Fireborne (THE AURELIAN CYCLE)

Product Description

“Fireborne is everything I want in fantasy.” —Rachel Hartman, New York Times bestselling author of SeraphinaGame of Thrones meets Red Rising in a debut young adult fantasy that’s full of rivalry, romance . . . and dragons.

Annie and Lee were just children when a brutal revolution changed their world, giving everyone—even the lowborn—a chance to test into the governing class of dragonriders.

Now they are both rising stars in the new regime, despite backgrounds that couldn’t be more different. Annie’s lowborn family was executed by dragonfire, while Lee’s aristocratic family was murdered by revolutionaries. Growing up in the same orphanage forged their friendship, and seven years of training have made them rivals for the top position in the dragonriding fleet.

But everything changes when survivors from the old regime surface, bent on reclaiming the city.

With war on the horizon and his relationship with Annie changing fast, Lee must choose to kill the only family he has left or to betray everything he’s come to believe in. And Annie must decide whether to protect the boy she loves . . . or step up to be the champion her city needs.

From debut author Rosaria Munda comes a gripping adventure that calls into question which matters most: the family you were born into, or the one you’ve chosen.

Review

Praise for Fireborne:

★ ★ ★ ★ Four Starred Reviews!A 2019 Cybils Award WinnerAn Illinois Reads 2020 SelectionA 2020-2021 Maine Student Book Award SelectionAn AudioFile Magazine Earphones Award Winner

★ “Breathless action.” —
Publishers Weekly,
starred review

★ “This series opener thrills with dragon action, from aerial tournaments to wartime battles . . . a near-perfect work of high fantasy with wide appeal.” —
Booklist,
starred review ★ “From the beginning, this book pulls readers in . . . full of drama, emotional turmoil, and high stakes.” —
Kirkus,
starred review★ “Thought-provoking and full of social and political intrigue.” —
School Library Journal,
starred review”From action fans to romance fans, political junkies to fantasy lovers, many different audiences will find something rewarding here.” —
The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
”
Fireborne is everything I want in fantasy.” —Rachel Hartman,
New York Times bestselling author of
Seraphina
“It’s been a long time since a book made me this happy.
Fireborne is my new favorite dragon book.” —Kristen Ciccarelli, internationally bestselling author of
The Last Namsara

About the Author

Rosaria Munda grew up in rural North Carolina, studied political theory at Princeton, and lives with her husband in Chicago. She is the author of
The Aurelian Cycle, a young adult trilogy that begins with
Fireborne.
 

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Prologue

Later, he would be known as the First Protector, and under his vision the city would transform. Serfs would be freed, schools would be built, and dragons would, for the first time, be ridden by commoners.

Before that, he was the leader of the bloodiest revolution his people had ever seen.

He never doubted that he would create a just city. Nor did he doubt that the families of the old regime deserved to die. But he did, sometimes, regret the way it happened, the day the palace was finally overrun.

He remembered in particular one of the ruling families, their tormentors still at work when he found them. The dragonlord had been kept alive, to watch; his youngest son was the only child left. A boy of about seven or eight, his expression blank beneath a mask of blood. The remains of their family lay around them.

“Stop this foolishness at once,” the First Protector said, when he and his guard found them.

The revolutionaries let go of the boy, whom they had been hurting, and began to protest: This man is Leon Stormscourge, don’t you know what he’s done—but they fell silent when the dragonlord spoke from his knees on the bloodstained carpet.

“My son,” he said, in the