Quippy and crass with lots of passion but far from a light read—expect some emotional whiplash and the desire for more.
In this debut fantasy romance, a princess in hiding teams up with an unlikely ally to take back what’s rightfully hers.
Elowen Atarah is not your average princess. When dragon eggs hatched for her, she was proclaimed to be “forged from the fire of the gods.” But instead of celebrating her dragon bond, her father put her in chains, seeing her as a threat. Elowen escapes after years of torment—but without her dragons. Exiled but finally free of her father’s cruelty, Elowen learns to fight and becomes a deadly force with the intention of getting her dragons back. This opportunity arrives in the form of Cayden Veles, commander of the neighboring kingdom. Cayden and Elowen have a common enemy—her father. An alliance is forged, and with the help of Cayden and her most trusted friends, Elowen seeks her chance at revenge and rebirth. Darling combines the thrill of the heist à la Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows with the dragon lore of Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree while throwing in a lot more violence and sex. The premise of battling kingdoms fighting a revenge-seeking exiled dragon queen flies close to Game of Thrones territory—but this is romance at its core. Worldbuilding and warmongering take a back seat to the fire building between Elowen and her ally turned lover. Cayden is quick to use the threat of murder to protect Elowen as proof of his love—“Even if a man even hardly touches you, it’ll be the last thing he does in this life.” While the gratuitous violence may be a turnoff—heed the author’s note on trigger warnings—the first-person narration eliminates much of the discomfort factor. Elowen’s perspective is clear: Cayden’s darkness matches her own. For the first time, the dichotomies within herself make sense and she feels seen. The one thing more unbelievable than how quickly Cayden starts calling Elowen “love” is how often Elowen denies their relationship is anything more than an alliance. Clunky attempts at building tension aside, Darling deserves credit for managing to resolve this power struggle in a way that celebrates Elowen’s return to confidence and strength.
Quippy and crass with lots of passion but far from a light read—expect some emotional whiplash and the desire for more.Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9780593873892
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.
A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.
Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374172
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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