A review by nooralshanti
Heartscale by Lola Ford

adventurous hopeful medium-paced
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

 
Heartscale is an excellent book exploring the relationships between dragons and humans in various different kingdoms. I had picked up and put down several books before reading this one, unable to find one that caught my interest. Then I picked up Heartscale and I was into it from the start.

It follows the story of two main characters who discover and form bonds with dragons. One of them, Graith, is a farmer living in a land where dragons are feared and killed on sight - a land where dragons were hunted down and killed off years ago. He finds an injured dragon in his barn one night. The second character is a girl, Nerie, who find a way to go see the hatching of the dragon egg in the royal palace. In her kingdom, the dragons choose the next ruler and give them legitimacy.

Both storylines are gripping right from the start. Around the 20% mark I found the story dragged a little bit because it was following the minute details of their lives, but a couple of chapters later it became very interesting again.

The ending was a little bit less conclusive than I would have hoped, but it was a satisfying enough conclusion for the first in a series without me feeling cheated. The characters are well-written, the plot progresses well, there is plenty of interesting backstory to uncover throughout the story. There were a couple of points in the middle when I really wanted a map and a couple of little spelling mistakes that I was too interested in the story to care about, but other than it was an excellent read that I would definitely recommend to anyone looking for an easy to read, well-written dragon story!

Check it out!