Cozy night
With Hearts Of FlameBook club questions, food & host guide
Briar Boleyn
#11 New York Times Fiction Bestseller
1 week on the list
A cozy book club night for With Hearts Of Flame by Briar Boleyn. Includes 8 spoiler-free discussion questions, food and drink pairings, a playlist, and a host guide, ready to print and share.
A club that reads fantasy for comfort and connection, and would rather swap feelings than dissect symbolism
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The fourth installment in the Bloodwing Academy series blends dragons, dwarven secrets and prophecy with the found-family warmth of a magical school, making it ideal for a night of blankets and big feelings. It is the kind of book readers finish in a weekend and immediately want to talk about with someone who gets it.
Why it works for clubs
- Academy settings give everyone a shared emotional shorthand (mentors, rivals, belonging)
- Prophecy and sacrifice raise gentle questions about duty versus the people you love
- Dragons and dwarven lore invite readers to share what they pictured and loved
- A later-series book means the group can talk about growing attached to characters over time
Themes & mood
Browse all themes →Reading level
Easy
Warm-up questions
- 1 Before we talk about anything else: where did you read most of this one, and did you have a blanket, a mug, or a pet involved?
- 2 Coming back to Bloodwing Academy for a fourth book, what felt like walking into a familiar room? Was it a place, a voice, or just a certain feeling?
Digging in
- 1 Dragons in this book are awe and danger at once. When you imagined being near one, did your body feel fear first or wonder first? Tell us what you pictured.
- 2 The dwarven quest is a secret carried underground, away from the light. Have you ever kept something quiet to protect someone? You can keep it vague, we just want the shape of it.
- 3 Prophecy hangs over everyone here like weather. What is something that has felt 'already decided' in your own life, and how did you make peace with it (or not)?
- 4 Which small moment in this book comforted you most, a kindness, a shared meal, a hand offered at the right time? Read it to us if you flagged it.
Going deep
- 1 This story keeps asking what people will give up for each other. Without saying what happens, what did reading about that cost stir up in you, and did you want anyone in this book to choose differently?
- 2 Four books in, you know these characters well. As the stakes rise, what are you most tender about protecting for them, and what would you want to say to one of them if you could sit down together?
On the table
Dwarven hearth stew with torn bread
A thick root-vegetable and beef stew in mismatched mugs, the food of long tunnels and longer quests, and the easiest possible make-ahead for a host who wants to actually sit down
Dragonfire pepper cheese toasties
Golden, griddled, cut into small triangles with a little chili jam for heat, so the dragons get their due without anyone leaving the couch
Honey and oat academy bakes
Sturdy honey-oat bars, the sort you imagine students pocketing before a cold dawn lesson, sweet enough to feel like a reward after a prophecy-heavy chapter
To sip
Spiced apple hearthfire cider (warm, non-alcoholic)
No alcohol
Cinnamon, clove and orange peel simmering on the stove so the whole house smells like a mountain hall fire
Mulled red wine with honey
Dark, warm and a little indulgent, the obvious pour for a table talking about oaths and old lore
Scorch and cream (hot chocolate with a splash of spiced rum)
Rich cocoa with a smoky-sweet finish, half dragon, half bedtime, for whoever wants the softest landing of the night
Low, warm fantasy folk and hushed strings, like a fire crackling under something enormous and winged circling overhead
- 03 Wanderer's Lullaby - Adriana Figueroa
- 04 Oak Hall - Jon Hopkins
- 05 Hymn for the Weekend of Stone - Peter Sandberg
Tap a track to play it. Full songs play when you're signed into Spotify.
Run of show
7:00
Arrive and claim a blanket
Stew already warm on the stove, cider simmering, no seating plan. Let people serve themselves and settle in for twenty minutes before anyone says the word prophecy.
7:20
Warm-up round
Go around with the two warm-up questions. Keep it light and let people talk about their reading nook, not their opinions.
7:40
Theme talk by the fire
Pull two or three theme questions from the cards. If one lands, stay there. There is no need to get through all of them.
8:10
Toasties and trivia
Bring out the cheese toasties and run the trivia out loud as a team effort, no scoring, just shouting guesses.
8:30
The deep two
Dim the lights, hand out the honey-oat bars, and ask the two deeper questions. Remind everyone we are talking feelings, not spoiling endings.
8:55
Scorecards and soft landing
Fill in scorecards, hand out bookmarks, and let the group pick the next read while the last of the cider goes around.
Host tips
- Make the stew the day before. A host who is stirring a pot cannot hear anyone's favorite scene.
- Say out loud at the start that spoilers for the ending are off limits, since someone in a four-book series is almost always two chapters behind.
- Put a basket of spare socks, blankets and sticky notes by the door. People talk more honestly once their feet are warm.
You're invited
Bring A Blanket, We Are Going Back To Bloodwing
Stew, cider and dragons: come talk about With Hearts Of Flame in your softest clothes. No analysis required, just bring the parts that made your chest ache.
Trivia
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1
What series does With Hearts Of Flame belong to?Answer: The Bloodwing Academy series.
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2
Where does this book fall in the series order?Answer: It is the fourth book.
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3
Who wrote it?Answer: Briar Boleyn.
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4
Which fantasy race is tied to the secret quest in the publisher description?Answer: Dwarves.
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5
What creatures are named as a presence in this installment?Answer: Dragons.
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6
What classic fantasy plot device looms over the story, hinting that sacrifices may be required?Answer: An ancient prophecy.
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7
What subgenre does a magical-school fantasy like this belong to?Answer: Academy (or 'magic school') fantasy, often shelved as romantasy.
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8
Briar Boleyn is also known for another fantasy series centered on Arthurian legend. What is its name?Answer: Blood of a Fae / the Queen of Roses (Arthurian-inspired) series.
Bookmarks
Cozy night
Warm dread
Pull the blanket closer. The dragons are only circling.
With Hearts Of Flame
Cozy night
Quiet loyalty
Some oaths are kept in whispers, underground, by lamplight.
With Hearts Of Flame
Cozy night
Tender flame
Hearts like hearths: small fire, long winter, still burning.
With Hearts Of Flame
Rate the book
Comfort factor
Heart-ache level
World I wanted to live in
Characters I would feed soup to
Would reread by a fire
One word for how this book left me:
The moment I reread twice:
Who I would invite into this story's kitchen:
Print pack
- Question cards on kraft stock to pass around the couch
- Mug tags so nobody loses their cider
- Bookmark set (three designs) tucked into departing bags
- Cozy scorecard half-sheets with a pencil
- A 'no spoilers past chapter one' door sign
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