Blog Tour: Fireborn by Aisling Fowler [Review]

This book was sent to me for free in exchange for an honest review. Thanks so much to TheWriteReads for having me on the tour.

Pledge yourself to FIREBORN

I pledge my life to the Hunting Lodge
I vow to serve all seven clans as my own
To protect them from what lies beyond.
I forsake all blood ties and blood feuds
to offer up my name and my past.
The Hunters are my family now and always
I swear before them that I will NEVER lower my weapons
in the face of darkness
nor allow tyranny to rise.

I don’t know about you guys but that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It’s a blood pumping rallying cry that made me want to go punch a gargoyle straight in the face. (I won’t, that would be stupid. But still…)

We follow protagonist Twelve, a talented fighter who can wield twin axes like no-ones business but is also suffering mentally from the tragic loss of her family. That’s why she’s here, at the Lodge, Revenge.

In fact Twelve is so dead set on her mission it has a negative impact on her outward approach to all things at the Lodge. Everyone is scared to practice with her as her fighting is so intense and brilliant, she has no interest in making friends (probably protecting herself from further loss) and is and general pain in the bum for the people in charge. Twelve has potential but suffers greatly in terms of teamwork, patience and lack of an open mind.

Ok, so there has been a break in at the Lodge and Seven has been taken! Some manky sounding creatures have kidnapped her, the closest thing Twelve has to a friend. Seven was the only one who would front up and train with Twelve and had her back when Five was attempting to pick on her.

She must help Seven but she cannot do it alone. She must use the help of the others and go on a rescue mission facing horrible (and quite honestly scary) beasts head on. This is the beginning of Twelve’s adventure and what follows is not pretty…

3 things about this book… Sacrifice // Dark // Friendship

Sacrifice – Joining the Hunting Lodge and training to be a Hunter is not for the faint of heart. Like the Pledge states… ‘I offer up my name and my past’. Those who join and train to be hunters have their name taken away and given a number in its place. Regardless of the pain or loss you have suffered, it matters not.

Dark – Wow this book is dark. Seriously strap in, it’s gunna be a rough ride. This story is quite brutal. Learning about how Twelve lost her family is gut wrenching but explains a lot about why she is the way she is. Author Aisling Fowler is amazing at painting the most gruesome of pictures in your mind… you have been warned!

Friendship – Twelve must work with the others to help get the only person close enough to call a friend back from the goblins. What we see is a fascinating collaboration with Twelve, Five and Six (numbers as names, weird right.) on their journey to rescue Seven with a little bit of self-love and acceptance thrown in.

I honestly thought this was a perfectly paced middle-grade read with writing that really sucked me in, the descriptions of the lodge were beautifully done so much so I could almost smell the leather armour myself.

I’d like to give a couple of special mentions to some awesome animal companions too, because who doesn’t love an animal companion! Twelves little squirrel is adorable and DOG. OMGoodness Dog (a talking dog) is the Lodge guardian and sort of mentor for Twelve. You will have to read to find out more because I really don’t want to spoil it. And lets not forget those talking trees…

Fireborn by Aisling Fowler is everything I love in a middle-grade fantasy. It’s fast paced magical adventure full of thrills, spills and great characters who grow along the way. I recommend this to everyone regardless of age. So go ahead…

… PLEDGE YOURSELF to FIREBORN and pre-order. If you’d like to know a bit more about the author Aisling Fowler she kindly took part in an interview which you can read here.

Author Bio – Aisling was born in 1985 and wishes that she had grown up in a magical, mountainous kingdom, but was actually raised in Surrey on a diet of books and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Her early ‘adventure’ stories involved surprisingly little action and her first novel (3 pages long) was politely declined by publishers at age 11. After earning a BSc in Biology and working as a support worker and then a nurse, the idea for her debut novel, Fireborn, came to her as she moved back and forth between London and the US.

Now based in Hackney, when she is not reading or writing, Aisling loves cooking and plotting adventures (for herself as well as her fictional characters). Fireborn will be published by HarperCollins in 2021.