Reviews tagging 'War'

Wrath of the Dragons by Olivia Rose Darling

8 reviews

nadroj26's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional tense medium-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: No

Content Warnings

literarymary95's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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

I was a huge fan of Fear the Flames, and Wrath of the Dragon did not disappoint! While there may be less sexual tension and spice, the political intrigue and plot more than make up for it. The love between Elowen and Cayden is still as strong as ever, and I was so invested in their story.

That ending, though! I was not expecting it at all and am already dying to get my hands on the next book—even if I have to wait another year for it.

Content Warnings

clairebartholomew549's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I wanted to like this book, but to me it fell prey to the curse that often befalls a second book in a romantasy series: it attempts to expand the world but just makes things extremely confusing, the "conflict" between the love interests feels both contrived and too easily resolved, and the stakes just don't feel as high as the first novel. It's still enjoyable, but it was relatively lackluster for me.

I struggled to entirely grasp the plot, but here's my best shot at a summary. Elowen and Cayden have just conquered the kingdom of Varaveth and Elowen has reunited with her five adult dragons. Now, they are in a war against Elowen's abusive father's kingdom, Imirath, and they must rally other kingdoms to their cause, all while maintaining the front that they have an adoring marriage. But Elowen is still smarting from Cayden forcing her to marry him.

A lot of this book felt predictable, but maybe more importantly, it just didn't feel like there was enough narrative tension. I found myself skimming often, wanting to get to the good stuff, and then feeling disappointed. Elowen wrestles with feeling like Cayden has betrayed her, but her feelings are not all that complicated, and there's not really a build to an emotional confrontation that provides any satisfaction. Cayden's feelings are also so intense and overwrought that I was rolling my eyes at some points. The worldbuilding also just completely went over my head, and I wasn't invested enough to figure it out. It's been a while since I read the first book, so I'm sure that didn't help, but I think this book would have benefited from a quick recap, as opposed to the kingdom names, dragon names, and pronunciations. A lot of people seem to love this book, so maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it?

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for an advance reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!

Content Warnings

a10a's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous lighthearted sad tense medium-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

Je remercie Netgalley pour m'avoir offert cet ARC.

J’ai attendu si longtemps ce livre et il ne m’a pas déçue.

Elowen, LA REINE QUE TU ES !!! 🧎🏽‍♀️🧎🏽‍♀️

Par où commencer ?

Premièrement, pour les personnes qui ont lu Fear the Flames et n’étaient pas sûres de continuer, continuez.

Maintenant, ce que j’en ai pensé :

Wrath of the Dragons reprend directement là où s’est arrêté Fear the Flames. Le rythme du livre est plus lent et plus développé que le premier tome. La première partie se concentre surtout sur la relation entre Cayden et Elowen. Elowen ne lui fait plus confiance, Cayden essaie de réparer ce qu’il a brisé et en parallèle les 2 essaient de montrer qu’ils sont un couple royal uni et puissant. Ils essaient d’assurer leur “légitimité” sur le trône.
Ensuite, a lieu la préparation à la guerre et la formation d’alliances. On fait la rencontre de nouveaux personnages et potentiellement de nouvelles relations ?
Au fur et à mesure du livre, en même temps qu’Elowen on en apprend beaucoup plus sur le monde notamment sur les dieux, royaumes et dragons. Les dragons dans ce tome ont toujours leur côté “animal de compagnie” / “domestique” mais c’est sans rappelé leur côté sauvage et dangereux. Chaque dragon a sa personnalité, je les ai plus aimés que dans le premier tome et j’ai adoré leur relation avec Elowen.
La dernière partie est celle attendue le plus et a été inattendue pour certains points notamment la fin.

Un de mes passages préférés à la fin, attention spoliers :

Cayden quand il est fou de rage, tristesse et qu’il dit "Bring me Nykeem!”, "BRING HIM TO ME OR I WILL PEEL YOUR FLESH FROM YOUR BONES!”

Un de mes passages préférés, what a king.

Le seul point "négatif", même si ça ne l'est pas vraiment, j’aurais aimé avoir plus de moments entre Finnian et Elowen car je ne pourrai jamais en avoir assez et d’autres moments avec la bande toute réunie.

J'attends le troisième tome avec impatience.

English version

I would like to thank Netgalley for offering me this ARC.

