Ehhhh. I'm a bit disappointed. The plot has great potential, but it is just background noise for the relationship that dominates the writing. I'm shocked how many ladies have called this a book about strong women when she spends most energy obsessing over a man. It is ridiculous, esp given the events unfolding around them. 

The characters and their growth feel like total tropes and the dialog is uninspiring and repetitive. If I had taken a drink anytime "speared his/her hair" appeared, I'd have been too drunk to finish reading the book - which may have been the better experience. 

This book is an adult version of YA dystopian fiction. Harry Potter meets Hunger Games and Divergent add a little spice. 🌶️

There were parts I hated, parts I found OK and the ending redeemed it all. I think it's better to take nothing seriously while reading this book and once you have fun with it it becomes truly enjoyable.

PERSONAL TASTE: Much of it isn’t necessarily a problem, just things I don’t like. “Magical college” (they take classes in between the life threatening stuff) is not my favorite, nor is the very modern-feeling dialogue set against a medieval/ancient fantasy setting (it was hard listening to characters say “that’s epic!”)   And I hate gritty “life is cheap” worlds, especially in first person where you aren’t concerned the narrator will die. For me, I just get a vaguely unpleasant feeling from that. But that doesn’t make it bad.

CHARACTERS AND WORLD: My big critique of this book is I don’t believe the character or the world building. It so often wants to have it both ways.  For example, if you’ve been at war for 400 years, your population should be hurting. Why are you allowing half of your best and strongest to die in this school? I’d buy that you need to team up with dragons, and dragons often murder the cadets or let them fall to their death, but why let 15% fall off a cliff on day 1? Only reason I can think of is that “only the strongest can meet the dragons”; then why not use all volunteers as infantry and those who survive their first battle get to meet the dragons? Also, why punish the children of traitors by conscripting them into the military where they can team up with extremely powerful dragons? That’s a bad plan!! (And you can just tell that there’s more going on than the main character knows… but unless it turns out that there’s an overpopulation problem, I don’t get it.)

And character-wise— does Violet want to be here?? If so, why? She’s forced to be here but won’t try to run… because her mom told her not to or else she’d just be sent back. If I was going to die, I’d try those odds. Violet seems to face every challenge with a conviction that she’s going to die, then when challenged, acts arrogant and claims she has a chance to survive. At about the 20-30% mark, she’s given another out (the same out she’s had this whole time), and this time decides that she WANTS to stay. Why? The answer seems to be because she finally feels capable of surviving. Until graduation, at least, but then she’ll be a soldier with a really high chance of death. What does she gain from this, validation? It’s not like she always wanted to be a fighter but suspected she was too weak; she wanted to be a scribe. So why risk her life to go down a path there’s no real reason to be interested in? I assume riders get glory and a sense of higher purpose, and if Violet had ever shown signs of wanting that, I’d buy it. But she mostly seems to want to survive and occasionally show compassion to people around her. I don’t know why she doesn’t try to escape. 

A good example of weird character/world building is the scene where she’s facing off in practice against her leader— the hot superior officer bad boy who seems to hate her. (A classic.) Attracted to him, Violet chastises herself, “I am not attracted to toxic men.” 1) Personally, this loses points for making me cringe with the modern speak in a non-modern setting. 2) He hasn’t been toxic. He has just been harsh because he hates her family (classic!), but overall avoided unfair treatment. If anything, he’s been a gentleman. Is Violet’s definition of “toxic”=“doesn’t like me”? Relatable. 3)Casual sex seems to be encouraged in this world, and is only critiqued when it’s with their superior officers. So Violet should be concerned about his position, not her attraction to bad boys. She should feel comfortable being attracted to anyone; it’s not like she’s falling in love with him. This is something a modern girl might care about and makes no sense here. 

Also, and maybe it’s unfair of me, but giving the main character naturally silver hair and the most special dragon team up in history is not a choice I like. 

PLOT TANGENT: the twist at the very end, while I saw it coming, was nice (though I thought the author would save it for the sequel)… and Xaden knowing about it is weird, because if he knew, why did he start out the book having beef with Violet? 

