Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death of parent
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child abuse
This book follows Elowen Atarah, the lost princess of Imirath and the current queen of Astilian who was tortured as a child by her father for being bonded to five dragons. She is determined to free her dragons even if it means allying herself with Cayden Veles, the Commander of Vareveth - the most feared and dangerous man in all the kingdoms. HINT: a steamy romance.
The plot sounds good. However, it wasn't executed well. For starters, Cayden is the commander but doesn't need to obey the king - why not just make him a prince commander? No - because he has to have a tragic backstory. Elowen is considered the queen of a new nation - but doesn't do anything and the heist that was promised in the blurb doesn't happen until way into the second half of the book. Overall the writing wasn't as good and I feel this book needed a lot of editing.
The Romance: There were some scenes I loved but a lot of the romance happened off-page, meaning it felt very instant love. Moreover in the final five pages after they had confessed their feelings and gotten together the author created a conflict so the two MCs could spend the next book with more sexual tension. It came out of nowhere and was pointless.
I liked the plot even though it wasn't executed well, and there were some scenes I enjoyed, which is why I gave this book 3 stars. However, I won't be reading the next book.
Graphic: Sexual content, Murder
Moderate: Torture
Minor: Child abuse
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Death of parent, War, Injury/Injury detail
I really liked the little moments we got with the dragons and I wish we had more! I enjoyed the ending, so I'm interested in continuing the series because I want more dragons!!! They were honestly the most interesting part of the story. Unfortunately, we only got little glimpses for a majority of the book. There was a moment around 50-60% of the way through that I thought about dnfing because I was getting bored, but I'm glad I pushed through to see
I thought the romance was also just ok. The banter was good, but it felt like there was no relationship development from unlikely allies to being willing to die and kill for eachother. They just sassed each other for a few pages and suddenly they started professing their undying loyalty. We needed to see them start to trust one another and actually become allies before getting together. It would've added tension and made them getting together much more satisfying and believable. It was a lot of telling rather than showing in the romance, but this was a problem throughout the book as well.
I think this book could be great if it was longer and took the time to really build out all the different elements at play. I have so many questions about the world that are unexplained. The story is built off of the reader just accepting what is going on and what is being told to us and not asking for more detail. Which is not great for a fantasy story with a big political plotline. It leaves me feeling like I'm missing things. I didn't hate this, but was just fine when it could've been great. It's a little disappointing. All the elements were there. It just needed a couple more rounds of edits and to world build a little more.
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, War
First of all the writing felt really clunky. Particularly Cayden’s dialogue, and their banter. However, it’s also very possible that the narrator just didn’t fit with the book (imo) and that exacerbated some of those problems that I would’ve possibly been able to overlook otherwise.
I also felt like the author was almost “forcing” Cayden and Elowen to dislike each other in order to try and achieve more of an enemies to lovers vibe. By all established information it seemed like they had very little reason not to like each other. Their interests kind of perfectly aligned, and they were clearly into each other from the jump.
Which is another thing that was odd because the relationship was almost being played as a slow burn, but Cayden’s main personality trait was that he’s basically just obsessed with Elowen. It just didn’t make sense.
As for Elowen, I love a stabby FMC not afraid to fight, but I wish she’d been more active in the plans/decisions being made. I also wish she’d had more motivation than just “get dragons back”. Like what about the kingdom?… The people?… Her birthright?
I dunno I just needed more from our MCs.
(Also, where was my dragon content?! I was promised dragons, and we barely got any.)
The side characters were good, and there are a lot of elements that I loved here, but it just didn’t come together from me.
I feel like I’m being hard on this book, but it was entertaining enough! I’m just not sure if I’ll look out for the next one.
Graphic: Torture, Violence, Blood
Moderate: Child abuse
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Violence, Death of parent, War
I did like elements of the story and some sentences were incredibly beautiful and inspirational, therefore in undecided as to whether I’ll continue this series or not.
Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury
What I liked:
The banter and world building were top tier. The world was easy to understand and it had quite a bit of politics. It was a lost princess story where we didn't spend the first book or two guessing if the main character was the lost princess. We just went right into it! I liked that switch up.
The found family was amazing! Finnian is so supportive and treated her so well. Saskia and Ryder were such fun additions as well.
This is definitely a romance book and Elowen and Cayden's interactions were the focus. The banter was fun and their reluctant allies situationship is one of my favorite tropes. A lot of their dialogue is super quotable. Even though you are in Elowen's head (single POV) you always know what Cayden is thinking.
What I didn't like:
It was so long.
Not enough page time with dragons.
The book is open door, which is fine with me! But the romance got a little drug out because the book is so long.
Elowen really wants revenge. Totally understandable. And she got it, so we read a lot of violence with no remorse. That felt like a little much to me.
Triggers: child abuse
Overall, I went into this book thinking it would be a 5 star, but I think it was a 4 because there were enough things I would change. I loved the beginning so much!
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Child abuse, Violence