4.5/5 Stars This was such an incredible book! It took me a couple of chapters to get into it with the different POVs but then I couldn’t put it down! It had everything you could want from an epic fantasy: strong, complex characters, amazing world building and a quest getting everyone together! Kirby, Aleya and Nylophon were all such interesting characters and I loved following them on their quest and through different countries and cultures. The world building was rich, new and interesting. I really enjoyed the way faith and magic were intertwined and how we discovered everything alongside our main characters. I would absolutely recommend this book and will definitely be picking up Grace Curtis’s other books. If you’re a fan of epic fantasy and enjoyed books like Godkiller by Hannah Kaner or Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard, please do yourself a favour and pick up this book!

This was a really great epic fantasy. Featuring an endearing cast of characters, and a wonderfully written sapphic romance - with plenty of humor and heart.

I am such a huge fan of Grace Curtis sci-fi books so I was curious to try their fantasy writing! I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher. Here we start the book following two different women, one living in a palace and with magical powers, one living in a struggling village suffering a tragic loss. Both will journey from miles apart to reach a mysterious city, one for a quest, one to save her town. It was an interesting juxtaposition to see their different experiences at the start of their travels. They are different in temperament, wealth, fighting ability and must approach their journey accordingly. We start to see found family elements in this story, but with Curtis, it was not going to be straightforward or expected and we see this turned on its head. Cleverly done. I was a huge fan of the connections between the two main characters and how they influenced each other for the better, making each other braver, kinder, more compassionate. We have an interesting magic system relating to the title of the book. I would have happily seen more of this. I can understand why restraint was necessary within the structures of the novel but I found this very cool so would have gladly seen more. A good foray into fantasy from Grace Curtis, a fantastic writer who is so good at journeys, writing the unexpected and giving us characters we can root for.

This is a story about two young women very unhappy with their current lives and deciding to go looking for something else to make everything better. Kirby and Aleya are from very different stations in life, but when they are thrown together in an encounter full of action and trauma, they end up forming a fast friendship as they endure lots of hardship and some danger during their joint quest. This was an ambitious book. After all, anyone who decides to write a character who regularly breaks the Fourth Wall by using second-person POV (you) isn’t aiming to write a generic crowd-pleaser. While I found Kirby’s name jarring as it sounded far too modern for this alternate world which is still adjusting to the fall of the Nivelan empire, both main characters are written with sensitivity and depth. I thoroughly enjoyed their deepening friendship that eventually turns into a love affair and could absolutely believe in it. Curtis writes well – her characters are nuanced with strengths and weaknesses and despite at times being stubborn to the point of being plain annoying, I never stopped wanting Aleya and Kirby to prevail. Though this book is touted as being a sapphic road quest, there is another character, who starts off being thoroughly unpleasant. But ends up accompanying the two women on their journey and is very much altered by the experience – though there isn’t anything remotely cosy about this transformation. Curtis writes with a gritty edge that keeps her stories unpredictable. Often the surprises that come our way keep the plot fresh and intriguing – but they aren’t always wholly successful. I got the sense that Curtis had one ending planned and then added the final scene because she’d become so invested in her characters, she wanted that additional opportunity for them. Not only did I think it was unnecessary – I felt it blunted the impact of the previous Epilogue, which I’d really enjoyed. Nonetheless, Curtis is an adventurous, capable author who provides something different and if you enjoy reading something that generally falls slightly outside the usual SFF fare, then give her a go. The ebook arc copy of Idolfire was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest opinion of the book. 8/10

Idolfire is a solid adventure novel with a firm focus on its characters, and how their relationship grows as their adventure progresses. I know Grace Curtis for her excellent character development, and those hallmarks are ever present in Idolfire - for her fantasy debut, she takes a smaller pool of POV characters to develop much more than the characters of her previous works. The result is a nice balance of adventure and sapphic romance, with neither aspect stifling the other. The world felt dynamic, and the regions passed through during the plot felt distinct enough to draw you into the journey. The final segment took on a different tone to the rest of the novel, and the ending didn’t go the way I’d expected (and subverted plenty of the classic tropes you find at the end of adventure/romance novels). I had two gripes with the novel that kept me from rating the book a little higher. The first revolves around the elements of magic and idolfire in the story, which didn’t factor into the story anywhere near as much as I expected (especially since the book is named after it!). The impression I got was of a book setting up a series of novels, and just giving a hint of what magic is present in the world. However, without spoilers for the end, the finale resolved enough of the plot to not absolutely warrant a sequel (though the scope is definitely still there). With such an ending, I have to conclude the magic felt rushed and underused in Idolfire, which is a shame given the potential it had. My other (less cohesive) complaint is that Idolfire, while being a perfectly fine fantasy novel, simply didn’t have the spark that has drawn me to Curtis’ previous books. The perspective hopping shown in Frontier and Floating Hotel was a really unique style, and is an excellent way of demonstrating her talent at rapid-fire quality character creation. Rest assured Idolfire’s characters were well developed, but the book as a whole felt more run-of-the-mill and generic when her previous novels shined with originality. Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and to NetGalley for an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review!