Book Review: “Wings Of Fire: The Lost Heir” by Tui T. Sutherland

Warning: If you have not read “Wings Of Fire: The Lost Heir” by Tui T. Sutherland, don’t read this book review unless you don’t mind spoilers!

I’m back with another book review, and this time I’m reading “Wings Of Fire: The Lost Heir” by Tui T. Sutherland! I previously read “The Dragonet Prophecy” by this author and loved it, so I figured I might as well continue reading this series. Here’s a summary so we know what it’s about:

“She can’t believe it’s finally happening. Tsunami and her fellow dragonets of destiny are journeying under the water to the great SeaWing Kingdom. Stolen as an egg from the royal hatchery, Tsunami is eager to meet her future subjects and reunite with her mother, Queen Coral.

But Tsunami’s triumphant return doesn’t go quite the way she’d imagined. Queen Coral welcomes her with open wings, but a mysterious assassin has been killing off the queen’s heirs for years, and Tsunami may be the next target. The dragonets came to the SeaWings for protection, but this ocean hides secrets, betrayal—and perhaps even death.”

Character Development: 4 out of 5 stars

Given that this book focuses on Tsunami in the main plot, and we see things through her point of view in third person, I can definitely say there was a lot of development in her as she discovered her missing family and tribe. Unlike Clay from last book, Tsunami’s family is much more welcoming to her return and it’s revealed that not only does she have a mother through Queen Coral (who absolutely loves her and truly did wait long for her return), but she also has two sisters; Orca (who is now deceased due to previously challenging Coral for the throne and losing, resulting in death) and Anenome. I also like the further depth on Riptide (who appears to be a potential love interest for Tsunami) and Webs from last book as well.

Like how Scarlet was met last book, the second of the three SandWings fighting for power, Blister, is introduced due to the SeaWings working with Blister. It seems that all the SandWing potential-queens are all quite ruthless in their own ways. While Scarlet from last book was much more ruthless and forceful, Blister is much more manipulative as discovered by two-thirds into the book. There’s also more of Morrowseer and Blister’s plotting to have Blister as the queen by the end of the war as well, as hinted in the Epilogue, and it seems that anything could happen.

Due to the plot almost-completely focusing on Tsunami the whole time, however, there wasn’t much room for Clay, Glory, Starflight or Sunny to really develop much, which was a shame. However, we do get see Tsunami grow in asserting herself to others, trying to choose between sticking with the prophesized dragonet role or as the long-lost princess that she literally is. I hope there will be more chances for the others to develop in later books.

Plot Development: 4.5 out of 5 stars

The plot has a lot of continuity to it, given that some of it builds on what happened last book, including (spoiler alert!) Kestrel being murdered, as almost halfway through the book her body is discovered. I also loved the mystery surrounding who attempted assassinating the Queen’s daughters as well.

There are also some clever little twists such as this: It was stated in the past book that there was a story that Tsunami loved to read entitled The Missing Princess, where a long-lost princess ends up reuniting with her family. Turns out her mother was the one who wrote it, and is a very prolific writer on top of being a queen. Not only did those little twists add to the plot, but also added hidden depths to all the new characters that came in such as Riptide (with the reveal that Webs is his father and that he has bad blood with Queen Coral’s family as a result), and the reveal that Gill, the dragon Tsunami was forced to kill last book, was her own father. I wonder if he’ll ever be brought up again, as well as Kestrel, given how they have significance to Tsunami and her friends.

Worldbuilding Development: 5 out of 5 stars!

The worldbuilding was one of the best parts of this book, given that the location focused on where all the SeaWings live and how they function in their society. I love the cultural misunderstandings that Tsunami experiences when first meeting Riptide (mirroring his movements and not realizing that it’s a romantic wooing and then attacking him afterwards for example), as well as Tsunami learning that the SeaWings like her actually have their own language that they speak on top of that. Given Tsunami’s past of having lived in isolation for so long, it makes sense that she has this bit of culture shock coming to her and there are things she has to get used to. I also enjoyed the political happenings being explained so well in this book, and how they tied into the main plot.

Overall, I’m rating this book 4.5 out of 5 stars!