I’d been in a reading slump for a few weeks before picking up this novel and this novel helped me extraordinarily get out of it. I’m a huge fan of fantasy, and believe that queer voices should be represented a whole lot more, so seeing a fantasy novel that normalised LGBT+ voices was the first thing that drew me to picking this up. The second was an increased social media presence of Ben Alderson and because of this, I was delighted when I got approved for an e-arc through Netgalley.

Now the actual story wasn’t bad, in fact, I think it’s one of the first books that I’ve actively looked forward to binge-reading in a few months. The execution was good and the plot was enthralling, I just couldn’t feel a connect with the characters. There was a bond between me and the writing, it just wasn’t strong enough for me to care more than a three star. Quick, enjoyable and fast-paced but lacked the connection that would’ve made this a four/five star.

If anyone’s interested in a video review, I’ll post one on my Tiktok @billyslifeonline for anyone interested on August 3rd 2023.

<b>✰4 stars✰</b>

✓ Magic
✓ Stolen Identity
✓ Arranged Marriage
✓ Dragons
✓ Secrets
✓ Betrayal

<blockquote><b>"In that single moment of overwhelming emotion, I learned the most valuable lesson about the strange power inside of me. It had a knowing of its own, a diluted sense of what to do. It worked on instinct, not command. It owned me." </b></blockquote>

<b>This book is giving all of the House of Dragon and Merlin vibes right from the start! Tons of secrets, tons of magic, and tons of gore all weaved in.</b>

However, despite being marked as adult fantasy, this very much reads like young adult if you take out the gruesome depictions of events that occur. In a similar vein, it’s marked as romance but really there is not a whole lot of that within this book. My likely guess is that the romance will build in subsequent novels since this is set to be a trilogy.
Here we are given a love triangle between Maximus (the Mage), Camron (the Prince), and Simion (the Dragon Rider). Camron and Maximus are bonded into an arranged marriage and we don’t get to see much development here before events ensue that put physical distance between them. Within this time, Maximus is reunited with Simion but not much chemistry building is done here yet either. It’ll be interesting to see where the next novel takes us in terms of romance after the cliff hanger at the end of this one!

While enjoyable, the characters have a long way to go with their character development. The world felt three dimensional while our characters as a while felt a little more one dimensional. I’d love to see more dimensions to them and how they progress going forward.

<blockquote><b>"They wished to see the mage—I would show them."</b></blockquote>

<b>There is a lot of world building within this novel that is complicated and intricately thought out.</b> The story is split into three parts and a small smattering of fantasy world building is within the first two, but most is dumped within the third. It’s very confusing and disorienting at first, but I believe this is exactly why the author did this. The reader is put in the same position Max is, he didn’t really have any of this world building information and all of us a sudden he’s learning new information rapidly and it’s confusing to him. So we feel how he feels, whether intentional or not.

<b>Ben Alderson is an amazing author and creative in their fantasy building in a way that leaves you frustrated and wanting more</b>(mostly in a good way, since, as I’ve said repeatedly, we have more novels in this series to get that).
Moral of the story and this extremely rambling review, the first novel left me <I>wanting.</I> Wanting more of characters, more info, and more romance.
It lead me to feeling more neutral about this story than I have over the authors other works I have read and devoured. But I will certainly be returning to read the next installment in the trilogy when it is out to see where we get taken!

Disclaimer: Ben Alderson seems like a really lovely person, I think his TikTok content is really great and I do love that he is writing queer fantasy romance! As such, it pains me to say, I had very mixed feelings about this book.

The book follows Max, who discovers he has magical powers when the Heir to the Gathrax throne, Julian, tries to kill him. Forced to take the Heir's place, Max becomes a puppet to the king and is put into an arranged marriage with the handsome and charismatic prince Camron.

Right at the beginning, there was a problem with the plot I didn't get. As I mentioned, Max is forced to take the royal heir's place after he kills him with magic. Consequently, he has to hold up a charade that he is in fact Julian Gathrax, because the king needs him for his magic powers. None of that made any sense to me, since all the common folk and royal families have seen Julian before, so they know what he looks like? The entire ruse seemed incredibly easy to see through. Why not just say that Max is the Royal Mage or whatever? Or, if he needs to be part of the royal family, say he is a bastard son and legitimize him. But to make him out to be a completely different person was honestly very stupid. It's as if you pick a random ginger from the street and put him on TV and say that's Prince Harry.

