Dragonfall

This is one of those books where I have to conclude I am not the target audience. I can appreciate it is well written, with some clever writers tricks in terms of tensing and language use. But for me, I am not a big romance person and there was too much of that in this. Enemies to lovers is one of my least favourite tropes out there and it basically forms the centerpiece of this story.

We follow the stories of a dragon and a thief. The dragons have all been banished to an alternate realm, but during a magical convocation the thief calls one across from their realm to this one. The shapeshifting dragon trope is also used here (another one I am not especially fond of - let dragons be dragons!) so the dragon blends into society. The main plot follows a heist involving the dragon and the thief along with attempts for the dragons to return to this world. These are all aspects I enjoyed, but for such a character driven story I have to engage with the characters and I struggled here, and I always find these romance heavy things kind of cringey.

There is some clever use of language around gender here, which I do appreciate. The thief is never specified as to which gender they actually are, and there are multiple allusions to gender fluidity in the story. This was well done and in a way that did not feel forced or shoe horned in.

Ultimately, I can appreciate this was well written, but it played with tropes that I am not particularly fond of which ultimately detracted from my overall enjoyment. YMMV.

Pros: interesting characters, great worldbuilding, non-binary protagonist

Cons:

Arcady Eremia wants to clear their family’s name, so they need money and a new last name. Their spell was only supposed to change their name seal, not pull someone into their world. Certainly not someone magically bonded to them.

Everen Emberclaw’s been given a chance to fulfill a prophecy to save dragonkind from their dying world. But to do it he must properly bond with Arcady and then kill them.

This is a story about trust between two broken people that involves a fun heist towards the end of the book.

The worldbuilding was excellent. The human world has a fair amount of variety, with several kingdoms that have different customs, and a religion centered on the worship of dragons.

Arcady is non-binary and the world has a nifty way of dealing with pronouns, using honourifics until you learn the correct forms of address.

There are light romance elements with a fun will they/won’t they aspect.

Arcady’s gruff and a bit unlikeable at first, but really grows on you as time goes on. I loved Everen completely, especially watching him learn about the human world and trying to fit in.

Giving dragons feathers was kind of unique, and I loved that they have a smaller -preterit- forms.

This is the first of a series so while it ties up some loose ends it’s only part of a larger story.

2.5 Stars

World buidling was a bit weak. Prose was difficult sometimes as the author swapped he/she for they/them a lot and it made identifying who was thinking difficult. (Don't care which pronouns are used, just picked one for the character and stick with it). Odd capitalization mid sentence as well that just bothered me.

Not even background on the characters...not even to make me care about them, to buy in.
Premise had potential...but ultimately it was an average book at best. I doubt I will continue the series.

As a self proclaimed connoisseur of dragons in literature (feel free to ask for recs) when I saw this book on netgalley as one of my most anticipated reads I had to request and couldn't not be more grateful!
To start off, let me be clear this book is not for fantasy newbies, this is a high fantasy book. There is a big info dump, with world building and tone setting that lasts for about 150 pages before we get to the meat of the plot. With high fantasy there is an amount of learning the language of the world, such as Drakine in the book meaning Nobleman, which was well done I felt I adjusted quick enough. After finishing the book and realize the direction these books (it is not a standalone) will be taking I would agree that this info dump is necessary in order to make this story as compelling as it was.
Now to the actual plot I loved it. To me it gave 80s/90s fantasy (think Dragon Riders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey) with modern ideals. A major part of the book is the acceptance of being non-binary and gender fluid. There are many conversations of not constricting oneself to a box of what gender values are assigned and it's refreshing to see in literature, if we are not quite at that stage in society unfortunately.
I'm keeping this review spoiler free because I feel like it's best to just experience it blind like I did. But to hit some main points while I think the romance is while not quite a subplot it isn't the main plot in this first book at least. But it is giving enemies to lovers to ???, there is longing, tension, hiding parts of yourself because you are afraid of the others reaction. Found family, a heist, betrayal and riding the line between how much we do is destined or based on free will.
I will be picking off the next book whenever that comes out as I can't wait to see what happens next after that shocker of an ending. Thanks again for sending me the arc in exchange for an honest review!