the positive aspects I found in Heiress of fire.
In my opinion, the whole plot was very interesting, with a good world building, the entire oldest sister rep and the numerous fights and battles!!
One of my favorite thing was the wide range of abilities, of elemental powers. Each character had their own and it was fun to see how they used it in a way to truly help each other.
To go back to the characters, I found very enjoyable the fact that you could easily found a unique personality in each of them and you could really identify them as their own person !
Finally I think Sherlyn’s writing really improved as we went deeper into the book !!
However, as much as I liked the numerous characters I really struggled to connect with them and the relationships between them (except for Davina and Ron).
I also found an issue with words’ repetition and some confusion with the tenses used and unfortunately this really set me back from the reading ☹️
Ultimately I had the feeling that there were huge time jump that I got lost into and maybe that’s why I didn’t make those connections with the characters and their relationships
To conclude I’d like to applause Sherlyn for her hard work and the love she put into her characters, especially Davina, and the story she gave life to !
Even if it wasn’t for me, I hope it finds others and that she’ll reach her goals and I wish her the best for the rest of the series and her writing career 🫶🏼
July 29, 2024
This was a read I struggled to get through for reasons I aim to explain fairly in this review. Although it was not an entertaining read for me, this does not mean that it won't appeal to others, nor that it was a complete unsuccess. It simply means my personal experience with this book was a 1/5.
The book delves into themes of fantasy, abusive families, older sister trauma (general family trauma), heavy expectations, friendship, duty & honour, and romance. I chose to read this book for the fantasy appeal with magic systems and a kingdom created from the author's imagination. The magic system is broad and nature-based, which is fun to explore for the reader. The world-building was also enjoyable for its distinguishable family traits and island geography, but that is where my enjoyment limit ends with this read.
The writing seemed incomplete with a lack of "show don't tell". Most of the senteneces were long explanations on how things work, how characters felt, or descriptions of physical traits characters have. "Blonde hair", "grey eyes" and "a wide smile" don't give much character depth. Instead, it led to the feeling that traits were being thrown at the reader to give a visualisation instead of a connection to them. That it not to say that these physical attributes weren't pleasing and gave an imagination to play with. However, the bond was not there for me, I was hoping for more building. The dialogue was also lacking in fluidity, some parts seemed very cringey in placement and did not seem believable (I know it's fantasy but there was a mix of slang and high fantasy talk which did not mix well.) It felt like we were jumping between time periods with inconsistency and unedited dialogue.
The story had lots of potential from the very beginning, you can tell the author had put effort into it and has a vivid imagination. However, I find that because of other aspects the story falls off and makes it challenging to read. I found no connection to characters, the descriptions were cliche and the writing felt off. Characters' emotions are explained and then quoted directly after by them instead of letting us feel these emotions with them. Each character's backstory is truly interesting and was probably my favourite part of the book alongside the worldbuilding.
My aim in this ARC reader review was to be honest and fair. Hopefully there are other readers who find this series to be more enjoyable than I found it to be. I don't plan to read the next book, nonetheless I hope it turns out to be a success with many invested readers.
The book delves into themes of fantasy, abusive families, older sister trauma (general family trauma), heavy expectations, friendship, duty & honour, and romance. I chose to read this book for the fantasy appeal with magic systems and a kingdom created from the author's imagination. The magic system is broad and nature-based, which is fun to explore for the reader. The world-building was also enjoyable for its distinguishable family traits and island geography, but that is where my enjoyment limit ends with this read.
The writing seemed incomplete with a lack of "show don't tell". Most of the senteneces were long explanations on how things work, how characters felt, or descriptions of physical traits characters have. "Blonde hair", "grey eyes" and "a wide smile" don't give much character depth. Instead, it led to the feeling that traits were being thrown at the reader to give a visualisation instead of a connection to them. That it not to say that these physical attributes weren't pleasing and gave an imagination to play with. However, the bond was not there for me, I was hoping for more building. The dialogue was also lacking in fluidity, some parts seemed very cringey in placement and did not seem believable (I know it's fantasy but there was a mix of slang and high fantasy talk which did not mix well.) It felt like we were jumping between time periods with inconsistency and unedited dialogue.
The story had lots of potential from the very beginning, you can tell the author had put effort into it and has a vivid imagination. However, I find that because of other aspects the story falls off and makes it challenging to read. I found no connection to characters, the descriptions were cliche and the writing felt off. Characters' emotions are explained and then quoted directly after by them instead of letting us feel these emotions with them. Each character's backstory is truly interesting and was probably my favourite part of the book alongside the worldbuilding.
My aim in this ARC reader review was to be honest and fair. Hopefully there are other readers who find this series to be more enjoyable than I found it to be. I don't plan to read the next book, nonetheless I hope it turns out to be a success with many invested readers.
August 24, 2024
This is my review as an ARC reader, thank you to the author who trusted me with her book, I really appreciated it.
When I found this book on TikTok I was immediately hooked by the plot, an eldest daughter with fire powers who has to save both her kingdom and her siblings, with a love interest who goes to friends to lovers, then lovers to enemies and then lovers again.