Apart from the glaring plot hole, the beginning of the book read like straight-up misery p*rn. We find out early Max is a victim of abuse from Julian and multiple other people. There was some very graphic attempted sexual assault and violence, which made my stomach turn. Even after Julian is dead, every man in Max's vicinity creeps on him and threatens to abuse him further. All of this seemed unnecessarily dark to me, in my opinion, Julian being an abuser would have been more than enough for Max to go through. Thus, Julian's murder is held over Max's head by the king and he is forced to act as the king's puppet. The villains seemed very cartoonish here, which did get rectified in the end, however.

Through all of this, Max never develops a backbone. Even when his parents' lives are threatened, he is incredibly passive and just wallows in self-pity and makes no attempt to free himself or his parents, despite the fact that he has literal magic at his fingertips. Despite empathizing with him, his passivity made him hard to root for. He didn't have an ounce, not even a miligram, of fight in him. In the end, his rescue needs to be handed to him by his friend Beatrice and Camron. Overall, I enjoyed the second half of the book a lot more, as we saw more of the worldbuilding and finally had some character development. My enjoyment of the first and second half of the story were so vastly different, I almost felt as though I was reading two different books.

Talking of Camron, he was a walking red flag from the beginning and I couldn't understand why Max found him attractive in the first place. Camron literally says he can't accept no for an answer and at one point breaks into Max's room. Not hot. Max's and Camron's relationship felt extremely rushed and to be honest, Max was painfully naive. I did appreciate how the book addressed the importance of consent and free will. (view spoiler)

Although I had my issues with Max, the book had a great cast of side characters. I absolutely loved Max's friend Beatrice and her brother, Simion. Both of them were incredibly complex and so badass! Honestly, I would have loved to read an entire book about Beatrice. Like, a spy from a rival kingdom sent to find and protect the last Mage? Awesome! The blossoming romance with Simion and Max was very heartfelt and the complete opposite of what happened with Camron, thank God.

Overall, I really liked the worldbuilding, although we were a bit all over the place. There are medieval dragons, dryads from Greek mythology, and mentions of Pagan holidays such as Yule. Despite that, I had fun learning about the rival kingdoms (the North and the South, respectively) and their customs. The world was one of the big highlights for me as well as the magic system. The descriptions of the magical Oak tree and the plant magic were really evocative and probably where Alderson's prose was at it's best. I will say, though, that there was a magical Oak tree and the MC with magical powers is named Maximus Oaken... It's not quite Lily Blossom Bloom, The Florist level, but it's up there.

With the writing style, there were a few instances of telling instead of showing and the dialogue was a bit awkward, at times. I could tell the author took a page out of Sarah J. Maas' and maybe Jennifer L. Armentrout's book, with how the worldbuilding was presented and some of the plot points. Neither of those are authors I typically vibe with, which probably explains some of my problems with the book. However, the second half of the book improved so much, I bumped my rating from two stars to three. I recommend Heir to Thorn and Flame to fans of fantasy romance books like From Blood and Ash and A Court of Thorns and Roses.

Thank you NetGalley and Second Sky for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I cannot put it into words how much I love this book. The plot just flowed so flawlessly and had you hooked the entirety of the way through. Alderson writes in such an incredible way that you form such a connection with the characters, with their emotions so perfectly written, making it so easy to imagine - almost as if this is happening right in front of you. There were so many twists and turns in this novel, many of which were not expected, always keeping you on your toes.

This book contains the following tropes (as if the things I have already listed haven’t made you put this book on your TBR):
- Found family
- Enemies to lovers
- Forced proximity
- Multiple love interests
- Elemental magic
- Dragons, dragon riders
- A lost child

This book is the ultimate representation of the I WANT THAT TWINK OBLITERATED lmao, no one on my boy Max's side
This was very fun, too predictable for my tastes but i still had a great time.
It's fast paced, with cool magic, interesting characters and DRAGONS
Highly recommended

Also yes i'm team Camron, lock me in but he did nothing wrong

2.5 stars rounded up

A really interesting premise and started off strong but honestly after about halfway through I started to lose interest and found myself having to push through until the end.

