Together We Burn Book Review

And together we swoon, y'all.

Song Vibe Check:

1. "La Llorona" By: Alanna Ubach & Antonio Sol

2. "Señorita" By: Camila Cabello & Shawn Mendes

3. "Te Amo Y Mas" By: Gustavo Santaolalla & Diego Luna

To celebrate the National Hispanic Heritage Month, I decided to spice things up a little and to review from one of our YA latinx authors, Isabel Ibañez, who brings pretty good writing to the table.

Let it be known that Coco and Diego Luna were on my mind while I read this book. The music from Coco definitely has all the vibes that capture this book and... yes, Diego Luna pops up in here because I imagined him as Arturo and because frankly, after his love song rendition in the Book of Life, he earned a lifelong admirer in me (COUGH COUGH).

Now, apart from fangirling aside, let's just talk about how great this book was and how it felt like slipping in a pair of gloves that fit in perfectly with a book that feels a lot familiar and a lot like home.

Short summary? Flamenco daughter of a dragon fighter needs to replace her father after a bad injury in the dragon arena and needs to work alongside the infuriating dragon hunter who knows all the secrets and who won't help her... unless it's for the right price ;)

Longer Summary: Zarela's mother died dancing and getting burned to death by a dragon. Since then, while she maintains her love of dancing, oranges will always be something she hates and dragons something she will always fear. Her father is a famous Dragonador... in other words, like a bullfighter, but for dragons. In the 500th anniversary of a dragon tournament, her father suffers a grave injury that gets Zarela into the heat of doing her father's job, but in order to survive and not burn, she needs help.

Cue Arturo, the infamous dragon hunter/whisperer in my opinion who will keep this book going for the duration of how long it lasts (this book took me a while to read y'all!) and ultimately, the man who makes Zarela *eventually* swoon. I know I was swooning at parts and he grew on me. As they claim to "hate" each other and be stubborn about not giving into helping each other and not wanting to just passionately make out, we deal with what is meant to be a slow burn with dragons roaring in the background.

I will say I enjoy that the chapter names were in Spanish and that the world itself pulled me right in. While the banter is absolutely great, it did take some time to get into Zarela's character and to fully enjoy her despite the fact that the beginning of the book pulled me in. Arturo is really why I stayed reading until the end because he has his moments where I was cackling and really, just enjoying this book and the world we get to explore.

The ending... was not bad, but not the best either and being a standalone, it will be good news for those who don't like reading series. It has Spanish parts in the dialogue which was nice for me as a Spanish speaker, because it felt like the author was reaching out to those who spoke Spanish as well, but for those who don't... Google translate may be helpful for you all to survive the Spanish bits. I would have liked more dragons because it would have made for a much cooler book, but well, some dragons will have to do.

And Arturo's humor and wit.

Overall: 4/5 stars