Ash of My Dragon: A New Adult Romantasy (Wyrmhorne Saga Book 1)

by Thomasina Bloom

He’s a powerful dragonlord. She’s a mortal housemaid in love with dragons. The punishment for touching his bonded dragon is death. But she just can’t resist . . .

Ash of My Dragon is a New Adult Romantasy set in a realm where dragonlords are royalty and mortal humans are nothing. Filled with dragons, dragon lore, hidden powers, and a war brewing between magical creatures, this is the first installment in an enthralling new series perfect for fans of Spark of the Everflame , Wild Reverence , Heir of Fire , and Eragon .

Embryne, a sickly and tender-hearted 18-year-old, toils as a housemaid yet daydreams about dragons. In the realm of Smolderra, it is a crime punishable by death for a mortal human to touch a bonded dragon. Her only joy is to glimpse a dragon during the royal dragonlord parades.

To ease the misery of her life, Embryne risks a terrible thing—stroking a dragon. Not just any dragon, but the gleaming bronze dragon of the powerful dragonlord, General Vachilleus Creydor. For her crime, the General must burn Embryne alive with dragonfire. Having felt sparks of attraction for the brooding, intense General, Embryne is devastated to imagine death at his command.

But when dragonfire licks Embryne’s skin for the first time, the course of her life irrevocably shifts. She begins to wonder if she’s not mortal at all . . .

On the run, Embryne must discover her own inner fire and claim a dragon of her own. When she discovers the dreadful source of all dragons’ power, she vows to destroy the dragonlord patriarchy, even if it means burning it all to ash.

Ash of My Dragon is a gripping adventure
Dragon riders and dragon lore • Slow burn romance • Forced proximity • Touch her and die • Feminine rage • Morally gray love interest • Morally black dragon • Fire wielding • Magical creatures • Found family • Animal sidekick

332 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication July 30, 2026

About the author

Author from Maine.

Reviews

[Kyla Azer of the hollow · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my very first ARC! And I have to say, if was a pretty good read!

Thank you so much Netgally and Thomasina Bloom for giving me the ARC to this book! (And also thanks to my GR friend Ava and Liv for telling me about Netgally. This is so cool- TY!)

Review
—————————-
Age Rating: 15+
Language: 0/10 (legit ‘darn’ was the closest it came to a swear word)
Romance: 1/10
Violence: 8/10 😬

Trigger warnings: Attempted SA (not descriptive and pretty brief) and intense descriptions of disturbing torture

While this book is listed as New Adult, I definitely think it could be considered YA too. While I wouldn’t let a 12 year old read it, I think like a mature 14 year old or a normal 15 year old and above will be fine! The only thing in it that would make it more mature is the violence. Theres lots of death, skinning alive, and more.

ANYWAYS! So I actually enjoyed this book quite a bit! Was it phenomenal? Ehh… but was it entertaining? Yes!

So- I don’t watch anime, ever, at all, but my friend begged me to watch one called “Mh Happy marriage.” I did. I’m still not an anime person and think it’s weird- BUT, this book, in the beginning at least, reminds me of that show! So if yk that show, then yeah. Just take away the Japanese aspects of the show, and then like- yeah. I forget the characters name- Mina? Idk. But Embryne, in this book, is an abused house maid just like in the anime. So yeah idk if ur into that but yesss



OKAYYY let’s get to the actual review now lol.

PLOT:
What if you lived in a world with Dragons and hot dragon lords? What if you had an OBSESSION with dragons? What if one day, you came really close to one? But, sadly, the law does not allow you to touch a dragon. If you touch a dragon, you die. Your hands are cut off or you’re burned to death. In this world, Embryne is just like this. And one day, when she’s conscripted to go to war with a dragon lord whos dragon she’s take an interest in took her for, she accidentally touches Bella, his dragon. However, when she’s burnt to death, she’s not actually killed, and finds out she has some sort of magic she needs to figure out herself.

Characters:
- Embryne: this is the FMC. She starts out as a skinny, ugly, house maid with little to no good aspects. She’s always had a huge interest in dragons. However they’re forbidden. Later on in the story she changes completely. Like her eye color is changed, she suddenly has muscle, and yeah.
- Vachilleus: this is the MMC. Lowkey I didn’t like him too much. The constant talk about the stubble on his chin was like- ewwwwww noooo and then his hair was long enough to tie back. No thanks (that’s js me personally tho lol). And tbh there wasn’t even that much chemistry between the characters. Like- it felt kinda dry. But I mean that’s to be expected. Romance is a side plot here it’s out of focus.
- Grieg: he can freaking die bro. I hated him. He’s an old skinny old man who thinks his house maid can be his mistress? EUGH!
- Baccha: Embryne’s future dragon. Someone tell me why I thought they were gonna end up together?! 😭😭 a dragon and a human 💀 but the way some things between the were described… I was expecting some zoophile actions (YES IK EW it’s ok tho it ended up being safe but SOME KF THE DESCRIPTIONS- woah there Bloom 🥲)
- Bella: Vachilleus’s dragon. She’s such a slay lol. You meet her in the second chapter
- Nunget: the monkey. He only increase my desire for a pet monkey 🙂‍↕️
- there are way more characters but honestly idrc about them so we’re just not going to list them lol!


