Romance 💋? Dragons🐉? Heist🥷?
I was signing on the dotted line!

ALSO, look at that cover! I was ready and so elated to be selected for this ARC copy of The Sky on Fire by Jenn Lyons.

Anahrod, managing to survive against the odds, is out on a quest. She was a great MFC with so much character & depth that she really came to life for me and I was very invested in her.
Unfortunately, I did not feel the same attachment to her companions, and the relationships between them left me feeling a little... flat? Particularly with Ris, I just didn't see how we got there. I felt I was being told that the romance was happening rather than being shown it and feeling it.
Also, I am a bit of fated mates girly (and I was ready and excited for a fated three after reading other reviews), but I just felt I was missing that all encompassing, us-against-the-world mentality.
However, the gender fluidity / queerness in this book was elegantly and naturally delivered. Well done Lyons.

The badassery of the dragons in this book is no joke, and for me, the dragon supremacy and the world that Lyons immerses us in is truly unique and masterfully done. The attention to detail in all the different cities made the vast world building in this book fully enveloping; so vibrant and distinctive.

The pacing was a little slow and meandering at times, however, it didn't feel tedious or wasteful, but instead had the tension piquing or added a whimsical air.

Did I enjoy this book? Honestly, yes. But, I do feel I was missing that character attachment to make me love it. If I could have just felt for them a little more deeply then this book could have been a perfect match for me.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC 🌸

A bank heist with dragons and sky ships! Volcanoes with sleeping dragons in them! Diamonds! Pirates! Dragonrider School! A great entertaining story with a real Six of Crows feel to it. I loved the characters - especially Ris and Peralon - every single character comes to life and if you like Fourth Wing you will love this story of the prodigal Anahrod Amnead, with unusual powers to calm animals, who was unfairly accused and sentenced to death, her amazing younger brother Gwydinion who needs a book all of his own, and even the Snape-like teacher Varrighul.
I really hope there are more installments to come!

This upsets no one more than me. I was so incredibly ready to enjoy this after hearing nothing but fantastic things about the Chorus of Dragons series and Lyons's writing. Nonetheless, here we are with me disappointed.

The book begins with a fantastic scene where a dragonrider confronts the mayor of Crystalspire demanding that a previously believed dead woman is found to be killed frfr this time. From there, the pace does not let up, with plot, characters, and worldbuilding hitting you like flies as you drive a motorcycle with only some sticking in your teeth as the rest bounces off. I wish more than anything that this book would breathe! Just a bigggggg inhale, sit with the characters, develop relationships, soak in the mystery, experience the world, and then a biggggg exhale. Instead, so much happens that a lot of the plot hinges on coincidence and quickly delivered exposition to explain how problems were resolved.

As you can probably tell, I'm frustrated with this experience because the concept of dragonriders and the relationships between the dragon and rider had soooo much potential. I loved a lot of the romance that happened in this book and a lot of the characters had brilliant moments that I wish I was more connected to. But I simply didn't have the time with them to develop these stronger emotions. I wish more than anything that this was a trilogy instead of one book. It needed that sooooo badly.

I will definitely be reading Chorus of Dragons despite this experience, but yeah... I hope all pre-existing fans have a much better time than me.

Unfortunately and unexpectedly for me, this was a DNF. I couldn't get invested in either the characters or the story. I found it too confusing to follow. The characters are thrown in by name, but they are not presented. Even their motivations or goals are barely mentioned. This made it impossible for me to get into their stories. I struggled to understand what they were doing or why they were doing it. The descriptions of the world were completely lacking in evocation, even though the world itself was very interesting, with different kinds of dragons ruling over humans. I am very sorry about this, because the ingredients were something that could have totally worked for me, but the execution and the writing felt like a mess.

Jenn Lyons is a queen of creating new fantasy worlds.
What a wild ride and found this much easier to follow than her Ruin of Kings series.

I mean misfits on a heist and there’s dragons. I’m sold.

3.5 stars. I think this was solid! It's my first Lyons so didn't really know what to expect but I like her writing style.

I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and honestly review an advanced reader’s copy of this book.

