Fireborn
Jessa Graythorne
Reader Reviews
3.0
1 rating
Beth .
Mar 15, 2026
3.5 stars but I won’t round up to 4 because even though I enjoyed this book, and will read any other future books in the series, it felt like the author had lifted many parts of it directly from the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning. I mean more than just using as inspiration, parts felt legitimately lifted. And not just the title.
A main character who’s sibling is killed by otherworldly beings in an old world foreign city, who goes on a quest to find out what killed them and gets sucked into an entirely new world within our world she didn’t know existed. Who partners up with kind of a douchebag loner who knows everyone and everything and basically runs the city, who turns into her mentor/love interest.
A heroine who is constantly scribbling lists of pros and cons in her notebook, only she uses purple ink instead of pink
The heroine obsessed with high-dollar high-end muscle cars
The douchebag loner has an extensive collection of high end motorcycles, including a Ducati modified to basically be silent and glide.
Blonde Irish girls who can see and hunt the other species, named “Mack and Eliana,†coincidentally Eliana (Alina) is killed by said creatures and Mack (Mac) is out to avenge her. come on. That’s Mac and Alina…literally.
A vicious life-ending throat wound that they survived only by the douchebag loner/teacher/antihero using black magic and runes on himself to save her.
There were quite a lot more incredibly similar plot lines, but I don’t feel like writing a thesis. Despite the huge amount of creative overlap, there was enough originality to keep me from using the actual P word (although the thought crossed my mind more than once…) Hal (again a female character with a masculine nickname,) was much more natural badass from the beginning than Mac, who had to evolve into a badass, which kept it interesting, and the parts that were original were really good. But… it’s still tainted.
A main character who’s sibling is killed by otherworldly beings in an old world foreign city, who goes on a quest to find out what killed them and gets sucked into an entirely new world within our world she didn’t know existed. Who partners up with kind of a douchebag loner who knows everyone and everything and basically runs the city, who turns into her mentor/love interest.
A heroine who is constantly scribbling lists of pros and cons in her notebook, only she uses purple ink instead of pink
The heroine obsessed with high-dollar high-end muscle cars
The douchebag loner has an extensive collection of high end motorcycles, including a Ducati modified to basically be silent and glide.
Blonde Irish girls who can see and hunt the other species, named “Mack and Eliana,†coincidentally Eliana (Alina) is killed by said creatures and Mack (Mac) is out to avenge her. come on. That’s Mac and Alina…literally.
A vicious life-ending throat wound that they survived only by the douchebag loner/teacher/antihero using black magic and runes on himself to save her.
There were quite a lot more incredibly similar plot lines, but I don’t feel like writing a thesis. Despite the huge amount of creative overlap, there was enough originality to keep me from using the actual P word (although the thought crossed my mind more than once…) Hal (again a female character with a masculine nickname,) was much more natural badass from the beginning than Mac, who had to evolve into a badass, which kept it interesting, and the parts that were original were really good. But… it’s still tainted.