Wrath of the Dragons
Fear the Flames, Book 2
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Wrath of the Dragons
Narrated by:
Hannah Van Der Westhuysen, Stewart Clarke
Buy Now for £17.84
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Narrated by:
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Hannah Van Der Westhuysen
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Stewart Clarke
About this listen
Cayden Veles, renowned Demon Commander of Vareveth, overthrew the throne to save Elowen Atarah, the woman he searched for since childhood. Now he's determined to fulfil his quest for revenge against her father, even if it means forcing the only person he's ever wanted into a marriage of political convenience.
Elowen Atarah has everything she thought she'd ever want. Finally reunited with her dragons, she now has an army to enact vengeance, but as events transpire, she begins contemplating if she wants more. As her father's only living heir, the Imirath throne is her right and destiny. But fighting and winning a war will require trusting Cayden Veles, her partner in crime and now king to her queen; the man she both longs for and doubts, especially after opening her heart only to become a pawn in his game.
Navigating the shifting allegiances amongst all the kingdoms of Ravaryn will require all their strategy and strength, with devastating and bloody attacks on one side and cutthroat diplomacy for alliances on the other. But Elowen and Cayden must find a way to stand strong within the power they've gained, or risk losing everything.
Delving deeper into a vast and ever-changing world, Wrath of the Dragons will take you on a journey filled with epic battles and a tender, angsty love for the ages.
absolutely loved it!
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Great narration
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The female voice is excellent for elowen as she was in book one too.
Loved this
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Loved the book, the story.
Do not start this book until we get book 3
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This book is over 500 pages, yet somehow, the entire first half is just… nothing. No major plot progression. No war. No politics. Just baking, shopping, and aimless, meandering conversations. Characters spend a shocking amount of time doing absolutely nothing of importance while supposedly preparing for a kingdom-defining conflict.
This book takes way too much time telling us when it’s a certain character’s birthday—side characters, main characters, everyone’s birthday is noted like it’s supposed to mean something, but it just drags the pacing to a crawl
Elowen is constantly in the kitchen despite being the queen of two kingdoms. And how did she learn to bake, you ask? By watching others do it. No training, no trial-and-error, just instant pâtissière status. I wish I were kidding. Sorry, but no—pastry-making is not osmosis.
Meanwhile, a war is brewing, but you wouldn’t know it from the way our protagonists avoid doing literally anything productive. Elowen is either moping, reading, or baking. Cayden spends his chapters simultaneously infantilizing her and worshiping the ground she walks on, and I still have no clue why he holds her in such high regard.
The romantic tension from book one—centered around their arranged marriage and lack of trust—continues to drag on and on. By the time they finally say “I love you” (at 60%, after the wedding), it’s framed like some massive revelation. But by that point, I was just rolling my eyes. Of course they love each other—but also, why?
Cayden’s backstory? Classic “brooding bastard with daddy issues” template, sleepily executed. Elowen, on the other hand, is suddenly revealed to have experienced a ton of trauma from her uncle, but all of the specific abuse is newly inserted and comes out of nowhere. It felt like a last-minute attempt to add depth by telling us about past suffering we were never shown.
And then there’s the plot—or lack thereof. The political stakes are muddy. Aestilian is briefly mentioned, something major happens to it, and then… silence. No follow-up. No exploration. Just dropped. The rest of the worldbuilding is equally shallow. We’re suddenly on “godly land,” which is never clearly explained. There’s also a half-baked magic system that throws in new powers for the protagonists with zero rules or development. Elowen can now see through dragons, manipulate fire when it’s convenient, and even soul-heal sometimes? Okay.
Cayden, of course, gets shadow magic after Elowen’s dramatic “death” scene (spoiler: she’ll be back later… shock), and within minutes he’s a pro at it. Because of course he is. Every beat of this book is predictable. Every plot twist is expected. There’s no real tension, no real cost, no real emotional payoff.
And the dragons? For a book titled Wrath of the Dragons, you’d expect them to be central, right? Think again. Elowen has five dragons—and yet somehow, she is the only person who rides them. Not her trusted crew. Not her inner circle. Not her co-ruler or generals. Just her. In a story where war is looming and people are literally dying, the strategic choice is... one girl solo-piloting an entire squad of dragons like she’s hoarding Uber accounts.
It makes no sense. You’d think if your kingdom was under threat, maybe—just maybe—let someone else hop on a fire-breathing monster and help out? But no, everyone just stands back and watches while Elowen “commands” them all like some Dragon Queen cosplay.
Elowen keeps insisting to others that she doesn’t actually command the dragons—they just listen to her willingly. But what we see in the book tells a completely different story. There are constant mentions of her commanding them to do this or that, and not once do we see a dragon disobey her. It’s a strange contradiction that feels like the author wasn’t sure how to portray their bond clearly. So despite Elowen’s protests, she definitely commands them—and the dragons always obey without question.