I think the core of the story was very good, the plot was interesting and the way Sherlyn Garcia wrote it made me want to read what was coming next. She also added a few big plot twists that actually took me by surprise, so I enjoyed that.
Unfortunately though, I feel like the promises of all the tropes that were mentioned in the description were not fulfilled to the max: the found family was not a family at all, but rather a group of school friends who hang out once in a while, especially because there was no real depth to secondary characters, we don’t even know what her best friend was like deep down.
The love interest dynamic was a bit too sudden: they were already infatuated with each other at the beginning of the story so we didn’t have any angst, any pining, no evolution and then they never really became enemies, they only had a little spat and went back to being lovers again.
Also, I found myself reading some passages time and time again, so the grammar was not pristine.
It read fast, but unfortunately it really deluded my expectations so I can’t give it more than two and a half stars.
Hopefully Garcia will get better in the book and I wish her all the best.
When I found this book on TikTok I was immediately hooked by the plot, an eldest daughter with fire powers who has to save both her kingdom and her siblings, with a love interest who goes to friends to lovers, then lovers to enemies and then lovers again.
I think the core of the story was very good, the plot was interesting and the way Sherlyn Garcia wrote it made me want to read what was coming next. She also added a few big plot twists that actually took me by surprise, so I enjoyed that.
Unfortunately though, I feel like the promises of all the tropes that were mentioned in the description were not fulfilled to the max: the found family was not a family at all, but rather a group of school friends who hang out once in a while, especially because there was no real depth to secondary characters, we don’t even know what her best friend was like deep down.
The love interest dynamic was a bit too sudden: they were already infatuated with each other at the beginning of the story so we didn’t have any angst, any pining, no evolution and then they never really became enemies, they only had a little spat and went back to being lovers again.
Also, I found myself reading some passages time and time again, so the grammar was not pristine.
It read fast, but unfortunately it really deluded my expectations so I can’t give it more than two and a half stars.
Hopefully Garcia will get better in the book and I wish her all the best.
July 27, 2024
I was lucky enough to get this as my first ARC reading and it did not disappoint.
Im super excited for more people to get ahold of this beautiful book. As an eldest daughter who has always been told she’s a hot head, this book resonates deeply with me. The moment this book started it entrapped me with the different islands and powers. In my opinion it showed how great people who are different can come together, Hence the found family trope. The world building does take time to understand just like any other book if your imagination lacks imagination. Just like me.
Davina is special to me as she is to the Author Sherlyn. Davina is strong brave and most of all would give anything to protect her siblings, as would I with my sister. The love interest is perfect for the type of person Davina is and like I’ve told Sherlyn myself it reminds me of my husband. Any eldest daughter who is hated or mistreated in her family and found a man to love her for her, will love this book. This book will become part of you. The fantasy the writing and the beauty of finding your own family makes it a wonderful read. I cant wait for more daughters that take the parenting role for their siblings to read and admire this book just like I have.
Thank you Sherlyn for accepting me as an Arc reader and I cant wait to follow your journey as a an Author. 💕
Im super excited for more people to get ahold of this beautiful book. As an eldest daughter who has always been told she’s a hot head, this book resonates deeply with me. The moment this book started it entrapped me with the different islands and powers. In my opinion it showed how great people who are different can come together, Hence the found family trope. The world building does take time to understand just like any other book if your imagination lacks imagination. Just like me.
Davina is special to me as she is to the Author Sherlyn. Davina is strong brave and most of all would give anything to protect her siblings, as would I with my sister. The love interest is perfect for the type of person Davina is and like I’ve told Sherlyn myself it reminds me of my husband. Any eldest daughter who is hated or mistreated in her family and found a man to love her for her, will love this book. This book will become part of you. The fantasy the writing and the beauty of finding your own family makes it a wonderful read. I cant wait for more daughters that take the parenting role for their siblings to read and admire this book just like I have.
Thank you Sherlyn for accepting me as an Arc reader and I cant wait to follow your journey as a an Author. 💕
August 5, 2024
i literally feel empty after finishing the book, now all i need is the physical copy
the depiction of davinas relationship with her siblings was perfect, the complexity of her feelings and emotions were portrayed so well through her relationships.
i feel such a great affinity for the characters its crazy
and now that i’ve finished the book everything makes sense, i can understand the reasoning behind every little scene written in the book.
i aspire to find my ron bc he was literally the perfect fit for davina .
im literally at a loss for words
the book, alongside the playlist was just insane .
the acknowledgments really did get me crying :)
i am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to be your ARC reader sherlyn 💖💖
the depiction of davinas relationship with her siblings was perfect, the complexity of her feelings and emotions were portrayed so well through her relationships.
i feel such a great affinity for the characters its crazy
and now that i’ve finished the book everything makes sense, i can understand the reasoning behind every little scene written in the book.
i aspire to find my ron bc he was literally the perfect fit for davina .
im literally at a loss for words
the book, alongside the playlist was just insane .
the acknowledgments really did get me crying :)
i am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to be your ARC reader sherlyn 💖💖
September 7, 2024
This was a beautifully written story. As someone in relationshop with God it was so exciting to see all the parallels, metaphors, and ways this book relates to our life with God.
