Title:  A Fire in the Sky  
Author:  Sophie Jordan        
Genre: Fantasy       
Rating:  4 out of 5

Dragons are extinct. Witches are outcast. Magic is dying.

But human lust for power is immortal.

Dragon fire no longer blisters the skies over Penterra, but inside the lavish palace, life is still perilous…especially for Tamsyn. Raised in the glittering court alongside the princesses, it’s her duty to be punished for their misdeeds. Treated as part of the royal family but also as the lowliest servant, Tamsyn fits nowhere. Her only friend is Stig, Captain of the Guard…though sometimes she thinks he wants more than friendship.

When Fell, the Beast of the Borderlands, descends on her home, Tamsyn’s world becomes even more dangerous. To save the pampered princesses from a fate worse than death, she is commanded to don a veil and marry the brutal warrior. She agrees to the deception even though it means leaving Stig, and the only life she’s ever known, behind.

The wedding night begins with unexpected passion—and ends in near violence when her trickery is exposed. Rather than start a war, Fell accepts Tamsyn as his bride…but can he accept the dark secrets she harbors—secrets buried so deep even she doesn’t know they exist? For Tamsyn is more than a royal whipping girl, more than the false wife of a man who now sees her as his enemy. And when those secrets emerge, they will ignite a flame bright enough to burn the entire kingdom to the bone.

Magic is not dead…it is only sleeping. And it will take one ordinary girl with an extraordinary destiny to awaken it.

I enjoyed the writing in this, and the culture was well-done, if a bit infuriating. I liked both Fell and Tamsyn and enjoyed their chemistry. I felt like the last quarter of the book was a bit rushed, so that detracted a little from my enjoyment, but I’d be interested in reading more, as the storyline was strong enough to carry me through and I’m interested to see what happens next.

Sophie Jordan is a bestselling author. A Fire in the Sky is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Avon and Harper Voyager in exchange for an honest review.)