A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet

Catalia "Cat" Fisa is a powerful clairvoyant known as the Kingmaker. This smart-mouthed soothsayer has no interest in her powers and would much rather fly under the radar, far from the clutches of her homicidal mother. But when an ambitious warlord captures her, she may not have a choice…

Griffin is intent on bringing peace to his newly conquered realm in the magic-deprived south. When he discovers Cat is the Kingmaker, he abducts her. But Cat will do everything in her power to avoid her dangerous destiny and battle her captor at every turn. Although up for the battle, Griffin would prefer for Cat to help his people willingly, and he's ready to do whatever it takes to coax her…even if that means falling in love with her.

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★★★☆☆

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"You're rash, willful, and hostile. You have no self-control. Do you even think before you act?

Warning: A Promise of Fire is a New Adult (not YA lol oops) so it does include some mature scenes that may not be suited for some readers.

If you enjoyed A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, then you'd probably also like this novel. Both have alpha-male characters with a strong and stubborn female leader. The worlds in both series are unique in the way that while Maas's revolves around fairies, Bouchet's mentions the Olympic gods, leading to very interesting magic systems. Both have the New Adult vibe with a very prevalent romance, but both do have growing plots.

I had been fairly excited to read A Promise of Fire, but was sadly disappointed over the fact that I found several problems that irked me throughout the entire novel. I think I still overall enjoyed this book because I wasn't pulling my hair out in frustration over these minor problems I had. I still had an overall okay time with after completing everything. There was still a very interesting fantasy-esque feel about the entire novel that made me want to keep reading. Surprisingly though, I don't really think it was the world itself that pushed me on.

This magic system and world follows the Olympian Gods. Pretty much, there are people called Magois who are given magic and live in the north. The South is filled with Hoi Polloi, who are non-magical people. And for the first time in forever, a Hoi Polloi takes control of the Southern crown. I thought this sounded really interesting, but I feel like Amanda Bouchet just didn't really delve into the magic system and world as much as she could have. Readers didn't learn as much about everything and it's obvious this is only the tip of the iceberg. Though this can lead to readers wanting to continue reading the series because of their curiosity, I just thought of it as incomplete.

The characters really didn't have a lot of depth, and as the book continues, the side characters are lsot in the crowd. The story really starts revolving around Griffin and Cat, making everyone else pale in comparison. Then, with the two mains. You're not given a lot of information about Cat other than the fact that she's very powerful and comes from a very bad background. Besides that, nothing is truly revealed and you kind of infer everything. Then Griffin... he followed such an alpha male stereotype that I couldn't take it.

The alpha male stereotype was so prevalent in this novel that it genuinely irked me. Usually, I'm fine with a this cliche in New Adult novels because there's still a strong bout of feminism in the novels. But, I just didn't like what Griffin and the Southern men stood for with their 

"Intelligent brow. Strong jaw. Wide mouth. Hawkish nose. Black hair brushes a corded neck atop broad shoulders that have no doubt been swinging a sword since before he could walk. Body toned to perfection, skin darkened by a lifetime in the sun, he's battle-chiseled and hard, the type of man who can cleave an enemy in two with little effort and even less consequences to his conscience."

That was a direct quote from the book. Okay, so usually descriptions like that don't seriously bug me (I only slightly shake my head a little) but then it was the actions of Griffin that made me JASODAJSJAD.

1. He never listened to Cat when it was a matter of her life. She was always just supposed to listen and obey.
2. He apparently knew everything, including the fact that she was in love with him. In fact, he knew this before she knew it. That made it okay for him to solicitously kiss her. Yeah. That makes sense.
3. He was always telling Cat what to do, like his word was law. Sure, she fought back, but he still always ended up getting what he wanted EVEN WHEN CAT WAS UNSURE IF SHE WANTED IT TOO.

The romance between the two seriously was just a lot of sexual tension. It was insta-love on one end and not truly the other so... was it truly instalove? I think, the two seriously were opposites and were the only ones who were able to challenge eachother. Each character is just so strong that it makes others near insignificant. The problem is with their personalities, they would constantly have different opinions. In real relationships, I don't know how well that'd work. But hey it's Ficiton.

The pacing and plot were pretty slow for me. I was still interested in what was happening, but looking back at it, not much was truly occurring. The plot was fairly weak and never had me on the edge of my seat. I think this first book truly was just to establish the world and situation of everything, and then the second book will delve deeper into it all.

Will I be picking up the next book? Probably not. I enjoyed reading this novel enough, but I just don't find myself really invested in seeing what will happen next because I feel like even though a lot of information was withheld from the reader, I can still guess what's coming next. (The foreshadowing was about as discreet as a brick) 

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