The characters are all well-thought out and I truly enjoyed Davina's complex growth!! It's so relatable and it was amazing to see how they all had such doubts but worked through them and also how it affected the ones who let the doubts and evil take over.
I hope to see more of King Magnar, but his whole story and how He cared for everyone so much were great to see. Again, great parralles to God and reminded me so much of Narnia!!Ron?!?!?!!?!?! He was such a fabulous bonus, and I loved when he truly believed in himself and how he showed Davina so much love. That was one amazing MOG!
The characters are all well-thought out and I truly enjoyed Davina's complex growth!! It's so relatable and it was amazing to see how they all had such doubts but worked through them and also how it affected the ones who let the doubts and evil take over.
I hope to see more of King Magnar, but his whole story and how He cared for everyone so much were great to see. Again, great parralles to God and reminded me so much of Narnia!!Ron?!?!?!!?!?! He was such a fabulous bonus, and I loved when he truly believed in himself and how he showed Davina so much love. That was one amazing MOG!
July 9, 2024
I am so glad I could beta read this book! I definetly am excited to see the final product, but from what I read it was an amazing story that will touch your heart and make you feel as if you are in the story right alongside Davina.
There are heartbreaking, romantic, sweet, and suspensful moments and I feel as if each chapter something important happened. It was a very entertaining read and I am so excited for this story to be shared with the world :)
**also I love Ron so much and their relationship was everything.**
There are heartbreaking, romantic, sweet, and suspensful moments and I feel as if each chapter something important happened. It was a very entertaining read and I am so excited for this story to be shared with the world :)
**also I love Ron so much and their relationship was everything.**
July 19, 2024
This excelent fantasy novel follows Davina Almenara, who unlocks her unique fire powers and fights for her and her family's survival against the Predators of Bellatorm.
Sherlyn incredibly crafted Davina. As the Eldest daughter, Davina carried many burdens and responsibilities. She also felt responsible for protecting her younger siblings as far as to fight in a war for them!
The world building was on point and I could always picture what was happening. Especially in Basalt.
I have and always will love elemental-based powers and I could really dig into her world and the political, and societal factors just added to my love of Heiress of Fire.
The only thing that I wanted was to find out more about Snow's past and why she is such a "mean girl." Hopefully we can learn more about her past in the second book.
The lovers to enemies to lovers was done so well that I was always hooked into Davina and Ron's relatipnship. Lovers or enemies, I couldn't stop reading.
Found family is one of my favourite tropes and I loved the connection between Davina and all of her friends and the deep bonds they all have with each other.
Again, the eldest daughter trope was done so well.
Thank you to Sherlyn for the opportunity to ARC read. It has been amazing getting to know you and sharing our different book ideas with each other. I can already tell that you are going to become an incredible author.
Amazing job Sherlyn, I cannot wait to read the next book in this series.
July 23, 2024
I really wanted to like this book. The premise seemed interesting, and the world building looked promising, but I DNF-ed it at 25%. It makes me really sad, especially since I had the privilege of getting an ARC copy from the lovely Sherlyn García. What I managed to get through felt like it was more of a second draft that still needed a couple more rounds of revisions rather than an ARC version.
The chapters and scenes felt too disconnected, I often got lost in the middle of scenes because of how quick the setting and characters were changing, and had to go back and reread everything a few more times.
Some of the dialogue sounded a bit too teenager-y for my taste, and while that's mainly about personal preferences, it did make me cringe during some conversations, and it took me out of the story.
I do believe that with some more editing this could turn out to be a really great YA novel, especially because both the premise and world-building are interesting, but as of now I cannot rate it over 2 stars.
Nevertheless, I wish Sherlyn the best of luck with its release and her future literary endeavors. Thank you, once again, for giving me the chance to read it.
The chapters and scenes felt too disconnected, I often got lost in the middle of scenes because of how quick the setting and characters were changing, and had to go back and reread everything a few more times.
Some of the dialogue sounded a bit too teenager-y for my taste, and while that's mainly about personal preferences, it did make me cringe during some conversations, and it took me out of the story.
I do believe that with some more editing this could turn out to be a really great YA novel, especially because both the premise and world-building are interesting, but as of now I cannot rate it over 2 stars.
Nevertheless, I wish Sherlyn the best of luck with its release and her future literary endeavors. Thank you, once again, for giving me the chance to read it.
July 26, 2024
I made myself read this slowly because I wanted to savor every moment of this masterpiece. I loved each and every character all unique yet fitting together so well, the world building had me in awe and it’s as if I was there living it. No matter what your typical reading genre is I cannot recommend heiress of fire enough I can confidently say in all the years I’ve been reading hundreds of books heiress of fire has made it into my top 10.
Sherlyn you are master of writing.
Sherlyn you are master of writing.
August 15, 2024
1 star.
this book was received as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. please take the following with a grain of salt as i believe there have been some edits since the ARC copy was released so things i cover here may have been fixed (ill note that i highly doubt the majority can be changed so fast but i digress)
DNF'D AT 90% though i think i should have dnf'd at probably ~60%
from the author's tiktoks i went into this book expecting sibling love to be a major theme of this book. it is not a major part of this book at all, and i think that is truly disappointing because i think the scenes centred around davina's broken home life are the best of the book.
alongside this i was not aware this was a religious/christian fantasy and i probably would not have requested an ARC had this been something i had known - i'm honestly not sure if i just missed this or if its not something the author is promoting.
this book also could do with some more editing as there is many times where the tone shifts between being modern and archaic with no indication as to why, and just generally there are grammatical errors littered throughout.
in the rest of this review i will delve deeper into my personal issues with this book and will mark all of the following with spoilers.
