You can also read this review on my blog 
 In short: Though The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas seemed to have everything I love in my fantasy books, I needed more originality to make it stand out. 
 There's a fine line between enjoying a fantasy book that incorporates all the elements that you love in fantasies and being disappointed in a fantasy book because most of the elements are overused and cliched. Could be just a matter of mood. On paper, I should have loved The Burning Sky to pieces and maybe if I had read it at a different time, I would have. But instead of being of being comforted by the familiar tropes I have come to love in my favourite fantasies, I found myself annoyed that The Burning Sky had little to offer that was truly original. 
 The Burning Sky is your typical orphan prophesied to be really powerful and take on the dark overlord of the world story. Almost every spell, potion, and magical object in The Burning Sky has a corresponding match in the Harry Potter series. It really seemed to borrow heavily from the world J.K. Rowling created and that bothered me. Especially when the world building just FAILED in comparison to that in the Harry Potter series. It wasn't hard to follow or anything, but I didn't leave the reading experience with a complete understanding of it. The plot in The Burning Sky was also significantly less engaging than Harry Potter. 
 There was still enough interest from The Burning Sky to maintain my attention though. I loved the inclusion of elemental magic and the idea of the magical book, The Crucible (even if it wasn't wholly original either). And I was fond enough of the characters and romance. The narration alternates nicely between Iolanthe's and Titus' point of view and we get good opportunities to get to know both of them and see how their minds work. The romance was of the slow burn, love-hate variety that I like, but at times I wished we could move away from the romance and focus more on the larger plot and enemies at hand. 
 Overall, The Burning Sky seemed to have everything I love in my fantasy books. But I needed more originality from it to make it stand out. Because as it is, there is no way that it was going to win in a comparison with its book twin, Harry Potter. We already have a story like Harry Potter and it's excellent so we don't need a subpar version that is not as interesting or engaging - sorry if that sounds harsh. There were definitely some redeemable factors about The Burning Sky, but I am going to hold off on reading book two until I see how it fares in reviews.