The Sky on Fire had some absolutely fantastic elements to it. I really liked certain characters, I really loved certain world-building elements. (The Trans-Rep in this was done exceedingly well, in my opinion, I really liked that.)

Dragons have been huge in fantasy over this last year, and very few of them hit home for me, despite the fact that I love Dragons in fiction. And this book came… close. It was almost great.

I think my main issues were with the beginning. This story starts out rough, and I felt like I was a good 40% in before I had a good grip on the story, the characters and where we were going. I felt like the character arcs were maybe not as well developed, that maybe this book just needs some tighter editing, because it’s definitely the bones of a story I could love.

I do want to add that I’m ill, and I read this with a bit of a fever, so grain of salt to all of the above. I really liked it and will probably buy a copy.

3.5 ⭐️

The sky’s on fire by Jenn Lyons
Release date July 9th 2024
Rating 5 stars 9.86 Cawpile

I am finding books that I am just connecting with at the moment and Jenn Lyons new book is no exception and when it came up on NetGalley I thought shoot my shot and somehow I got accepted so thank you so much for the team for allowing me to read this.

When you see a Jenn Lyons book what do you expect? Dragons [check] love interests [check] a hero who may not be the hero [check] this had all the buzzwords that I knew from the first page that this was going to be stepping back into my blanket of Jenn Lyons.

And to tell you I would die for these characters is an understatement each one I would stand in front and that includes a few dragons well two in particular. I cannot wait to be able to scream about this book with my bookish friends because they all need to read this.

Review to go up on instagram June 2nd 2024

i was really excited to read this having read the description and some of the author’s previous work, but this missed the mark for me.

i didn’t really vibe with the pacing, but the world-building made up for it - i felt really immersed in the world. i just wasn’t a fan of the characters, and i think that combined with the pacing i just did not get on with this.

i think other people would love this, it just wasn’t for me unfortunately.

thank you so much to netgalley, the publisher and the author for the arc 🫶🏻

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. I went into this having loved the Chorus of Dragons, and worried that the fantastic world building that the author created with that series would be impossible to recreate in a single book. In short I should not have worried, I loved the world and the characters within it. The only small issue I would say is that the pacing was not ideal for me, but overall a very good read with a very satisfying ending.

Oh, the disappointment is real. Everything about this book sounds so incredibly cool, and I've heard only great things about the author's previous work. Also, a fantasy heist story with dragons, what's not to love? I really wanted to enjoy the hell out of this book, but it actively worked against me even just liking it at every single point.

Starting with the things I actually did enjoy: Parts of the world building are great! I love the concept of dragons as the once ruling humans this time around, and the relationship between them and their riders is so so so interesting and unique. I loved this part. I also liked the general world this story takes place in, the Skylands and the Deep and the people that live there - it was all really intriguing. While the world building can be a little infodumpy at times, I do love that part in fantasy books so this is a major plus. The second thing I really liked was the love triangle actually developing into a polycule, which I didn't expect.

That's also where my problems with the book start, though. A poly relationship is fun, yes, but you actually need fully developed likeable characters to root for in this relationship, you need chemistry between them. The characters on a whole are underdeveloped, with most of them representing about one character trait. The character development feels just as bland and superficial, and the same goes for the relationship building. I wanted found family, I wanted ragtag group of people coming together for a heist and developing cool dynamics. I got random people with sometimes really weird, wattpad fiction type names (Jaemeh.......) that run around with their one personality trait, expecting me to like them based on just that and some tell-don't-show development and tragic past infodumps. I can see the potential there, but that's about it. I didn't care who lived or died, and that includes not only the poly couple as a whole, but the main character even. For a character feared by the very dragon queen, born with powerful magic, capable of controlling animals and maybe even dragons, she sure is bland. I also felt like most of the flirting between her and Ris, one of the love interests, was really cringeworthy at times.

The pacing is also incredibly meandering. I was getting bored by all the endless preperations for a heist that then happened in what felt like five seconds tops. The whole book needs some more editing, cutting out a lot of the unnecessary side noise that doesn't add anything to either the plot or the characters. There are also some sudden pov changes later on in the book which I didn't enjoy.

