A review by grisette_books
The Dragon King by Penelope Barsetti

4.0

4 stars

Third book in the serial. The plot is still thickening in a very coherent and enjoyable way. I really admire PB's writing mastery in spinning such a rich story that is able to go the distance without losing credibility. And the way she is able to clearly express the complicated views of each character simply yet powerfully, is just wow.

I enjoyed this book but somewhere along the way I was a teeny bit tired with some of the push and pull (not just between Talon and Calista, but with the elves, with Macabre etc). These were needed of course to push the story into its final book, but I still got a bit depressed. Possibly it's because I am reading this back to back. I will be taking a short break of one book before going in the finale.

Trivia point: reading back to back has the advantage of detecting repetitions that need editing. I already realised it in Book 2, but it was very flagrant in Book 3 that some good editing was needed to smooth out some kinks in the plot. E.g. having Calista asking anew what is the use of Black Diamonds when she already asked and received the explanation in Book 1! Unless the aim was to make Calista a forgetful, with low attention span, character