Hello and a very merry Friday to all!!
Today we’re going to do something I haven’t done in a while and that just so happens to be a book review. Though in all honesty it’s more of a review of the entire series rather than just one book so this is going to be a bit longer.
The series I am going to cover is the Dragonian series by Adrienne Woods. There are five books (Firebolt, Thunderlight, Frostbite, Moonbreeze, and Starlight), two novellas (Venom and Poison), and seven spin offs (Moon Beam part I, Moon Beam part II, Dark Beam I, Dark Beam II, Dark Beam III, Dark Beam IV, and Fire Beam). This series was introduced to me, much like the Green Rider series, by my Wendy-in-law and I ended up loving it so much that I wanted to spread the word about it.
Going into the series I was very skeptical, the only information I had been given was that it was like Harry Potter with dragons and the description wasn’t much to draw me in. Despite all this I gave it a chance and boy am I happy that I did. The first book opens in such a way that it immediately takes your attention and makes you want to keep reading. As the series progress you find that all the books open in such a way whether with action or with something emotional, it makes you want to keep reading. The series keeps you reading with it’s balance between action and information that keeps the questions rolling and your curiosity peaked.
Moving onto the story. Like I said, I actually enjoyed the series very much, a lot more than I ever expected to honestly. The characters, primarily the main character Elena, could be extremely frustrating but these are also teenagers trying to figure out who they are and how they fit into the bigger picture. The swearing can be a bit much in my opinion but teenagers do tend to swear excessively, there’s also more eluding to sex than I had expected though I didn’t find it bothersome. In all honesty the only thing that I found bothersome when it came to the actions of the teenagers was whenever they would drink excessively but only because the author uses “I took a sip of my beer” or “He drank some of his beer” every time the characters were having some of said drink that it felt so forced and I was torn between amusement and cringing but that’s just my opinion. Aside from little moments the characters come across in many ways as your typical teenagers. The story at times may come off as predictable but there are other times when you become completely blindsided both in good ways and in bad. Each story has it’s own compelling story that makes it feel like its own separate tale yet ties in so perfectly to the grander scheme. There are moments when things you thought were insignificant pop back up and turn out to be bigger than you imagined.
As I mentioned I was told that this series was like Harry Potter with dragons and I didn’t realize just how spot on that statement was. The similarities between the two series are at first exciting and a nice wink to fans but after a while they grow tiresome however the further you get into the series the more they die down and the ones that remain once again become a nice nod to nostalgia. In order to cope with the references my Wendy-in-law and I turned it into a kind of game to avoid frustration. Another something that grows rather tiresome are the constant mistakes. Now I’ll be the first to admit that the series while quickly rising to be one of my favorites is also lacking in the department of grammar and fact consistency. I learned to over look the grammatical errors as I know my grammar isn’t the best but the inconsistency drove me crazy to a point where my Wendy-in-law found my reactions and rants amusing. In my opinion the series is well worth powering through the mistakes and if you’re able to do so then you might just find that you enjoy it just as much.
Overall I would give this series a four star rating. I really loved the entire series, the plot not only for each book but for the entire series is so interesting and I just fell in love with the world that it earned its four stars. However, I do feel like some things could have been executed better so the series does miss out on that fifth star. It’s so rare for me to fall in love with a series in the way that I did this one and I truly hope to come across another series that pulls me in just like this one. I strongly encourage anyone looking for a new fantasy read to give this series a chance. Everything I’ve said is all opinion based and you might find that you have your own opinions on it.
That’s all for this week folks. Next week we jump back into some Author Confessions before we head into the last week of September.
What are you reading this week?
~*~ Happy reading and writing to all and to all a good day ~*~
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