Reviews with content warning for War - The Dragon's Promise

I loved this book! Not a much as the first, but I still loved it nonetheless. I love that we got to learn more about Shiori's stepmother and her background. I already have Her Radiant Curse open on my kindle ready to be read.

I think my favourite thing was the relationship in this book. The romance between Shiori and Takkan was so beautiful- Such a breath of fresh air that there was no silly relationship drama between them! I wish we had more Seryu stuff, too. Romantic relations aside I love how all the characters interact with each other.

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wpapnik's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

This books jumps RIGHT into the action and wastes no time picking up where Six Crimson Cranes left off.
Firstly, I really enjoyed this book! It had great characters and relationships, a good plot, wonderful world building, and was over all a lovely read! Unfortunately, I feel like this book was a little rushed. While I found Six Crimson Cranes to occasionally be lacking extra detail, The Dragon's Promise overall rushed through the plot.

I really wish we got to see more of Seryu's story - I feel it was cut short after the action between him and his father. I also would have loved to see more of Elang and his character instead of having him only be there to give Shiori the Wraith's name.

The later half of the book went at brake-neck speed and I had a hard time keeping up with all the scene changes. Although that might speak more to my own reading habits and the books I've read recently.
Overall, I would still recommend this book to anyone who like fantasy! Especially if you are interested in getting into High Fantasy.
I really did love this duology and the characters will always have a special place in my heart!

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itsnotalakeitsanocean's review

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Huge disclaimer that I came into this book not realising it was the second book in a duology (or should it be a trilogy considering one of the deceased characters in this book is getting a prequel apparently?) so unlike a lot of the other reviewers who viewed this as a sequel, my review is based on the book as a standalone.

This book... was a mess quite frankly. It felt more like a mishmash of ideas strung together than a coherently though out plot, causing some truly atrocious pacing. Sometimes it felt like the plot was geared to go in one direction but then it would gently shy away and go in another. As a result certain parts lingered on for much longer than they should have - causing me to skim a lot - and action scenes felt too fast paced.

And the title? The title only applies to about 10% of the actual book. A better title would be The Forgotten Realms, seeing how it was more about the spaces different inhabitants resided in outside of Kiata. As someone who picked it up expecting dragons to be a huge focus I am sorely disappointed. I'm sure Seiryu featured a lot more in the previous book so I'm willing to give some benefit of the doubt, but he feels like a wasted character in this book.

As does Gen. Gen feels like his role was almost cut entirely from the plot save for him and Shiori escaping the dragon palace, and that cutting him out completely meant Shiori wouldn't be able to escape.

Speaking of Shiori, I have mixed feelings on her. On a subjective note, I'm not a fan of her personality. Subjectively, I think her personality could have worked IF there were more consequences to her actions. So many times she gets off with the narrative equivalent of a slap on the wrist and things go her way far too easily. Not entirely - especially towards the end - but there's no tension when you just know everything is going to go her way and the only other consequences happen to other characters. Who are just kind of there. Even her fiancé doesn't give a damn that she

had some very mild romantic tension with a dragon and called off and ran away from their wedding AGAIN.

This is especially true in the ending where Shiori manages to cheat her way out of death thanks to her having the Moon Goddess' favour. Arguably I might be missing some context from the first book, but I physically scowled and rolled my eyes at this literal deus ex machina. Doubly so that we don't get to see what happens in the Moon Kingdom/Realm/Whatever. Because goddess forbid our heroine have any consequences to her actions.

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broccoli_j's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

A good ending for this duology.

The character development was intentional and well paced, the worldbuilding was consistent and the relationships emotional and well planed.

I absolutely loved this book!

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eetishmeh's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

A thrilling sequel to Six Crimson Cranes and a nice ending to Shiori's journey.

I spent a little longer than I'd've liked to finish this book due to school and life stuff in general... but also because some parts of the book were a little bit slow. That might just be a personal preference, though.

I think Seryu's storyline ended to quickly. I felt robbed of an ending where he fought alongside Shiori, Takkan and her brothers 🥲 I loved him a lot and was super sad to see him go in just the first half of the book 😭 The way they closed the curtains of his stage made it feel like it was the end of the book already, haha. Shiori's time in Ai'long and her time in Kiata felt like they were split into two different arcs, which overall wasn't the best pacing choice. (I think that's why it felt draggy in certain areas :'D)

I love Shiori and Takkan's relationship, but I think Shiori acts a little too mature in the romantic relationship aspect considering how she has no prior dating experience and she's only 17. Just a little pet peeve of mine that didn't affect my rating of this book; I know a lot of fantasy books have this type of characterisation anyway.

As always, I'd like to appreciate the worldbuilding, especially since I rarely see Asian takes on typical fantasy tropes (made-up names inspired by real-life things, mythological beings inspired by legends etc) that are usually used in Western settings. (I'm sure that non-English books must do this too, based on their own culture, but this is one of the first times I've seen this in an English book.)

I liked the conclusion to Shiori's journey. It was bittersweet, yet felt more sweet than bitter because of the character reactions and the nice little bows tied onto each character arc.

Overall, I preferred book 1 more due to its pacing and the plot structure, but I enjoyed this book as well. Goodbye, Lor'yan. I enjoyed traversing your land alongside Shiori <3

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kayceeisbookish's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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pixellatxd's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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pastelmeganes's review

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I think the magic of the first book didn’t transition well into the sequel. I think the whole plot of her navigating this world unable to communicate enticed me to pick up the series in the first place. Without that there anymore, a little of the magic was faded.

The first third of the book was a little odd for me personally. We spent so much time in the dragon realm and i just didn’t feel connected with anybody but Seryu (whom is by far my favorite character).

The book definitely picked up my interest again in the middle when were back in the human realm. Learning about Raikama’s past was my favorite part of the story by far.

My least favorite character of the main cast was Takkan. He just didn’t add anything in for me and was pretty boring, in a way he made Shiori a lot more boring in my opinion. I found myself rolling my eyes a few times at their interactions. I mean it’s cute but lacked elements that made me want to ve interested in their relationship.

If i were to do anything to make the book better for me personally, id change out the Dragon realm arc for something different, make Raikama’s home a bigger portion of the book, have shiori learn more magic and abilities, keep Gen more in the story, and have Seryu end up with Shiori instead of Takkan.

I will say Shiori choosing to free the demons was an interesting choice which i appreciated. It was some nice growth.

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