WRITING:
I both loved and hated the writing. I loved the descriptions. I felt like I was IN the story. What I didn’t like was the lack of italics. What Embryne had a thought, it was normal texts. Like- maam use italics for thoughts! Haha. Another thing I didn’t like was how much the characters growled. No joke in one scene it said *grrr.* (sentence ab something Embryne didn’t like but I forget what it was). Like honey you’re human haha. (Or are you…? 😝)

OTHER THINGS:
There was one thing I DID NOT LIKE at all about this. It’s that the dragons can talk. Full on English. I’m sorry but it gave MAJOR Wings of Fire vibes. And the fact an animal can talk to a human is just- no. I could get like talking through their minds through a bond, but I can’t imagine a dragons mouth moving and talking human words. No thank youuuu!
Oh yeah and near the end it was talking about the MMC being bald. I won’t spoil the circumstances but like- NOO. That didn’t happen. I need to Harare that from my head. That’s worse than having shoulder length! Aaagh! Anyways!
Oh one more thing! Near the end of the book, I both felt like crying and laughing. Like my eyes teared up but also it was so- idek. The description of what happened was so… I can’t spoil it! Ugh! It just made me want to laugh but also I almost cried. Years didn’t break but my eyes were burning!




CONCLUSION:
Anyways! So yeah! In all it was a very entertaining read! While it’s not something I would reread a billion times and recommend to every living soul on earth, I enjoyed it! And if anyone ever asks for like dragon recommendations this would be one of them. Thank you so much again to the author and Netgally for this ARC! If was a great first ARC! And here is the conclusion to my honest review.

I very much look forward to a potential 2nd book!
BYEEE!

[Nancy ☾.⋆ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing screams “I’m a romantasy” louder than when the story is set up for the protagonist to cross path with the largest man ever, and no time is wasted to introduce him within the first handful of pages. He also happens to have the youth of a 24-year-old but is rugged in appearance and carries himself like he has lived for a century. Ash of My Dragon makes that list.

The redeeming qualities? Dragon lore is cool. Dragons are exciting. But the dragon lords and human mortals? Not so much.

From a skittish girl to an assertive and valiant heroine, the protagonist has a personality shift which is explained away by magic and proximity to dragons. It’s such a convenient and immediate way to give her the inner strength to go up against the status quo. The plot would have suffered had that not happened. I wonder, why worry about character development at all? In my opinion, the reluctant heroine would have been the believable character arc for this protagonist. And to top it off, even with her ignorance, she has a holier-than-thou attitude.

In order to be spoiler-free, I will try to be as precise as possible with my following criticism without citing any quotes and pages.

Another thing to note is how the bite-sized chapters make the story digestible, but the downside to that is the author will treat readers like they're incapable of retaining information. Within the first 25% of the story, I started to catch on that the author couldn't trust readers to remember tidbits from one page to the other and to make sense of the story on their own. By the 35% mark, I could no longer ignore it.

The author also has a habit of reinforcing the same idea several pages apart, which translates to only a couple minutes of reading time. The wording is not different enough to fly under this reader’s radar. For instance, when the protagonist states their intention on one page, they don’t need to repeat themselves in such a short span of time. It’s unnecessary repetition that can be reduced to one action and one setting in a single paragraph.

Unfortunately, the writing quality is lacking in Ash of My Dragon.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Charlotte · Rating 2 out of 5]

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I am not the audience for this book, but I have a friend who’s into dragons so I wanted to testdrive this book for them. So, here’s my two edged review.

The review for genre lovers:
So imagine you love cats. Really, really love cats. Way more than you’d ever image you’d love a guy. But cats are off limits. Yet suddenly you get a cat! The best cat! A cat with a huge inheritance. You are now bonded to this cat. The cat will attack anyone who would hurt you, and the cat also makes you stronger than ever, also you’ve got loads of money now because this cat is loaded. Also there’s this other cat you like, and its owner is not actually too shabby it turns out. Now imagine the cats are huge dragons. That’s the book, with added magical creatures and a monarchy to upheave. And there’s a power fantasy about getting to defeat people who’ve hurt you yourself or by sicking your cool dragon on them. So if you’re into that, go read this book.

