THE AWAKENING FIRE by Cassidy Faline

I received a gifted copy of THE AWAKENING FIRE by Cassidy Faline from the author for the purpose of reviewing it for #SPFBO9 for the team created by @coverswithcassidy.

THE AWAKENING FIRE is a YA epic political fantasy set in a world where the Ancients have been gone for years, but their legacy still holds strong, at least with some. There are different ideologies and each is trying for power when the reigning king is killed without an apparent heir. The people want and demand change and different lords are vying to take the power seat for themselves.

This book was very quick to get into and I really enjoyed the writing from the very start. It is a very plot focused story and the action picks up very quickly even as we are getting to know the characters. I did find myself wanting a bit of downtime between action sequences for more time to get to know the characters a bit better. There are secrets hinted at about the Ancients and a lot of different ideas about their impact on the present world that I wanted a bit more exploration for as well.

There were some very interesting world building elements with the Ancients, but a lot of this was just hinted at and it left me wanting more. I would guess that since this is the first book in a series, this will be something that is fleshed out more as the books go on. I thought that these elements could get pretty easily lost in the action of the plot, but I did like the pieces of lore that get sprinkled in.

I did find that the action and plot were well done and kept me interested to keep reading the book. This wasn’t a book I was wanting to put down and I was eager to get back into it. I wound up reading this book in about 24 hours which was not something I was managing a lot with physical reading in June!

The story switches fairly quickly between a few POVs and it is a very male cast of characters. We are getting one main female perspective, but by the halfway point I wasn’t feeling as though we got to know her very well apart from how she was being used as a pawn in some of the political maneuvering being done by her father. She definitely has agency in trying to avoid her unwanted match, but she also gave some frustration along the way in some of her decisions.

Frustrating decisions did come up quite a bit in this book and characters I initially expected to be heroes of the story sometimes veered into the range of gray (or darker) morality. There were times where the thought processes behind character choices weren’t entirely clear to me. Characters with a trajectory in mind could be swayed by the temptation of power or misinformation fairly quickly so it did keep you wondering where our characters would all end up.

Though this is listed as a YA fantasy, there are some very significant trigger warnings. Sexual assault and rape come up quite frequently, either in the form of threats to get something from a character or systematic abuse. This includes the implication of children being abused. While not super graphic on page, it does come up quite a bit in the story so one should proceed carefully if this is a trigger. I found myself wanting a bit more exploration of the impact of all that had happened on the characters.

Overall this was a quick read and this is an author I would definitely pick up from again when I am wanting a fast paced plot fantasy!