Firebird
Books | Fiction / Romance / Fantasy
2.3
Juliette Cross
An instant New York Times bestseller!House of the Dragon meets From Blood and Ash in this epic, scorching dark romantasy. A conqueror captivated... A witch prophesied to save them all... An unforgiving world where dragons rule Rome. Julian Dakkia, Roman general and nephew to the emperor, has played his role as conqueror well. Yet, the moment he laid eyes on Malina, he was enthralled by the Dacian dancer. Years later, the fierce beauty stands before him, a captive on a scarred battlefield, her life in danger. He instinctively shifts into his fierce dragon form to save her, an action that may mean his head on the imperial gate. The rules of their world dictate that he is the conqueror and she is the captured. But he and his dragon know one thing: their bond has nothing to do with the laws of mighty Rome. She belongs to them. And they belong to her. Fierce and powerful, twenty-one-year old Malina has survived the loss of her family and she is determined to fight until her dying breath. Still, she can’t believe that the centurion who had once bestowed a secret talisman on her is the Roman general of legendary brutality...and now holds her life in his hands. Nor can she deny how her soul has always seemed to answer his. Slowly she learns that Julian is caught in his mad uncle’s machinations for domination, and helps him plot the downfall of the empire itself. As they navigate a world where flying deathriders conquer and burn, their love will ignite a firestorm that can only end in heartbreak or death. Or both.Firebird is an adult romantasy novel that contains dark themes, including slavery in Ancient Rome, which may be uncomfortable for some readers.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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More Details:
Author
Juliette Cross
Pages
400
Publisher
Tor Publishing Group
Published Date
2025-04-08
ISBN
1250339952 9781250339959
Community ReviewsSee all
"While there is a lot of reasons in this book for why it should be rated WAY lower than 4 stars I just can’t help but love this book. I have no clue why I enjoyed it so much but I just couldn’t put it down. There is a lot of critics, like the slave/oppressor relationship between the two but he never acts on anything and while it could have been done better (EX Captive Prince) it was not as bad as it could have been. Other than that the main thing is the s*x scenes being horrendously hard to read. I mostly just skipped through them because the second hand embarrassment made me want to slam the book. It was a little predicable, you can tell what all of the foreshadowing is hinting towards. SPOILER ALERT! I just am not that interested in her sister’s story and would rather the next book just continue with the main couple from this book but that is just my personal preference and doesn’t effect the rating of this book. "
"Let's get the big elephant out of the room first. I don't see the controversy here. It's an Opressor/Slave relationship, but it's actually not. Julian does not take advantage of her in any way sexually. He is actually pretty darn considerate. Moving on.
While this story didn't break the mold in the fantasy world, I did enjoy it. Especially playing off our worlds history. There was a sense of dread throughout most of the book that kept me on edge. Malina, while having been through a lot, is still in the thick of the fight. She was snippy and curious, and I really enjoyed her magic too.
Julian was a gentleman and even risked his life and purpose for Malina's safety. The dragons themselves were also interesting. Them being a somewhat separate entity which can lose their human side if not careful. I love how Maline tamed them both, wrapping her magic around them as they slept.
The story didn't wow me, but I am intrigued to read book two after the post credits. I mean, giving power to women to bring down man is a literary path I am willing to follow."