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wanderingandwondering's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.0
Two underdogs get to live in the renowned walled city and discover not everything is what it seems.
This is a good, quick read with dragons and some interesting world concepts if you don't mind violence.
I loved the characters from the North, and I might have liked the second perspective more if it had come from one of them and not Griffin. The sibling interaction was amazing and I would have loved to see more from them! My favorite character was probably Sybil (though Petal is a close second).
The cute and predictable romance featured in this story was actually clean! Just a few kisses and lots of pining. Honestly, probably one of the most entertaining things about Griffin's perspective was how much he was pining for Maggie.
The world was interesting, but never really delved into because they spent so much time re-iterating how terrible the king and all of his knights are. Speaking of which, I would have liked to see something beyond the typical 'evil fantasy king, who has no humanity left' trope. Was he always that way? Did the war change him? He feels a bit like greed/power-lust incarnate, which isn't necessarily bad, I just wished there was a little something more to him or his story that Maggie or Griffin could have discovered.
This story is told from two alternating POVs, Maggie's and Griffin's, which I do not think did the story any favors. I also thought that a lot of the suspense that could have been built up around whether or not certain characters (like the Prince or even Griffin himself) were good or evil was cut by the fact that we had Griffin's 3rd person narration.
I was not a huge fan of how quickly the ending wrapped up (the antagonist is killed in the literal last chapter) since it left a ton of questions unanswered. Like, who takes over the government now? And how is there literally only one dragon? Surely the king didn't manage to kill all the other wild draignochs.
Another thing I liked was the 'moon magic'. I especially liked how Maggie almost instinctively knew its purpose before she officially figured it out. That was something I would have loved to see an explanation of (is she literally the daughter of the moon?).
There were so many things that interested me in this book, however, I didn't feel like a lot of it was really delivered on. I kind of wish it was a little longer, so the authors would have had more time to explore the world they created. Or if they had freed the dragon sooner maybe there would have been more time? Hard to say for sure, but congrats to Erika Lewis on her debut novel! I am curious to see what she'll write next!
CWs:
-Violence (portrayals of death, attacks on children, wounds)
-Abuse from parental figures (not any physical if I'm remembering correctly, I believe it was mostly mental)
This is a good, quick read with dragons and some interesting world concepts if you don't mind violence.
I loved the characters from the North, and I might have liked the second perspective more if it had come from one of them and not Griffin. The sibling interaction was amazing and I would have loved to see more from them! My favorite character was probably Sybil (though Petal is a close second).
The cute and predictable romance featured in this story was actually clean! Just a few kisses and lots of pining. Honestly, probably one of the most entertaining things about Griffin's perspective was how much he was pining for Maggie.
The world was interesting, but never really delved into because they spent so much time re-iterating how terrible the king and all of his knights are. Speaking of which, I would have liked to see something beyond the typical 'evil fantasy king, who has no humanity left' trope. Was he always that way? Did the war change him? He feels a bit like greed/power-lust incarnate, which isn't necessarily bad, I just wished there was a little something more to him or his story that Maggie or Griffin could have discovered.
This story is told from two alternating POVs, Maggie's and Griffin's, which I do not think did the story any favors. I also thought that a lot of the suspense that could have been built up around whether or not certain characters (like the Prince or even Griffin himself) were good or evil was cut by the fact that we had Griffin's 3rd person narration.
I was not a huge fan of how quickly the ending wrapped up (the antagonist is killed in the literal last chapter) since it left a ton of questions unanswered. Like, who takes over the government now? And how is there literally only one dragon? Surely the king didn't manage to kill all the other wild draignochs.
Another thing I liked was the 'moon magic'. I especially liked how Maggie almost instinctively knew its purpose before she officially figured it out. That was something I would have loved to see an explanation of (is she literally the daughter of the moon?).
There were so many things that interested me in this book, however, I didn't feel like a lot of it was really delivered on. I kind of wish it was a little longer, so the authors would have had more time to explore the world they created. Or if they had freed the dragon sooner maybe there would have been more time? Hard to say for sure, but congrats to Erika Lewis on her debut novel! I am curious to see what she'll write next!
CWs:
-Violence (portrayals of death, attacks on children, wounds)
-Abuse from parental figures (not any physical if I'm remembering correctly, I believe it was mostly mental)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Sexual content
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