Thank you NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
4.5 stars
Indigenous MC, magic school, dragon riding, Viking-meets-Regency era society, poly romance….WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG!?!
Not a lot, is the answer. Anequs is a breath of fresh air as a female YA protagonist. She had a solid voice, a firm resolve, and a level head. She was easy to root for and never once made me feel the need to slap some sense into her. She–GET THIS–communicates with the people around her clearly and effectively. I loved it.
This book doesn’t shy away from facing social injustice head-on. It focused on the complexities of meshing cultures in which one views itself as “cultured” and the other as “savage.” Very fascinating and real-world applicable.
The only reason I knocked a half-ish star off this book was because of the pacing. This was a really cool world and there was a lot for the reader to wrap their head around…but there was a LOT of exposition and while it was often conveyed within dialogue between characters, it occasionally got tiresome. I scanned through a few long-winded info dumps, not going to lie. It wasn’t a world so utterly unfamiliar that it required huge bouts of information.
The pacing wasn’t entirely ideal, in that the last 10% of the book contained most of the action…though there was enough political/social machinations going on throughout the novel to keep me interested.
All this to say that if the opening line of this review caught your attention, you should most definitely grab a copy of this book when it comes out this spring. I look forward to seeing other people read this, and very much look forward to seeing what goes down in book two of this series!
H.J. Swinford 