2.5 

Burn Up in Victory

By Jennifer R. Donohue
Burn Up in Victory by Jennifer R. Donohue digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

When her brother Marco unexpectedly elopes, Serafina of House Galeazzo is left alone with their distant father and domineering mother. Forced to step up and take part in the magical dueling society that Marco always shielded her from, Serafina must find her footing and manage to move forward, all the while wishing she escaped with her brother.

Lorenzo of House Valier was Marco's best friend, and had no idea that he was going to vanish into thin air. Now he's left without his closest confidante since childhood and, and that damnable sister left to fill that hole in their dueling circle. Why couldn't she have been the one to depart?

As the circle works to hone their skills, practice and occasional bloodshed bring them closer together. Serafina learns more about her magical spark, unable to disentangle herself from Lorenzo, until one fateful night after a tournament when he is the only place she can turn.

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Burn Up in Victory Reviews

2.5
“Mixed feelings on this one. I love the openness to sexuality and gender. There’s a nonbinary character and bisexual and/or pan sexual representation here. I struggled with the language a bit, it didn’t flow smoothly for me, but that’s personal preference. The backstory of what happens and why - that there are “sparks” of magical talent that people fine-tune was intriguing but felt underdeveloped. Some of the supporting characters and the internal thinking about not knowing about other social classes felt limiting. A good “show don’t tell” moment. And for me, the hardest bit was actually the perspective of Renzo, who seems in love with a man to the point of being uncaring and abusive to our female main character of Fina who then snaps out of it when her brother returns. He suddenly realizes how much she is favorably like her brother and then it’s a sudden romance. I don’t get this. It felt forced, unrealistic, and undesirable. I also thought his behavior deserved more attention and working through in the book by Fina, who struggles with an abusive mother and finding her voice. Her mother and Renzo seem matched in their behavior, which could be a draw for Fina but a decidedly unhealthy one. My personal experience with abuse didn’t quite line up with Fina’s mother’s behavior being consistent, but that won’t necessarily pull anyone else from this story. I think there was a lot here that could have captured my attention really strongly - I love detailed world building within intriguing mixes like this one - but for me the execution was off.”

About Jennifer R. Donohue

 Jennifer R. Donohue grew up at the Jersey Shore and now lives in central New York with her husband and their Doberman. A member of the SFWA, she works at her local public library where she also facilitates a writing workshop. Her work has appeared in Apex Magazine, Escape Pod, Fusion Fragment, and elsewhere. Her debut novel, Exit Ghost, is available now. She tweets @AuthorizedMusin and you can subscribe to her Patreon for a new short story every month: https://www.patreon.com/JenniferRDonohue

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