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THE BIG GAY SPITFIRE REKINDLED REVIEW
Aug. 19th, 2025 11:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feralphoenixNB: this review is based on an ARC of spitfire rekindled kindly provided by maya & friends!
maya kern's spitfire rekindled is roughly the first half of what's been retroactively renamed spitfire the legacy edition, which itself is the first half of a planned duology that's been retooled as a tetralogy. it is a fantasy geopolitical drama/romance/erotica series centering on the confluence of four blisteringly hot, deeply idiotic 20somethings and their romantic entanglements. these four blisteringly hot, deeply idiotic 20somethings are also heads of state! 423975928347923853724 dead 34792857892879286927839248797928734947234 injured... and counting!!!
the first of these four leads to be introduced is feon, a dragon with shapeshifting magic who spends most of his time wearing his humansona. in the country of nadara every monarch since the kingdom's founding is traditionally soulbonded to a dragon via nadara's trademark blood magic, and feon is bound to nadara's current prince caederyn. feon has literally been in love with caed since first sight and has always assumed that this bond means they are guaranteed romance someday even if caed keeps matrix dodging feon's affections... so when caed announces he's going to get married to princess allene of voswain feon Loses His Whole Entire Mind and vows to foil whatever vile plot this homewrecking hussy definitely probably must have.
princess allene, who is the secondary protagonist of spitire rekindled, obviously has no such vile plot. in fact, coming from a country where polyamory is the social norm and the monoamorous nadarans are all thought of as weirdo prudes, allene is baffled as to why her presence should be any sort of barrier to feon's affections, because caed has two whole hands, after all! plus, allene has more fish than feon to fry right now: moving to a strange new land to get married is turning out to mean approximately one (1) rude culture shock per 30 seconds. allene's first exposure to how little she knows about nadara involves her being about one (1) foot away from the latest assassination attempt on her fiance, and she is determined to help unravel the identity of the attackers even as she must also juggle convincing the nadaran populace to like her, feon's big baby tantrums, and caed's impossible temperament.
caught between his bombastic fiancee and his jealous dragon, prince caederyn cannot bring himself to believe that either of them really and genuinely loves him. part of this is because a lifetime of emotional neglect and abuse from his distant father has convinced caed that he is a perennial disappointment who will never live up to the royal legacy... and part of this is because he feels he can never know how much of feon's love for him is influenced by their soul bond! all caed wants is to do right by the people he's convinced he'll never deserve, but how is he supposed to do right by a woman and a dragon he'll never feel worthy of?!
alongside these three horrible fools circling one another in a whirlwind of romantic and sexual confusion, there is professional fuckboy lesbian lysithea. as the daughter of the ambassador of laruze, a country with which nadara shares an ugly history, she's been in the same social circle as allene, caed, and feon since childhood. she therefore lives to drop diss tracks on caed, needle feon, and make sad cow eyes over the oblivious allene. invited to nadara for allene and caed's wedding, lysithea is not any happier about it than feon. does their mutual misery hold any chance for a change in their relationship, and how will lysithea endure being stuck in a land where she and her parent are considered Public Enemy Number One?
this is roughly what i've covered already in my old blurb for spitfire the legacy edition, which means that now i get to EXPOUND. hold onto your butt.
( lo! much expounding be within! )
maya kern's spitfire rekindled is roughly the first half of what's been retroactively renamed spitfire the legacy edition, which itself is the first half of a planned duology that's been retooled as a tetralogy. it is a fantasy geopolitical drama/romance/erotica series centering on the confluence of four blisteringly hot, deeply idiotic 20somethings and their romantic entanglements. these four blisteringly hot, deeply idiotic 20somethings are also heads of state! 423975928347923853724 dead 34792857892879286927839248797928734947234 injured... and counting!!!
the first of these four leads to be introduced is feon, a dragon with shapeshifting magic who spends most of his time wearing his humansona. in the country of nadara every monarch since the kingdom's founding is traditionally soulbonded to a dragon via nadara's trademark blood magic, and feon is bound to nadara's current prince caederyn. feon has literally been in love with caed since first sight and has always assumed that this bond means they are guaranteed romance someday even if caed keeps matrix dodging feon's affections... so when caed announces he's going to get married to princess allene of voswain feon Loses His Whole Entire Mind and vows to foil whatever vile plot this homewrecking hussy definitely probably must have.
princess allene, who is the secondary protagonist of spitire rekindled, obviously has no such vile plot. in fact, coming from a country where polyamory is the social norm and the monoamorous nadarans are all thought of as weirdo prudes, allene is baffled as to why her presence should be any sort of barrier to feon's affections, because caed has two whole hands, after all! plus, allene has more fish than feon to fry right now: moving to a strange new land to get married is turning out to mean approximately one (1) rude culture shock per 30 seconds. allene's first exposure to how little she knows about nadara involves her being about one (1) foot away from the latest assassination attempt on her fiance, and she is determined to help unravel the identity of the attackers even as she must also juggle convincing the nadaran populace to like her, feon's big baby tantrums, and caed's impossible temperament.
caught between his bombastic fiancee and his jealous dragon, prince caederyn cannot bring himself to believe that either of them really and genuinely loves him. part of this is because a lifetime of emotional neglect and abuse from his distant father has convinced caed that he is a perennial disappointment who will never live up to the royal legacy... and part of this is because he feels he can never know how much of feon's love for him is influenced by their soul bond! all caed wants is to do right by the people he's convinced he'll never deserve, but how is he supposed to do right by a woman and a dragon he'll never feel worthy of?!
alongside these three horrible fools circling one another in a whirlwind of romantic and sexual confusion, there is professional fuckboy lesbian lysithea. as the daughter of the ambassador of laruze, a country with which nadara shares an ugly history, she's been in the same social circle as allene, caed, and feon since childhood. she therefore lives to drop diss tracks on caed, needle feon, and make sad cow eyes over the oblivious allene. invited to nadara for allene and caed's wedding, lysithea is not any happier about it than feon. does their mutual misery hold any chance for a change in their relationship, and how will lysithea endure being stuck in a land where she and her parent are considered Public Enemy Number One?
this is roughly what i've covered already in my old blurb for spitfire the legacy edition, which means that now i get to EXPOUND. hold onto your butt.
( lo! much expounding be within! )
