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The Bloodmoon Bride #1
Thorns & Flames
When Selene Fairchild is chosen as one of twelve Bloodmoon Brides offered to the cursed king, she expects death- not destiny.
But beyond the obsidian gates of his cursed keep lies a world of whispers and wonder, where every shadow has teeth and every secret burns.
Drawn to the mysterious King Keiren, whose power and grief are bound by flame, Selene soon finds herself caught between duty and desire, between the girl she was and the fire she's becoming. As the trials of the brides unfold, she uncovers a prophecy older than the realm itself one that ties her fate to the very curse she fears.
With darkness rising and love demanding its own kind of courage, Selene must decide what she's willing to sacrifice for freedom... and who she's willing to become to save them all.
A sweeping romantasy about the courage and quiet strength of the human heart the kind that burns brighter than any fire, even in the darkest night.
But beyond the obsidian gates of his cursed keep lies a world of whispers and wonder, where every shadow has teeth and every secret burns.
Drawn to the mysterious King Keiren, whose power and grief are bound by flame, Selene soon finds herself caught between duty and desire, between the girl she was and the fire she's becoming. As the trials of the brides unfold, she uncovers a prophecy older than the realm itself one that ties her fate to the very curse she fears.
With darkness rising and love demanding its own kind of courage, Selene must decide what she's willing to sacrifice for freedom... and who she's willing to become to save them all.
A sweeping romantasy about the courage and quiet strength of the human heart the kind that burns brighter than any fire, even in the darkest night.
472 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 14, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 1, 2026
I don’t often read self-published writing. It’s harder to write a review, because I know that limitations can be caused by not having a publishing house helping you, and I’m sure it’s a very vulnerable thing to see people directly dissect your work when there isn’t a barrier. However, I am going to critique this debut novel as honestly and fairly as I would any traditionally published book. I just wanted to get the disclaimer out of the way, as there is a good chance the author might see this. Just know, my intention is not to be an asshole. Romantasy is also really not my thing, but writing quality is still objective. I hope there is something constructive and useful to find in this review.
I listened to Thorns and Flames on Spotify for my book club. The others read it digitally or physically, so I was given the map and author’s note. The narrator does a good job with the material. However, the story, characters, themes, and sentence structures are riddled with continuity errors, poor grammar, and the author’s reliance on telling rather than showing.
Let’s start with the continuity errors. There are so many that it would take far too long to point all of them out. I’ll choose a handful to focus on. The range of them is quite wide; the errors range from a dagger holster’s placement switching to new spots in the same scene to Selene’s beliefs about religion and intimacy. I also thought that, from the opening chapters, Selene had a One Dark Window-esq psychic link to a monster that challenges her self-control. Yet, this all but disappears once we reach the second act of the novel. Selene is written as believing, unlike her people, in the monotheistic god of her mother’s religion. Towards the end of the book, Selene thinks, “Are the gods my mother believed in real?” Was she actually polytheistic? That’s never mentioned besides this line. This is also in a scene of doubt, though Selene had apparently rejected these gods long ago. Was this an editing mistake due to a change in character direction? Who knows? Selene also forgets what a dragon is called when she is faced with a live one for the first time. That’s odd considering that her country’s gods take on the forms of dragons, AND she recognized a dragon figurine a kid was carrying before the bride selection in the beginning.
To jump over to grammar and writing issues, this is less about spelling mistakes (especially because I listened to it), and more about sentence structure and coherence. This book is written in a way that’s very hard to follow. One of my favorite writing styles is to use bold, visual language. I think Huntsman attempted this by using many many metaphors. Not only are they far too frequent, but they are all written the same way. Something is always “like” something else. Some of them, especially in the opening chapter, are actually just wrong/structurally/grammatically incorrect. I’ll just break down one. “The moon hangs like a wound, bleeding silver light.” Conceptually, sounds neat. But wounds don’t hang. I know the intent is for “wound” and “bleeding” to be associated, not “hangs” and “wound.” This is where sentence structure greatly matters. It is written as if wounds hang. Simply adjusting the sentence to something like “The moon hangs, bleeding silver light like an open wound”, makes a huge difference. Hell, you can cut out everything after “like” in my version and it would still work, perhaps better. Either way, metaphors like these on nearly every page made the book feel very convoluted.
