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adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, War
Moderate: Misogyny
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, War
Moderate: Sexual content
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
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
A fun and entertaining book where the real star of the show are the dragons. Xaden may be an amalgamation of Rhysand and Azriel, but it works. It's nice to see a FMC with a disability; it's sad that the only person willing to make accommodations for said character is her ginormous fire breathing death dragon, but that's Basgiath War College for you.
The world building is fast-paced, sometimes too much so, but if you can overlook some plot holes, the relationships between the main characters and their dragons are worth it.
The world building is fast-paced, sometimes too much so, but if you can overlook some plot holes, the relationships between the main characters and their dragons are worth it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Death, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War
adventurous
emotional
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I have a lot of thoughts about this book. I'm going to start by saying that I loved the story line. Yarros managed to get me hooked from chapter 1, and from there I could only put the book down when I absolutely had to. I haven't experienced this much passion for a book in a long time, so this made me really happy. There's a lot of things to talk about though, because even if this book was captivating, it was not perfect.
The writing was nothing exceptional. It was nice and easy to read, but it wasn't particularly special. It's very informal, likely because we are reading in Violet's perspective. She is only 20, so the writing reflects that youth. The pacing was nice though. The story spans across an entire year, but the author does a good job of letting us fully experience the important moments and fly through the unimportant months with enough explanation that we understand where all the time went in just a few paragraphs.
There are so many characters in this story. It's hard to say I would have liked to see some a little more fleshed out because it's difficult to do with there being so many, but it's true. Some characters could have benefited from a little more backstory, (Rhiannon I'm looking at you, girl), but again, there are so many characters it's difficult to do that. I did like Xaden a lot. I typically don't go for the brooding male love interest, but I like how he was written. Yes he was dark and brooding, but not that much if we’re honest with ourselves. From the getgo I could see that he had a difficult past and had been hardened by it, but he never showed any interest in actually hurting Violet despite his numerous threats. Instead, from very early on he shows interest in teaching her how to survive in the quadrant despite the front he puts up. He’s also a straightforward guy who reminds Violet of the reality she is in whenever she gets comfortable with the way things are or how she gets by, and that kind of attitude is good for her in the long run.
Violet was also a good character. She initially wants to be a scribe, but upon successfully passing the entry test into the rider's quadrant, she becomes more interested in proving to herself and everyone else that she can be a rider. She is stubborn to a fault, and she was raised in a family (mostly) of fighters, so in a way it made sense that she wanted to fight to stay in the riders quadrant. I think a part of her wanted to see how far she could go, as well, since she is told her entire life that she is fragile and needs protection. I do want to see her grow more independent in the next installments of this series, though. This especially bothered me inthe final battle , but it felt like she relied on Xaden so much to do a lot of things. I get that she’s a first-year (and that she loves him) , but this girl goes from wanting to prove herself to relying on her wingleader for a lot of protection. In that final battle, she is pissed at him, she feels betrayed by him. I appreciate that she can set their disagreement aside for the sake of battle, but I also would have liked to see her carry some of that grudge into it, and try to do things by herself if only to reinforce how annoyed she is at him. I hope we’ll see her grow more independent in the future.
Let's talk about the relationship between Violet and Xaden. I wish there was more enemies-to-lovers. Odd coming from me, but I do. Basically, as soon as Violetbonded Tairn , the two were a lot more amicable. Instead of wanting to kill each other, all of a sudden that was replaced by both of them just trying to resist their attraction to the other. And I get that they couldn’t kill each other anymore because they were technically bonded because of their dragons , but the shift was quick and drastic. They went from irritating the crap out of each other all the time to suddenly putting that aside and instead fighting the tension between them. The fact that their dragons are mated doesn’t change the fact that they both hated each other up to that point, so I would have liked to see more progression from the enemies part to the lovers part. I would have greatly enjoyed some telepathy between the two when they were still very much on the fence about each other. We only had a short scene with that and I would have liked more bickering using that element of the story. But that could have only happened if it took them longer to get used to the idea of being bonded.
This story actually doesn’t have that much romance, especially in the first two thirds, and that might be part of why I loved it so much. I love a good romance, but a good universe is even better. The worldbuilding was captivating. There are still a lot of things to learn about the world, but I liked discovering it with Violet. She comes into the quadrant not having a single clue what to expect (unlike many of her peers who have trained their whole lives to be there), and I like that we discover how things work alongside her. I love the bond between dragon and human that is special to each pair, how dragons communicate exclusively with the humans they’ve chosen, and the signets that come with bonding with a dragon that reflect a rider’s person. The quadrant is ruthless, and there’s so many risks of death (which I’m typically not fond of), but it reflects the ruthlessness of the world and the war that the riders have to fight for Navarre. It’s cruel, but it certainly does the job preparing their students for the reality of war.