So yeah, this is me being really disappointed because I was so excited for the cool heist with dragons story, and a standalone one at that. But sadly, this one fell flat on too many levels for me, and I started skim reading more and more at about 20%, hoping until the very end that it would finally get better. For me, it didn't, but I hope others can enjoy this one more.

Thank you to Tor and Netgalley for giving me an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Have you ever thought Six of Crows was lacking in dragons? Then look no further.

This was my first Jenn Lyons book, and I have to say I did really enjoy it. Although at times it did feel like the book was having to drag me through the story, the fabulous world building kept me immersed. Usually in dragon books, it is the humans that control the dragons, so it was very interesting to read a world where this was the complete opposite. It really gave the book a unique feeling.

While the heist aspect was thrilling, I think it lacked the strong found family character connections that it was trying to portray. I feel like I was told the characters were close rather than learning it myself through the story.

Overall, I think Jenn Lyons is a master at world building, however, the character relationships just needed that extra layer of depth for me to rate the book any higher.

So. This book has potential, I can definitely say that.

The world building is one of the parts that I really enjoy. One thing that I note I like was the rings tradition. Like, wow. That was really unique and smart. Also, one thing to commend was the gender fluidity in this book. It is hard to execute the whole gender system without making it too preachy or immature. While in this one, it was smoothly done.

With that said though, vibrant world building aside, I think, the main issue I find lacking in this book is the characters. While world building can work around the show-don't-tell rule (in my opinion), the characters, you have to show them. Don't tell me all these great achievements, these back stories between them, show me. Hence probably why the characters suffered a lot. Plus, I don't really can get into the romantic subplot in this one, if you can even call it that. I don't see the chemistry, the attraction. And the fact that it was supposed to be about a poly relationship? What? How? Whyyyy?

Anyway. That aside. Love the world building. Devastated over the underdeveloped characters.

Jenn Lyons is officially on my auto-buy list! I adore her writing style; it is so descriptive and makes the world truly immersive. The world building was really impressive, especially for a standalone and wish I could have spent more time there. I loved the set up with the dragons and felt like it was a slightly different take on the usual dragon rider dynamic.

I loved the characters within this book, especially our main character Anharod. I really enjoyed being in a queer normative/open world with hints at some kink and BDSM in the main relationship. It is more “closed door” so shouldn’t put off anyone who isn’t a fan of spice. I thought the garden rings concept was also interesting. I do wish we had more from the main romance, but as there was so much going on within the book I don’t think it was a huge loss. I was still invested and could see this being a really good interconnected standalone series - feel like there are still more many stories to tell. Can’t wait to see where this series might go!

Would highly recommend for lovers of heists, dragon rider dynamics and queer/poly romance stories!

"The Sky on Fire" is an adult fantasy standalone written by Jenn Lyons. A novel with an appealing premise that unfortunately did not fully convince me in its development. I loved the presence of cunning dragons, of a high-risk heist, and more generally the setting of the tale. Seriously, the world building of "The Sky on Fire" is vast, fascinating and complex, described in an extremely vivid, accurate and understandable way. Sure, the numerous explanations tend to slow down the pace of the narrative a bit, but overall I still found it to be smooth, devoid of moments of boredom or heaviness. I loved the author's captivating, evocative and powerful writing, as well as the story told. On the other hand, unfortunately, the characters did not convince me. They seemed superficial, nebulous and devoid of particular sentiment. This prevented me from bonding with them, from becoming interested in their stories, leaving me somewhat cold toward the whole book. Essentially I followed them in their adventures, but in the end they conveyed nothing to me, and this affected my overall appreciation. A real shame, because I enjoyed all the other elements of the novel a lot!

Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Sky on Fire is a standalone fantasy novel. Anahrod was meant to have been executed years ago, but she's secretly alive and living in the jungle with her titan drake. She reluctantly gets pulled into a daring heist by an adventuring party seeking her help to steal from a dragon's hoard in the cloud cities. With a dangerous dragon Queen on their tail, Anahrod must navigate high-stakes intrigue and confront her past to survive.

I was really drawn to the blurb of this book. I love fantasy standalones because they tend to have concise, focused stories and are well-paced. The Prologue was captivating and set a strong tone, diving straight into action and suspense. However, I found the transition to the main chapter with Anahrod challenging to follow. The narrative described her as unconscious while still presenting her POV, which caused some confusion.

