Audiobook Review – The Flames of Hope (Wings of Fire, Book 15) by Tui T. Sutherland, Narrated by Shannon McManus (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Middle Grade
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 9 hours and 12 minutes
Publisher:‎ Scholastic Audio
Release Date: April 05, 2022
ASIN: B09K2WH822
Stand Alone or Series: 15th book in the Wings of Fire series
Source: Audiobook from Audible
Rating: 3/5 stars

“In the last installment of the third arc of the Wings of Fire series, tensions are higher than ever as we prepare for a fight for the survival of all dragonkind!”

Series Info/Source: This is 15th (and final I think?) book in the Wings of Fire series. It is the fifth and final book in the third story arc of this series. I bought a copy of this on audiobook through Audible.

Thoughts: I mainly continued to read this series because my son loved it and it was nice to chat with him about it. He is 15 now and listened to this last book and was not impressed with it. I am not sure if he is getting too old for them or if this book was just a bit lack-luster. I feel like, for him, it was a bit of both since he is a pretty die hard fan of the series. I thought this was okay. It ties everything up well, but I thought the end was a bit drawn out and didn’t like how everything resolved.

The premise is very straightforward; Luna is helping to guide the dragons from Phyrria to the distant continent in hopes of helping free the dragons from the Hivewing rule once and for all.

This was okay. I wasn’t a huge fan of Luna and the other new characters added. There weren’t the awesome battles and excitement of the previous novels. This felt like it was just a playing out of the previous story. No huge surprises. I was a bit disappointed in how the “Breathe of Evil” plant and the Hivewings were “defeated”.

The end felt very drawn out. We were kind of bashed over the head over and over again about how happy, happy, wonderful things ended for all of dragon and humankind.

I honestly don’t have a ton to say about this. It was fine, it tied things up. I didn’t love it but it was good to finish the series. I don’t plan on reading anymore Wings of Fire books after this. My son doesn’t plan to read them anymore either and he was the main reason I kept up with the series. Some of the earlier books were very well done and very entertaining but I feel like ever since we’ve moved to “the distant continent” the story just hasn’t been as good.

I should mention that I listened to this on audiobook and the narration was very well done. If you enjoy audiobooks I would recommend listening to this whole series on audiobook; they are very high quality and great to listen to.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was fine, it ties up the series fairly completely. I didn’t love the characters here and thought the story was fairly predictable and boring. I thought the way some major plot points were tied up was very anti-climatic. I don’t plan on reading more Wings of Fire books if a new story arc is started. This was a well done middle grade series and some of the earlier books in the series are very entertaining. This is a great middle grade fantasy series for kids, it’s decent enough that adults who want to read it with their kids will probably enjoy it too. I feel like it went on one story arc too long though.