Scan barcode
A review by equestrianerd
Dragonborn by Jade Lee
1.0
I got this from the fantasy section of the library, so was expecting it to be primarily fantasy with a bit of romance thrown in (similar to Joanne Bertin's The Last Dragonlord, which I really enjoyed). This book did not even come close.
The story was ok (especially compared to some romances I've read, at least this had more going on than banal conversation/pseudo-arguments between the hero and heroine that are meaningless because you know they're going to get together eventually, either via powerlessness over their overwhelming feelings/destiny or a long-term miscommunication/misunderstanding finally being dealt with).
The characters were pretty one-dimensional. Natiya was naive, curious, intelligent/well-read (yet also fairly ignorant), and seemed to have no personality flaws. Kiril was judgemental, prejudiced, and remarkably unobservant (for someone who hunts dragons as a profession and masterfully survived growing up at court).
The ending also felt very rushed/forced. They spent all this time going on about how bonded a dragonborn and its dragon would be, and then the Queen is a very minor character who says maybe 10 things. (The one part I found interesting was that dragons were scientific/logical, and that didn't get explored at all.) There's no real conclusion to the story, either, other than "oh well, Rashad/Copper are dead, maybe Natiya/Kiril will live happily ever after/maybe not, maybe Natiya is The Perfect Human but who knows what that means, and never mind about all those other dragons that just showed up and disappeared instantaneously. The end."
I'm glad I picked this up at the library rather than buying it, but I kind of regret spending the time to read it all the way through (I kept hoping it would develop into something more, and it never did; if anything the writing/story got worse as the book concluded.)
The story was ok (especially compared to some romances I've read, at least this had more going on than banal conversation/pseudo-arguments between the hero and heroine that are meaningless because you know they're going to get together eventually, either via powerlessness over their overwhelming feelings/destiny or a long-term miscommunication/misunderstanding finally being dealt with).
The characters were pretty one-dimensional. Natiya was naive, curious, intelligent/well-read (yet also fairly ignorant), and seemed to have no personality flaws. Kiril was judgemental, prejudiced, and remarkably unobservant (for someone who hunts dragons as a profession and masterfully survived growing up at court).
Spoiler
It also bugged me in the middle when Natiya's trying to get Pentold's help she keeps going on about how everything was "so long ago", including the marriage proposal between them. Unless some time-travel's going on, the entire book spans a few weeks, maybe months, yet she's acting like it's been decades since she left the tavern/her old life. I'm guessing it was perhaps years since she'd seen Pentold last, but even so, she's not that old so she couldn't have been working as a dancer for that long.The ending also felt very rushed/forced. They spent all this time going on about how bonded a dragonborn and its dragon would be, and then the Queen is a very minor character who says maybe 10 things. (The one part I found interesting was that dragons were scientific/logical, and that didn't get explored at all.) There's no real conclusion to the story, either, other than "oh well, Rashad/Copper are dead, maybe Natiya/Kiril will live happily ever after/maybe not, maybe Natiya is The Perfect Human but who knows what that means, and never mind about all those other dragons that just showed up and disappeared instantaneously. The end."
I'm glad I picked this up at the library rather than buying it, but I kind of regret spending the time to read it all the way through (I kept hoping it would develop into something more, and it never did; if anything the writing/story got worse as the book concluded.)