The third book in the Wings of Fire series by Tui T. Sutherland is Wings of Fire: the Hidden Kingdom (young adult fantasy, 296 pages).

“The dragonets of destiny aren’t sure what to expect in the RainWing kingdom – Glory hopes to learn more about her family, and since the RainWings aren’t fighting in the war, all five dragonets think they might be able to hide safely for a while. But something deadly is stalking the peaceful kingdom, and the dragonets soon discover that RainWings have been mysteriously disappearing from the forest. When the RainWing queen won’t do anything to find her missing tribe members, Glory and her friends set off on their own rescue mission – which leads them right back into enemy territory …”

One of the interesting parts of this series I haven’t mentioned yet is how at the beginning of each book, there’s a map of Pyrrhia, as well as the NightWing Guide Dragons and every time I open these books, the urge to color everything is very, very strong. While I acknowledge that these books are mine, as I did in fact buy them, I’m still weirded out by the idea of “harming” a book. But I also did buy the official coloring book many years ago and I could just color that, but I don’t get the same burning desire to color the actual coloring book as I do to color the books of text. I am amused by this and perhaps will use the coloring of the front colors to actually color inside the books themselves one of these days.

But anyway.


This is easily my favorite of the Wings of Fire series so far. Glory is a very relatable character to me, as she’s motivated in this book by a severe sense of responsibility. When they arrive in the RainWing kingdom, the RainWings are so relaxed and chill that they don’t even know their own friends are missing. Glory is furious because she believes that someone should care if dragons are kidnapped and tortured, as well she should be.

By the end of this book, the dragonets of prophecy have met all three of their options for the SandWing throne and none of them would be very good queens. The queens are all brutal, manipulative, petty, and self-centered, which barely scratches the surface of their flaws and insuitability for ruling their respective dragon tribes. Even more, we see more of how the war is impacting all the dragons from all the tribes and how so many dragons don’t know what they’re fighting for or why and just want to go home to their families. Even though this is a fantasy series about a bunch of very young dragons, the horrors of war are accurate.

Those who order war are never those who pay for it.

I’m also interested in the alternate dragonets of destiny and the intrigue behind the prophecy. As much as Clay, Tsunami, Glory, StarFlight, and Sunny might disagree, especially in the first book and part of the second book, they are a family. The alternate dragons show that just because you’re raised together doesn’t make you a family, but the actual dragonets of prophecy have several options to split up throughout these three books so far and they still keep sticking together.

Overall, this is definitely a low four on my rating scale. I’m glad I purchased it and will continue to reread the entire series.

Sutherland, Tui T. The Wings of Fire: The Hidden Kingdom. Scholastic Press, 2013.