ULTIMATELY, i think this book has a promising premise but the execution is lazy and falls short at nearly every moment. i do not wish to do the author a disservice i cannot imagine how difficult the process of writing a book is and i wish her all the best with her future endeavours, however, i will not be reading them.
this book was received as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. please take the following with a grain of salt as i believe there have been some edits since the ARC copy was released so things i cover here may have been fixed (ill note that i highly doubt the majority can be changed so fast but i digress)
DNF'D AT 90% though i think i should have dnf'd at probably ~60%
from the author's tiktoks i went into this book expecting sibling love to be a major theme of this book. it is not a major part of this book at all, and i think that is truly disappointing because i think the scenes centred around davina's broken home life are the best of the book.
alongside this i was not aware this was a religious/christian fantasy and i probably would not have requested an ARC had this been something i had known - i'm honestly not sure if i just missed this or if its not something the author is promoting.
this book also could do with some more editing as there is many times where the tone shifts between being modern and archaic with no indication as to why, and just generally there are grammatical errors littered throughout.
in the rest of this review i will delve deeper into my personal issues with this book and will mark all of the following with spoilers.
ULTIMATELY, i think this book has a promising premise but the execution is lazy and falls short at nearly every moment. i do not wish to do the author a disservice i cannot imagine how difficult the process of writing a book is and i wish her all the best with her future endeavours, however, i will not be reading them.
August 29, 2024
I’ve been reading this book for about a month and a half now, and it’s been a struggle since probably page 1. I have never DNFed a book, and unfortunately, this one was the first. I got all the way through I believe chapter 14 before putting it down . I tried my absolute hardest to push through and get to the end, but it was not what I was hoping it’d be. I wanted to love it so bad. Here are my thoughts that came from notes I wrote down while reading.
Book Layout:
The book starts right on the action, which is good, but there is little backstory to anything. Also, due to how fast paced it is, there is a lot of jumpiness. Between the first and second chapter, there is a whole 5 month time jump. Then we get told over and over again that she only has a month left in her training. Because of this, we don’t get any backstory of what Davina’s first five months at the Castellum was like. We’re also missing her introductions to people. Davina and Leilani meeting is in the story, but then she goes to a background character, which I’ll discuss later. We also got her introduction with Ron, and as I’ll discuss later, it was super weird.
Some things when it came to the writing I did not like was this random and wacky pov third person switch to Ron the chapter we read about Ron and Davina meeting. Then, in the middle of the chapter, with absolutely no warning, we jump back to Davina being the focus. There’s no new chapter, no little symbol/line signifying this might happen, nothing. Just whoop! Davina.
I also feel like big words were used for no reason. There are times when I could see this being a read for middle schoolers and high schoolers, but then some fancy-shamancy word gets used that I, as an undergrad English college student, has no idea what it means. Maybe it’s because I don’t read enough fantasy, but there was also no context to give me any hint as to what the word might mean. Just because you can use big, fancy words does not mean that you should
To go along with that, there are very few descriptors in the writing in general. There’s tons of dialogue, but when it comes to describing how a place or person looks, you get nothing. I should not, as a reader, be a world and people building myself. There should be enough description to where I can easily paint a picture of them in my mind. I am still very confused on how the whole 6 island set up works, and despite there being character cards floating around, the only person that I can picture in this story is Davina due to her face literally being on the cover. I could also tell you that Ron has grey-flecked eyes because every single time Davina looked at him we heard about his grey-flecked eyes.
This may just be a me thing, but I can’t stand the amount of breaks for paragraphs. Not every two sentences need to be a new paragraph. Long paragraphs can be great and even necessary. If they can flow into one, combine them. I don’t need an indent every sentence or two. That applies to dialogue as well. The same character could still be talking, but due to a random indent after a sentence or two, I think it’s someone new until the “ said _____” and it’s the exact same person who was just talking. With that, there is such a thing as too many commas. There were super long sentences, but super short paragraphs.
There are words that I’m not sure are what Garcia meant to use, but if they are, it made some of the characters very unlikeable, like Ron. There are also words in the wrong tenses making. Both of these make it hard to understand the writing.
Questions:
- What is the Era of Silence?
- Why are the Almenara’s the cruelest known family? Because Freya led the Revolt they all fought in and seem to support by not activating their powers/abilities?
- How/When did the predator attacks start?
- How is King Maganar +400 years old?
- What Revolt? Why Revolt?
- So everyone has abilities, but you have to ask to obtain them fully? Why?
- What happened with the twin dude at the party when he caught Ron and Davina?
- So Ron knows some things about the attack he missed but not others but he hasn’t seen anybody that day so how does he know anything at all?
- What is apple polisher?
- Where is everyone else and what are they doing while Ron and Davina are getting his armor? Isn’t this supposed to be a team effort?
