Review: The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas

Title: The Burning Sky
Author: Sherry Thomas
Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Publication date: September 17, 2013

Genre(s): Young Adult (Fantasy)

Source: Publisher (Harper Collins Canada)

Format: ARC

Pages: 464

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It all began with a ruined elixir and an accidental bolt of lightning…

Iolanthe Seabourne is the greatest elemental mage of her generation—or so she's being told. The one prophesied for years to be the savior of The Realm. It is her duty and destiny to face and defeat the Bane, the greatest mage tyrant the world has ever known. A suicide task for anyone let alone a sixteen-year-old girl with no training, facing a prophecy that foretells a fiery clash to the death.

Prince Titus of Elberon has sworn to protect Iolanthe at all costs but he's also a powerful mage committed to obliterating the Bane to avenge the death of his family—even if he must sacrifice both Iolanthe and himself to achieve his goal.


But Titus makes the terrifying mistake of falling in love with the girl who should have been only a means to an end. Now, with the servants of the Bane closing in, he must choose between his mission and her life.

The Burning Sky has received the most amazing reviews from some trusted fellow bloggers. It being fantasy instead of the usual dystopian novel made me even more excited for it. Unfortunately I did not enjoy The Burning Sky as much as I hoped but overall it was an enjoyable read.

The beginning of the book was a bit confusingand quite frankly boring. I just didn't know what was going on and was very confused at all the different mages. Also, the plot wasn't gripping enough for me to care. However a 100 pages in, the book finally starts getting interesting with the emergence of the gender bender plot line  However I expected a ton of humor to come out of that but that plot line was wasted. I've watched a ton of gender bender dramas and movies and just had some expectations of how entertaining the plot should be. Even with disappointing start, the book did start getting more interesting and I started to at least somewhat understand who the antagonist was and the history behind the mages and the world they are in.  

I thought Iolanthe, the main protagonist, was a bit annoying. She tried opposing Titus in every way. Even if it was on the breakfast menu. It kind of frustrated me but the book redeemed itself through Titus' chapters. In all honesty it took me a while to get through this book. I kept on expecting it to get better but it never did. The plot line was uninteresting to me overall and I just wished that we had more character depths as well as developments from them. Their relationship was one page a hate relationship and then the next page it switched to a love relationship. 

Even with all of my issues with the book, I did enjoy it overall. I wish that in the next book we would get to find out more about the world in The Burning Sky as well as find out more about the characters and see them develop and grow up. I would recommend this book to fantasy YA readers especially since so many of my friends really enjoyed it.