Show don’t tell is the first rule of storytelling. This book is all tell. Examples include: Selene telling the reader that she slipped her sister a potion during the purity test rather than showing her do it, the narration telling the reader character’s personality traits rather than showing them play out, and (worst of all narratively) Kieran essentially telling Selene how to solve every trial without her having to do much work at all solving these puzzles.
All of this comes together in a big mess of tropes. The tropes are very aggressive here. I know that the author used popular romantasy tropes heavily in her advertising of this book, and the story itself feels just as derivative as the advertising. We have story beats, and some almost direct scenes, taken from The Hunger Games, Fourth Wing, One Dark Window, and (most of all) ACOTAR. It’s not a bad thing to be inspired, but this feels rehashed to hop on a trend. And that’s the core issue of this novel. It does not feel like a genuine work of art written by a passionate artist with something to say. It reads like a former marketing or business major decided to make money off of a trend. There is no story here. The trials are quick, hardly an inconvenience for the main character.
Selene is challenged very infrequently, especially in character. She does not develop or grow; she is given everything she needs by the author from page one. She’s self-righteous, judgmental, and infuriating. Characters around her are very black and white in portrayal. (Side note, every father character mentioned is cartoonishly evil. What’s up with that??) But Selene also feels like she’s constructed out of the half-masticated table scraps of other romantasy FMCs. Kieran is the same way with the Rhysands and Xadens before him. There’s nothing new here.
The world is also flat, and the author is clearly disinterested in exploring it. The world of the first act is abandoned despite having interesting story material. A patriarchal society that changes its gods’ lore for convenience and uses women as tools for trading is ripe with challenging stories. All of these are abandoned as soon as we reach Kieran’s world. Even Selene’s disdain for marriage as an institution due to her society is forgotten about by the end. She does not even grapple with it internally. And don’t bother to ask how anything works, because it will not be answered. I still have no clue what role magic plays in this world besides being vaguely present according to the characters. Why are faeries and fae different? Why does Selene believe in a monotheistic god and not the gods of her people? Why do all these girls from different lands speak the same language? Did Selene know that these magical races like fae and orcs existed before the plot started? Where do they all come from? None of these are answered, along with a number of questions raised by the plot. And, no, a sequel coming out is not an excuse. At least some of the story has to be resolved in its own book. The damned curse isn’t even broken by the end!
I have one more thing to point out, but I have to clarify that this is just speculation. I have no proof that this is true. Don’t sue me. This reads like it was written, at least partially, by AI. The recycled content from other novels, the aggressive short-term memory loss in the writing, the bizarre punctuation use (as pointed out by a friend who read the ebook), and many other issues are trademark AI signs. At best, this book was not edited at all. At worst, AI was possibly used to fill in scenes, give ideas, or even write large portions. Some of my suspicion comes from the author’s liberal use of AI in her advertising before switching to commissioning actual human artists. If AI was used at all, I take back anything I said about not being an asshole. If AI was used, this book is shit. If it wasn’t used…it’s still not good.
Overall, when reading, I was bored. It could be cut down by like 25% or more.
I’m no writer, but if I were to give advice to the author, here it is: Stop writing and start reading. Develop a passion first. Read Tolkien, Sanderson, Le Guin, and Bardugo. Hell, read more than just fantasy or romantasy. Challenge yourself. Read something that makes you uncomfortable. Find out what story you actually want to tell, if you have one in you. I saw a reel you made saying that writing isn’t hard. Writing isn’t hard, but writing something good is.
