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A review by keybladium
The Dragon's Promise by Elizabeth Lim
3.0
A good sequel that felt a lot bigger in scale however there were a lot more flaws imo, whilst the existing flaws from the first book were also still prevalent.
The threat this time felt a lot more present and there was a wider range of threats too from dragons to demons and humans which made the events feel a lot bigger and a lot more happening which the first one lacked in. It was overall a nice story, it wasn’t perfect but there were moments that stood out and overall I enjoyed this one more.
The scale of the world also felt a lot bigger, there were a lot more places and kingdoms and I appreciated the story taking place in different environments rather than mostly a palace like in the first book.
And with everything already being established by the first book, this one was straight into the story and the action and picked up right where it left off which made for a much better start to the story and was easy to invest back into.
Some of the negatives that were present in both books were the lack of an in-depth description of scenery or characters. Lots of the descriptions were vague overall and its hard to visualise the authors vision.
I also still feel like a lot of elements were underutilized, the dragons were a little more important to the plot this time but I wouldn’t say a lot of them were used as effectively as they could’ve been. They were only there for the first part of the story and a lot of the romance triangle at the start just doesn’t make sense in retrospect since the dragon was barely around for the first book and he was barely around for this one too, it just felt forced and awkward when shiori was already in love with Takkan. I feel like the author intended for the dragon to have a bigger role or a bigger affect but I didn’t really feel he served much purpose other than for exposition and as something to move the plot forward.
There were a lot more plot points too and given the bigger scale, I didn’t find many of them to be too satisfying and they felt a little underwhelming. The main threat wasn’t much of a threat and characters that were described as threatening just didn’t feel threatening. I also feel the pacing was a little weird, there were some scenes that dragged on a little longer than they needed to but then there were times it was fast and would pick up a lot. But the main threat was defeated with around 100 pages of story left so it felt like this book had a lot of plot points to conclude so maybe there was too much for one book or could’ve been rearranged a little more.
I also feel like the main character just doesn’t show much growth. She definitely developed a lot in the first book but this time she was mostly the same character from start to end with most of her development coming from the final chapters. And honestly she should’ve died around a million times in this book, the plot armor saved her so many times in situations she just shouldn’t have been able to escape but somehow does. There were a lot of plot conveniences and I also wish shiori developed her magic throughout the story or just for her to grow as a character but I still think the characters were good, maybe a little generic but I liked their dynamic with one another.
Overall, it was a good book but not flawless. I enjoyed it more than the first and it definitely had it’s moments this time, lots more was happening there were more distinct threats and more goals to reach. However with a bigger scale, it only made for the flaws to be more amplified which made them even more recognizable for this book imo
The threat this time felt a lot more present and there was a wider range of threats too from dragons to demons and humans which made the events feel a lot bigger and a lot more happening which the first one lacked in. It was overall a nice story, it wasn’t perfect but there were moments that stood out and overall I enjoyed this one more.
The scale of the world also felt a lot bigger, there were a lot more places and kingdoms and I appreciated the story taking place in different environments rather than mostly a palace like in the first book.
And with everything already being established by the first book, this one was straight into the story and the action and picked up right where it left off which made for a much better start to the story and was easy to invest back into.
Some of the negatives that were present in both books were the lack of an in-depth description of scenery or characters. Lots of the descriptions were vague overall and its hard to visualise the authors vision.
I also still feel like a lot of elements were underutilized, the dragons were a little more important to the plot this time but I wouldn’t say a lot of them were used as effectively as they could’ve been. They were only there for the first part of the story and a lot of the romance triangle at the start just doesn’t make sense in retrospect since the dragon was barely around for the first book and he was barely around for this one too, it just felt forced and awkward when shiori was already in love with Takkan. I feel like the author intended for the dragon to have a bigger role or a bigger affect but I didn’t really feel he served much purpose other than for exposition and as something to move the plot forward.
There were a lot more plot points too and given the bigger scale, I didn’t find many of them to be too satisfying and they felt a little underwhelming. The main threat wasn’t much of a threat and characters that were described as threatening just didn’t feel threatening. I also feel the pacing was a little weird, there were some scenes that dragged on a little longer than they needed to but then there were times it was fast and would pick up a lot. But the main threat was defeated with around 100 pages of story left so it felt like this book had a lot of plot points to conclude so maybe there was too much for one book or could’ve been rearranged a little more.
I also feel like the main character just doesn’t show much growth. She definitely developed a lot in the first book but this time she was mostly the same character from start to end with most of her development coming from the final chapters. And honestly she should’ve died around a million times in this book, the plot armor saved her so many times in situations she just shouldn’t have been able to escape but somehow does. There were a lot of plot conveniences and I also wish shiori developed her magic throughout the story or just for her to grow as a character but I still think the characters were good, maybe a little generic but I liked their dynamic with one another.
Overall, it was a good book but not flawless. I enjoyed it more than the first and it definitely had it’s moments this time, lots more was happening there were more distinct threats and more goals to reach. However with a bigger scale, it only made for the flaws to be more amplified which made them even more recognizable for this book imo