This book was a wild ride! The plot was fast paced and constantly kept me guessing on. what was going to happen next. I never knew who to trust or what twist was going to come next. I really enjoyed the main character Max, he was funny and brave and I felt the author did a great job with his development throughout the events of the story. Perfect for someone looking for a fun quick read full of magic and betrayal.

A super exciting read full of magic and intrigue and wonderful(and sometimes terrifying) adventure. Ben Alderson certainly has a way with words and paints a picture naturally with words.

This book genuinely took me by surprise. I loved every minute of it!

Dragons, magic, romance and LGBT representation. What is not to love?

The character development, plot and world building was captivating and made time pass by in a blink of an eye while reading.

Maximus is put through so much throughout the book. His life is thrown upside down because of selfish people continuously and he pushed through it all bravely in hopes to save his family! I adore him..he deserves nothing but love and support.

I didn’t see any of the twists coming at the end regarding the phoenix and Simion but I was pleasantly surprised because I was rooting for Simion from the beginning! Was very content by the little spice added too.

And when his father died…TEARS. I knew something bad would happen and still was heartbroken

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. One of my favourites for this year and cannot wait for the next one!

The start of a new series, a romantic M/M fantasy which is more epic fantasy than romance. There’s a lot of well-known tropes: the unexpected Chosed One, the bad powerful guy, lost knowledge, war and enemy. There’s loss, new discoveries, travel and changes. And there’s a lot of dragons and I always love dragons.
Max is a dreamer, a boy who love to read and never thought his life could be so like that of the heroes of the books he read.
I liked how the author was able to use the tropes of classic epic fantasy and mix them in an original way. Max’s sense of loss and how he faces all the changes in his life are well done and made me feel and root for him.
The characters are well developed and I’m curious about the next story as there’s some open questions and there’s a lot more to come.
Even if it’s a big book I read it in a couple of sitting and enjoyed what I read.
Some scenes in the first chapters could be a bit triggering as they talks about violence and abuse.
This is an excellent starts, can’t wait to read the next story.
Many thanks to Second Sky for this arc, all opinions are mine

Wow i can not believe this story so amazing oh my goodness i loved it oh wow. I started it as soon as i got it and read it and could not put it down. The story was amazing the characters were so perfect. Max is who stood out most to me. The time with Julian just me made flip through and read as fast as i could i had to know what happened. Shocked. Every page after that was like ok bring on more more. The journey for this book was just wow i was loving every page. I need a copy i would annotate almost every page. I recommend this book it was my first book by the author and i loved it i need more books to read from this author.

Heir to Thorn and Flame follows Maximus a servant to a Noble family. When the Prince attacks him Max finds out he has access to magic and uses it to defend himself. The King forces Max to take his sons place as heir and marry a handsome and ruthless Prince Cameron.
I enjoyed this story, the pacing and world building were great, I really enjoyed the magic system and how magical creatures are weaved into that. There were a lot of boxes that it ticked: hidden identity, enemies to lovers, magic, dragons and of course "I will burn them for you".
If you're a fan of ACOTAR and fantasy mm romances pick this up and I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

5 🌟s

Thank you for my advanced copy of Heir to Throne and Flame’s first book of the series!
@ NetGalley
Publisher: Second Sky / Bookouture Audio
Author: Ben Alderson
Narrator: Ewan Goddard

I could have used the warning, so here it is: the beginning is a S/A and mutilation seen, a “man” in power harming another man and a description of killing animals as well.

I received an ebook and audiobook arcs, so I read along with the narrator. If you listen to the audiobook, the narrator is very good at creepy. It reminded me of actors like Robert Carlyle (Once Upon a Time-Rumpelstilzchen) or Andy Serkis (LOTR-Gollum). Chilly…

This book is being pushed for a romance audience. I didn’t really view book one as romance. The potential is definitely there, but I hope that’s not going to be the main plot of the remaining series. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the characters, they keep you guessing on your toes. You will feel so much for each of the characters, hope, fear, joy… I laughed, I cried, and I think I even audibly gasped. The world building truly came to life. I have a full vision swirling in head through every door. 40% of the way into the book I was shouting is romance coming or dragons?! The answer, a little bit of a romance starts and dragons finally arrived in a big way. I was so excited. This book was fantastic and I can’t wait for the rest!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me access to this eARC!

I really wanted to love this due to it being a M/M fantasy novel but unfortunately it was a big letdown.
This novel started off really strong with an intriguing premise and I loved how fast paced it was near the beginning but then around halfway through my interest began to dwindle.

