I could not put this story down! Medra is strong, smart and witty. She is a badass MC. Blake on the other hand, was quite infuriating at times. I guess we will see in the next book how he evolves.

The absolute best part of this book are a snarky dragon and an adorable fluffball named Neville!
Medra's friends are also pretty cool. In this book she finally has a larger friend group and I'm rooting for all of them. I was a little sad that the dagger (iykyk) was much less present in this book.

The ending had me at the edge of my seat and I cannot wait to read how the story continues.

Thank you Netgalley, Starwater Press and Briar Boleyn for the copy I received. This is my honest review.

🔥🩸 THE BOND THAT BURNS by Briar Boleyn 🩸🔥
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (4.5 stars)

Listen. If you told me I’d be obsessed with a book featuring a cantankerous dragon, a morally grey vampire love interest with Draco Malfoy energy, and a strong, snarky FMC caught in a deadly web of court intrigue, blood debts, and backstabbing? I’d say SIGN ME UP IMMEDIATELY.

Bloodwing Academy is back, and this time, Medra Pendragon is in deep. Like, "oops-I-accidentally-woke-a-dragon-and-now-everyone-wants-to-control-me" deep. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, Blake Drakharrow (aka our resident infuriating, broody bloodsucker) has made himself real comfy in Medra’s life—because surprise, surprise, she’s now his ONLY blood source. 😵‍💫💀 The tension? The angst?? The high-stakes power plays?! I was thriving.

What I LOVED 😍
✨ Medra is THAT GIRL – She’s strong, stubborn, and sassy as hell, but she’s also vulnerable in ways that make her so compelling. Watching her navigate the deadly politics of Bloodwing while also dealing with her own terrifying bond with Nyxaris (the grumpiest, most iconic dragon since Tairn) was chef’s kiss.

"She was a storm of contradictions, all fragility and fire." 🔥💔

✨ Enemies-to-Lovers CHAOS™ – The Medra x Blake dynamic?? Utterly unhinged, and I ate up EVERY. SINGLE. MOMENT. The banter is next-level, the tension is off the charts, and their constant battle of wills had me screaming. The betrayal, the forced proximity (hello, blood bond), the “I want to hate you but I also want to devour you” energy??? Obsessed.

✨ Nyxaris = My Emotional Support Dragon – I love me a grumpy, overprotective dragon, and Nyxaris absolutely delivered. He gives Tairn (from Fourth Wing) vibes but with an extra dose of sass and unpredictability.

"I think the first thing I'll have Nyxaris do when he returns is burn you to a crisp. No more feedings. Problem solved." 🔥💀

✨ Side Characters Slayed – Florence, Theo, and Vidya continue to be ride-or-die besties, and Viktor? Viktoring as usual. Also, Kage??? I NEED MORE OF HIM IMMEDIATELY. 👀

Final Thoughts 🤯
This book was SAVAGE, SEDUCTIVE, AND UTTERLY ADDICTIVE. If you love dark academia, vampires, dragons, and romance with unbearable levels of tension, The Bond That Burns will set your heart (and soul) on fire. I NEED book three immediately because the way this ended?! RUDE.

"Sometimes our choices are all we have, Miss Pendragon. They define us, for better or for worse. Obedience doesn't absolve anyone of guilt."

If you loved Crowns of Nyaxia, Fourth Wing, or From Blood and Ash, you NEED to read this series. Now excuse me while I go scream into the void until the final book drops. 😭🔥

I was so conflicted after book one ended. And wasn’t sure if I would like book 2. But book 1 was addicting enough that I didn’t want the end to ruin the book. The first half of the second book was a bit annoying. One of the characters is annoyingly stupid and there is a lot of miscommunication which also is annoying but around the 50% mark things started to change and I was enjoying my self a lot more.
The ending is A LOT! But after this one I’m definitely looking forward for the third book.

3.25 / 5 stars
I did really enjoy this book while I was reading it but I found it a little slower than the first one. At the end of book one I was left with a lot of questions and I felt like not a lot got answered in this book. I also felt like not a lot happened until we hit 80% and then suddenly loads happened. I did really like the ending, there were some unexpected twists and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in the next one. I also liked Blake's character development in this one and seeing how close Medra and Florence's relationship is. I really enjoyed seeing more of Kage in this book, I feel like he will be a really good character as the series goes on

I am not comfortable with the rage fucking which happened at one point, or the level of bullying and humiliation Blake used on Medra for the sake of "putting her in her place." Those actions are not forgivable in my opinion, yet I continued because I honestly wanted to see where the dragon part of the plot would take us. The twists at the end and addition of shifters made this intriguing. While I may not have liked aspects of it, it was like I couldn't tear my eyes away. It's a highly bingeable book, so I really hope Blake's character developments are NOT reset in the third as I do want to continue reading the story. I also just love Visha and Theo and Florence... and of course Neville. Also Kage Tanaka is a beautiful man and much superior to Blake Drakharrow in every single way. I'm honestly not sure how Medra can stand to be around Blake after his behavior... no amount of excellent sex could make up for what he did in my opinion.

