I had a feeling when I read a sample of this a while back that I’d end up loving it. I was right.
This book opens with meeting the older prince of two brothers, Caspian. He has been painting pictures of this mysterious girl, always pictures of her in the future. I really loved getting to see Caspian first, because he’s a little strange throughout most of the book, and it was nice to see that right away, rather than be ????? about him the entire time.
Then, we jump to meeting the girl, Darling. She’s an orphan who was taken in by one of the houses that oppose Caspian’s house. There are six main houses in this world that don’t necessarily get along with each other. Caspian’s house is House Dragon, and honestly they kinda suck. They’ve been trying to conquer the world for a while, and they’ve done a lot of horrible stuff in the past.
Darling doesn’t know where she’s from exactly. All she knows is that she was taken in by House Kieran and wants to take down House Dragon. Her adoptive father was taken prisoner by House Dragon, which is the main catalyst for the story kicking off. We see Darling as she’s just about to sneak in and rescue him.
Note: This book has amazing disability rep in Darling. Her eyes are very sensitive to light, and she wears dark tinted goggles all the time as to not be blinded. No one ever treats her different for it, and sometimes the characters even go out of their way to accommodate her by making the lighting at night dimmer so she can take her goggles off. It’s so rare to see a disabled character that isn’t *fixed* by magic, or treated like they’re broken. If you want more awesome disabled women who do fencing, check out One For All by Lillie Lainoff. More of this please!
Then, we meet Caspian’s younger brother, Talon. Talon is a really skilled fighter, and has been on the front lines, trying to stop House Kraken from killing them all. He and Darling end up fighting, and she’s eventually knocked out and taken prisoner (he recognizes her from the paintings his brother made). From there, she meets Caspian and things get political.
Within this world, some people have magic of all different kinds. Talon can track people by feeling their life force or something, Darling can heal, one of Darling’s friends can turn invisible, and there’s Caspian’s weird prophecy painting thing. Plus a bunch of other powers I’m forgetting. Everyone’s magic is super cool and unique.
It kind of felt like a soft magic system, because anyone could end up with any kind of power, but it was clear that there were limitations. At no point did the magic ever serve as a convenience for the plot, which was nice to see. I’m always worried about soft magic systems eventually turning into, oh this horrible thing is happening? Let’s just magic away the problem! But this book did it right and avoided all that nonsense.
Over time, we get to see the different houses, and we learn a bit about the history of the houses. A long time ago, there was a seventh house, House Phoenix, which kinda ruled all of them. But then one day about a hundred years ago, somebody from House Dragon murdered them. Usually, if the leader of House Phoenix died, they’d just come back, as phoenixes do. But this time, the House Phoenix leader stayed dead for good.
All of the house leaders used to have musical creature forms, which would get passed from one leader to the next. On top of that, everyone’s magic was much stronger and more people had magic. I was a little worried at first that since this is only going to be a two book series, the authors had bitten off a little more than they could chew in terms of world building. But as the book went on, I felt like I got a great introduction to all the houses and the world started to piece itself together.
I absolutely loved Chaos and Flame. This is honestly one of the best YA fantasy books I’ve read in a while. The pacing was near perfect, the characters felt true to themselves, and the world and magic were fascinating. There was a romance sub plot, which I often take issue with because they often take over the entire plot. This book did it right in making sure that the romance never became more important than the story. Do you realize how long I’ve been searching for a book where there is romance, but it doesn’t shove the plot aside for more tension?
I am so excited to see what happens in the sequel, whenever that comes out. I feel like I haven’t heard anyone talk about this. It could be that Fourth Wing stole the spotlight as the new tiktok book. Ok, that’s probably it. I thought about maybe reading Fourth Wing, but then I heard the romance takes over the plot. No thank you.
Also, this is one of the few books I’ve ever read where it’s clear that the authors did their research when it comes to fencing. Talon and Darling actually use their offhands correctly! We see Darling do her fencing exercises in her spare time! As someone who loved Gideon the Ninth because Tamsyn Muir went out of her way to work with a fencing pro to get the duels right, this book made me so happy.
Why can’t more authors go out there and talk to people who actually know how to fence when writing sword fights? Sure, a nice flashy action scene may look cool, but authors often forget you can do that AND make sure the characters still have proper form. Just cause Darling vaulted over a table mid fight doesn’t mean she suddenly forgot all her footwork.
Did I mention there’s a lot of queer rep? There’s a non-binary side character, Caspian is either bi or pan, and there are a bunch of moments when those casual comments you find in YA like “this personal is totally into you” or “do you like this person? nudge/wink” aren’t just about two characters of the opposite gender.
There aren’t really any big, deep themes to get caught up about, and it’s not super dark or bleak. Chaos and Flame is just a good, fun, fantasy adventure, and I loved it for that. If you want a book that’s YA fantasy, super bingeable, and is just pure enjoyment, but doesn’t have too much romance, try Chaos and Flame.