I listened to Thorns and Flames on Spotify for my book club. The others read it digitally or physically, so I was given the map and author’s note. The narrator does a good job with the material. However, the story, characters, themes, and sentence structures are riddled with continuity errors, poor grammar, and the author’s reliance on telling rather than showing.
Let’s start with the continuity errors. There are so many that it would take far too long to point all of them out. I’ll choose a handful to focus on. The range of them is quite wide; the errors range from a dagger holster’s placement switching to new spots in the same scene to Selene’s beliefs about religion and intimacy. I also thought that, from the opening chapters, Selene had a One Dark Window-esq psychic link to a monster that challenges her self-control. Yet, this all but disappears once we reach the second act of the novel. Selene is written as believing, unlike her people, in the monotheistic god of her mother’s religion. Towards the end of the book, Selene thinks, “Are the gods my mother believed in real?” Was she actually polytheistic? That’s never mentioned besides this line. This is also in a scene of doubt, though Selene had apparently rejected these gods long ago. Was this an editing mistake due to a change in character direction? Who knows? Selene also forgets what a dragon is called when she is faced with a live one for the first time. That’s odd considering that her country’s gods take on the forms of dragons, AND she recognized a dragon figurine a kid was carrying before the bride selection in the beginning.
To jump over to grammar and writing issues, this is less about spelling mistakes (especially because I listened to it), and more about sentence structure and coherence. This book is written in a way that’s very hard to follow. One of my favorite writing styles is to use bold, visual language. I think Huntsman attempted this by using many many metaphors. Not only are they far too frequent, but they are all written the same way. Something is always “like” something else. Some of them, especially in the opening chapter, are actually just wrong/structurally/grammatically incorrect. I’ll just break down one. “The moon hangs like a wound, bleeding silver light.” Conceptually, sounds neat. But wounds don’t hang. I know the intent is for “wound” and “bleeding” to be associated, not “hangs” and “wound.” This is where sentence structure greatly matters. It is written as if wounds hang. Simply adjusting the sentence to something like “The moon hangs, bleeding silver light like an open wound”, makes a huge difference. Hell, you can cut out everything after “like” in my version and it would still work, perhaps better. Either way, metaphors like these on nearly every page made the book feel very convoluted.
Show don’t tell is the first rule of storytelling. This book is all tell. Examples include: Selene telling the reader that she slipped her sister a potion during the purity test rather than showing her do it, the narration telling the reader character’s personality traits rather than showing them play out, and (worst of all narratively) Kieran essentially telling Selene how to solve every trial without her having to do much work at all solving these puzzles.
All of this comes together in a big mess of tropes. The tropes are very aggressive here. I know that the author used popular romantasy tropes heavily in her advertising of this book, and the story itself feels just as derivative as the advertising. We have story beats, and some almost direct scenes, taken from The Hunger Games, Fourth Wing, One Dark Window, and (most of all) ACOTAR. It’s not a bad thing to be inspired, but this feels rehashed to hop on a trend. And that’s the core issue of this novel. It does not feel like a genuine work of art written by a passionate artist with something to say. It reads like a former marketing or business major decided to make money off of a trend. There is no story here. The trials are quick, hardly an inconvenience for the main character.
Selene is challenged very infrequently, especially in character. She does not develop or grow; she is given everything she needs by the author from page one. She’s self-righteous, judgmental, and infuriating. Characters around her are very black and white in portrayal. (Side note, every father character mentioned is cartoonishly evil. What’s up with that??) But Selene also feels like she’s constructed out of the half-masticated table scraps of other romantasy FMCs. Kieran is the same way with the Rhysands and Xadens before him. There’s nothing new here.
