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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
i enjoyed the tensions and i am a fan a different povs. I feel they added a touch to the story that i feel without i would’ve given this 2 stars. The tensions between the two main characters is undeniable and loved it. Plot was lacking a bit but that’s my only complaint.
First things first, I am so thankful that I have chosen to be one of the bloggers who will host a tour of this book. Seriously, I want to read this book so much. I’ve tried all the giveaways I found that the price is an ARC of this book; unfortunately I didn’t win any of those. I’ve also tried requesting it on Netgalley but they rejected me. When finally, Ms Kova, the Dragon Queen, announced that there is an opening for the tour of this book, I immediately grabbed it and signed up. So I am very very thankful to Xpresso Book Tours for giving me the chance to read the book!!
Alright, let’s go to the review proper.
Oh, I’ll be putting quotes from the book in between paragraphs. You could read it but do not let it distract you from reading my whole review.
The reason why I wanted to read this is because I got curious of the title got pulled by the cover and got me wondering if the early reviews about this book are real. And it was, without a doubt, very real.
This book is amazing!
I don’t think I’ve read a book that talk about dragons and chimera before. This is the first book! This is also the first book I’ve read where the characters where not human-ish. Sure they have hands and body and other stuff very human-like but the skin color, the eyes and most of the stuff are so new to me! And it was so good!
The story got me hooked from the beginning! Though honestly when I was reading the first three pages I didn’t know what was going on. Then I continue and then the next thing I know is I’m on the 45% of the book. I know, it’s crazy. Whenever I read it, I feel like I’m flying through the pages. The plot is new to me. The flow of it is new and it got me thinking that I want to visit inside Ms Kova’s head just to see how it works because of this book. But then she said sometimes her head could get dark so I’d rather stay in books.
So, the characters! There were four main characters in the story in which the story was told in their point of views. I’ll go first with the Dragon King’s Master Rider, Leona.
Leona is not her full name. She is a she and she’s the Dragon King’s Master Rider and somewhat right hand woman. She is the kind of servant any king would want to have. She submits and she follows orders for her king. She does her duties excellently for the glory of the name of her king. I think she is just crazy madly in love with the Dragon King that is why she’ll do anything for him. Yup. It’s kind of weird to me that the king and the right hand woman have an affair. Though I think it’s quite fine because I didn’t hear anything about the dragon queen all throughout the book aside from that part where Leona wanted to challenge the queen to a duel so Leona could be the king’s mate. Though I am so glad on how she ended up in Arianna’s hands. Haha!
Next is the person Arianna cared the most, her student/apprentice Florence. Born a Raven but is a Revolver. A runaway. And a very adorable character. She is not the cotton candy sweet type of character but when it comes to Arianna being the way she is, I think Florence is Arianna’s positive and sweet vibe in her life. I couldn’t tell much about her character though. She didn’t make much impression to me compared to the other characters in the book. All I could say about her is that she had the biggest character development in all of them throughout the book.
Next is the dragon, Cvareh. I know. His name is hard to pronounce. But according to the pronunciation guide in the book, it’s pronounced as Suh-va-rey. I don’t know the correct spelling but I know that’s how you pronounce it. Lol! So Cvareh is the beginning of the plot of the book. He’s the harbinger. Lol. Did I really use that word? Man. Haha! So, yeah, he’s the reason why the book started its adventure. He wasn’t in good terms with Arianna at first because of Arianna’s hate towards dragons. But Cvareh has no other choice but to rely on Arianna to complete his mission. And along the way of the adventure, Cvareh developed a feeling towards Arianna. A feeling that I think is called infatuation. But I guess there is no such word in his dragon vocabulary. Haha! I like Cvareh’s character. He exchange banters with Arianna. Those times where he would think of things to say to her then expect her to cut him or finish him off. He seems to always know that whatever he says or tries to say to Arianna will either lead her to knocking him on his ass or cut him off but then say it anyway. I could say that he is one brave dragon.
Then lastly, the main character, Arianna. I gotta say this, I have a classmate with an almost same name as her. My classmate’s name is Arriane. And everytime I go to school and see Arriane in school, I always remember Arianna. Arianna is somehow a realistic main character in a story where badass woman exist. She’s like Black Widow, Lara Croft and then Sherlock Holmes combined. She’s smart, talented, strong and really really badass. Though she is not invincible. I’ve read a lot of books where the main characters were female and it seems like those characters were invincible and no weakness at all. In this book, Arianna isn’t invincible, she receives punches and blows from the enemies, and she got hurt but still fights back. There are times that I thought she’d lose in a fight but then tables turn and she ends up winning. I like that about her. It makes her more realistic than the others. Also, she has weakness. Mostly, main heroes’ or heroines’ weakness were not reveal in the book but got discovered instead. But not Arianna. It was obvious from the beginning what is her weakness, or rather who. Like I said, she’s perfectly imperfect. She’s awesome but has flaws. And I like that about her.
Now let’s go to the writing style.
The style is so easy to follow. It was really detailed, the fight scenes, the other stuff and the stuff that matters the most. It’s like I’m watching a movie inside my head while reading! Though sure enough it has a lot of violence because of the fight scenes, a lot of describing blood and wounds, I don’t think it has reach to a point where it needs to be limited to adults only. I mean, the fight scenes were the best scenes! And I have never read a fight scene where there were no blood and wounds. Lol!
This book is the most fantastic fantasy genre I’ve ever read. I like how it used magic and other fantasy stuff without getting the realistic parts of it. It’s both a fantasy and a reality, if that’s even possible.
Alright, let’s go to the review proper.
Oh, I’ll be putting quotes from the book in between paragraphs. You could read it but do not let it distract you from reading my whole review.
The reason why I wanted to read this is because I got curious of the title got pulled by the cover and got me wondering if the early reviews about this book are real. And it was, without a doubt, very real.
This book is amazing!
I don’t think I’ve read a book that talk about dragons and chimera before. This is the first book! This is also the first book I’ve read where the characters where not human-ish. Sure they have hands and body and other stuff very human-like but the skin color, the eyes and most of the stuff are so new to me! And it was so good!
The story got me hooked from the beginning! Though honestly when I was reading the first three pages I didn’t know what was going on. Then I continue and then the next thing I know is I’m on the 45% of the book. I know, it’s crazy. Whenever I read it, I feel like I’m flying through the pages. The plot is new to me. The flow of it is new and it got me thinking that I want to visit inside Ms Kova’s head just to see how it works because of this book. But then she said sometimes her head could get dark so I’d rather stay in books.
So, the characters! There were four main characters in the story in which the story was told in their point of views. I’ll go first with the Dragon King’s Master Rider, Leona.
Leona is not her full name. She is a she and she’s the Dragon King’s Master Rider and somewhat right hand woman. She is the kind of servant any king would want to have. She submits and she follows orders for her king. She does her duties excellently for the glory of the name of her king. I think she is just crazy madly in love with the Dragon King that is why she’ll do anything for him. Yup. It’s kind of weird to me that the king and the right hand woman have an affair. Though I think it’s quite fine because I didn’t hear anything about the dragon queen all throughout the book aside from that part where Leona wanted to challenge the queen to a duel so Leona could be the king’s mate. Though I am so glad on how she ended up in Arianna’s hands. Haha!
Next is the person Arianna cared the most, her student/apprentice Florence. Born a Raven but is a Revolver. A runaway. And a very adorable character. She is not the cotton candy sweet type of character but when it comes to Arianna being the way she is, I think Florence is Arianna’s positive and sweet vibe in her life. I couldn’t tell much about her character though. She didn’t make much impression to me compared to the other characters in the book. All I could say about her is that she had the biggest character development in all of them throughout the book.
Next is the dragon, Cvareh. I know. His name is hard to pronounce. But according to the pronunciation guide in the book, it’s pronounced as Suh-va-rey. I don’t know the correct spelling but I know that’s how you pronounce it. Lol! So Cvareh is the beginning of the plot of the book. He’s the harbinger. Lol. Did I really use that word? Man. Haha! So, yeah, he’s the reason why the book started its adventure. He wasn’t in good terms with Arianna at first because of Arianna’s hate towards dragons. But Cvareh has no other choice but to rely on Arianna to complete his mission. And along the way of the adventure, Cvareh developed a feeling towards Arianna. A feeling that I think is called infatuation. But I guess there is no such word in his dragon vocabulary. Haha! I like Cvareh’s character. He exchange banters with Arianna. Those times where he would think of things to say to her then expect her to cut him or finish him off. He seems to always know that whatever he says or tries to say to Arianna will either lead her to knocking him on his ass or cut him off but then say it anyway. I could say that he is one brave dragon.
Then lastly, the main character, Arianna. I gotta say this, I have a classmate with an almost same name as her. My classmate’s name is Arriane. And everytime I go to school and see Arriane in school, I always remember Arianna. Arianna is somehow a realistic main character in a story where badass woman exist. She’s like Black Widow, Lara Croft and then Sherlock Holmes combined. She’s smart, talented, strong and really really badass. Though she is not invincible. I’ve read a lot of books where the main characters were female and it seems like those characters were invincible and no weakness at all. In this book, Arianna isn’t invincible, she receives punches and blows from the enemies, and she got hurt but still fights back. There are times that I thought she’d lose in a fight but then tables turn and she ends up winning. I like that about her. It makes her more realistic than the others. Also, she has weakness. Mostly, main heroes’ or heroines’ weakness were not reveal in the book but got discovered instead. But not Arianna. It was obvious from the beginning what is her weakness, or rather who. Like I said, she’s perfectly imperfect. She’s awesome but has flaws. And I like that about her.
Now let’s go to the writing style.
The style is so easy to follow. It was really detailed, the fight scenes, the other stuff and the stuff that matters the most. It’s like I’m watching a movie inside my head while reading! Though sure enough it has a lot of violence because of the fight scenes, a lot of describing blood and wounds, I don’t think it has reach to a point where it needs to be limited to adults only. I mean, the fight scenes were the best scenes! And I have never read a fight scene where there were no blood and wounds. Lol!
This book is the most fantastic fantasy genre I’ve ever read. I like how it used magic and other fantasy stuff without getting the realistic parts of it. It’s both a fantasy and a reality, if that’s even possible.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
i haven't read such an innovative fantasy universe since gideon the ninth. oh my god, elise kova, i love you. ruthless murdery girl lovers, we're up one.
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
adventurous
funny
inspiring
mysterious
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
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really liked this steampunk-tinged story! Solidly written, great pacing, and interesting relationship dynamics.
In this magical world there are three types of beings: the ruling overlords, Dragons, who are not giant lizards but are like humans with magic and dragon-like features; Fenthri, which are basically humans; and Chimera, which are Fenthri with transplanted magical dragon organs.
A dragon noble crosses to Fenthri land and makes a deal with a powerful Chimera woman to help him overthrow the current dragon king. They both have to overcome their pride and prejudices, and let go of past emotional baggage to learn to trust each other along the journey.
There are some weird world mechanics... For example, the dragon guy and the chimera woman sometimes have to drink each others blood in order to regain energy, and it's a very intimate act with sexual overtones. I understand the reason, like it's explained pretty well in the book, but if you describe it in plain tones it is really creepy. Another weird thing is there are two master/apprentice relationships that are on the edge of being romantic. It just made me think of how if one person is in a position of power over the other, then any romantic relationship is going to be threaded with abuse.
That said, I'm interested in reading the next one!
I liked this quote:
"A soul driven by vengeance was a selfish soul. A soul driven by vision was a generous one--one that bore itself before others and put the needs of the many before the needs of the few."
"But if they were mad, they were mad because they kept dreaming..."
In this magical world there are three types of beings: the ruling overlords, Dragons, who are not giant lizards but are like humans with magic and dragon-like features; Fenthri, which are basically humans; and Chimera, which are Fenthri with transplanted magical dragon organs.
A dragon noble crosses to Fenthri land and makes a deal with a powerful Chimera woman to help him overthrow the current dragon king. They both have to overcome their pride and prejudices, and let go of past emotional baggage to learn to trust each other along the journey.
There are some weird world mechanics... For example, the dragon guy and the chimera woman sometimes have to drink each others blood in order to regain energy, and it's a very intimate act with sexual overtones. I understand the reason, like it's explained pretty well in the book, but if you describe it in plain tones it is really creepy. Another weird thing is there are two master/apprentice relationships that are on the edge of being romantic. It just made me think of how if one person is in a position of power over the other, then any romantic relationship is going to be threaded with abuse.
That said, I'm interested in reading the next one!
I liked this quote:
"A soul driven by vengeance was a selfish soul. A soul driven by vision was a generous one--one that bore itself before others and put the needs of the many before the needs of the few."
"But if they were mad, they were mad because they kept dreaming..."
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No