This book opens with meeting the older prince of two brothers, Caspian. He has been painting pictures of this mysterious girl, always pictures of her in the future. I really loved getting to see Caspian first, because he’s a little strange throughout most of the book, and it was nice to see that right away, rather than be ????? about him the entire time.
Then, we jump to meeting the girl, Darling. She’s an orphan who was taken in by one of the houses that oppose Caspian’s house. There are six main houses in this world that don’t necessarily get along with each other. Caspian’s house is House Dragon, and honestly they kinda suck. They’ve been trying to conquer the world for a while, and they’ve done a lot of horrible stuff in the past.
Darling doesn’t know where she’s from exactly. All she knows is that she was taken in by House Kieran and wants to take down House Dragon. Her adoptive father was taken prisoner by House Dragon, which is the main catalyst for the story kicking off. We see Darling as she’s just about to sneak in and rescue him.
Note: This book has amazing disability rep in Darling. Her eyes are very sensitive to light, and she wears dark tinted goggles all the time as to not be blinded. No one ever treats her different for it, and sometimes the characters even go out of their way to accommodate her by making the lighting at night dimmer so she can take her goggles off. It’s so rare to see a disabled character that isn’t *fixed* by magic, or treated like they’re broken. If you want more awesome disabled women who do fencing, check out One For All by Lillie Lainoff. More of this please!
Then, we meet Caspian’s younger brother, Talon. Talon is a really skilled fighter, and has been on the front lines, trying to stop House Kraken from killing them all. He and Darling end up fighting, and she’s eventually knocked out and taken prisoner (he recognizes her from the paintings his brother made). From there, she meets Caspian and things get political.
Within this world, some people have magic of all different kinds. Talon can track people by feeling their life force or something, Darling can heal, one of Darling’s friends can turn invisible, and there’s Caspian’s weird prophecy painting thing. Plus a bunch of other powers I’m forgetting. Everyone’s magic is super cool and unique.
It kind of felt like a soft magic system, because anyone could end up with any kind of power, but it was clear that there were limitations. At no point did the magic ever serve as a convenience for the plot, which was nice to see. I’m always worried about soft magic systems eventually turning into, oh this horrible thing is happening? Let’s just magic away the problem! But this book did it right and avoided all that nonsense.
Over time, we get to see the different houses, and we learn a bit about the history of the houses. A long time ago, there was a seventh house, House Phoenix, which kinda ruled all of them. But then one day about a hundred years ago, somebody from House Dragon murdered them. Usually, if the leader of House Phoenix died, they’d just come back, as phoenixes do. But this time, the House Phoenix leader stayed dead for good.
All of the house leaders used to have musical creature forms, which would get passed from one leader to the next. On top of that, everyone’s magic was much stronger and more people had magic. I was a little worried at first that since this is only going to be a two book series, the authors had bitten off a little more than they could chew in terms of world building. But as the book went on, I felt like I got a great introduction to all the houses and the world started to piece itself together.
I absolutely loved Chaos and Flame. This is honestly one of the best YA fantasy books I’ve read in a while. The pacing was near perfect, the characters felt true to themselves, and the world and magic were fascinating. There was a romance sub plot, which I often take issue with because they often take over the entire plot. This book did it right in making sure that the romance never became more important than the story. Do you realize how long I’ve been searching for a book where there is romance, but it doesn’t shove the plot aside for more tension?
I am so excited to see what happens in the sequel, whenever that comes out. I feel like I haven’t heard anyone talk about this. It could be that Fourth Wing stole the spotlight as the new tiktok book. Ok, that’s probably it. I thought about maybe reading Fourth Wing, but then I heard the romance takes over the plot. No thank you.
Also, this is one of the few books I’ve ever read where it’s clear that the authors did their research when it comes to fencing. Talon and Darling actually use their offhands correctly! We see Darling do her fencing exercises in her spare time! As someone who loved Gideon the Ninth because Tamsyn Muir went out of her way to work with a fencing pro to get the duels right, this book made me so happy.
Why can’t more authors go out there and talk to people who actually know how to fence when writing sword fights? Sure, a nice flashy action scene may look cool, but authors often forget you can do that AND make sure the characters still have proper form. Just cause Darling vaulted over a table mid fight doesn’t mean she suddenly forgot all her footwork.
Did I mention there’s a lot of queer rep? There’s a non-binary side character, Caspian is either bi or pan, and there are a bunch of moments when those casual comments you find in YA like “this personal is totally into you” or “do you like this person? nudge/wink” aren’t just about two characters of the opposite gender.
There aren’t really any big, deep themes to get caught up about, and it’s not super dark or bleak. Chaos and Flame is just a good, fun, fantasy adventure, and I loved it for that. If you want a book that’s YA fantasy, super bingeable, and is just pure enjoyment, but doesn’t have too much romance, try Chaos and Flame.