“But you bring the fire. You make even the darkness shine. Even dragon fire can’t compete with the way you burn, Pendragon.”
This picked up right where the first one left off and I honestly couldn’t get enough of it!
The pace of the story and world-building was just amazing. We got to learn along with Medra more about the history of the new world. The way she stood up for herself and her friends was completely badass. Blake becoming obsessive was fun to see but he has his own secrets and has to deal with some changes. After seeing Neville with Florence, I would LOVE to see some scenes with him and Blake.
Also, grumpy dragon + cute fluffball Neville = *chef’s kiss* I loved the banter between Medra and Nyxaris; he kinda reminded me of Tairn.
I was not ready for it to be over and I will be needing the next book immediately.

start on: 12.29.24
end on: 1.31.25

‎‧₊˚✧final review✧˚₊‧

‧₊˚🖇️✩₊housekeeping˚🎧⊹♡
·˚ ༘₊·꒰➳: ̗̀➛ possible minor spoilers
·˚ ༘₊·꒰➳: ̗̀➛ my rating is 2.5 stars rounded down to 2
·˚ ༘₊·꒰➳: ̗̀➛ If you are big on this book - like, LOVED it, this might not be the review for you
·˚ ༘₊·꒰➳: ̗̀➛ this is a book written by Rebecca Yarros, Jennifer L Armentrout, and assorted Dramione fic writers
·˚ ༘₊·꒰➳: ̗̀➛ forgive me, I kind of slacked on this review.

🫧𓇼𓏲rest of review✩‧₊˚🎐

·˚ ༘₊· ͟͟͞͞꒰➳ Adult Fantasy Romance

·˚ ༘₊· ͟͟͞͞꒰➳ what to expect
➳1st person past tense
➳ Dual Main pov with 2
➳ Dark academia boarding school
➳ enemies to lovers bully romance
➳ vampires
➳ slowburn
➳ arranged marriage
➳ found family + unlikely alllies
➳ villain gets the girl
➳ steamy
➳ LGBT representation
➳ (more) betrayal

·˚ ༘₊· ͟͟͞͞꒰➳★★.5

·˚ ༘₊· ͟͟͞͞꒰➳ ᰔᩚᰔᩚ.5/5 (spice rating)

·˚ ༘₊· ͟͟͞͞꒰➳ ❀.5/5 (fluff rating)

「 ✦The Bond That Burns✦ 」
(noun) a disappointing secret

Skyfall
↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺
1:35 ───ㅇ───── 3:47
❝Hear my heart burst again❞

☁️ . . . ⇢ ˗ˏˋ overall thoughts

Honestly, it was…disappointing. I was SOOO excited to read this, what with how much I loved the first book and how my eyes have been opened since to the wide, wide world of Dramione (this isn’t a Dramione fic, but it feels like one). But it just didn’t do what I wanted it to. With everything going on, it was too similar to other books (Fourth Wing, From Blood and Ash, Secrets & Masks, etc) - like literally, there’s pretty much nothing original about it. And that made me sad.

˚˖𓍢ִ໋🌷͙֒✧˚.🎀༘⋆ writing style

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: there are authors whose writing styles I would literally die for. Unfortuantely, Briar Boleyn’s is not one of them. Not only that, but there were spelling errors, grammar mistakes, pure awful paragraph breaks….and no, this time I do NOT blame the PDF *cough cough the risk cough cough*. This is pure editing madness (although I am now aware that ARCs are usually made before final edits go through, so hopefully the majority of this has been fixed). That being said though, it’s not just the editing issues. The writing is either bland or cheesy, and the pacing is actual trash. And again: the writing is just kind of…bland, for this story.

♡₊˚ 🦢・₊ ♪ ✧ plot

I do not understand. That’s it. Thats the review. The plot was all over the place and genuinely I don’t remember or understand what was going on for like half the movie.

