A review by puttingwingsonwords
Dragonfall by L.R. Lam

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I received an e-ARC of this book through Netgalley.

In Dragonfall a dragon, stuck in a humanoid form after falling from his homeworld in another dimension, has to work together with human thief Arcady — to strengthen their bond, and then kill them. The story is told through multiple perspectives, with the framing device of being compiled by an unkown archivist. This is one of the things I loved, but that put off a lot of readers in the more negative reviews I’ve seen.

Another complaint I noticed is the amount of ‘infodumping’ at the start, which surprised me because I thought the worldbuilding was set up in a very organic way for a high fantasy… So I’m guessing those last words are key. If you’re used to reading books from writers like Robin Hobb, or worse (/teasing) Tolkien, this kind of worldbuilding set up is probably second nature to you. If you’re me it’s one of your favourite parts of the genre.

I could tell you about the painfully slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance (they can’t touch! because it hurts because of magic!), but I wanted to centre my review on the stuff I liked that some other people didn’t. Not to hate on those people, because tastes differ and that’s fine! Just to show that one person’s turn-off can be another person’s favourite thing.

I loved the setting, the characters, the magic system, everything and especially the ‘weird’ stuff. More please! Where is the fanart of dragons and dragon people! Send it to me! I will be over here, patiently waiting for the sequel.

Review originally posted on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cu1a8Lmrh_9/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Expand filter menu Content Warnings