Reigning Fire tells the story of Yan Xun, a princess raised in a world built on Smokeveil magic, rigid hierarchy, and brutal expectations. Her secret Emberkin, a battered phoenix named Mo, marks her as something forbidden. That secret pulls her through a tightening web of palace politics, trauma, hidden archives, deadly trials at the Weaver Academy, and a long, dangerous unraveling of the Empire’s lies about power and worth. The book grows from courtly control to a fierce personal awakening, and the shift lands with real weight.

This book stirred me more than I expected. The writing has this sharp tenderness. Some scenes were very emotional, especially the ones where Xun remembers Kai’s abuse and the way his presence lingers like a stain in her memory. Her trauma does not exist for spectacle. It exists the way real pain exists, slipping into the quiet moments and messing with breath and thought. The training scenes with Xiao in the Dream Realm felt like oxygen, and I kept rooting for Xun to take each tiny step forward. The pacing in the middle swells as secrets pile up, especially once the Forbidden Archives start giving up their ghosts. I loved how the story mixes myth with rebellion and shows how tightly institutions grip the narratives they fear most.

I also found myself pulled toward the characters orbiting Xun. Jin in particular surprised me. His protectiveness has rough edges, but it feels shaped by real loyalty. His anger at what Xun endured is raw, almost reckless, and there were moments where his emotions reached through the page and hit me right in the gut. Even Yan Yun, cold as stone and twice as sharp, grabbed my attention. Watching him justify control while hiding old wounds gave him this unsettling depth. The world feels lived in, politically messy, and morally crooked. I liked that. I liked that nothing felt clean. The prose moves between poetic and punchy, and it never gets stuck in jargon. Sometimes the pacing jumps a bit fast, but I didn’t mind because the emotional beats landed exactly where they needed to.

By the time I reached the final stretch, the story had its claws in me. The revelations about mythic Emberkin, the tension in the archives, the pressure of Xun’s unbonded status closing in, all of it came together in a way that felt both heavy and hopeful. I walked away thinking about cycles of harm, about who gets to rewrite the rules, and about how power shifts when someone finally says no. If you enjoy fantasies that balance trauma recovery with rebellion, or if you like character-driven stories full of secrets, then this book is absolutely for you.

Pages: 330 | ASIN : B0FHQ211VC