˖◛⁺⑅♡main romance♡⑅⁺◛˖

🎶welcome to Sangratha where consent isn’t a thing. The bond controls us all because Blake needs to feed🎶

I used to love their relationship. Like, SO much, seriously. But the deeper into Dramione I go, the more I, surprisingly, hate it. There’s no reason for the whole ‘barely consensual feeding’ to be happening. They feel forced. I’m not swooning over Blake getting jealous the way I used to. It just doesn’t hit the same - maybe because they aren’t real Dramione? Idk man idk.

Side Character「 ✦Professer Rodriguez✦ 」
She really had to go and ruin the only good character, didn’t she?

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ favorites

ˋ°•*⁀➷ favorite character
·˚ ༘₊·꒰➳: ̗̀➛ THEO. ALWAYS THEO.

ˋ°•*⁀➷ favorite scene
·˚ ༘₊·꒰➳: ̗̀➛ the library scene hehe

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ final thoughts
Why. just why.

4.25 on StoryGraph.

Oh this series got really good and fun!

The first book in the Bloodwing Academy series had potential, but it felt too much like a Harry Potter retread to the point where some things were just barely renamed. This book doesn’t get rid of that feeling completely, but it fleshes out the characters and world a bit more to make it different and more interesting. I picked this second book up as the first one ended in a way that showed significant potential and I’m really glad I did!

This book is fun, the characters are still complicated and sometimes rude, but they are all growing and improving! The romance as well is way less of a bully romance and building into something a bit stronger and sweet which is some lovely character development.

Our group of friends is stronger too, there’s less sadness and being lonely in this book than the last one. There’s still problems, but it’s fun to see the characters interact and grow up in this one.

Overall, a significant improvement from the first one and I will absolutely be picking up the third book!

"The Bond That Burns" by Briar Boleyn is the second installment of The Bloodwing Academy series and I can seriously not get enough. Blake and Medra are back at Bloodwing Academy for the new year and tensions have never been higher. While still navigating their bond Medra also has a dragon to concern herself with. The tribunal wants submission and Medra better make it happen, her life depends on it...

I continue to fly through Boleyn's books with obsession and desire to get more of these characters and this world. I genuinely can not stop raving about the incredible world building, romance and character development. I will continue to talk about this series while I anticipate the third books release.

The Bond That Burns

Book 2 starts out where we left off and we dive right back into the chaos after Medea wakes the dragon. I enjoyed getting more interactions between the dragon and rider. I was not impressed with Blake for the first half of the book, but finally half way through we got some heat. So many twists and turns, and that ending!!
I’m excited to see where book 3 takes us. More dragons (and Fluffins) please!

~Strong and selfless FMC
~Morally gray MMC
~Magic
~Dragons
~Wolves
~Multiple POV
~Enemies to lovers

4⭐️

Thank you NetGalley and Starwater Press for a copy of the digital ARC. All opinions are my own.

I’ve seen on social that if you liked Fourth Wing, to start this series. Honestly, I needed to read book 2, The Bonds That Burn, as soon as I received it as an ARC and started it before picking up Onyx Storm. I enjoy Briar’s writing so much - the style, quips, wit, and the ease in understanding the world building make it so entertaining and hard to put down.

I loved the relationship between Medra and Nyxaris. Seeing their bond and friendship evolve was a great additional storyline. Blake continues to evolve and become more vulnerable…and make mistakes, of course. Florence becomes a more independent person - seeing her flourish and create new friendships with the other characters is a great wholesome balance to the story.

I cannot wait for book 3. Once again, the ending left me yelling “nooooo” because I didn’t want it to end. I will be eagerly awaiting book 3 to see what happens next.

This book had a great plot with intriguing characters. I’ll definitely be looking out for more from this author.

6/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2/5 🌶️🌶️

-

What to Expect:
🐲Enemies to Lovers
❤️Dark Academia
🐲Dragon(s)
❤️Found Family
🐲Dark Romantasy
❤️Draco Malfoy Vibes
🐲Vampires, Fae, etc.
❤️Slow Burn
🐲Touch her & 💀
❤️Book 2

-

Okay all my bookish besties, now that we’ve all been DESTROYED by Onyx Storm, I have another to add to your list… and when I say I’ve been wrecked? I have FULLY and officially been wrecked by The Bond That Burns. The emotions? Chaotic. The spice? Perfection. The betrayals? Gut-wrenching. This book picked up right where the first left off (On Wings of Blood) and did not hold back. Medra’s character growth had me cheering, and Blake? Our unhinged, possessive Draco Malfoy vampire? He’s doing things to my soul I can’t even explain. And don’t even get me started on Nyxaris—grumpiest dragon with the best lines. (Think Tairn, but GRUMPIER!)