- What is colorless green land? How is it green and colorless? It’s just grey grass and dead animal skulls?
- What does it mean when he says it is fresh in the suit? Like, is it breathable? Is it air conditioned?
- So they have to wear the armor all the time after acquiring it?
These were questions I had while reading that never got answered. Maybe they did eventually, but some of them should have been answered earlier on, like at first mention.
Annoyances:
We got reminded over and over again about certain things. We get it. She has a month left in her training at the Castellum before she has the title of soldier. We get it. Ron has grey-flecked eyes. Also, tell me why we got a run down about soldiers, then two or three chapters later, we got the exact same run down about what it means to be a soldier.
There were so many characters just thrown into the story right off the bat. I honestly couldn’t even remember half the time. Caleb, I think that’s his name, would pop up, and I’d think it was someone new. I think he was Leilani’s twin and he can also grow stuff. Beacon and Ron’s brother kept getting mentioned. I don’t know for what. I only ever remembered who Snow was because her ability was literally her name. And Freya. Who is Freya? She started the Revolt. Great. She’s also related to Davina apparently. I think her mother? No clue.
When it came to naming the group, they kept getting referred to as “Davina and the other six Soldiers”. This irked me so much. Davina is part of the group. She didn’t need to keep being singled out every time. I distinctly remember a page where that phrase was every other sentence.
Everyone and their mother has a nickname. Why does she keep calling her siblings “kids”? And Davina has about 10 nicknames that I don’t even know who they’re talking about. Also, who is Levina? I think it was Ron, but when it was Davina and Levina being the only names used to refer to the characters in the story at that time, they just became the same person at that point.
On that note, let’s dive into individual characters.
Clara:
So random. So unneeded. So unnecessary. What can she even do? She just shows up, knows absolutely nothing, and then gets put on this team of super elite soldiers? What a mess.
Leilani:
Leilani started off in the story as being a prominent character, but as soon as Davina became the chosen one, she was gone. She had this whole thing with Sadoc, who seems to be an asshole. She also appears to have been with just about every single guy in this story. Her ex is one of the commanding officers they have. It was rather uncomfy everytime we were told the officer dude was looking at her all romantically. Conflict of interest. Anyways, then, she gets jealous of Clara. I have no clue as to why. She started to give off the beginning of Regina George vibes, but then she wasn’t in the story for five chapters. I loved her sassiness at the start, but then she just became whiny.
Ron:
Oh, Ron! The amount of loathing I have for this guy.
He first appeared to be kind of mysterious and charming. Good start. Then he opened his mouth and I had had enough. His obsession with Davina transpired rather quickly. I wanted more yearning, more discovery of feelings. It was crazy strong right off that bat. I get having a crush at first sight, but obsession? Ew. The first major ick was when he said, a minute into meeting Davina, “There’s that smile.” Ew dude. You just met her and fell in love so quickly and extremely. He even said he had fallen in love with one of her facial expressions. You just met! This was pre-Castellum, y’all. He also keeps referring to her as “Love”. Don’t call her that. You are not a couple. You are just obsessively infatuated.
Ron also kept telling Davina to not go and fight. First off, she got named captain of the group, so that’d be super messed up for her to not go into battle with her army. He wants her to hide, like he did during the first attack, cause that’s going to solve all of the problems they are having. Eventually, it just got super annoying. If you want to go and hide, be my guest Ron, but Davina is going to fight. The one thing I can applaud him for is that at least he is aware that he sucks and he holds no confidence in himself. They also have so much miscommunication on this topic and other things to where they are just a toxic couple to me anyways. They are always arguing about something, forgive each other rather quickly, become obsessed, then fight about not going to battle, and the cycle repeats itself.
I understand that it can be hard to be the Mirabel of the group. You have no powers unlike everyone else and no clue as to why. What I don’t understand is why he keeps sulking about it. Ron appears to be this master soldier in hand-to-hand combat, great with swords and staffs, excellent weapon skills, etc. Nobody else has that. They practically rely on their powers. He is so miserable all the time, constantly sulking, and reading about him makes me miserable. He’s never happy. Ron is a big sourpuss.
I have no swooning, no positive emotions, no nothing that is good to say about Ron, which with him being the main love interest, that’s not good one bit.
Beacon:
Unlike his brother, I absolutely loved Beacon. Now, sometimes he was a grade A pain in the butt, but I loved him so much. He’s a sassy king at times, but we love that for him. At the beginning, I was kind of hoping that the enemies to lovers aspect of the story would be between him and Davina, but then Beacon and Valerie are a couple and there’s a clear push for Davina and Ron to have a love story which was a bit disappointing for me. From what I did read, I did get happy when Beacon would look after Valerie and show some protection for her, but not the overbearing kind Ron does for Davina.
Davina:
The best thing to come out from Davina was this:
“If you have to adorn yourself to get a man’s attention, then he’s no man at all. A real man will value your mind and your heart.”
Tea, truth, sis! Period, boop boop.
While I’m not the eldest daughter in my family (youngest daughter actually), I did understand quite a bit of what Davina was going through with wanting to protect her siblings. While I admire that, this is about where the good things end.