Speaking of which—yes, the Game of Thrones parallels are painfully obvious. The author introduces a random fantasy language just for commanding dragons, clearly trying to create a “Dracarys” moment... except the dragons already understand her perfectly well in plain Common. She never actually uses the language meaningfully. It’s just there for aesthetics, a flair of Daenerys wannabe energy that completely misses the point. Unlike Daenerys, who had dragons with agency, personalities, and tactical value, these ones are just winged set pieces. They fetch snacks, they fly her places, they mope around with nightmares. That’s it.
And we still don’t know why she has five or what makes her special enough to bond with them—none of it is explained. They're not really characters. They’re glorified accessories.
The writing style made this worse. It’s overwritten and tries far too hard to be poetic. Everything is told, not shown. There are endless inner monologues, repetitive phrases, and way too many scenes that explain things as if we didn’t just see them happen. It’s like the author wanted to write high fantasy with lyrical prose, but forgot to edit for flow, clarity, or pacing. The info-dumping is relentless, and so much of the dialogue is straight up filler.
There’s a character described as having naturally white hair, but Elowen notices gray hairs mixed in with the white—something that makes absolutely no sense. When someone has white hair, it’s impossible to tell which hairs are gray and which are white because gray hair isn’t literally “gray” in color; it’s more of a blend or transition caused by pigment loss. The author seems to think gray hair means distinctly gray strands you can pick out, even on someone with white hair, which is just plain inaccurate and shows a lack of understanding of basic hair color. It’s a small detail, but it really highlights how careless and uninformed some of the writing is.
Even the audiobook couldn’t salvage this experience—and in some ways, it actually made it worse. The narration setup is one of the most awkward and inconsistent I’ve ever encountered. It’s billed as dual POV, but it tries to be duet-style—just not in any way that makes sense.
When we're in Elowen’s POV, her narrator handles the narration as expected, but she also reads the lines for every single character, except Cayden. The male narrator will suddenly pop in only for Cayden’s dialogue—within the same scene, same chapter, and sometimes even the same paragraph. So, say there’s a scene with Elowen, Cayden, and another male character. The female narrator will do the voices for Elowen and the other male character... and then Cayden will randomly be voiced by the male narrator.
It’s incredibly disorienting. There's no consistency, no logic to the choices, and instead of feeling immersive, it just constantly pulls you out of the story. It’s like the audiobook is trying to be cinematic but forgot to coordinate the cast.
To be fair, the narrators themselves weren’t the problem. The female narrator, in particular, tried to bring some emotion to Elowen’s POV, but the material gave her nothing to work with. Elowen is written as the most insufferably self-important character imaginable. She has zero humility, zero growth, and zero compelling traits—yet the prose frames her like some tragic, powerful queen figure we should be in awe of. That disconnect between tone and content makes her internal monologue painful to sit through.
The male narrator fared a little better in Cayden’s chapters, mostly because Cayden, for all his cliché, actually has some clear emotions and character beats to work with. But even he’s weighed down by the overwrought writing and all the dramatic “my wife” energy packed into every scene.
This book is bloated, repetitive, and packed with every fantasy cliché imaginable. Instead of growing the world or deepening its characters, it throws in random powers, shallow political intrigue, and tired romance drama. There are far better books out there doing what this tries to do—books with emotional weight, grounded relationships, actual worldbuilding, and yes, dragons that matter.
The book’s only little, tiny saving grace is Cayden. As much of a cardboard-cutout fantasy boyfriend as he is—complete with every cliché imaginable: reading glasses, swirling tattoos, pierced ear, brooding inner monologues, “my wife” obsession, and now of course, shadow powers—he still carried the book for me. Yes, he’s a literal walking stereotype, but at least he made me feel something, even if it was just eye-roll affection. I’ll take that over Elowen’s emotionally flat royal pout-fest any day. The author clearly threw every trope into the blender with him, and while the result wasn’t original, it was at least entertaining in that guilty-pleasure sort of way. Cayden is the one thing that kept me from DNF-ing. He’s overdone, dramatic, and frustratingly overprotective—but compared to the chaotic, info-dumpy mess around him, he felt like some kind of anchor.
Despite a few decent Cayden moments (he’s hot, okay), Wrath of the Dragons is a mess. It's Fourth Wing meets Throne of Glass meets Game of Thrones—but only the fanfic versions, stripped of substance and weighed down by filler.
I wanted to give it a chance. I really tried. But I was bored through 90% of it, and by the time things finally happened, I just didn’t care anymore.
Too Much Flour, Not Enough Fire
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