Hardcover, 512 pages
English language
Published May 1, 2023 by Entangled: Red Tower Books.
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general--also known as her tough-as-talons mother--has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
But when you're smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don't bond to "fragile" humans. They incinerate them.
With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother's daughter--like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
She'll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll …
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general--also known as her tough-as-talons mother--has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
But when you're smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don't bond to "fragile" humans. They incinerate them.
With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother's daughter--like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
She'll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda--because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.
Guilty: this is my first romantasy. I devoured this book, however, not a fan of the landing... Felt shallow and underdeveloped. Neat worldbuild.
I jumped on the hype train with this book, mainly because the premise sounded interesting - a dragon riding college? But I admit that this is the first ever "romance" book I've read, and I'm not sure what to make of that regarding this book. In my opinion, there wasn't really much romance in this book, but rather quite a lot of horniness. Which ironically is also what I liked least about this book (aside from its very militaristic nature). I think it could have been an infinitely better book without the main character constantly salivating over some guy, who no less is supposedly the son of someone who killed her brother? WTF??? I get that it serves to illustrate that not everything is black and white, but I found it cringe at times.
What I did like about the book is the worldbuilding (again, minus the militaristic nature). The …
I jumped on the hype train with this book, mainly because the premise sounded interesting - a dragon riding college? But I admit that this is the first ever "romance" book I've read, and I'm not sure what to make of that regarding this book. In my opinion, there wasn't really much romance in this book, but rather quite a lot of horniness. Which ironically is also what I liked least about this book (aside from its very militaristic nature). I think it could have been an infinitely better book without the main character constantly salivating over some guy, who no less is supposedly the son of someone who killed her brother? WTF??? I get that it serves to illustrate that not everything is black and white, but I found it cringe at times.
What I did like about the book is the worldbuilding (again, minus the militaristic nature). The dragons are pretty cool, as is the magic system of bonding to magical creatures. It's a very decent entry-level fantasy book, which is well written and mostly well-paced (but IMHO could also have been condensed in some aspects).
Does it live up to the hype? I don't think so. Will I still read book 2 and 3? Definitely.
3.7 rounded up to 4. While I wouldn’t say that this truly and completely fits into the “traditional” Fantasy genre, as it is more of a Fantasy/Romance and almost YA novel, it was still a good read/listen, that I enjoyed and kept me intrigued enough to continue finding ways to do tasks that would give me time to listen to the audiobook. Once it ended I was also intrigued enough to find the second book in the series, so it is somewhat of thrill ride and keeps you interested in the drama and the storyline, even if romance isn’t really your usual genre. And yes, there are some scenes that would be termed “spicy” by some of the ladies in the neighborhood book club. But, they are well written, include consent, contraception, and I’d even call the scenes erotic.
Overall a good, fun read that will keep most people engaged …
3.7 rounded up to 4. While I wouldn’t say that this truly and completely fits into the “traditional” Fantasy genre, as it is more of a Fantasy/Romance and almost YA novel, it was still a good read/listen, that I enjoyed and kept me intrigued enough to continue finding ways to do tasks that would give me time to listen to the audiobook. Once it ended I was also intrigued enough to find the second book in the series, so it is somewhat of thrill ride and keeps you interested in the drama and the storyline, even if romance isn’t really your usual genre. And yes, there are some scenes that would be termed “spicy” by some of the ladies in the neighborhood book club. But, they are well written, include consent, contraception, and I’d even call the scenes erotic.
Overall a good, fun read that will keep most people engaged and intrigued, as long as no one is expecting a more traditional fantasy novel.
Another book that I enjoyed more than I thought I would! We follow Violet SorrengaiI when she joins the Basgiath War College to become a dragonrider in the kingdom of Navarre. All she wanted was to become a scribe, but her mother, who is a war General, forces her to join the Dragonriders Quadrant, instead of the Scribe Quadrant. Just to keep family tradition (her older siblings were also dragonriders). I feel bad about the ruthlessness nature of this military school (there are zero concerns with safety and well-being of the cadets) but I got past that. Cadets die if they make mistakes or fail the crazy challenges and test assigned to them. They are prepared to bond with a dragon and become a rider. The bond is strong, rider and dragons can telepathically communicate. And if you're a rider and your dragon dies, you die! I'm loving the mental …
Another book that I enjoyed more than I thought I would! We follow Violet SorrengaiI when she joins the Basgiath War College to become a dragonrider in the kingdom of Navarre. All she wanted was to become a scribe, but her mother, who is a war General, forces her to join the Dragonriders Quadrant, instead of the Scribe Quadrant. Just to keep family tradition (her older siblings were also dragonriders). I feel bad about the ruthlessness nature of this military school (there are zero concerns with safety and well-being of the cadets) but I got past that. Cadets die if they make mistakes or fail the crazy challenges and test assigned to them. They are prepared to bond with a dragon and become a rider. The bond is strong, rider and dragons can telepathically communicate. And if you're a rider and your dragon dies, you die! I'm loving the mental banter-dialogues between the riders and the dragons. The romance is a slow burn well developed enemies-to-lovers. It's over the top and I loved it! I definitely want to check out the second book in the series.
Content warning Lots of plot devices remain unaddressed. If the protagonists can mentally talk to each other, there must be others who can? Not addressed. If more than 3 meet, then they are invisible to the bad guy? Surely that means he knows of such occasions.
Started off with a fairly intriguing world but devolves into tired tropes by the end. Plot holes galore.
Very entertaining, the writing was better than I expected, reading some reviews, the plot was actually the best part of this book I think, and I liked the characters (and romance
I loved this book so much and can’t wait for the sequel!
this reads like a fanfic, i can’t do it lol