Let’s start off with her relationship with Ron, shall we? Once again, the feelings developed way too quickly into an obsession. When they were sitting on that roof at Sadoc’s(the man Leilani is after/with), she says she has an uneasy feeling with Ron because of the conversations they’d had, but she’s still deep in the feels with him. (Also, what were the conversations they were having? We knew nothing at this point, and still don’t.)
To summarize:
For it being Sherlyn Garcia’s first book, I think it has a lot of potential. It is clear that the story was thought out; however, there are a lot of things that I just couldn’t take. This seemed to be more for beta readers if any readers at all than for publishing. It could have used more time and eyes for editing.
Davina Armenara was not likable for me, nor was her love interest Ron. Big red flag there. I do want to finish this one day in hopes that it improves and her second book in the series will be better, but as of right now, I can’t take it anymore. I’m drained and exhausted by the constant having to figure out who is who and what is what and having little to no descriptions of anything.
I feel like I’m world building it all myself due to lack of details. There also seemed to be no intended character development for anyone besides Davina and Ron. They were all super flat. I don’t want to just read the cliches. Give me something. If the character isn’t necessary for the story, they have no growth, everything is the same without them, etc., then don’t put them in the story.
Without finishing, in chapter 9, I made the prediction that Ron is going to be on the side of the Predators. I’m not sure how accurate this is, but that is the only reason I kept going was to figure out who Raven was and who would inevitably flip. I didn’t care about King Magnar or if they would win the battle or get all their armor or what Ron’s power was, though I’m assuming some force field shield ordeal based off of not feeling Davina’s fire in I believe chapter 5.
I knew from TikTok that this was a Christian fantasy, but I did not like how it became like Davina was kind of worshiping King Magnar. Yes, he’s the king, but the all powerful King Magnar thing just made me uncomfy.
Despite all of my opinions, I do wish Sherlyn Garcia the best of luck in her future writing endeavors. I plan on probably purchasing the physical book at some point to finish it, but as of right now, I need a brain break.
Update:
Book Layout:
The book starts right on the action, which is good, but there is little backstory to anything. Also, due to how fast paced it is, there is a lot of jumpiness. Between the first and second chapter, there is a whole 5 month time jump. Then we get told over and over again that she only has a month left in her training. Because of this, we don’t get any backstory of what Davina’s first five months at the Castellum was like. We’re also missing her introductions to people. Davina and Leilani meeting is in the story, but then she goes to a background character, which I’ll discuss later. We also got her introduction with Ron, and as I’ll discuss later, it was super weird.
Some things when it came to the writing I did not like was this random and wacky pov third person switch to Ron the chapter we read about Ron and Davina meeting. Then, in the middle of the chapter, with absolutely no warning, we jump back to Davina being the focus. There’s no new chapter, no little symbol/line signifying this might happen, nothing. Just whoop! Davina.
I also feel like big words were used for no reason. There are times when I could see this being a read for middle schoolers and high schoolers, but then some fancy-shamancy word gets used that I, as an undergrad English college student, has no idea what it means. Maybe it’s because I don’t read enough fantasy, but there was also no context to give me any hint as to what the word might mean. Just because you can use big, fancy words does not mean that you should
To go along with that, there are very few descriptors in the writing in general. There’s tons of dialogue, but when it comes to describing how a place or person looks, you get nothing. I should not, as a reader, be a world and people building myself. There should be enough description to where I can easily paint a picture of them in my mind. I am still very confused on how the whole 6 island set up works, and despite there being character cards floating around, the only person that I can picture in this story is Davina due to her face literally being on the cover. I could also tell you that Ron has grey-flecked eyes because every single time Davina looked at him we heard about his grey-flecked eyes.
This may just be a me thing, but I can’t stand the amount of breaks for paragraphs. Not every two sentences need to be a new paragraph. Long paragraphs can be great and even necessary. If they can flow into one, combine them. I don’t need an indent every sentence or two. That applies to dialogue as well. The same character could still be talking, but due to a random indent after a sentence or two, I think it’s someone new until the “ said _____” and it’s the exact same person who was just talking. With that, there is such a thing as too many commas. There were super long sentences, but super short paragraphs.
There are words that I’m not sure are what Garcia meant to use, but if they are, it made some of the characters very unlikeable, like Ron. There are also words in the wrong tenses making. Both of these make it hard to understand the writing.
Questions:
- What is the Era of Silence?
- Why are the Almenara’s the cruelest known family? Because Freya led the Revolt they all fought in and seem to support by not activating their powers/abilities?
- How/When did the predator attacks start?
- How is King Maganar +400 years old?
- What Revolt? Why Revolt?
- So everyone has abilities, but you have to ask to obtain them fully? Why?
- What happened with the twin dude at the party when he caught Ron and Davina?
- So Ron knows some things about the attack he missed but not others but he hasn’t seen anybody that day so how does he know anything at all?
- What is apple polisher?
- Where is everyone else and what are they doing while Ron and Davina are getting his armor? Isn’t this supposed to be a team effort?
- What is colorless green land? How is it green and colorless? It’s just grey grass and dead animal skulls?
- What does it mean when he says it is fresh in the suit? Like, is it breathable? Is it air conditioned?
- So they have to wear the armor all the time after acquiring it?
