Stunning and beautiful cover.
But i had very high expetations going in to this, and it did not give it all .. The characters were so and so. But nothing wow-ed me.

Right iff the bat I loved the feel and vibes of this book. The characters are lovable, the majority of the plot twist are exciting and I definitely didn’t see all of the twists coming.

I wish we learned more about the automatons, but I’m hoping that gets explored more in the sequel.

This book is extremely easy to dive into, so I definitely recommend it

*I received a free ebook from NetGalley

This book sounds so good, I mean dragons, right? But unfortunately it wasn’t for me, I couldn’t get into the story and I didn’t enjoy the writing style.

I didn’t finish it. I don’t rate books I don’t finish, but Netgalley won’t let me send this review if the book is not rated. So the one star is for the first 30%.

Thank you Netgalley for the digital copy of this book.

i really enjoyed reading this book, the characters were great and I really enjoyed the fairy tale element. i look forward to more from the author and the series.

I just didn’t gel with this book at all I’m afraid. I’m not sure what it was, I can’t tell you why I didn’t like it, there’s nothing wrong with it that I can put my finger on, but I just didn’t get into it.

This is my personal opinion though, and I’m sure lots of other will enjoy it.

“It’s not you...it’s me..”

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher as ever for the copy.

I really enjoyed this book and I can't wait to see more books from this author in the future. Keep up the great work.

Thank you Netgalley for the eARC. This book was an interesting but very confusing read. There was just so much happening and so much new vocab and concepts and characters thrown at you. I feel like this book really needs a glossary and character guide because I barely had any idea who was who aside from Ann, Fall, Kilin, Reign, and King Rypere. I loved how there was a trigger warning at the beginning of the book. The map was very beautiful but I think Jolly could have come up with a better place name than 'Holocaust Springs'. I was also very confused by the world-building and the concept of blood spools etc. I enjoyed the beginning third of the novel where Ann starts off on her journey with her burgarri but then everything just got so confusing and all over the place that I quickly lost interest in continuing the book. It was a struggle to finish but I did it and the plot twists at the end just hurt my brain even more. I had no idea what was happening by the end. Also the romance in this book was totally unnecessary because yes Ann had to marry the person who won the tournament but there was barely any focus on building romantic relationships throughout the book that the end couple just came out of nowhere. Shellahah also wasn't capitalized even though it was a place name but that was remedied in the blurb of the sequel. I hope the sequel will be better written than the first book but either way, I won't be reading it.

Description
Magical artifices, dragon-shifters, palace intrigues and meddling sorcery meet in Behind the Dragon’s Veil, the first novel in a new YA Steampunk Fantasy series.

RAPUNZEL meets A GATHERING OF SHADOWS

"Seventeen years of forced isolation has let Annarae to value freedom when she rises as queen. But ruling means surviving court and appeasing her corrupt & demanding council. She’ll risk anything to be free, even to slay a dragon."

Behind the Dragon's Veil

An artificer turned queen.

After seventeen years of seclusion and secrecy, Annarae, an artificer, and now the queen of Andrandria, sits the throne and embraces freedom for the first time. When a dragon threatens her kingdom, she organizes a tournament to assemble slayers. But her problems are far from over. With a killer bent on stealing a power she doesn’t have, a queen without a husband and heir is perilous to the realm. She must marry the champion or risk losing her throne to a regent.

A dragon turned mass murderer

Rebellious Fallagiocrus is never one to obey his father. Ignoring the ancient treaty that expelled his dragarri species, and evading capture each time, he'll shift into his dragon form to soar the night away. He is unstoppable until the fateful night where he loses control of his body and incinerates an entire village by accident. He must win the slayer tournament to right his mistake.

A country mage turned killer

Ambitious Kilin is a small town battle mage fully capable of competing in the slayer tournament. If he succeeds he'll escape his personal prison and win a chance to earn a coveted position in the Maginari Academy. But unbeknownst to his main ego, his split personality was the reason behind the dragon attack.