The plot was very predictable and definitely not a brand new concept. Some descriptions of the creatures and magic elements were interesting but others felt a little confusing and there were some action scenes that left me wondering what had actually just happened.

The characters were unoriginal and there wasn’t good enough character development. I didn’t feel an attachment to a single character.
Max, the MC felt very one dimensional and his relationships with other characters weren’t explored enough and were all rushed. There wasn’t any chemistry between Max and his love interests.
I don’t believe this should be marketed as an adult fantasy romance. It was very YA with little to no romance at all, and the romance that was included was boring.

Overall, I feel there was a big build up with promise of romance and an exciting revealed mystery, and it ended up having an extremely underwhelming climax.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this book.
I have to say that I absolutely loved this book. It was a pure delight and I was unable to put it down. It was soo interesting. And full of politics, lies and betrayal. You couldn't trust anyone and the plot twists were unforeseeable.
Maximus, who's a servant, discovers his magical powers and kills off the "evil" prince. So he has to pretend to be the "evil" prince. And has to marry the heir of a different house. to forge an alliance. While trying to understand his powers...
But can he trust his new husband? And what about the handsome stranger?
I have to say this is the start of a new series and I'm really hyped. Like I need to know how the story continues.

I am not a fantasy reader, but my #bookpusher Noelle told me how amazing it was, so I dipped my toe in... I then saw the audiobook was available and I snapped that up and I was done for. The narrator Ewan Goddard - what a dream to spend 15 hours with.

This book has a bit of everything in it, fighting, magic, dragons, misdirect, betrayal, and a little of good ole romance. I bloody loved it!

Max, oh sweet Max, he has a life that he never expected nor wanted, all because of a drunken fool. I was absorbed in the story, the narrative and completely invested in Max. I loved how everything just went go go go, I felt it didn't relent, which is kudos to the author, definitely with the number of pages in this book!

There are a lot of characters, to begin with, and it definitely gave me the Game of Thrones vibes. I missed one betrayal near the end because the mini-me distracted me, so when I heard characters discussing it, I was gutted, beyond gutted. I had loved said character. Grrrr, I feel betrayed!

The writing was so evocative and jammed packed. I loved the eloquent way everything was described with the random f-bombs dropped in! Did make me chuckle.

After the ending, and a bit of a shock with it, I can't wait for the next book!

Max is a servant living under the oppressive Gathrax royal family, constantly pursued by their maniacal eldest son, Julian.

When Julian chases Max into Galloway Forest, Max discovers that he is a mage, something the south lost long ago. This sets off a chain of events leading to an arranged marriage, battles with dragons, and a quest to uncover the truth of Max's identity.

I had really wanted to love this new M/M fantasy but something didn't quite click for me. I felt at times that descriptions were lacking and the characters didn't have as much depth as I would have liked. At points it read more like YA than adult fantasy (albeit with a large amount of gore) which might be why it wasn't for me.

I did really enjoy parts and had trouble putting the book down in those sections. It just didn't feel fully realised or consistent yet.

There is definitely an audience for this book - if you enjoy M/M fantasy, slow burn romance, mythological monsters, and warring nations, this may well be the book for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Second Sky for an advanced digital copy in return for my honest review.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. My typical genre is queer romance, and although most everyone I know prefers fantasy novels I usually struggle a lot with them. Oftentimes, its super difficult to wrap my mind around the world building and stay in it. I figured this book looked like it was a romance, I wouldn't struggle.
To be entirely honest, there was not a ton of romance in this book. There is a romantic subplot, yes, but this book is not romance heavy, and does not have a lot of the queer themes that I normally see in the romance novels I read. That being said, I absolutely read this fantasy in one sitting with no real confusion at all. The world building was lush with lore and magic without being overwhelming. It was straightforward and easy to follow in a way I don't often see in fantasy.
Our main character, Max, is well-rounded and interesting so it's easy to jump in and start rooting for him right away. The magic system is also fleshed out and unique. And next book? Next book I was promised much more romance and spice. So you better believe I'm signing up for that ARC as soon as possible.
Whether you are already a big fan of fantasy or are a beginner like me, I think it's definitely worth checking this book out.

4.5 Stars

Ben Alderson has done it again folks. This book had me on the edge of my seat for a large portion of it.

