Fireblood by Trisha Wolfe

Title: Fireblood
Author: Trisha Wolfe
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Release: December 17th 2013
Pages: 376 (Kindle)
Pre-Order: Amazon UK / Amazon US
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To save a kingdom, Zara must choose between a prince who could be the answer and a rising rebellion that threatens to take control.

When Zara Dane is chosen to marry Prince Sebastian Hart, son of the man who ordered her father’s capture, Zara knows she must fight to save everything she loves from ruin. 

Being betrothed to the prince means a life trapped behind the towering stone walls of the Camelot-forged realm. Under the watchful eye of the prince's first knight, Sir Devlan Capra, changing her future becomes difficult. 

When an unlikely rebel reveals the truth about the deadly secrets that fuel King Hart’s twisted world, Zara’s path to rescue her father becomes clouded by deception. The Rebels clear her path by forcing Zara’s hand with an ultimatum: sway Prince Sebastian to join the Rebels, convincing him of his father’s evil nature, or they will take him out. 

But Zara is uncertain about a future under the Rebels’ command and where the prince’s heart truly lies. She must decide who to trust, what to believe, and what she’s truly fighting for before the king destroys all of Karm, including her heart.

You know that feeling when you finish a book and you just become speechless? Yeah, I'm like that with Fireblood. I don't think there is any word in the dictionary that could properly sum up just how breathtaking it is. I went into it with high expectations - everyone has heard of Trisha Wolfe, and the reviews I've read have been nothing but praise for her writing. I finished the book with those expectations raised; Wolfe is a tremendous author, and I am now definitely on the bandwagon.

Set in a dystopian world, war and nuclear fallout have ravaged North America, leaving a small selection of it to thrive under the safety of a forcefield shaped like a dome. When they recreated this small part of the country, the King decided to pick an era on which they would base their new lives under - and what better than Camelot?

When I tried to explain the brief outline of the setting to my mum, she got thoroughly confused - Wolfe has managed to combine dystopia with the medieval, and I absolutely love it! I think it was pretty risky of the author, since such a unique idea could have backfired if done badly. However, as I said earlier, Wolfe has an amazing way with words, and managed to weave together a convincing diegesis that was pure escapism. 

The main plot of the story is that Zara, our heroine, is chosen by Prince Sebastian to be his betrothed. However, as Zara gets more involved with castle life, she begins to uncover the truth behind the façade the King tries to uphold, and is faced with two alternative pathways that will change the kingdom forever. 

Zara is a dream character - she's got every quality a strong heroine needs to possess, without being too cocksure and arrogant. She displayed realistic emotions and reactions to the events that unfurled around her, and you just can't help but to root for her - you want her to succeed, you want her to be right, and you champion her throughout. She has to be one of my favourite characters ever, period.

Devlan...ugh, do I seriously need another book boyfriend?! Stubborn, smart and incredibly sexy, you will have a crush on him no matter your sexual orientation. I craved for scenes between him and Zara, as the chemistry is so hot you could fry eggs on it! 

Sebastian's characterisation is far more difficult. I think a trick about him is that you never really know which way he will sway - on one hand, he had his softer moments where you just desperately want him to be good and to be saved. However, on the other hand he is incredibly slimy - as in, skin crawling, spine tingling, teeth chattering-ly creepy. Thumbs up for brilliant characterisation, but let's just say that although I want Devlan to be real, I am so glad Sebastian is fictional.

If I had to describe Fireblood, I'd say it's a novel that takes the best bits of The Selection, Wither, and Throne of Glass and thrusts them together to create something amazing. As I previously said, I'm firmly on the Trisha Wolfe bandwagon, and I'm hoping to read a lot more of her work in the future. 

Rating: 5/5