Now the review for crochety old dames like me:
So I didn’t only pick up this book because of my dragon loving friend. I also picked up the book because it said the MC was NOT into men, just into dragons. Ah, I though. Dragonloving YA is something I haven’t seen before – well, I did read the first Tremeraire but I wasn’t into it. I’m intrigued. Then it turns out the first dragon of interest is a female dragon! Am I getting lesbian dragonlove? Am I so lucky to read a YA – sorry, adult romantasy, that is way different than the usual fare? My dragonloving friend is also queer so that might actually work out.
Imagine my disappointment when MC’s attention very quickly goes to the female dragon’s dragonrider. Like, immediately there’s all the tell tale signs of a crush (that she doesn’t want to admit to, of course) so I’m bracing myself for The Straights. Then it turns out she can bond to a male dragon (the only male dragon!), so okay, maybe I’m getting dragonloving, but just the straight type? Maybe acceptable. Anyway end game is maybe female dragon x male dragon (they are siblings but what are you going to do if there’s only dragons 5 left) and then female dragon’s lord x male dragon’s lord I mean Queen (our MC), which I guess is the most boring way to do polyamory in this context.
My favourite scene was when the MC was thinking about how she’s so not into guys (despite the “feelings in her underbelly” whenever dragon dude is about), and well, she’s not 18 yet anyway (how neatly this overlaps with the morals of our day), and not ready for a man, and the VERY NEXT PAGE her dragon goes “happy birthday!”. It’s like the dragon version of those gross “is the female child actor legal yet” websites.
Side note, MC is so skinny. She’s so skinny because she never eats yet is able to go about her day no problem. It’s the pro-ana dream. Even more when after some hidden magic within herself is unleashed, she gets BOOBS and A TAN and a little bit of muscle. Also her eyes turn violet. No word on whether she still gets her period but she’s not called Alexandria so I guess that’s still up in the air (this is a reference and if you don’t get it, count yourself lucky). There’s also some ogling of other curvy women and their boobs so maybe the jury is still out on some bisexualism in the sequels. I am not going to stick around to find out though.

[Em · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ash of my dragon is a new adult fantasy book. Over all rating 3 ⭐️ 0 🌶️ this will be a spoiler free review.


This book had a very short trigger warning list, which needs to be increased, due to the ages of some of the characters and the nature of incidents.

Initially when reading the first few chapters it was difficult, the short length mixed with repetitive information as well as constant contradictions from our FMC nearly made for a DNF. The internal narrative of the FMC does come across as immature which also poses issues with some of the implications and actions of an antagonist.

However, as the book progresses (mainly last 1/4) the story truly kicks in. The FMC comes into her own and we see more depth in her character, as well as beginning to understand her back story and some of her actions as well as set up for a sequel. Her interactions with the MMC initially were a difficult read, but as the story concluded the reader begins to see the beginning of the slow burn rather than ‘school girl crush’.

In the second act we are introduced to more world building, and a further understanding of the politics (but human and other wise) which was what provided the encouragement to read on, and really set the story into motion.

Over all, this story truly has potential, however does need some more detailing and description which could be achieved by slowing the narrative at the beginning to allow the reader to truly immerse themselves to the world and the characters.

Thank you to Thomasina Bloom for this opportunity and I’m excited to see what comes next.

[Flare up Fairy · Rating 2 out of 5]

ARC 2.5⭐️

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this ARC. I was really drawn to the premise and really feel this story has the potential to be amazing.

I did find the execution a bit jarring at times,though. The read wasn’t always smooth for me, and some parts felt repetitive. I struggled to connect with the characters, as there was a lot of depth in some scenes but not in others, especially the characters themselves, which made it hard to fully immerse myself.

There were moments where the story jumped forward quite quickly, and I found myself wanting more from certain scenes before moving on.

I also wouldn’t personally class this as a romantasy — the relationship felt more like a clunky friendship than a romance for me.

That said, I am genuinely keen to see how the story develops. The concept is strong, with smoother pacing and deeper character development, I think this could be something really special

[Galatée · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hidden gem ! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🐉
It was my first English ARC. Many thanks to the author.
This book was as hard to put down as GoT or ACOTAR for me. Yes, it was this good !
It has Khaleesi vibes, Tairn vibes.
The romance is a tiny subplot (no spice).
The mystery and the world building is awesome.
I would advise to start reading the book without reading the blurb to avoid spoilers.

[Jo Wyld · Rating 4 out of 5]

An ARC!! And a pleasure it was! Who doesn't love a dragon story!? 😍

This one is full of likeable characters, action, and a slow burn romance! Plus the twist at the end!! Fab! Looking forward to reading more in this series!!

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unlikely allies, slow burn romance, magic, dragons, and more! This was a great first "ARC" (Advanced Reader Copy) for me. I only wish that the second book was also available because I crave more and want to know where the story leads.