PACING: I didn’t love all the pacing. Too often things got brought up and resolved within two chapters. Or were foreshadowed almost immediately before coming into play. (Examples: what “she” tried to kill Violet? It’s a big build up to a nothing-burger resolved in two chapters. And the

orange allergy

thing was so gracelessly inserted in!!) I complimented the book on being tasteful, waiting until the 70% mark to have a sex scene to break the tension while still leaving some emotional barriers  up to work on for the rest of the book… oh, nope. Two chapters later, emotional barriers smashed, another sex scene. And having the last chapter be someone else’s POV annoyed me; if this is Violet’s story, let her tell it and be the active character. That being said, the big picture plot points were competently done at reasonable times. 

DIALOGUE AND EXPOSITION: Sometimes dialogue and exposition were fine, but sometimes they felt so clunky and out of place that I cringed. I hate Violet’s nickname, and how often they bring it up. When Xaden reveals he had to

sleep with the leader to save these kids

, he drops it right before a battle that’s unrelated as a tangent to a different point! Don’t get me wrong, that’s how I’d drop lore, but Violet doesn’t even have time to react! I literally rewinded it to see if I heard it right. 

POSITIVES, in no particular order: The length of this book is intimidating, but it’s action packed and does cover a lot of ground instead of meandering. The cliche romance parts (“I should’ve killed them slower”; that’s the good stuff!!) worked and made me grin. I didn’t see the two-dragons thing coming, that was good (even if she’s now extra special). I like that she has hypermobility and all the downsides! I laughed a little when at the beginning of a chapter a character was like “you don’t want to meet this one professor” and then the chapter ended with the professor entering and committing murder. “Betrayal cuts my throat like glass” is a good line; and the unrelated REAL betrayal she faces caught me off guard in a good way! (It made me want to see her punch that guy in the face.) Most of the last 10% was fun and kicked the action into high gear! And starting Xaden’s chapter with the last words of his father goes hard. 

Speaking of, the best part of this book was the written quotes at the beginning of the chapters. Getting to know her brother through his words, random story building parts… and my favorite,

her mother briefly asking someone to show some kids mercy

. It makes you think of the mom we barely see as a real person!! 

TLDR: I will say it got me invested in the scarred bad boy who selflessly protects the vulnerable, but to be honest, that doesn’t take much. I take issue with much of the world building, pacing, and dialogue; however, this book was competently written (repetitive teenaged “he’s so hot!!” lines aside) with some good action scenes, fun romance cliches, and overarching plot that works. 1/4 “twists” surprised me, which is a good thing! It means things were set up sufficiently (if occasionally obviously) but not EVERYTHING was telegraphed. 

I skipped the sex scenes, so no idea if those were good. 

I fought with myself on the rating— 3? Or 2.75? I may end up changing it. 

Listened to the graphic audio book. I am a “skimmer” and I know I would have struggled paying attention through some of these chapters with all the lore, strategy talk, history, etc. 

This is a great book if you like dragons, war/battle strategy, romance,  warrior school, and a woman who absolutely refuses to die. 

*SPOILERS - mild mentions throughout here on out*

If I had read this I don’t think it would have hit as hard. My one gripe with the actual writing was the last battle in the book. I get the point of showing the gravity of the situation, and maybe I am just a little bit miffed at the loss suffered from that battle and it’s making me hyper critical but the fact our MC did not clock the solution to the fight faster was infuriating. Maybe that was a plot device to show the stress of the moment and their inexperience but I’m pissy about it and it’s my review. I’m knocking half a star off because of that and the fact that homegirl suffers the emotional flip flop syndrome when she’s been nothing but forgiving and understanding for the rest of the book. Other than that! LOVED IT! 

Had to get the bad out there first. Here’s what I love and I’m gonna TRY to keep it light on spoilers but I can only do so much. 

1. A girlie with a chronic illness having the willpower to be stronger and better despite having an easy out. Could not be me and I love her for it. 
2. Mysterious shadow man with a heart will always be my downfall. 
3. The fact the other love interest played out like it did. Oooooooo I cannot tell you how much that man pissed me TF off from day one. If there was a “two lovers and I have to choose” trope I would have stopped reading. I really just want to read more to see his downfall. 
4. The ending was so good. It made me want to start reading the next one pronto (even though based on the context leading up to it, I kind of saw it coming). 
5. It was hot. Yeah I was blushing and kicking my feet several times.

 

All in all I would recommend this in a heart beat.