From that point, I struggled with the book. I wanted to feel the characters' emotions and understand them more deeply. Comparing it to Fourth Wing, which is rich in both emotion and plot, might have set my expectations too high. While The Sky on Fire has a solid plot, it didn't delve deeply enough into the characters for me to form a connection, leading to a lack of engagement on my part.

I believe the book has a strong plot and I can see why others might enjoy it, especially with its intriguing heist element. However, the writing style didn't resonate with me personally, which affected my overall experience.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC from NetGalley but this is my voluntary and honest review.

Since I enjoyed greatly all previous books by Jenn Lyons, I was eager to read the new standalone, The Sky on Fire.
I mean, who can resist a book with dragons, even more when they are that the fierce and dangerous kind that can ruin a city with an ease.
The book had a great and detailed world building and although predictable, there were twist and turns in the journey that dive us into a heist by a band of misfits.
Unfortunately, despite that good combination, I struggled with the book and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't connect with it.
I was unable to feel the connection between characters, and I think the main reason for that was we were told about all of it and not created through gradual buildup using the events they go through.
The best example is the romance plot, I couldn't feel the chemistry between Anahrod and Ris.
We were told “she is flirting with me” instead of showing trough gestures and moments between them that will make us feel and build the connection between them naturally.
I am sad when I have to give a bad review, especially for a book by an author that I like, but I really couldn't immerse myself and enjoy The Sky on Fire to the fullest.

A first Jenn Lyons book for me, and I was not disappointed. This book ticked all the boxes for a high-fantasy, dragon filled adventure, bursting with action from beginning to end.

The world building is immense - so large that it definitely takes some time to get your head around. The descriptions are lush, the creatures and people painted so strongly, mixed in with the system they have in their world. I will say that I still don't 100% understand the meaning of the social and garden rings which people seem to pick at 15 years of age. Alas, there was no explanation but a lot of hinting, so maybe I'm just dense...

The storyline was amazing, being split into sizable parts to allow a sense of where a new major plot point was happening. While the beginning may have been a bit slower, with the plot set up and the meeting of all our beloved characters, it was worth the build up because it was just non-stop action, adventure and dragons. Gwydinion grew on me a lot, his mischievous mind always turning. I also loved Sicaryon and wished there was almost more of him.

There was also hint of a potential growing poly relationship, which didn't feel forced or sudden at all. While it's true that the attraction between Ris and Anahrod felt quite quick, the story not being too clear on how much time passed between start to end, it wasn't quite insta-love nor slowburn.

I am seeing this a standalone, even though it opens up a way for a sequel if needs be with the ending. Since that is the case, I look forward to reading Jenn Lyons other books.

A new stand-alone fantasy about dragons was definitely a book that I had to read especially as I had enjoyed Jenn Lyons previous books.
Anahrod was supposedly executed 10 years by being thrown off a cliff however, she managed to survive and is now being searched for by a group who want her to join them in stealing a dragon’s hoard.
This is a heist story but it is also about the conflict between the dragons and their riders and the wider human civilisation. The dragons in this novel aren’t cute pets but have the power to destroy cities and won’t tolerate any threat to their supremacy.
I loved parts of this story but other parts didn’t hold my interest so much. The group carrying out the heist didn’t really come to life for me apart from Anahrod and even she at times seemed to be much younger than her supposedly 30 years. I wasn’t convinced by the romance between Anahrod and Ris as it felt as if it came out of nowhere and I’ve never been keen on Instalove.
I did really enjoy the world building and the different cities that we visited. The idea of the garden rings was brilliant and the treatment of gender seemed really well done to me. Although I didn’t feel that many of the characters were that memorable, my favourite character was Gwyndinion and I enjoyed seeing how he grew up during the book.
This was an enjoyable read but didn’t have the depth for me of the author’s previous work.
Thank you to Net Galley and Pan Macmillan for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

After careful consideration I decided to DNF this book at 56%. Sadly, for a book with so much promise (dragons, heists, a potentially poly relationship), I didn't find myself picking it up nearly as much as I'd like, it's just too boring and convenient.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.