The Fires of Vengeance (The Burning, #2)

by Evan Winter

In order to reclaim her throne and save her people, an ousted queen must join forces with a young warrior in the second book of this must-read series by one of the most exciting new voices in epic fantasy.

Tau and his queen, desperate to delay the impending attack by the indigenous people of Xidda, craft a dangerous plan. If Tau succeeds, the queen will have the time she needs to assemble her forces and launch an all-out assault on her own capital city, where her sister is being propped up as the ‘true’ queen of the Omehi.

If the city can be taken, if Tsiora can reclaim her throne and if she can reunite her people, then the Omehi may have a chance to survive the onslaught to come.

“This book was impossible to put down!” – Rick Riordan on The Rage of Dragons

• ISBN10: 0356512983
• ISBN13: 9780356512983
• Publish Date: 12 November 2020 (first published 10 November 2020)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 27 July 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Orbit
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 528
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithbecs]

OMG, this was bomb! To me this one was so much better than the first book the series. I was completely sucked into it, and I had a hard time putting it down to do other stuff.

We get to see Tau still being him, but also grow so much in this book. His character development in this book was chef kiss!
I also loved that we got more perspectives in the book, and we got to see that things maybe isn't always how they are presented to Tau. This made the story so much more realistic and fascinating.

We get a lot more history and world building, which I'm always a sucker for. We especially get to learn more about differences of the Noble and the Lesser class.

A lot of stuff happens in this book, and we are thrown into one action after another. But I didn't mind that at all in this book. This structure made a lot of sense, since our characters in the book is in the middle of a war. Actually, in the middle of two wars. We both have a civil war, as well as them being at war with the native people of the land.

We got to see a lot more of the queen in this book, and I loved every scene with her! She is a super interesting character. I loved that the was open to see people and things differently from what she has been taught and from what is tradition in their country. There's no doubt she's a really strong character, but we also got to see some vulnerable moments with her, which made her character even more enjoyable to read.
We get a super awkward scene between Tau and Queen Tsiora in the first part of the book, and was so cringy and so funny to read. It had me wondering if their awkwardness only had to do with them being from so different ranks, and therefore not sure how to act with each other, or if we were going to get some romantic feelings between them. After all there is a history of queens and her champion being a couple, so that wouldn't surprise me. But none the less it was a great scene to witness.

[cornerfolds]

Earlier this month I finally picked up The Rage of Dragons and was utterly blown away by every aspect of the book. I was SO excited to get my hands on a copy of the ARC for The Fires of Vengeance that I dove in straight away and was unable to put yet another book in this series down.

The Fires of Vengeance picks up directly after the end of The Rage of Dragons, with Tau beginning his duties as Queen's Champion. Like in Rage, the action begins immediately and continues at a breakneck pace, which I absolutely loved. Tau's revenge is still a central focus of this book, but this time there is much more at play. There are threats to Tau and his Queen from all sides and he grows so much as a character as he takes up her cause as his own. 

In addition to Tau's continued character growth, I adored the side characters. Evan Winter does an incredible job making me care for everyone in this book, even making me fell sympathy for the bad guys. I loved, LOVED the relationship between Tau and Queen Tsiora as they learned to (awkwardly) navigate each other in their new roles. Oh, and if anything happens to Hadith and Uduak we riot.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this second book in this series is that it explores the mythology of the world even more. We learn more about the Cull, the Goddess, and much more about the demon world that Tau takes so much advantage of. There are more politics and more cultures explored, but I never felt lost or in over my head. 

Every time I pick up a second book, I'm terrified that it will suffer from the dreaded middle book syndrome (see: most YA fantasy second books), but this absolutely did not. Nothing felt like filler or overly drawn out. Everything that happened advanced the plot and the characters and I wasn't bored for a single second.

My only issue is that The Fires of Vengeance ended as soon as it did! I would have read another 500 pages of this without complaint. The worst part of reading an ARC is having to wait even longer for the next book in the series to be published. I definitely see myself doing a re-read of these during that time. This series is definitely on my favorites shelf!