Review: Blazewrath Games by Amparo Ortiz

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Series: Blazewrath Games #1
Author: Amparo Ortiz
Edition: audiobook
Publisher: Page Street Kids (October 6, 2020)
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
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Synopsis

Goodreads:

Lana Torres has always preferred dragons to people. In a few weeks, sixteen countries will compete in the Blazewrath World Cup, a tournament where dragons and their riders fight for glory in a dangerous relay. Lana longs to represent her native Puerto Rico in their first ever World Cup appearance, and when Puerto Rico’s Runner—the only player without a dragon steed—is kicked off the team, she’s given the chance.

But when she discovers that a former Blazewrath superstar has teamed up with the Sire—a legendary dragon who’s cursed into human form—the safety of the Cup is jeopardized. The pair are burning down dragon sanctuaries around the world and refuse to stop unless the Cup gets cancelled. All Lana wanted was to represent her country. Now, to do that, she’ll have to navigate an international conspiracy that’s deadlier than her beloved sport.

My thoughts

Blazewrath Games is a fantasy novel with a relatively common hero story that is made unique and enticing through its execution and the worldbuilding. I expected a cute adventure featuring dragons. Instead, I got a wonderful world with a magic system I am desperate to learn more about, characters I fell in love with on page one and a lot of twists and turns I was excited to follow.

Plot and Pacing

There were definitely parts where I felt the story moved too fast and I wished I had the opportunity to hang around a little longer! The world Amparo Ortiz built is so rich and interesting with bits and pieces of lore and history scattered throughout that I really wanted to know more about. So while the pacing wasn’t quite what I had hoped, it is a sign of great worldbuilding if you get me to want to stay in a story longer than it allows me to. Seriously, I could’ve easily read a hundred more pages or so if it means I got to learn more about dragons and magic.

Characters

Let’s talk characters because oh boy, I loved them all! Lana is a wonderfully strong lead. She is brave and resourceful and 100% a team player and her changing dynamic with the other players was wonderful to read about! My favourite side-character has to be Samira, she is a force of pure chaos and, despite it seeming that way in the beginning, she isn’t purely the quirky best friend. Her development made me smile, it’s always nice to see side-characters having character development as well.

One thing I particularly loved about Blazewrath Games is the effortless diversity in the characters. Lana is half Puerto Rican and half American and her coming to terms with what that means to her is a throughline in the plot and reflected in the various themes of the story. There are players from various different backgrounds, we get some LGBTQ+ representation and a badass trans government agent who just gets to exist and kick ass. Overall, this story is such a perfect example of how natural it can be to represent all kinds of people in a story and it warmed my heart.