These were questions I had while reading that never got answered. Maybe they did eventually, but some of them should have been answered earlier on, like at first mention.
Annoyances:
We got reminded over and over again about certain things. We get it. She has a month left in her training at the Castellum before she has the title of soldier. We get it. Ron has grey-flecked eyes. Also, tell me why we got a run down about soldiers, then two or three chapters later, we got the exact same run down about what it means to be a soldier.
There were so many characters just thrown into the story right off the bat. I honestly couldn’t even remember half the time. Caleb, I think that’s his name, would pop up, and I’d think it was someone new. I think he was Leilani’s twin and he can also grow stuff. Beacon and Ron’s brother kept getting mentioned. I don’t know for what. I only ever remembered who Snow was because her ability was literally her name. And Freya. Who is Freya? She started the Revolt. Great. She’s also related to Davina apparently. I think her mother? No clue.
When it came to naming the group, they kept getting referred to as “Davina and the other six Soldiers”. This irked me so much. Davina is part of the group. She didn’t need to keep being singled out every time. I distinctly remember a page where that phrase was every other sentence.
Everyone and their mother has a nickname. Why does she keep calling her siblings “kids”? And Davina has about 10 nicknames that I don’t even know who they’re talking about. Also, who is Levina? I think it was Ron, but when it was Davina and Levina being the only names used to refer to the characters in the story at that time, they just became the same person at that point.
On that note, let’s dive into individual characters.
Clara:
So random. So unneeded. So unnecessary. What can she even do? She just shows up, knows absolutely nothing, and then gets put on this team of super elite soldiers? What a mess.
Leilani:
Leilani started off in the story as being a prominent character, but as soon as Davina became the chosen one, she was gone. She had this whole thing with Sadoc, who seems to be an asshole. She also appears to have been with just about every single guy in this story. Her ex is one of the commanding officers they have. It was rather uncomfy everytime we were told the officer dude was looking at her all romantically. Conflict of interest. Anyways, then, she gets jealous of Clara. I have no clue as to why. She started to give off the beginning of Regina George vibes, but then she wasn’t in the story for five chapters. I loved her sassiness at the start, but then she just became whiny.
Ron:
Oh, Ron! The amount of loathing I have for this guy.
He first appeared to be kind of mysterious and charming. Good start. Then he opened his mouth and I had had enough. His obsession with Davina transpired rather quickly. I wanted more yearning, more discovery of feelings. It was crazy strong right off that bat. I get having a crush at first sight, but obsession? Ew. The first major ick was when he said, a minute into meeting Davina, “There’s that smile.” Ew dude. You just met her and fell in love so quickly and extremely. He even said he had fallen in love with one of her facial expressions. You just met! This was pre-Castellum, y’all. He also keeps referring to her as “Love”. Don’t call her that. You are not a couple. You are just obsessively infatuated.
Ron also kept telling Davina to not go and fight. First off, she got named captain of the group, so that’d be super messed up for her to not go into battle with her army. He wants her to hide, like he did during the first attack, cause that’s going to solve all of the problems they are having. Eventually, it just got super annoying. If you want to go and hide, be my guest Ron, but Davina is going to fight. The one thing I can applaud him for is that at least he is aware that he sucks and he holds no confidence in himself. They also have so much miscommunication on this topic and other things to where they are just a toxic couple to me anyways. They are always arguing about something, forgive each other rather quickly, become obsessed, then fight about not going to battle, and the cycle repeats itself.
I understand that it can be hard to be the Mirabel of the group. You have no powers unlike everyone else and no clue as to why. What I don’t understand is why he keeps sulking about it. Ron appears to be this master soldier in hand-to-hand combat, great with swords and staffs, excellent weapon skills, etc. Nobody else has that. They practically rely on their powers. He is so miserable all the time, constantly sulking, and reading about him makes me miserable. He’s never happy. Ron is a big sourpuss.
I have no swooning, no positive emotions, no nothing that is good to say about Ron, which with him being the main love interest, that’s not good one bit.
Beacon:
Unlike his brother, I absolutely loved Beacon. Now, sometimes he was a grade A pain in the butt, but I loved him so much. He’s a sassy king at times, but we love that for him. At the beginning, I was kind of hoping that the enemies to lovers aspect of the story would be between him and Davina, but then Beacon and Valerie are a couple and there’s a clear push for Davina and Ron to have a love story which was a bit disappointing for me. From what I did read, I did get happy when Beacon would look after Valerie and show some protection for her, but not the overbearing kind Ron does for Davina.
Davina:
The best thing to come out from Davina was this:
“If you have to adorn yourself to get a man’s attention, then he’s no man at all. A real man will value your mind and your heart.”
Tea, truth, sis! Period, boop boop.
While I’m not the eldest daughter in my family (youngest daughter actually), I did understand quite a bit of what Davina was going through with wanting to protect her siblings. While I admire that, this is about where the good things end.
Let’s start off with her relationship with Ron, shall we? Once again, the feelings developed way too quickly into an obsession. When they were sitting on that roof at Sadoc’s(the man Leilani is after/with), she says she has an uneasy feeling with Ron because of the conversations they’d had, but she’s still deep in the feels with him. (Also, what were the conversations they were having? We knew nothing at this point, and still don’t.)
