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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
Seraphina drops you smack dab in a European-esque country in somewhat medieval times with a Christian-esque religion of slightly monstrous Saints with the title character and just expects you to figure things out.
I love that. Porphry is a city-state where Seraphina works as assistant music director for the Queen's residence. Despite being insanely talented musically, Seraphina tries very hard not to stand out. She has secrets, and it has something to do with Orma, the very strange, socially awkward friend of her father's who saved her life when she was very young.
Only Seraphina can't stay hidden in the background very long. When an emergency forces her to play at a Prince's funeral, she comes to the attention of the royal family just as they are preparing for their 40th celebration of peace.
Porphry had spent long years warring with dragons. Malcontents on both sides now agitate to disturb the peace. Seraphina begins to realize her secrets might be the key to protecting the head dragon himself and the princess who has become her friend.
Very, very cool world building (three-legged Saints! Pyregyria whirling dervish dancers! Mega-harmoniums and Seraphina's mental garden of grotesqueries) There's just enough surprising twists on the normal pseudeo-Medieval details to keep you reading.
In the midst of these imaginative details are characters worth hanging out with. Orma by himself struggling through social rituals was fun, but add in crotchety old ladies like Dame Okra and the sweet, low-key YA romance between Seraphina the Prince/Captain of the Guard Kiggs and you've got gold.
Looking forward to the next one.
This Book's Snack Rating: like a handful of Chex Mix for the fascinating bits of world in each bite and the fun, crunchy textures of the endearing characters
I love that. Porphry is a city-state where Seraphina works as assistant music director for the Queen's residence. Despite being insanely talented musically, Seraphina tries very hard not to stand out. She has secrets, and it has something to do with Orma, the very strange, socially awkward friend of her father's who saved her life when she was very young.
Only Seraphina can't stay hidden in the background very long. When an emergency forces her to play at a Prince's funeral, she comes to the attention of the royal family just as they are preparing for their 40th celebration of peace.
Porphry had spent long years warring with dragons. Malcontents on both sides now agitate to disturb the peace. Seraphina begins to realize her secrets might be the key to protecting the head dragon himself and the princess who has become her friend.
Very, very cool world building (three-legged Saints! Pyregyria whirling dervish dancers! Mega-harmoniums and Seraphina's mental garden of grotesqueries) There's just enough surprising twists on the normal pseudeo-Medieval details to keep you reading.
In the midst of these imaginative details are characters worth hanging out with. Orma by himself struggling through social rituals was fun, but add in crotchety old ladies like Dame Okra and the sweet, low-key YA romance between Seraphina the Prince/Captain of the Guard Kiggs and you've got gold.
Looking forward to the next one.
This Book's Snack Rating: like a handful of Chex Mix for the fascinating bits of world in each bite and the fun, crunchy textures of the endearing characters
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Renaissance-Italy-inspired fantasy with dragons. What else can I say?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry
Minor: Self harm
Discrimination against dragons is similar to discrimination against many real-world groups. (Ex: Dragons are attacked based on a Catholic-like religion and are forced to wear bells identifying them as dragons when they are in human form, for examples).
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
This book is mostly focused on character development. It was pretty slow with very little action. Most of the danger was political. The storyline wasn't bad, but I would need a personal recommendation to read the rest of the series.
The magic was mostly mind work and the main character is half dragon with other dragons in a peace treaty that forces them to stay in their human form.
The magic was mostly mind work and the main character is half dragon with other dragons in a peace treaty that forces them to stay in their human form.
this was actually really good: cool concept, DRAGONS AND MATHS, lovely writing, and an interesting heroine with a really sweet female friendship between her and a princess! and the heterosexual romance, while unnecessary, didn't take up that much space and also wasn't as glaringly cringe as it could've been, considering the early 2010s publishing date. and ORMA... ORMA... best character? best character.
slight downsides: ages of the core characters (seraphina, kiggs, glisselda) were very strange; they acted a lot older, had much older voices, and the first two occupy positions in the court that they realistically wouldn't have at their ages (seraphina was 16 and kiggs was.. i don't think it was ever specified, but for [plot reasons] i'm going to assume he wasn't over 18). also, the Big Fight at the end, while emotional (orma...) was over so fast and seemed so anticlimactic and sudden that it felt strange that the whole book had been leading towards it. to be honest, the drive behind the entire plot did seem quite wishy-washy at times, and it's pretty clear that this was mostly to set up for whatever's going to happen in the next book. HOWEVER, i will be reading that (at some point), and this was good, so who cares!
slight downsides: ages of the core characters (seraphina, kiggs, glisselda) were very strange; they acted a lot older, had much older voices, and the first two occupy positions in the court that they realistically wouldn't have at their ages (seraphina was 16 and kiggs was.. i don't think it was ever specified, but for [plot reasons] i'm going to assume he wasn't over 18). also, the Big Fight at the end, while emotional (orma...) was over so fast and seemed so anticlimactic and sudden that it felt strange that the whole book had been leading towards it. to be honest, the drive behind the entire plot did seem quite wishy-washy at times, and it's pretty clear that this was mostly to set up for whatever's going to happen in the next book. HOWEVER, i will be reading that (at some point), and this was good, so who cares!
I like human/dragon romances and I make no attempt to hide that fact.
This is not what this book is about however. What this book is about is the resulting issue of such romances and the turbulent feelings of confusions, disgust and unworthiness that come with being born of two worlds.
Seraphina is a much more likeable protagonist than her half-sister Tess - full of anxieties and fear, and a lot less caught up in the religious mindset that Tess has - and I found her far more relateable even aside from the whole bi-species thing.
I will say it made me slightly uncomfortable that it seemed like the dragons were coded as being autistic - with their tendency to focus on a specific subject, fond of science, order and definable things and uncomfortable with things that could not be easily defined such as emotion and art. However I don't know anything about the author herself and being allistic myself, that's the extent that I will comment about that.
I am looking forward to the amicable love triangle/polyamorous arrangement that will work itself out between Seraphina, Lucien and Griselda in the next book - Griselda seemed a bit too much of a match maker in this book for her to be entirely oblivious as to what was developing between Seraphina and Lucien, and it's always pleasing when things turn out to end in happy polyamory.
This is not what this book is about however. What this book is about is the resulting issue of such romances and the turbulent feelings of confusions, disgust and unworthiness that come with being born of two worlds.
Seraphina is a much more likeable protagonist than her half-sister Tess - full of anxieties and fear, and a lot less caught up in the religious mindset that Tess has - and I found her far more relateable even aside from the whole bi-species thing.
I will say it made me slightly uncomfortable that it seemed like the dragons were coded as being autistic - with their tendency to focus on a specific subject, fond of science, order and definable things and uncomfortable with things that could not be easily defined such as emotion and art. However I don't know anything about the author herself and being allistic myself, that's the extent that I will comment about that.
I am looking forward to the amicable love triangle/polyamorous arrangement that will work itself out between Seraphina, Lucien and Griselda in the next book - Griselda seemed a bit too much of a match maker in this book for her to be entirely oblivious as to what was developing between Seraphina and Lucien, and it's always pleasing when things turn out to end in happy polyamory.
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
An interesting concept, and it picked up 85% of the way in. I just didn't feel connected to the characters and the story took a long time to develop.
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes