Chaos & Flame
By: Tessa Gratton & Justina Ireland
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Number of Pages: 336
Published: March 28, 2023
Publisher: Razorbill
Dates Read: May 29, 2023 - June 5, 2023
Format: Hardcover

Trigger Warnings: Misgendering, genocide (off page, but discussed), poison, knife violence, blood & gore, graphic violence, war, death

Written in the alternating points of views of Darling Seabreak and Talon Goldhoard, Chaos & Flame tells the story of the two navigating House politics while also being caught up in the High Prince Regent’s unknown scheme as they tour around the kingdom to the other Houses.

This book took me a while to get into it – it’s slow to start, but by the end of it, I was invested in what was happening with the characters, so I will be picking up the second book in this duology. I’m very curious to see how the authors are planning on bringing out more with the boons and if those will change with what could be happening in the second book.

I was really interested in Caspian’s character and wish I knew more about what was going on in his head since everyone just marked him as “being mad” when in fact, he just had a whole other agenda.

I do wish we had more history of the world. The world building was fantastic but I felt like 100 years isn’t a whole lot to have passed since the last phoenix was alive and that even with that, there should still be people around who were alive back then – wouldn’t they know more and have maybe some insight? 

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the insta-love between Darling and Talon, but it is YA and that’s typical YA romance so I’m not complaining all too much to be honest with you.

Overall, it was a slow build up to a good read and that I’m excited to continue reading when the next book in the series comes out (please don’t be too long!).

*Thank you Razorbill and BookishFirst for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review