Tangled together in a strange fate, this unlikely crew embark on a journey to save their kingdom and themselves.

Filled with surprise, romance, secrets and wonder, Behind the Dragon’s veil is perfect for fans of RAPUNZEL, A GATHERING OF SHADOWS and A COURT OF MIST AND FURY.

My Review
Behind The Dragon’s Veil was provided as an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. I must say that this book surprised me. It had all the ingredients of a great novel that keeps you entertained until the end and then leaving you wanting more.

Very well written with great characters, especially the main character. Can you she rule the Kingdom? What do you think? Definitely read, this is one of those books you will be happy you got to read.

This was a really fun read. Annarae has been living alone for 17 years. She's been secluded from the very society that has now deemed her Queen! Not to mention that there's a dragon rampaging across the kingdom, the council is pressuring her to marry, and she doesn't trust any of them. What is she to even do? Well hold a contest of course. She'll marry whomever wins but they have to slay the dragon.

I like Annarae because she's smart. She knows what she has to do, but she's going to do it HER way. The author then lets you see from the perspective of a few suitors and it's generally a very fun read, especially for those who love fantasy!!! The characters are funny, smart, and well developed.

I enjoyed the concept of this novel but the execution was not to my standards. Nothing was explained well and the pacing was clunky. It read like the author did not know where she wanted the story to end up.



I received this book as an e-arc from Netgalley. This does not affect my opinions.

I had a really hard time with this book. I was confused from the start and got so frustrated that I didn't finish the book.
The cover is gorgeous and the premise sounded fascinating, but the pacing is off, we don't get any explanation as to how this magic machine system works and I couldn't keep up with the characters as I wanted more details.
I still believe this could be a good story with more editing.

Thanks Netgalley for providing me with an eARC.

From the cover to the synopsis this book drew me in completely!

Based in the fictional world of Andrandria, Behind the Dragons Veil follows the tale of Queen Annarae who hosts a tournament in order to find a champion to kill the dragon that decimated a fishing village. The tournament takes a personal slant for the Queen who must then marry the champion to appease her loyal council and retain her throne. Filled with magic and intrigue, Behind the Dragons Veil promised to be a captivating read.

Despite my enjoyment of the basic plot, I found the narrative structure to be confusing. It takes a while to figure out what’s going on and I often found myself reading back because I had misunderstood something. In one case, the appearance of a gift had not been explained and while I understand where it came from in the abstract, I read the same chapter several times before concluding that it had not been mentioned.

Also,certain parts of the narrative read awkwardly. imagery was good in some places and weird in others. ‘Almost every hole in the spectators faces was ajar.’

I found that vital information was provided too late, which left me frustrated. For example the Lazareans had been mentioned many times before we find out that they are normal humans. The world building also needs some work. We know that this world has magic, but there are also references to technological advances in the form of automatons and the society in general is very patriarchal. While I like the elements individually I do feel that some continuity between the different aspects is needed. There were many recognisable elements to the tale. The Maginari and the Lazarean are basically like wizards and muggles. The Murka is a form of dress that resembles the burka. Instead of drawing me in, the similarities we’re putting me off.

I did not finish this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy to review.

I adore the concept of this book and what it aims to achieve- steampunk fantasy is always a genre I am willing and excited to see more of- however, I am rating 'Behind the Dragon's Veil' as a 2.5/5, because I struggled to connect with the characters and the writing style.

For me, the style of this book felt slow and clunky at times, even in the first half, which feels more polished and revised. Plus. critically, I never got so invested in the story or characters enough though that I could forget I was physically reading the book and this did impact my overall enjoyment.
Overall, I would still recommend it to lovers of Fantasy and/or Steampunk and I love the overall premise, there are some really good ideas here- but for me, they felt buried under repetitive phrases and some rather predictable twists.

Y'all, this book gave me so many Queen of The Tearling vibes I was THRIVING. You get dragons and magic and intrigue oh my! I can't quite put my finger on it, but despite my having such a strong comparison this also felt extremly fresh. Perhaps it was the writing style, I couldn't really tell you. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book. I found this book interesting, the magic system was very interesting to me and something that I have not seen in a book for a while but the plot fell a little flat for me, and the I didn’t really enjoy the characters. I gave this book a 3.5 stars.

