Author: Rebecca Yarros
Narrator: Teddy Hamilton & Rebecca Soler
Playback: 20hrs 47m
Publisher: Recorded Books
Genre: Fantasy, Dystopian
First Published: May 2, 2023
Book description: 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.
Review:
I had such high hopes for this book. What I wanted:
Rich world-building
Strong characters- or at least likable. I disliked Violet and Xander so much when they were together or at least their 'tension' towards each other made them unbearable
Found family
Deep connection and bonding time with the dragons and the riders
Intricate interpersonal relationships
High stakes after all the world is at war at all times
I did not get all of that. It's not awful but it was such a huge disappointment, if I had just gone into the book with no expectations, it would have been a better read, but you can't really run away from the hype.
I started this book and it started very focused on action- To kick it off we have a very dysfunctional family dynamic between Violet and her mother- the General. She is forced into the dragon riders academy after being considered all her life too weak and delicate. The harsh attitude her mother has was never explained but as it's the start of the series, you expect questions to arise.
The first part was ok, she's struggling to get through the challenges, she is physically weaker and suffers from weak muscle and bone structure and possibly chronic pain. I was looking forward to seeing that and hoping to have a good representation of disabilities. This topic was brushed over, it served more of a plot point and was only brought up in convenient situations - not the worst way possible but it was underdeveloped- we did not explore that aspect as much.
The world is very interesting, at least what I got to see, it promises to bring much more and I hope we explore more of the actual academy, the world outside of the academy including the outskirts of the protected realm.
I know a lot of people loved this book, I wanted to love it but it was very complicated- I spent more time rolling my eyes at the characters' antics. Secondhand embarrassment- the "romance" was extremely juvenile and immature. There was no development- other than the fact that Violet found Xaden sex on legs and couldn't wait for him to "want her". I was put off by that more than by anything else.
I will continue the series, and I will not get rid of the book because it's beautiful, being honest had I read the book before buying it, I would not have wasted my money on it, especially considering I put The Lives of Puppets and instead of buying that one I got this one because it looked so cute.
We do get found-family type situations, growing up in a way, and all types of troupes that we see in Fantasy such as:
The general public worship their soldiers but no one really knows the truth about what happened in the war
Children paying the price for their traitor parents- but of course, no one knows that because the winners are the ones who get to write history
Soldiers are not exactly good people simply because they are supposed to be honorable
Found family - Xander and the rest of the marked ones. I really hope we get to hear more of their story soon. And Violet with her class, again it was told to us but we didn't see it as much.
Friends who go above and beyond to protect each other
Teenage angst
Miscommunication with friends, family, and romantic interests
I hope the next book improves a lot. It was left in a cliffhanger spot and I am invested in it, so I will get to the next one. Just might not be buying it at full price.
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