The world is also flat, and the author is clearly disinterested in exploring it. The world of the first act is abandoned despite having interesting story material. A patriarchal society that changes its gods’ lore for convenience and uses women as tools for trading is ripe with challenging stories. All of these are abandoned as soon as we reach Kieran’s world. Even Selene’s disdain for marriage as an institution due to her society is forgotten about by the end. She does not even grapple with it internally. And don’t bother to ask how anything works, because it will not be answered. I still have no clue what role magic plays in this world besides being vaguely present according to the characters. Why are faeries and fae different? Why does Selene believe in a monotheistic god and not the gods of her people? Why do all these girls from different lands speak the same language? Did Selene know that these magical races like fae and orcs existed before the plot started? Where do they all come from? None of these are answered, along with a number of questions raised by the plot. And, no, a sequel coming out is not an excuse. At least some of the story has to be resolved in its own book. The damned curse isn’t even broken by the end!
I have one more thing to point out, but I have to clarify that this is just speculation. I have no proof that this is true. Don’t sue me. This reads like it was written, at least partially, by AI. The recycled content from other novels, the aggressive short-term memory loss in the writing, the bizarre punctuation use (as pointed out by a friend who read the ebook), and many other issues are trademark AI signs. At best, this book was not edited at all. At worst, AI was possibly used to fill in scenes, give ideas, or even write large portions. Some of my suspicion comes from the author’s liberal use of AI in her advertising before switching to commissioning actual human artists. If AI was used at all, I take back anything I said about not being an asshole. If AI was used, this book is shit. If it wasn’t used…it’s still not good.
Overall, when reading, I was bored. It could be cut down by like 25% or more.
I’m no writer, but if I were to give advice to the author, here it is: Stop writing and start reading. Develop a passion first. Read Tolkien, Sanderson, Le Guin, and Bardugo. Hell, read more than just fantasy or romantasy. Challenge yourself. Read something that makes you uncomfortable. Find out what story you actually want to tell, if you have one in you. I saw a reel you made saying that writing isn’t hard. Writing isn’t hard, but writing something good is.
May 29, 2026
while the author writes in pretty cadence, the majority of this book is repetitive, nonsensical and disappointing.
we get waaaay too much frilly filler and it nearly enough when there’s a scene that *could* have been impactful, but falls short because it ends too quickly.
it feels like there’s way too much going on at once, and none of it even matters in the end. the girls spend six months trying to figure out what the curse is, and get absolutely NO WHERE. the time leading up to each trial takes months, and then the trials themselves are just… breezed over. there’s no intensity. no intrigue. it all falls flat.
selene’s personality is weak & hardly developed. kieran has NO personality at all, yet we’re expected to buy into this romance. the most interesting dynamic is between selene & the dragon, but we only get a couple of interactions between the two.
overall, weak storytelling with a lot of components that either don’t make sense, hold no importance to the overall story, and/or fail to be fleshed out enough in a meaningful and interesting way.
we get waaaay too much frilly filler and it nearly enough when there’s a scene that *could* have been impactful, but falls short because it ends too quickly.
it feels like there’s way too much going on at once, and none of it even matters in the end. the girls spend six months trying to figure out what the curse is, and get absolutely NO WHERE. the time leading up to each trial takes months, and then the trials themselves are just… breezed over. there’s no intensity. no intrigue. it all falls flat.
selene’s personality is weak & hardly developed. kieran has NO personality at all, yet we’re expected to buy into this romance. the most interesting dynamic is between selene & the dragon, but we only get a couple of interactions between the two.
overall, weak storytelling with a lot of components that either don’t make sense, hold no importance to the overall story, and/or fail to be fleshed out enough in a meaningful and interesting way.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 2, 2026
Selene: I’m not like other girls, I’m worse
Have a whole notes app dedicated to the specific reasons I hated this if anyone is curious
Have a whole notes app dedicated to the specific reasons I hated this if anyone is curious
March 5, 2026
Started slow but really picked up over the course of the book. The ending was so frustrating only because I know I have to wait for the next one. For a first time author this book was fantastic and I never would have guessed this was her first book. I will be recommending this book to others.
