Fire With Fire
Fire With Fire by Destiny Soria is a modern-day fantasy. Dani and Eden must set aside their differences to come together in a sorcerer vs. slayer showdown.
All quotes are from an advanced reader copy and may not reflect the published edition.
From Goodreads:
Dani and Eden Rivera were both born to kill dragons, but the sisters couldn’t be more different. For Dani, dragon slaying takes a back seat to normal high school life, while Eden prioritizes training above everything else.
Yet they both agree on one thing: it’s kill or be killed where dragons are concerned.
Until Dani comes face-to-face with one and forges a rare and magical bond with him. As she gets to know Nox, she realizes that everything she thought she knew about dragons is wrong. With Dani lost to the dragons, Eden turns to the mysterious and alluring sorcerers to help save her sister. Now on opposite sides of the conflict, the sisters will do whatever it takes to save the other. But the two are playing with magic that is more dangerous than they know, and there is another, more powerful enemy waiting for them both in the shadows.
“How freeing it must be, to know that death and failure are only words, and that your destiny is as infinite as you are.”
I had incredibly high hopes for this book and unfortunately was disappointed. Conceptually, this story sounds exactly like something I would love to read. However, in execution, this story fell flat. As always, characters are incredibly important to my reading experience. Dani was a fun character, and I was literally obsessed with Nox. I would have liked more of their relationship; however, this story focuses on the sisters. Eden is quite literally one of the most intolerable characters I’ve ever read. It needs to be said, repeatedly, that mental illness (specifically anxiety) is not an excuse to be a piece of shit to your family. That’s it. Eden has a scene in which she tells her family they never listen. The thing is, she doesn’t seem to actively tell them her issues. Our bad guys were stereotypical. There was literally no linear character growth for the main characters.
“There was no division between her and Nox, just a harmony that sang through her marrow. The more she opened herself to it, the more invincible she felt. She was more than whole: she was safe.”
The writing felt as though I was reading a lot while being told almost nothing. Things were overly descriptive, or we had tons of unnecessary conflict and side stories. This would be one thing if it was a consistent form of making sure we understood things in full. However, on the opposite scale, the author chose to take the road of convenience when explaining what the dragon needed for the eggs. Nox conveniently just knows everything, and all dragons conveniently just know everything passed down. The plot of Nox and Dani getting closer to empower him to hatch the eggs was incredibly interesting. Except- it is mentioned three times, maybe. It’s a motive that almost seems irrelevant to the entire book.
“I’m not broken. I’m human.”
The POV switches mid-sentence forced me to go back and re-read things constantly. It was jarring and pulled me out of the story. This was all incredibly frustrating because the contemporary aspects of this book were good. But they should have been their own book. The representation and diversity were incredibly well done. It addressed real things that affect bisexual people and Latinx people. In this writing execution though, they get almost swept under the rug by how frustrating reading this book was.
“Trusting you doesn’t make me a fool. Betraying me makes you a coward.”
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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