The use of magic is really cool, and I do want to touch on that because I wanted more of it! It is explained that riders get magical abilities after bonding with their dragons. The primary ability is the signet, which is special to each rider, but there are also smaller abilities such as telekinesis. These smaller abilities are mentioned in the beginning of the book in the form of the more experienced riders using them in the day-to-day, like to lock doors, for example. However, once Violet unlocks that ability, we don't seem much of it anymore. Bring it back! Show me riders using their magic in their daily lives! Please!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I strongly recommend it to fantasy readers. It's a great take on the dragon genre that I haven't personally seen before in a merciless world that has every character aware of death not being so far away. I hope that the next installments will have more plot twists and more action. This first one worked to establish the world and was an opportunity for Violet and the readers to learn how people become riders, but now that she is one and even has battle experience, I can't wait to read more action and for the greater picture to come into play. And with all of that, I still give the book 5 stars because of how entertained I was reading it.
The writing was nothing exceptional. It was nice and easy to read, but it wasn't particularly special. It's very informal, likely because we are reading in Violet's perspective. She is only 20, so the writing reflects that youth. The pacing was nice though. The story spans across an entire year, but the author does a good job of letting us fully experience the important moments and fly through the unimportant months with enough explanation that we understand where all the time went in just a few paragraphs.
There are so many characters in this story. It's hard to say I would have liked to see some a little more fleshed out because it's difficult to do with there being so many, but it's true. Some characters could have benefited from a little more backstory, (Rhiannon I'm looking at you, girl), but again, there are so many characters it's difficult to do that. I did like Xaden a lot. I typically don't go for the brooding male love interest, but I like how he was written. Yes he was dark and brooding, but not that much if we’re honest with ourselves. From the getgo I could see that he had a difficult past and had been hardened by it, but he never showed any interest in actually hurting Violet despite his numerous threats. Instead, from very early on he shows interest in teaching her how to survive in the quadrant despite the front he puts up. He’s also a straightforward guy who reminds Violet of the reality she is in whenever she gets comfortable with the way things are or how she gets by, and that kind of attitude is good for her in the long run.
Violet was also a good character. She initially wants to be a scribe, but upon successfully passing the entry test into the rider's quadrant, she becomes more interested in proving to herself and everyone else that she can be a rider. She is stubborn to a fault, and she was raised in a family (mostly) of fighters, so in a way it made sense that she wanted to fight to stay in the riders quadrant. I think a part of her wanted to see how far she could go, as well, since she is told her entire life that she is fragile and needs protection. I do want to see her grow more independent in the next installments of this series, though. This especially bothered me in
Let's talk about the relationship between Violet and Xaden. I wish there was more enemies-to-lovers. Odd coming from me, but I do. Basically, as soon as Violet
This story actually doesn’t have that much romance, especially in the first two thirds, and that might be part of why I loved it so much. I love a good romance, but a good universe is even better. The worldbuilding was captivating. There are still a lot of things to learn about the world, but I liked discovering it with Violet. She comes into the quadrant not having a single clue what to expect (unlike many of her peers who have trained their whole lives to be there), and I like that we discover how things work alongside her. I love the bond between dragon and human that is special to each pair, how dragons communicate exclusively with the humans they’ve chosen, and the signets that come with bonding with a dragon that reflect a rider’s person. The quadrant is ruthless, and there’s so many risks of death (which I’m typically not fond of), but it reflects the ruthlessness of the world and the war that the riders have to fight for Navarre. It’s cruel, but it certainly does the job preparing their students for the reality of war.
The use of magic is really cool, and I do want to touch on that because I wanted more of it! It is explained that riders get magical abilities after bonding with their dragons. The primary ability is the signet, which is special to each rider, but there are also smaller abilities such as telekinesis. These smaller abilities are mentioned in the beginning of the book in the form of the more experienced riders using them in the day-to-day, like to lock doors, for example. However, once Violet unlocks that ability, we don't seem much of it anymore. Bring it back! Show me riders using their magic in their daily lives! Please!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I strongly recommend it to fantasy readers. It's a great take on the dragon genre that I haven't personally seen before in a merciless world that has every character aware of death not being so far away. I hope that the next installments will have more plot twists and more action. This first one worked to establish the world and was an opportunity for Violet and the readers to learn how people become riders, but now that she is one and even has battle experience, I can't wait to read more action and for the greater picture to come into play. And with all of that, I still give the book 5 stars because of how entertained I was reading it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Violence
Moderate: War, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death of parent
adventurous
challenging
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence
Minor: Sexual content
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War
adventurous
emotional
tense
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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, Classism
Moderate: Sexism, Toxic relationship, Grief, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, War