June 6, 2026
1/5 stars ⭐️
This book constantly pushes how important it is to win the trials and break the curse. However, in total the trials are less than 30 pages in a 400+ page book. We also barely learn any new information about the curse and we don’t even break it by the end of the book!!! So the rest of the book is dedicated to moments between Selene and Kieren. These moments were repetitive and pointless.
The other big issue with this book is the amount of continuity errors. I noticed so many I started to write them down and the list just kept getting bigger. For an example, earlier in the book Kieren almost kills an Orc for whipping a horse and Selene. Selene tells him the Orc deserves punishment but not like this. However, later on in the book, Selene mentions how the Orc was executed. So what was the point of Selene telling Kieren to not kill the Orc if he was just gonna be executed anyway? There’s also no acknowledgment that Kieren changed his mind. It’s just stated so causally. This makes it feel like the author forgot about the earlier scene. I know writing a book is difficult. I am in no way a writer, but I was able to notice these mistakes by only reading the book once.
The book also struggles to build an immersive world. When you are writing a fantasy book, it’s important to build the world from the very beginning. So whenever you introduce something like cultural customs or magical elements, there has to be a reason behind it. I felt like things were just introduced with no explanation because it was convenient for the plot.
I would also heavily encourage the author to not use AI art to promote her book. The author has posted both an AI movie trailer and AI art. She has since switched over to using a real artist which is great but still has the AI art up on her Instagram. AI should be no where near your book or art. AI is taking over the creative space and any author should stand against it.
I don’t say these things to be mean but to hopefully offer constructive criticism from the perspective of a reader.
This book constantly pushes how important it is to win the trials and break the curse. However, in total the trials are less than 30 pages in a 400+ page book. We also barely learn any new information about the curse and we don’t even break it by the end of the book!!! So the rest of the book is dedicated to moments between Selene and Kieren. These moments were repetitive and pointless.
The other big issue with this book is the amount of continuity errors. I noticed so many I started to write them down and the list just kept getting bigger. For an example, earlier in the book Kieren almost kills an Orc for whipping a horse and Selene. Selene tells him the Orc deserves punishment but not like this. However, later on in the book, Selene mentions how the Orc was executed. So what was the point of Selene telling Kieren to not kill the Orc if he was just gonna be executed anyway? There’s also no acknowledgment that Kieren changed his mind. It’s just stated so causally. This makes it feel like the author forgot about the earlier scene. I know writing a book is difficult. I am in no way a writer, but I was able to notice these mistakes by only reading the book once.
The book also struggles to build an immersive world. When you are writing a fantasy book, it’s important to build the world from the very beginning. So whenever you introduce something like cultural customs or magical elements, there has to be a reason behind it. I felt like things were just introduced with no explanation because it was convenient for the plot.
I would also heavily encourage the author to not use AI art to promote her book. The author has posted both an AI movie trailer and AI art. She has since switched over to using a real artist which is great but still has the AI art up on her Instagram. AI should be no where near your book or art. AI is taking over the creative space and any author should stand against it.
I don’t say these things to be mean but to hopefully offer constructive criticism from the perspective of a reader.
April 29, 2026
This book pulled me in instantly.
Thorns and Flames by Kendal Huntsman was so wonderful. It pulled me in right away, and I kept wondering what would happen next—counting down the moments until I could pick it back up during a busy weekend with a sleepless baby and a sick child.
Now that we’ve made it through that, I was finally able to finish—and it was so worth it.
I love Selene—her spunk, her determination. I love the sisterhood she finds along the way and everything she overcomes on her journey.
Kendal masterfully wrote this beautiful book. I truly cannot recommend it enough.
If you love found family, yearning, and dragons… you will love this book.
Thank you, Kendal, for sending me this work of art. I cannot wait to see what happens next!
Thorns and Flames by Kendal Huntsman was so wonderful. It pulled me in right away, and I kept wondering what would happen next—counting down the moments until I could pick it back up during a busy weekend with a sleepless baby and a sick child.