To summarize:
For it being Sherlyn Garcia’s first book, I think it has a lot of potential. It is clear that the story was thought out; however, there are a lot of things that I just couldn’t take. This seemed to be more for beta readers if any readers at all than for publishing. It could have used more time and eyes for editing.
Davina Armenara was not likable for me, nor was her love interest Ron. Big red flag there. I do want to finish this one day in hopes that it improves and her second book in the series will be better, but as of right now, I can’t take it anymore. I’m drained and exhausted by the constant having to figure out who is who and what is what and having little to no descriptions of anything.
I feel like I’m world building it all myself due to lack of details. There also seemed to be no intended character development for anyone besides Davina and Ron. They were all super flat. I don’t want to just read the cliches. Give me something. If the character isn’t necessary for the story, they have no growth, everything is the same without them, etc., then don’t put them in the story.
Without finishing, in chapter 9, I made the prediction that Ron is going to be on the side of the Predators. I’m not sure how accurate this is, but that is the only reason I kept going was to figure out who Raven was and who would inevitably flip. I didn’t care about King Magnar or if they would win the battle or get all their armor or what Ron’s power was, though I’m assuming some force field shield ordeal based off of not feeling Davina’s fire in I believe chapter 5.
I knew from TikTok that this was a Christian fantasy, but I did not like how it became like Davina was kind of worshiping King Magnar. Yes, he’s the king, but the all powerful King Magnar thing just made me uncomfy.
Despite all of my opinions, I do wish Sherlyn Garcia the best of luck in her future writing endeavors. I plan on probably purchasing the physical book at some point to finish it, but as of right now, I need a brain break.
Update:
July 21, 2024
ARC REVIEW:
3.5 stars
This book has plot which was quite unique and interesting. But it was difficult to read at times perhaps because of the writing style. Davina has such depth to her character but I felt like the other characters lacked this at times. The book definitely got more gripping towards the end as the action increased and plot twists were revealed (which i did not expect!!!).
Overall I did enjoy this book and I would like to say thanks to Sherlyn for sending me an arc copy of the book :)
3.5 stars
This book has plot which was quite unique and interesting. But it was difficult to read at times perhaps because of the writing style. Davina has such depth to her character but I felt like the other characters lacked this at times. The book definitely got more gripping towards the end as the action increased and plot twists were revealed (which i did not expect!!!).
Overall I did enjoy this book and I would like to say thanks to Sherlyn for sending me an arc copy of the book :)
July 19, 2024
First of all I want to say it was an honour and a privilege to be able to ARC read this book!!
I’d say this book is about 4.75 stars in truth.
This book was a beautiful encapsulation of found family with issues attempting to pull them apart. It had such a strong female main character that I related to. I loved all of the characters which definitely made me thoroughly invested in the plot.
My only criticism is that at moments I found that it did not flow as well as most of the book (I think I mainly noticed this due to studying English Literature). However, this didn’t taint my overall enjoyment and enthusiasm within reading this book.
I’d say this book is about 4.75 stars in truth.
This book was a beautiful encapsulation of found family with issues attempting to pull them apart. It had such a strong female main character that I related to. I loved all of the characters which definitely made me thoroughly invested in the plot.
My only criticism is that at moments I found that it did not flow as well as most of the book (I think I mainly noticed this due to studying English Literature). However, this didn’t taint my overall enjoyment and enthusiasm within reading this book.
August 21, 2024
It was a bit slow in the beginning, but by the end of the book, I couldnt put it down! I really connected with the female main character Davina and her story of responsibility, struggle, and mental battle. While the writing style is one that I was not used to, I became used to it and found myself really enjoying the story. I am so grateful to have been able to be an ARC reader for this book and I think that many readers will enjoy and connect to this story.
August 17, 2024
I think this book was really amazing, i cant wait for book two
September 26, 2024
First off, as an ARC reader, I really enjoyed this book. It was very enjoyable to read and the world that Sherlyn created was so atmospheric - I could really imagine each island and its characteristics (bonus there was a map!!!!!).
The character development of Davina and many of the other characters was perfection, with many levels to them and some being very unexpected. The way the plot developed was everything I could ask for: the romance, deception and action was great.
This book is so unique in the best way possible. I have never read anything like this personally and it was so refreshing. The plot kept me guessing and I couldn’t put it down.
The only thing was that initially (like many fantasy books) it takes a while to understand the settings and characters, especially as we were introduced to many characters quite quickly and the backstory wasn’t always explained. But then shortly after it all explains itself.
I’m so excited to see where this story goes and I wish the best to the author.
The character development of Davina and many of the other characters was perfection, with many levels to them and some being very unexpected. The way the plot developed was everything I could ask for: the romance, deception and action was great.
This book is so unique in the best way possible. I have never read anything like this personally and it was so refreshing. The plot kept me guessing and I couldn’t put it down.
The only thing was that initially (like many fantasy books) it takes a while to understand the settings and characters, especially as we were introduced to many characters quite quickly and the backstory wasn’t always explained. But then shortly after it all explains itself.
I’m so excited to see where this story goes and I wish the best to the author.
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