The tension in this book was immaculate. The reveals about the past, the way the world expanded, the way my heart was not ready? I’m definitely still recovering. And the fluff ball Neville? I would lay down my life for him. This book had everything—danger, magic, romance, spice, and characters that burrow into your soul and refuse to leave. I was pacing my house, yelling at my Kindle, and whispering ohmygod at 2 AM.

And that CLIFFHANGER?? Briar Boleyn, I NEED book 3 YESTERDAY. If you love dragons, vampires, dark academia, enemies-to-lovers, and books that emotionally destroy you in the best way, you HAVE to read this series. I’ve only had a handful of 6⭐ reads in my life… they all seem to be in the realm with Dragons (go figure right?) and I INSTANTLY have to get shelf trophies… this series is no different. Thank you to Briar and NetGalley for the ARC—I’ll just be over here counting the days until Book 3.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this ARC of 'The Bond That Burns'.

I enjoyed this book so much more than the first book. Back in the world of fae, vampires, and shifters & the dark academia setting really did hit differently in this second book.

I feel like it was a lot less about world building than the first book had been, and was more about their relationship together which I preferred. And as always, we love an enemies to lovers with touch her and die vibes.

Really glad I carried on to read the second in this series.

This is book two of the Bloodwing Academy series. This is an academia fantasy romance. A villain that you will fall in love with. A story full of vampires and dragons. Great characters that make the story come alive. Pain and passion radiate from them. The plot draws you in so that you can’t put the book down because you need to know what will happen next. This book has a strong, well-developed and an interesting story line with twists and unexpected turns that keep you reading and turning the pages. It pulled me in from beginning to end and held my attention. Amazing world building that is detailed and imaginative and so well done that you're drawn into a fantastic world unlike any other. Each scene in the story was painted with unbelievable detail. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

4/5 ✨ This hooked me and I devoured it way too quickly. I’m glad there was less focus on world-building because I loved experiencing the MC’s relationship.

I was LIVING for Blake’s POV and his chapters got me through the book. His character development was everything and I loved being in his head and seeing things from his perspective. The romance plot has been so done but it was still SO entertaining and I couldn’t stop reading. Blake had me giggling to myself and the tummy was ✨fluttering✨

Medra’s motivations and thoughts, while noble and good, seem simplistic in comparison to Blake’s complexity. Her lack of critical thinking and empathy when it comes to him is hard to believe when she’s so considerate of everyone else. It fell into the unfortunate pitfall of making the FMC seem silly for not realising information that was made really obvious to me as a reader.

BUT I’m okay with flawed MCs if they’re being set up for character development. I just hope she and Blake actually start working together in the next book because I’m starting to feel really sorry for him.

——

So very thankful to Briar Boleyn (Fenna Edgewood), Starwater Press and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

——

Tropes:
- Academia setting (with vampires, humans, dwarves)
- Bonded mates (elements of political marriage)
- Enemies to lovers
- Slow burn
- Love triangle
- Underdog/Outsider MC
- Touch her and you die
- Open door spice

I really tried to like this one….unfortunately it needs an editor, BADLY. The FMC just doesn’t get smarter? I still don’t know who she is? Shes supposedly some bad ass but where?

The MMC? ughhhh he’s a drag. I don’t see or feel how he ever “cared.” idk it’s giving “wanna be adult harry potter” without the proper execution. a lot of scenes / ideas felt very ripped off from other stories.

will have to dnf @ 30%

thank you NetGalley & Salt Water Press for an eArc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. I devoured the last 200 pages. The writing is so captivating it keeps you wanting more.
The friendships grew stronger in book 2, the tension was great, at one point Blake was giving Tamlin vibes but the more I read, he redeemed himself.

There was some spice scenes that gave me the tiniest ick which lowered my rating for this book, but then the world of Bloodwing Academy and how the author creates scenes and the way she manages to engross you twisted my arm and upped it to a 5 star.

Thoroughly enjoyed this one and can't wait for book 3.

Thanks to @netgalley & @briarboleynauthor for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review

Briar !!! Im so glad I found this author. This writing just hooks you in and exactly where we left off in book one. Keeping the pace and story flowing. Her world building is exquisite. Well done.

I enjoyed how this book picked up from where the previous book left off. The pace was perfect and I loved the character development. I did not see the shifter aspect coming. I was pulled in right away and cannot wait to see what happens next.