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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoyed the dynamics between Daha and Racmar. They’ve got a slow burn going because Daha doesn’t want to be a token Raltven to Racmar, so he keeps resisting temptation until Racmar meets his criteria. With that said, their first real sex scene felt almost rushed in the way it was written, which saddens me.
Even after Daha accepts Racmar in bed, there’s this interesting lingering tension because Racmar’s inner dragon doesn’t immediately jump on mating Daha. It makes Daha apprehensive of what their future will hold since he’s supposedly not Racmar’s mate. In response, Racmar decides to court Daha anyway. Admittedly the very overt romancing is not my jam (he literally gets Daha flowers), so this part dragged for me. Your mileage will obviously vary.
I think the story does some interesting things, but the dialogue constantly felt like a broken record. I understand real life can be like that, but fiction is meant to be more concise. The repetition didn’t drive the story forward; instead it kept circling the same points over and over again, dragging them out.
Ironically the one thing that needed to be discussed never was. It’s never explained why Racmar’s dragon takes forever to recognize Daha as its mate. Considering that is the crux of the entire relationship arc, it’s a dissatisfying oversight that’s made worse by the fact that these characters are made to talk through every tiny thing multiple times but somehow never this specific thing even once.
The rest of the plot is equally disappointing in a build up that leads to lukewarm results. The climax tries to provide nuance to a complex situation—and I do commend it for trying—but it just doesn’t hit right in a way I’m not able to articulate right now.
What I can say is that the core of the plot is the racism against the Raltvens, and I’m seriously side-eying the fact that this is set in the desert and all the major players are coded as white people. From a worldbuilding perspective the Dragons being white makes sense since they’re not meant to be local—in essence they’re imperialists. Daha, who’s visiting from a different country, being white is also acceptable. But the desert Raltvens don’t recognize that Daha is a foreigner, meaning they’re also white. Even the local Lelurra-race woman is lily white. It’s only the Brujai who are coded as Black, and they’re all depicted as aggressive antagonizers—except the dead ones—so uhhhh not a good look! By the time we finally meet dark-skinned dragons, it’s more than 60% into the book and they still have predominantly Eurocentric features that are the only things that are complimented.
I’m also frustrated about the ingrained misogyny in the worldbuilding. Female dragons are prized as childbearers, so they’re kept from combat situations. And then Racmar wants to treat feminine Daha akin to a childbearer, which even I find demeaning. There’s just this toxic masculinity across the board when it applies to women, and it’s yucky for me. There’s an appointed Dragon woman in every Dragon dread that’s put in a position of authority, and then it’s shown to be just a glorified caretaker to calm men’s disposition for violence, which is an entire unpacked bag of dogshit.
I think I’m done with this series. Might give the author another chance elsewhere, but they’re on thin ice.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Sexual harassment, War
Moderate: Child death, Death, Death of parent
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Interesting world, good story to zone out to.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
3.5 Stars
Sumida delivered an interesting story here. I enjoyed so many elements, like the intrigue and possessiveness between Daha and Rac. I liked watching the two banter; I liked watching Daha be this dainty character with a core of steel....but. But. The relationship development was very lacking. It started off strong and promising and then moved at warp speed and it basically stopped developing the way I would have loved to see. I will also say that the intrigue and central point of contention in this book ended quite lamely. It was very anticlimactic and didn't really make sense with all of the build up. I do like this author's writing, it's very interesting, but there are just a few things I wish were more well developed. We shall see how the rest of the series goes!
Sumida delivered an interesting story here. I enjoyed so many elements, like the intrigue and possessiveness between Daha and Rac. I liked watching the two banter; I liked watching Daha be this dainty character with a core of steel....but. But. The relationship development was very lacking. It started off strong and promising and then moved at warp speed and it basically stopped developing the way I would have loved to see. I will also say that the intrigue and central point of contention in this book ended quite lamely. It was very anticlimactic and didn't really make sense with all of the build up. I do like this author's writing, it's very interesting, but there are just a few things I wish were more well developed. We shall see how the rest of the series goes!
adventurous
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
medium-paced
This book surprised me with how much I enjoyed it. I've been in such a book slump and I not only read beyond the 30% mark (unlike the last six books I've tried), but was sneak reading it during family movie night. It's a unique fantasy world that didn't require a huge info dump. There was a first book I skipped, because well, this book looked more interesting to me honestly. I LOVE a good necromancer story. I'm going on the record saying this book can be read as a standalone.
This is a new author to me and the writing style took a bit of getting used to. Some parts I felt were written in a beautiful five-star manner and others I was wondering if it was the same author. The pacing and the plot and the politics- all very well done.
I did have one major issue with the book- Patriarchy (read misogyny). The dragons have only male warriors/guards/leaders. The two female dragons that are in the story by name are female stereotypes. The mother is "blessed by the goddess" because she had twins. They even double down on this concept in the first chapter of the next book. The female dragons are valued because they have children.
Quotes from this book:
"women like crowns- they sparkle"
"He only wants what's best for her and she would trust that. Plus she can always refuse."
And another one I can't find, but when the prince doesn't want the necromancer to fight the necromancer complains he's being treated like a female dragon.
On top of all that it is repeatedly mentioned how the necromancer flirting, but not giving in and having sex with the prince, could cause the dragon in the prince to waken and *ahem* forcefully take sex. I lost the exact quote from the king, but after this almost happened, he says something along the lines of "I told you not to tease him." And all this was okay because the dragon is a different being from the man. They can't help it. It sometimes gets too hard to fight the dragon. Oh. My. God. It's not even a generation ago human men were using a similar excuse.
This all bothered me so much I debated not continuing the series even though I've really enjoyed this story, but I'm going to try it. Like I said, it was a good plot with interesting characters and I'm curious what she'll do with the next book.
This is a new author to me and the writing style took a bit of getting used to. Some parts I felt were written in a beautiful five-star manner and others I was wondering if it was the same author. The pacing and the plot and the politics- all very well done.
I did have one major issue with the book- Patriarchy (read misogyny). The dragons have only male warriors/guards/leaders. The two female dragons that are in the story by name are female stereotypes.
Spoiler
(Someone with a calming nature unless her children are threatened and a manipulator.)Quotes from this book:
"women like crowns- they sparkle"
"He only wants what's best for her and she would trust that. Plus she can always refuse."
And another one I can't find, but when the prince doesn't want the necromancer to fight the necromancer complains he's being treated like a female dragon.
On top of all that it is repeatedly mentioned how the necromancer flirting, but not giving in and having sex with the prince, could cause the dragon in the prince to waken and *ahem* forcefully take sex. I lost the exact quote from the king, but after this almost happened, he says something along the lines of "I told you not to tease him." And all this was okay because the dragon is a different being from the man. They can't help it. It sometimes gets too hard to fight the dragon. Oh. My. God. It's not even a generation ago human men were using a similar excuse.
This all bothered me so much I debated not continuing the series even though I've really enjoyed this story, but I'm going to try it. Like I said, it was a good plot with interesting characters and I'm curious what she'll do with the next book.
While I really enjoyed both the plot and the tension of this one, the actual relationship between Daha and Racmar wasn't really my favorite. I appreciate the struggle and the conflict, but beyond "you're pretty" I never really saw any chemistry, which led Daha's behavior to feel desperate and contrived to me. Dunno. Maybe it's a me thing or a timing thing and I just wasn't in the right headspace for this book. Still, it was an interesting read.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes