Publisher: Macmillan (Trade Paperback – 15 July 2025)
Series: Standalone / Book One
Length: 383 pages
My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Australian author Mikayla Bridge produces one of the more compelling young adult fantasy debuts of 2025 with the inventive and clever read, Of Flame and Fury.
Plot Synopsis:
On an island built from ash and shrouded in fire, phoenix racing is a sport just as profitable as it is deadly.
Seventeen-year-old Kel Varra and her team of underdogs, the Crimson Howlers, are desperate to win the annual races and the fortune that comes with it. But the Howlers need a new rider, which leads Kel to join forces with Warren “Coup” Coupers – an arrogant rival she can’t get out of her head.
As tensions rise on and off the track, Kel’s home is mistakenly burned down, and she’s forced to take a job from a mysterious tech mogul with an unsettling interest in her phoenix, Savita. This sets in motion a conspiracy that threatens everyone Kel cares for, especially Coup, for whom her embers of resentment are quickly igniting into something dangerously new.
Heart-pounding pages full of steamy romance, fiery confessions, political scheming, and volatile magic culminate in a final twist readers will never see coming.
Of Flame and Fury was a very interesting 2025 young adult fantasy release that I was quite excited to get my hands on. The first book from Australian author Mikayla Bridge, Of Flame and Fury had a very exciting plot behind it which Bridge effectively built on with an excellent story and some fantastic writing.
I ended up really enjoying Of Flame and Fury’s intriguing narrative, which grabs the reader’s attention early thanks to an initial intense and tragic phoenix racing sequence. This early race quickly and effectively sets up most of the book’s key characters, including protagonist Kel Varra and her rival and inevitable romantic interest, Coup, with an additional, fiery moment bonding these key figures together. The story quickly moves onward with Kel forced to recruit Coup to her phoenix racing team, which has been recruited by a powerful tech mogul with his own hidden agenda. This initial part of the book was quite interesting and set up a lot of key story elements, while also providing readers with a lot of the new lore in Bridge’s phoenix filled society.
While fun and loaded with interesting character introductions, this early part of the book lacked a little action, especially as there was a nearly 150-page gap between the first and second phoenix races. I feel that some readers may lose momentum in this part of the book, especially as the promised races are such a big part of the book’s appeal. Still, I enjoyed the story development here, and Of Flame and Fury’s big races, when they finally start, have all the chaotic fun you’d hope for, made even more exciting and compelling by the character relationships and distinctive fantasy elements Bridge introduced and built up during this period.
The second half of the book flies by quickly, as you soon get drawn into the various races, intrigues, and complex relationships that are such a vital part of the narrative, even if the main enemies-to-lovers storyline was a little tropey. I ended up really enjoying the compelling focus on the intrigues of the corporation sponsoring Kel and her team, which leads up to the big climax of the book. While it does have an obvious villain, the motivations of this antagonist are very important and well set out. The revelations around this main storyline make Of Flame and Fury’s plot really stand out, especially as it leads to an impressive twist I honestly didn’t see coming. This big twist worked extremely well, as it cleverly utilized lore elements that Bridge had been inserting into the narrative the entire time, while also completely reshaping your entire perspective of the preceding story. I deeply appreciated how this came together, and its excellent execution honestly amplified my entire estimation of this novel. Following on from this, Bridge leads Of Flame and Fury to its fantastic conclusion, which featured all the drama and intensity you would expect from a great young adult fantasy novel, and which leaves the reader very satisfied.
I felt that Of Flame and Fury came together extremely well as a novel, and Bridge really showcased her writing chops in her debut. Primarily shown from the perspective of the main character, Kel, Of Flame and Fury was a very fast-paced read that did a good job of blending fantasy elements with compelling characters. I love how seamlessly Bridge was able to work the unique elements of her fantasy universe into the narrative, and readers were quickly able to get across the cool phoenix lore. The resulting high-octane phoenix races were a real highlight of this novel, while other bits of compelling lore were well utilised, especially in that cool twist I gushed about above.
Bridge kept an excellent young adult tone for Of Flame and Fury, resulting in a novel that would primarily appeal to teenager readers, while also being quite enjoyable for older fantasy fans, especially those who like unique ideas or compelling characters. There is also a certain amount of appeal for the romantasy crowd, thanks to the fiery relationship between Kel and Coup. As someone who doesn’t massively enjoy romance fiction, I personally found the enemies-to-lovers sub-plot to be one of the weaker parts of the book, while the book’s secondary romance (between team winger Dira and corporate engineer Rahn) was a little more interesting. Still, I’m sure more typical romance/romantasy fans will enjoy the combative relationship between Kel and Coup, and it helps that both are well-written characters who stand on their own outside of the romance.
Due to its great characters, clever story and fun, fire-filled phoenix races, Of Flame and Fury was an awesome young adult fantasy novel, and it’s one I had a lot of fun reading. New author Mikayla Bridge proved to be extremely talented with this debut book, and I will be curious to see what she writes next. An overall wonderful novel that will appeal to a wide audience.
The Unseen Library 