First let me say that I finished it and sat there repeating "what the f*ck" for like 5 minutes before I could actually grasp what the heck just happened. That epilogue has me screaming.

✔️ Dragons
✔️ Arranged Marriage
✔️ Love Triangle
✔️ Betrayal
✔️ Magic

Now into the meat of it all. I love the story, it's one that has been done before, but it doesn't feel like it. From the moment you start to meet the cast of characters you are pulled into a world of intrigue, mystery, deception, and magic.

The writing is wonderful, I was enthralled from the first few chapters and I couldn't put the book down. It was everything I was hoping it would be and more. I love me a good arranged marriage, and this had me sold, it was wonderfully done, if maybe a little short lived, but there's promise for more in book two and if you continue to read on you'll know my thoughts on that matter.

I love all of the characters. Even if they're not in the scene for long their motivation for their actions are prevalent, even if you can't quite figure it out.

Book two is shaping up to be super interesting. Potential redemption arcs (me on my hands and knees begging for this), even more betrayal probably, and hopefully a healthy dose of smut.

Needless to say this is a stunning first volume in the series and I cannot wait for book two.

Characters:

Maximus:

Love him. He's a brilliant protag, one that has many titles thrust upon him and things that he doesn't want to do. He just wants to live a normal life, but because of the things his mother did when he was younger, he has to fight for his life and the life of his parents. Unknowing as to why for most of the story. He finds it hard to trust, which makes perfect sense considering the amount of crap he's had to go through, but yet there is a part of his brain that makes him trust anyways and some really good heart wrenching scenes happen because of it.

Camron:

I don't wanna talk about it. I'm in agony because of this character. but my god did the epilogue not give me food for thought. We know that the phoenix was controlling Camron, and we also know that Camron really did care for Max, as far as we can see. I'm still on team Camron, I fell in love with him and his snarky attitude almost from the beginning and I want a redemption for him. Whenever he burned Max's arm we can see the real Camron come out for just a bit. I want Camron back. I can't wait to see what happens in book two with him. I'm hoping a lot more get's revealed with this character, and also what exactly happened on his journey across the sea.

Beatrice:

Frankly, I still don't know what to think of her. It's clear that she cares for Max, she grew up with him. But there's still something about her that makes me wonder what the hell is going on. She is still as much a mystery to me as Camron is, and I really am curious as to where the story takes her. She's a strong character, he has ties to the north and the south, and she wants revenge. But I still feel like there's something else that she's hiding.

Simion:

Alright folks. I do like him as a character, he's really great and cute but there is just still something about him I don't trust. Hell I don't really trust any of the characters in this book at the moment, but from the get go he just seemed a little... Off I suppose. It might be how close he got to Max from the minute he met him. There is just something about him. He would be cute with Max, but damn y'all. I'm a Camron simp at heart.

Thank you Second Sky and Net Galley for giving me the eARC

yeah…. can you tell i’m a bit disappointed??? i don’t know what i was expecting but this was definitely not it. it had so much potential but never pushed the story to it’s full capacity. we had some political intrigues that remained extremely surface level for me, when there was so much more that could be done. the whole romance was way too quick, i wished it would’ve taken a lot more time to develop their relationship. the arranged marriage makes no sense to me: i love queer accepting worlds where 2 guys getting married is just normal but 1) misogyny is a thing but not homophobia? both seem very interlinked to me and 2) from a political standpoint where you have 2 realms with royal families who need heirs for the succession having the only child of one of these family marry a cis guy (even if it’s an interesting alliance) is straight up stupid, ALSO when the other guy is the other kingdom’s biggest asset. it would be the stupidest political move ever seen because one realm is losing its heir to the other and no biological child can come out of this union (the point of an arrange marriage between 2 countries is that they’d be less likely to fight each other since the kids are a product of both royal families). it could’ve worked if cameron, the love interest had had a younger sibling capable of bearing children or if cameron hadn’t been the heir to his mom. other than that the characters were fine, the pacing was definitely very slow and took it’s sweet time, max’s powers only revealing themselves at the 40% mark which is a little too far along in the book in my opinion. oh, and his name: maximus, i’m sorry but i kept picturing the horse from tangles💀. overall, not bad but could’ve benefited from a LOT more editing (too many repetitions). 2.5⭐️