A review by goldenbooksgirl
A Darkness of Dragons by S.A. Patrick

5.0

This is the story of Patch Brightwater, a trainee Piper who has been sent to prison for playing illegal magical songs that put people in danger, as he learns that the evil Piper of Hamelyn has escaped and he teams up with dracogriff Barver and Wren, a girl who has been cursed to live a rat to set off on a journey to stop him, as well as accomplishing other more personal quests along the way. As you will likely have guessed, this book is set in the world of the Pied Piper, but it`s set ten years after that story and it builds and entire world and magic system around it, and I loved how clever that was. The magic system of Piping and information about the other groups of people, such as Sorcerers and dragons, that inhabit the world were all so detailed and interesting, and I`m so excited to venture to different places within it as the series continues. I`m also very much looking forward to seeing more of the characters, as I loved all three of the main trio individually, and I also loved the friendship between them; the bantering dialogue had me laughing on many occasions, and it was so nice to see how caring they were to each other at other points. The supporting cast were also fantastic, and I look forward to learning much more about them, most especially the Hamelyn Piper as we only really saw him in one (incredibly tense) scene in this book, and he has all the makings of a truly wonderful villain. Finally, I loved how gripping this was and how much I wanted to constantly read on, and I wasn`t expecting some of the twists or reveals that happened at all, and there were some very intriguing unanswered questions left open at the end left me wishing the second book was already out. 5/5