This novel was an enjoyable read, about a woman who has been hidden most of her life and now has to rule a kingdom. However, nothing is as it seems, for there are those who have secrets. Annarae is an artificer and after the recent death of her parents, has become the queen of Andrandria. The council wants her to marry, to secure the line, but Annarae is more concerned about her people and gathering allies to her side, for she cannot trust the council. She decides to have a tournament, in which the winner will marry her, but she has other plans. Fallagiocrus, known as Fall, has made a grave error and plans to atone. Kilin is a battle mage, but has lapses in his memory, for what is beneath the skin is more dangerous than anyone could imagine, There is also the mysterious Reign, who has been watching out for Annarae for many years under the direction of her father. All these individuals will come together to discover the truth about the dragon attack and find away to live in peace. Action, Adventure, dragons, magic, and much more come together in the riveting tale!

This book greatly confused me. I felt like I was reading a fantasy sci-fi. (Though in all fairness I selected it based on its qualifier Steampunk Fantasy.) It seemed like I was reading a book with no shelf to call home.

Andrandria is a country of kings and queens and knights. The main villain is an evil sorcerer. The landscape is pictorial. And there are dragons! Totally high fantasy.

BUT--those dragons are inter-dimensional beings that travel through space and time. That weaponry? Futuristic and sci-fi for sure.

Oh, and let's just throw in some steampunk airships and automatons for the giggles.

The thing is--it worked. The elements all managed to jive together harmoniously. All the genres were living in one big, happy world together.

I just wish I could say the same for the writing continuity. The first half of the novel was really polished. The author pulled out all the stops on using antiquated verbs to really capture that intellectual feel.

However, the second half seemed like it had never seen the editor and suddenly had profanity out of no real necessity. I was confounded.

The ending also had an overload of "but wait, there's more" twists (which really weren't surprising). It was overall a very perplexing emotional state while reading, and I'm still not sure if the story was strong enough to keep me reading the series. Time will tell when the next book is published.

This story has all things awesome: dragon shapeshifters, powerful scorcerers, steampunk contraptions, overthrown queens, exiled kings and tons of twists!

The story unfolds gradually, and is told through 3 different POV. Some characters have secrets, so their narrative is full of hints and not-fully explained thoughts, which confused me a bit, especially at the mid-way point where a lot of the action takes place and some pretty significant revelations are made. Also, the shift in POV was sometimes jarring, and I'd have to re-read a bit.

I liked the growth of our MC Ann, and how she was strong and brave, but not obnoxiously so. Finding out about the other characters and how their identities added to the plot was interesting, too.

The main conflict was resolved, but there are still loose ends to deal with for the second book. I made the mistake of reading the excerpt of the second book, and it left off with a cliffhanger!

Overall, this had some unique characters, which I'd like to learn more about, and interesting plot ideas. Although a bit confusing at times, this was an entertaining read. 3.5 stars

Written by Christina Jolly, Behind the Dragon's Veil is a steampunk novel about a princess who was hidden away to protect her from The Hunter, and a dragon that is out terrorizing the country.

This novel was very, very confusing. The setting was confusing (and I have read other steampunk novels, so it wasn't the steampunk-ness), the world itself was not described to a point where the reader really knows where they are. There are references to machines that are kept very vague and because of that don't seem to add anything to the story.

This was a novel that I really wanted to enjoy, but working through it the lack of clarity kept bringing me out of the story and, overall, made it very hard to read.

If you enjoy steam punk and read a lot of it, perhaps this could be a book for you as you might have a better bases to make it through. Otherwise, this will be a tough read.

I did receive a copy in exchange for an honest review.

A strong first fantasy story that keeps a good pace, has great use of language, and great characters. The plot is the main draw, which is imaginative and engaging. Recommended.

I really appreciate the NetGalley copy for review!!