Now that we’ve made it through that, I was finally able to finish—and it was so worth it.
I love Selene—her spunk, her determination. I love the sisterhood she finds along the way and everything she overcomes on her journey.
Kendal masterfully wrote this beautiful book. I truly cannot recommend it enough.
If you love found family, yearning, and dragons… you will love this book.
Thank you, Kendal, for sending me this work of art. I cannot wait to see what happens next!
March 23, 2026
I fell into this book and did not want to get out! It felt fast-paced and the FMC had serious MC energy, I LOVED it. Selene's nickname throughout is so spot-on. I fell in love with Kieran too from the start - he is complex and dark and mysterious and so tempting. I was thankful for every scene with him and actually disappointed when there was a stretch of pages without him LOL. As for the main plot, it was consistent and clear from start to finish. It left me wanting more. I cannot wait for the next book to see how it develops further and to learn more about the magic in this world, some of the unique creatures we get to meet in book 1, and the romance OMG.
April 27, 2026
This story surprised me in a very good way!
Sometimes you think it’s going to go a certain way and then boom it’s not lol
I feel like I had a lot of those moments while reading this book!
Which for me the trope of trials is hard to impress me but since it was so fast paced it helped for me!
That being said, some of the story seemed to bounce around really fast but you either love that because you get to the hook faster or you want more but never fear! There is more to this story in the next book!
Sometimes you think it’s going to go a certain way and then boom it’s not lol
I feel like I had a lot of those moments while reading this book!
Which for me the trope of trials is hard to impress me but since it was so fast paced it helped for me!
That being said, some of the story seemed to bounce around really fast but you either love that because you get to the hook faster or you want more but never fear! There is more to this story in the next book!
May 16, 2026
Good book, a bit predictable sometimes, I did wish Fire lived up more to her name at the end of the book tho! I'll wait impatiently for the 2nd book to see how the plot continues, I'm wondering what will happen to the world outside now and how the aftereffects will affect everyone!
May 17, 2026
I'm always looking for a dragon in my readings and this delivered. I enjoyed the story overall, I just couldn't get into the romance between our FMC Selene and MMC Keiren. lol, i much preferred her relationship with the dragon 😅 Omg, I did want to slap her sister Kat though.
May 5, 2026
Wow! This started off a little slow but I DEVOURED this book. I cannot wait for the 2nd one!!
May 11, 2026
The ending was a little infuriating.
March 14, 2026
I listened to this as an audiobook. I liked it and thought it was generally well written! I felt a heavy influence of ACOTAR, but often the expectations were subverted and the tropes were handled well I thought.
I liked the friendship between the women, I thought the backstory of our main character being a horse trainer was well thought out and refreshing. I thought the horses were described beautifully and were characters in their own right.
I thought the beginning was the strongest part, the heroine taking care of her sister and establishing of the world was very engaging. I also like the exploration of the theme of deciding for other people, deciding for her sister for example what kind of life she wants. But at the end I suppose the conclusion was still that the main character knew better?... and the sister was never supposed to use her agency and was just supposed to follow our heroine's orders?...
I look forward to the next book and I hope some of the plot holes will be solved, and the strong spirit of the book we'll just get more interesting!
I liked the friendship between the women, I thought the backstory of our main character being a horse trainer was well thought out and refreshing. I thought the horses were described beautifully and were characters in their own right.
I thought the beginning was the strongest part, the heroine taking care of her sister and establishing of the world was very engaging. I also like the exploration of the theme of deciding for other people, deciding for her sister for example what kind of life she wants. But at the end I suppose the conclusion was still that the main character knew better?... and the sister was never supposed to use her agency and was just supposed to follow our heroine's orders?...
I look forward to the next book and I hope some of the plot holes will be solved, and the strong spirit of the book we'll just get more interesting!
February 21, 2026
Really enjoyed this novel. Its themes of surrender, love, forgiveness and friendship are beautifully written.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews