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squidopedia's review against another edition
3.0
The idea for this story is definitely super cool I just found it was a cliché story line. I do think there was pretty good development with Ember and also Garret but I could predict it from the beginning. Even the little mean plot twist near the end I saw coming.
illusie's review
3.0
I went in blind and this was different than I expected. I thought it would be set in a fantasy world where dragons live. Instead we get teens who enjoy the summer in California. It feels like a normal young adult book. The big difference is that some of the teenagers are dragons in disguise or are dragon hunters. I like that one of the themes is forbidden love. There is a love triangle which I dislike. The premise is interesting, but the pacing is very slow. I thought the book was okay, but am not planning to continue the series.
ariaunarae's review against another edition
5.0
Minor spoilers*********
Julie kagawa is just one of those authors that that pulls you into their story from page one. This book wasn't any different.
I must say, this has to be one of my favourite books of all time. I loved the characters, the plot, and just the whole story altogether.
This book was just so amazing, I can barely even say anything. I have never read a book series with dragons in it, but I can say now that I will be searching all over the place for dragon books. I loved this book a lot more than the iron fey series and blood of Eden. And I still absolutely loved those books.
The main character, ember, was very entertaining and I loved reading things from her POV.
This book did have alternating POVs, it was between Ember, the main character, garret, who was a soldier trained to kill dragons, and Riley AKA cobalt, te rogue dragon.
This book was action filled, adventure filled, and had just the right amount of romance.
And can I just say, I do sense a love triangle happening, but knowing Julie kagawa, it won't take up the whole story nor be over exaturating. She won't waste the whole book series on who the main character is going to pick, and I can't say the same for most books.
I can't wait for the next book, rogue, to be released! And it's coming soon, so thank god i won't have to wait long.
I recommend this book to anyone and everyone.
Julie kagawa is just one of those authors that that pulls you into their story from page one. This book wasn't any different.
I must say, this has to be one of my favourite books of all time. I loved the characters, the plot, and just the whole story altogether.
This book was just so amazing, I can barely even say anything. I have never read a book series with dragons in it, but I can say now that I will be searching all over the place for dragon books. I loved this book a lot more than the iron fey series and blood of Eden. And I still absolutely loved those books.
The main character, ember, was very entertaining and I loved reading things from her POV.
This book did have alternating POVs, it was between Ember, the main character, garret, who was a soldier trained to kill dragons, and Riley AKA cobalt, te rogue dragon.
This book was action filled, adventure filled, and had just the right amount of romance.
And can I just say, I do sense a love triangle happening, but knowing Julie kagawa, it won't take up the whole story nor be over exaturating. She won't waste the whole book series on who the main character is going to pick, and I can't say the same for most books.
I can't wait for the next book, rogue, to be released! And it's coming soon, so thank god i won't have to wait long.
I recommend this book to anyone and everyone.
tfpeel's review against another edition
4.0
anche Riley ha il suo perché ma io resto#teamGarrett ... e mannaggia al cliffhanger che odio...
adelle_bookworm's review against another edition
4.0
4,5*
Tak tohle bylo super! Ten konec s Dantem jsem teda čekala trochu lepší, ale což... líbilo se mi to. Fakt že hodně.
Tak tohle bylo super! Ten konec s Dantem jsem teda čekala trochu lepší, ale což... líbilo se mi to. Fakt že hodně.
amandalyn's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting enough that I'll read the sequel, but nothing really special about it. It's very repetitive at bits and the love triangle is annoying, but the world is cool and I wanna know what happens next, though I'm not chopping at the bit to get book two.
stuckinafictionaluniverse's review against another edition
2.0
2.5
Is it possible to enjoy a book even if it has completely blank characters; fussy world-building and slow pacing?
I guess so. Hell, I almost wanted to hate Talon because of how underwhelming it was, but there was nothing I loathed about it. It wasn’t good, but it was okay.
Here’s something I’ve learned in 2015: When reading and rating a book, my opinion is deeply affected by reality vs expectation.
If you go into Talon thinking it’ll be an awesome GoT-like fantasy book with fire-flaming dragons, you probably won’t enjoy it. The dragons are just… boring, dull and not very well described.
Kagawa’s newest novel is more like urban fantasy, since the dragons in this book are in a contemporary setting.
However, if you expect an average book at its best with some sketchy world-building, chances are you’ll find it sufferable.
The twins Ember and Dante Hill are dragons, and after years of training at an isolated school in the desert, they are sent off into the real world.
When one of their kind has turned 16, they go through the last session of their training and are placed in a human environment where they try to fit in. Our siblings spend the summer holiday in Crescent Beach, California.
We follow Ember, who grows more and more suspicious of Talon and realizes there’s a different side of the organization she’s always trusted.
The other POV follows Garret, who is a soldier working for Talon’s biggest enemy; St. George Academy. He’s on a mission to find a ’sleeper’ (dragons pretending to be human, like the Hill twins) and eliminate it. There’s a hook: he has to be completely sure this person is actually a dragon. He and Ember meet and immediately hit it off, and he has to decide whether to follow the rules or his heart and all that.
The characters are painfully dull and dumb. I really expected more from Kagawa, since Allison from [b:The Immortal Rules|10215349|The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden, #1)|Julie Kagawa|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1323357921s/10215349.jpg|15114912] is a spectacular character.
I couldn’t care less for Garret or Ember, or any of the side characters. I know nothing about them, except that they have zero personality.
Why, oh why is there a love triangle? Even a romance with one guy felt unnecessary, and this geometric shape added nothing but I already didn’t give a shit about the first guy, so why introduce another one equally as boring and lifeless?
The setting was okay, but some potential was wasted. There’s lots of surfing, because duh, it’s California! Everything about the setting is very vague, which is a shame, since California is one of my favorite places in the world.
Significantly shorter rundown of pros:
The writing is fluid and easy to read, as per usual with this author.
Maybe it’s because I read this during a tough week or because I hated my most recent Kagawa book ([b:The Iron King|6644117|The Iron King (The Iron Fey, #1)|Julie Kagawa|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327877670s/6644117.jpg|6838626]) with a fiery passion, but I was surprised by my own curiosity and enjoyment. I wanted to know more about the two organizations and how the plot would unfold. I felt like I was there watching, right next to Ember.
This being my fifth book by her, there's no denying that Julie Kagawa is a great storyteller. She knows how to keep a reader interested.
For a moment Talon made me forget about everything else, and it was nice.
It also left off on a predictable yet interesting note, so I will probably read the sequel.
Final verdict:
Half bad, half good.
Overall, this reads like someones’ debut novel, where everything is underdeveloped: the characters, the plot and the setting. The book is overly long and doesn’t have a plot strong enough to cover 5 books. There is nothing special about Talon, nothing at all, besides how it screams, ’’Wasted potential!’'
There were plenty of things I would’ve normally hated, but this book took none of them overboard, and I feel completely indifferent toward it.
Is it possible to enjoy a book even if it has completely blank characters; fussy world-building and slow pacing?
I guess so. Hell, I almost wanted to hate Talon because of how underwhelming it was, but there was nothing I loathed about it. It wasn’t good, but it was okay.
Here’s something I’ve learned in 2015: When reading and rating a book, my opinion is deeply affected by reality vs expectation.
If you go into Talon thinking it’ll be an awesome GoT-like fantasy book with fire-flaming dragons, you probably won’t enjoy it. The dragons are just… boring, dull and not very well described.
Kagawa’s newest novel is more like urban fantasy, since the dragons in this book are in a contemporary setting.
However, if you expect an average book at its best with some sketchy world-building, chances are you’ll find it sufferable.
The twins Ember and Dante Hill are dragons, and after years of training at an isolated school in the desert, they are sent off into the real world.
When one of their kind has turned 16, they go through the last session of their training and are placed in a human environment where they try to fit in. Our siblings spend the summer holiday in Crescent Beach, California.
We follow Ember, who grows more and more suspicious of Talon and realizes there’s a different side of the organization she’s always trusted.
The other POV follows Garret, who is a soldier working for Talon’s biggest enemy; St. George Academy. He’s on a mission to find a ’sleeper’ (dragons pretending to be human, like the Hill twins) and eliminate it. There’s a hook: he has to be completely sure this person is actually a dragon. He and Ember meet and immediately hit it off, and he has to decide whether to follow the rules or his heart and all that.
The characters are painfully dull and dumb. I really expected more from Kagawa, since Allison from [b:The Immortal Rules|10215349|The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden, #1)|Julie Kagawa|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1323357921s/10215349.jpg|15114912] is a spectacular character.
I couldn’t care less for Garret or Ember, or any of the side characters. I know nothing about them, except that they have zero personality.
Why, oh why is there a love triangle? Even a romance with one guy felt unnecessary, and this geometric shape added nothing but I already didn’t give a shit about the first guy, so why introduce another one equally as boring and lifeless?
The setting was okay, but some potential was wasted. There’s lots of surfing, because duh, it’s California! Everything about the setting is very vague, which is a shame, since California is one of my favorite places in the world.
Significantly shorter rundown of pros:
The writing is fluid and easy to read, as per usual with this author.
Maybe it’s because I read this during a tough week or because I hated my most recent Kagawa book ([b:The Iron King|6644117|The Iron King (The Iron Fey, #1)|Julie Kagawa|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327877670s/6644117.jpg|6838626]) with a fiery passion, but I was surprised by my own curiosity and enjoyment. I wanted to know more about the two organizations and how the plot would unfold. I felt like I was there watching, right next to Ember.
This being my fifth book by her, there's no denying that Julie Kagawa is a great storyteller. She knows how to keep a reader interested.
For a moment Talon made me forget about everything else, and it was nice.
It also left off on a predictable yet interesting note, so I will probably read the sequel.
Final verdict:
Half bad, half good.
Overall, this reads like someones’ debut novel, where everything is underdeveloped: the characters, the plot and the setting. The book is overly long and doesn’t have a plot strong enough to cover 5 books. There is nothing special about Talon, nothing at all, besides how it screams, ’’Wasted potential!’'
There were plenty of things I would’ve normally hated, but this book took none of them overboard, and I feel completely indifferent toward it.
sailormegan's review against another edition
Will go back to it one day. Just not the type of book I’m wanting to read at the moment.
smbrisco337's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0