I have waited so long for this book and it did not disappoint.
Elowen, the queen that you are !! 🧎🏽‍♀️🧎🏽‍♀️

Where to start?
Firstly, for those of you who have read Fear the Flames and weren't sure whether to continue, keep going.
Now, what I thought:

Wrath of the Dragons picks up right where Fear the Flames left off. The pace of the book is slower and more developed than the first volume. The first part focuses mainly on the relationship between Cayden and Elowen. Elowen no longer trusts him, Cayden is trying to repair what he has broken and, at the same time, the 2 are trying to show that they are a united and powerful royal couple. They're trying to ensure their “legitimacy” on the throne.
Then comes the preparation for war and the formation of alliances. We meet new characters and potentially new relationships?
As the book progresses, along with Elowen, we learn a great deal more about the world, particularly the gods, kingdoms and dragons. The dragons in this tome still have their “pet” / “domestic” side, but that's without recalling their wild and dangerous side. Each dragon has its own personality, I liked them more than in the first volume and I loved their relationship with Elowen.
The last part was the is the one we were waiting for the most and was unexpected especially the ending.
One of my favorite passages at the end, attention spolier
Cayden quand il est fou de rage, tristesse et qu’il dit "Bring me Nykeem!”, "BRING HIM TO ME OR I WILL PEEL YOUR FLESH FROM YOUR BONES!”
Un de mes passages préférés, what a king.

The only "negative" point, even if it's not really, is that I would have liked more moments between Finnian and Elowen because I can never get enough of them and more moments with the gang all together.

Content Warnings

literarydanni's review against another edition

3.75

emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I was provided an eArc before release by Bonnier Books. This review is my honest opinion.

I was so excited for this next book in the series after loving fear the flames. This book it is multi pov and we follow Elowen and Cayden and their journey to war with Imirath and to take the throne from King Garrick, Elowens Father.

The pacing of this book is much slower than that of fear the flames and most of the action/fighting takes up around 30% of the book. I do feel like this is a bit disappointing however the world building and relationship development does make up for this.

My only other negative is that it can sometimes be over descriptive and quite repetitive with certain aspects such as the Dragons and Elowen and Cayden when they describe each other.

The ending!?!?! That is all I will say but it's safe to say I will be anticipating the release of book 3 just as much!

Overall I really enjoyed this book and it am very excited and nervous to see where the story continues...

Content Warnings

kimwritesstuff's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous medium-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: No

This is the second book in the series, you definitely need to have read the first to understand this book.

If you like Romance Fantasy as a genre, you'll probably enjoy both books immensely. For me, I had several issues with the overall pacing and plot for this to be a 5-star read. I did enjoy the story, but I felt like the ending was a gotcha moment done for shock. It felt like the author ran out of ideas and that's where she decided to take the story.

We start the story right after the events of the first book. The first 100ish pages are Cayden and Elowen rebuilding their relationship....which was about 50 pages too much. There was so much time spent mooning over each other and not enough time furthering the plot. Even when they go to rescue more of Elowen's people, it's still kind of dull. Once the pair get married, there is a swifter movement in the plot. I did enjoy the battle scenes and the political intrigue. Especially Cayden and Elowen meeting other royals. I felt like we had more opportunities for them to grow as a couple and individual characters. Cayden and Elowen also each had some separate story lines. I like it when characters can develop outside of the love story.

The main issue I had besides the pacing was that there were too many tropes. We have soul bonds, inappropriate use of a signet ring, magical tattoos, touch her and die, and other common tropes. It just felt like too many one right on top of each other. It just felt like the author was regurgitating other people's writing. I just wished there had been more original writing. Also, no matter how many times there was evidence of Gods/Goddesses, both Cayden and Elowen would deny their existence. It was frustrating and also very naive. Like you have all this evidence around you that these beings are real and you're just going to be like nah. That makes no sense.

Am I going to keep reading this series? Probably. Am I going to love it? I don't know, I'm hoping the next book will exceed my expectations.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Delacorte Press for the advanced copy, all opinions are my own.

Content Warnings

mlgilliland's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Thank you to NetGalley, Olivia Rose Darling, and Ballantine-Delacorte Press for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn’t sure how this book was going to go. But let me tell you that Olivia Rose Darling is back. This felt similar to her indie publication of book 1. It was an addicting read. There were twists and turns that I was not prepared for. I will say that there were gory combat scenes that I was not expecting so trigger warnings for those. The found family was still incredible. I loved the way all the characters came into their own. There was great character development. The reason it’s not getting a higher rating is some parts of the book felt disjointed. That being said I would highly recommend this book! I can’t wait to read book 3!

Content Warnings

shawniejo's review

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

Content Warnings

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