I wanted to love it as the premise sounded amazing. I just wasn’t able to lost myself in it because unfortunately I really couldn’t get into the writing style of this. It just didn’t click with me.

Also, it’s marketed as adult fantasy romance, but definitely reads more young adult.

However, if you like queer fantasy romance it could be worth a try. I’m sure the writing style will work for other people.

Thank you Netgalley for providing this arc!
Wow okay so fun fact, Ben’s book A Betrayal Of Storms was one of my first books I read to get me back into reading as an adult 😂 so I very much adore his work.
To my understanding this is basically a re-vamped version of a book he put out before, but I don’t have familiarity with it.
This. Book. Packed. Punches. My goodness the political intrigue here!? Forget about the romance element of the story (but also 🥵) just all of the interesting court politics!? The magic system? The gods!?! Wow. I was truly kept on my toes the whole time.
I refuse to spoil any of this but just know the last ~30% is twist after twist and it’s SO GOOD.
Ben! When is book 2 out!? I need it now 😂😂😂

Heir to Thorn and Flame is a story of mages and dragons, and follows protagonist Max as he suddenly changes from someone made to serve the royals to a royal himself, after the death of the heir at his hands means that he must take on the role of the prince and take part in an arranged marriage to Prince Camron, who knows his true identity. I absolutely loved this book and couldn’t put it down, as the plot twists and character betrayals throughout the story were gripping and really added to the tension along the way. I enjoyed reading about Max’s journey as a mage, and his discovery of the world of magic. I am interested in reading more in this series as I didn’t want this book to end! I would definitely recommend this to any fantasy readers or people interested in LGBTQ+ stories, as the love triangle in this was riveting and very well-written. I’m grateful to have been given the chance to read this book as I loved it!

A quick thank you to Ben Alderson, Second Sky, and NetGalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for a honest review!

"I would burn them all for you. I want you to know that."

Wow! What a journey this was. This was my first MM fantasy and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment. Stolen identity, arranged marriage, magic, and dragons. What else could you ask for?

Heir to Thorn and Flame centers around Max, a servant boy who finds himself in a bit of a predicament after accidentally killing the heir to the Gathrax throne using magic. The king covets Max's power and decides he must take on his son's identity and restore the power of their kingdom. Max is tested every step of the way, until he is forced into a marriage with Prince Camron.

Max finds the lives of his family threatened by great power in the North, but is it possible the threat comes from someone closer to home?


This was such a great entrance into the Court of Broken Bonds series. Wicked good and shockingly bloody, with just the right amount of romance to capture you. And that epilogue? I'm unwell in the best way.

I'm super excited for this story to continue, and cannot wait to see where Max's story leads him next!

Thank you to the author, Second Sky and NetGalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for a honest review.

Heir to Thorn and Flame is a fantasy romance follows Max after one fateful night when he accidentally kills the prince and must take his place, and even a misstep out of line could be the end of him and all he cares about.

I thought the fantasy parts were good and i enjoyed the world building that was done during this book, for the most part it didn't feel too forced when brought up / mentioned (but there was a lot more of it in the last 3rd of the book). I would also say this was more fantasy focused than romance,which is not a bad thing if that is what you are looking for. It did feel like most characters throughout the story were telling lies / half truths / covering up plot important secret, which towards the end made it a little hard to trust any of the side characters.

Overall it was a fun fantasy read and I'm interested in where the story goes from here and how the world inside it develops / is explored. I will be keeping a eye out for the sequel and be looking at other work from this author.

So I just found out this is a rehash of one of the author's older work The Lost Mage (now unavailable) with pretty much the same plot with some slight differences. I didn't read that so I jumped right into this after getting an ARC.

I really wanted to like this book. Stolen identities on top of an arranged marriage trope is too good to pass up. But there we're a few too many things working against it from being a really engaging story. There were good parts throughout but it kinda gets overwhelmed by the rest of it, starting with the pacing.

It's a bit of a long book (50+ chapters), separated into 3 parts. Now that's not a bad thing, but what I felt was that the story was quite backloaded in the sense that things kinda only get going towards the 3rd part.

Without spoiling the story the first part was basically as described in the blurb, except it was mostly just the MC suffering the consequences of the events that happened, which was a drag. The second part was the shortest and honestly felt like an interlude, and then finally the last part pushes the plot forward and we finally get some explanation for a lot of things, such as their world, its history and how their magic system works. Hopefully the sequels don't suffer from the slower start and can pick-up relatively quick from this point on, so I'm optimistic about that.

Then. As I mentioned I really like the arranged marriage and stolen identity trope, but unfortunately both these aspects were short-lived and we don't really get to experience that, which is kind of a bummer.

I don't know why "adult" was tagged on to the cover title, for there certainly wasn't much to suggest that it was.

I did like the romance itself, which held the book up for me. Although I felt it wasn't very satisfactory due to the nature of having two potential love interests, as both would inevitably have their developments halved than if there had just been one. But, it was alright for the most part, and there was a nice twist at the end that may or may not lead to something else in future books.

Overall I liked it, only wish it wasn't so lengthy for what it was. I noticed the original book from 2021 never got a sequel, so I surmised that the author did some changes towards the end and decided to republish it with a new idea in mind. I'm definitely going to check it out because I really want to see how the relationship develops in the future.

Max accidentally kill the heir to the throne in self-defense. He's forced to become the boy he killed and be part of the arranged marriage to Prince Camron.
He's also watched by Simon to ensure that he's loyal. Court intrigues and dark secrets abound...

I like Max and Simon. Love their interactions. Terrific characters. Intriguing plot. And DRAGONS and MAGIC! :) The court intrigue was very interesting. Really enjoy it.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

Inviting, bold, and surprisingly bloody - Heir to Thorne and Flame sets up a brand new world to get lost on a dragon's back in.

Thumbs up: A servant boy is just trying to keep his head down as he serves a cruel king and his wicked family. The only adventure I've read that started with just wanting to read smut in a library after hours, this fantasy has it all! MM romance, dragons, mage magic, betrayal, lies - a fun first installment.

Thumbs down: I think because it's advertised as a romance, I thought there would be more romance? There is definitely a romantic plot but sprinkled as a treat. It's widely spread throughout politics and epic battles, still fun, just was unexpected. I also found the pacing a bit slow in the later half which had my mind wandering a bit.

Was it a nail biter? I had fun with this one! It pulled a lot of smiles from me and the characters were lovable and surprisingly layered. 3.75/5 ⭐