Genre: YA Fantasy Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
You know those books that remind you why you love reading? The ones that are all-encompassing and fill your heart with more emotions than you can describe. Together We Burn by Isabel Ibañez was one of those rare and wonderful books for me!
The story follows Zarela, the daughter of one of the most famous Dragonador families in Hispalia. After her mother was killed by a dragon, Zarela is content with sticking to Flamenco dancing as her mom did, but when her father is gravely injured by a dragon and her family name is disgraced, she has no choice but to start training to become a Dragonador herself. Enter dark and mysterious, Arturo, the dragon tamer who is adamantly against killing dragons, but who is also the only person somewhat willing to train Zarela. Zarela and Arturo need each other, but there is more to their story than they originally thought.
This book truly has everything you could ask for! To start with, there are dragons! On top of that, the dragons are well-developed and interesting. I feel as though many fantasy novels with dragons just include them without really making them feel real, but Ibañez clearly put a lot of thought into the dragons in this novel. Not only are there different breeds, but the dragons have unique personalities. Similarly, Zarela’s feelings towards dragons develops throughout the book, which give them another interesting dimension.
In addition, I really enjoyed many of the characters in the novel. The main focus was obviously on Zarela and Arturo, but the supporting characters also felt well-developed, and didn’t outshine the main characters. I was happy to see that this book is a standalone, but after reading it, I would adore a companion novel with Lola, Zarela’s best friend, as the main character.
Furthermore, there is a component of mystery in the novel that really added a lot to the storyline. I won’t say too much because I don’t want to give anything away, but the questions surrounding the dragon disaster when Zarela’s father is injured, really complemented the main storyline of Zarela training to become a Dragonador. The plot overall, was well-written and very detail-oriented. Ibañez’s writing was genuinely poetic throughout the entirety of the book!
All in all, I’m desperately hoping that one of the book boxes I’m subscribed to does a special edition of this phenomenal book! I already preordered a signed copy, but we all know you can’t have too many copies of such stunning books. It is definitely one of two books that are in the running for my absolute favorite book this year!
The Biased Bibliophile 