Cover Image: Dragonspawn

Dragonspawn

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 3.5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

Was this review helpful?

This was a delightful book about dragons that I could read over again. I am a huge fantasy/mythology fan and this book was right up my alley.

Dez cannot remember what happened that left her brother broken but she is well aware that the town where her foster family lives is clearly afraid, and angry with her. In the heat of battle the truth comes rushing back to her and she has to figure out where to go from here.

I liked this book but the writing did seem a little juvenile and predictable to me. However, it had enough dragons and other engaging characters like Dez that I could forgive that part. The book is fast paced but I enjoy that because I do not like when books get bogged down and rehash the same things over and over. Definitely would read another in the series.

Was this review helpful?

I’ve received this book for free in exchange for a review from NetGalley.

I couldn’t put this book. Quite literally. Every time I had to put the book down, I groaned like a teenager being told to stop playing their favorite game. This book was good from start to finish. I loved the main character Dez and her dragon. Her dragon is officially my spirit animal. I loved the personality of the dragon hands down. Khan and Pieter got on my nerves a bit, but as the adventure continued on, I fully enjoyed them. Lula was awesome and no nonsense and Jacklin was very annoying, but a good bully. I understand her side of it though.

The only reason I deducted one star is that the plot was slightly predictable. There were some twists and turns and some interesting discussions (classes of dragons? Racism? Sign me up for that discussion please) but it was very easy to figure out what would happen next.

The other thing that kinda bothered me and the author kinda fixed was how easily the main character solved major issues. In the beginning, she solved it within like two pages, but as the book went on, she struggled more with her problems, but the answer was given to her easily as well.

Overall, if you love dragons and underdog stories, this book is right up your alley. I highly recommend it and look forward to reading the next book in the series.

Was this review helpful?

ARC from NetGalley

DNF at 55%

I didn't really hate anything about this book. Nothing really irritated me. Most of the core ideas had potential but weren't executed very well. While there was nothing glaringly awful to my eye, there wasn't anything terribly good either. It wasn't engaging, and it read for a much younger audience than I had bargained for.

Was this review helpful?

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

Dragonspawn is a book about dragons and rebellion, and had so much potential: unfortunately, it didn't live up to it. The characters are sometimes illogical and unrealistic, and are overall hard to care about, and the plot isn't much better.

The main character, Dez, is introduced as constantly holding back, hesitant to use her full strength for fear of hurting her friends and family. This overthinking results in her failing to achieve the thing she wants more than anything: to join the rebellion, and live up to her parents legacy. That changes when she finds a dragon egg, and has the opportunity to become a dragon rider. It's a fairly common trope when it comes to dragons, but this book fell short of other great examples of this.

The characters were not very likeable: I didn't find myself caring for the main character, or even her dragon. They just seemed bland to me. The supporting characters weren't much better. For example, we're introduced to Jacklin, the bully in this novel, who is repetitive, annoying and quite illogical. At the start of the book, she picks a fight with Dez. She targets her seemingly unfounded hatred on Dez, and picks a fight with her: teasing her because of how violent she is. Now, I understand having a bully as an antagonist. But I doubt any bully would go after someone, with a knife, who they claim to be incredible violent. That's a death sentence waiting to happen, and yet the bully does this anyways. She also conveniently has time to shout exposition at Dez while their village is being attacked. It's illogical choices like this that make the characters quite annoying at times.

As for the plot, it wasn't much better. A lot of it was generic for a story such as this: you have the chosen one with magical abilities, a dragon, and a tragic past, who has to journey to the rebellion and lead them into battle. It's been done before, and this book doesn't add much else to the trope. The plot twists were also predictable.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this one. The idea has potential, but unfortunately the execution didn't live up to it.

Was this review helpful?

I received an eArc of this book throught NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to love this book so much!! It’s been a while since I read about dragons and I was so excited!! Unfortunately I really liked it but I couldn’t love it. It is a YA fantasy but may be better suited for younger ages.

It had a lot of potential but there were some things that were kind of annoying. It had a fast pace but too fast sometimes. There where 3 ‘discoveries’ in one chapter.

The world was very interensting but Des (the main character) was so gullible some times!! She believed everything she’s been told. The storyline was predictable. When I was ready for a plot twist, the most predictable thing happened.. and it happened fast!

I would recommend it for younger ages!

Was this review helpful?

Wow fantastic fast paced and action filled book... This book is filled with plenty of nail biting twists and turns. Overall a very satisfying read. And dragons love them this was awesome.

The character development was spot on and the dynamics were very well done.

The  world-building was rich and vivid and I felt as if I could almost step out of the pages.

Very intriguing and engaging.

Loved the book and I recommend it if you love an exciting fantasy read.

I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

Was this review helpful?

I wanted to enjoy this more than I did, but overall, this was still a good read. I think that this had a lot of potential, and I have to admit, I get easily drawn into things that include talking, magical dragons. I found that this was too quickly paced for my liking, and I kept wondering if this was meant to be more suited as a middle grade, as it felt quite juvenile and predictable at times. This does cover adult themes like violence, however. Although there were some unique elements to this story, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I would have liked, because it didn't end up feeling very unique to me by the end of the book.

I thought that the magic system was interesting, but ended up being used simply by our characters in terms of execution. I enjoy the idea of everyone having the potential to weaponize magic with the appropriate amount of training, like physical strength. However, I found the execution of the magic system by our characters was rather weak - none of the characters used it to do anything out of the ordinary, despite the amount of potential there, and despite Desiree's quick mastering of her capabilities.

I enjoyed the relationship between our main character Desiree and her bonded dragon, Nightsoul. I wish that that aspect of the story had taken more time and was more drawn out for more character development and emotional impact though. If bonding with a dragon is so powerful and unique, why did it take such a short amount of time for our main character to fully bond with her dragon and master her abilities so quickly? It feels like bonding with a dragon would be a pretty special experience, and yet it didn't feel special or very satisfying to read. I found that frustrating.

Nevertheless, if you enjoy tales that include dragon-riding, you could enjoy this! Just be mindful of the pacing and the tone!

Was this review helpful?

Brilliant book loved the plot and the writing style. I love anything with dragons. The characters were amazing

Was this review helpful?

Long a fan of dragon books, the Pern books being very near my heart, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed by this book. Perhaps written more for the YA audience, it seemed too simple and bare bones to hold my interest for too long. I do not like to rate books as low star material, but this one just seems to be a 2 star read. Only my opinion.

Was this review helpful?

I really enjoyed this book. It went by so quickly and reminded me so much of my favorite series that I couldn't help but love it. The set up, the atmosphere, the adventure were all very engaging. I had a great time flying through this novel.
I must admit that at times, the main character annoyed me (especially when she hesitated to do things) but I'm glad that by the end of the book she had grown into herself a bit more.
I can't wait for the next books in the trilogy, hopefully they're just as fun and entertaining as this one!

Was this review helpful?

The start of this book was reminiscent of Eragon and took a little while to get going. The payoff for the perseverance was worth it - the second half of the book was fantastic and I would very much like to see where this story goes.

Was this review helpful?

It was a good book, I love dragons - this was amazing! Thank you for the opportunity to review this book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Was this review helpful?

I genuinely had so much fun with Dragonspawn! I loved the characters and the plot was fast paced and so fun to read a long to!

My issues just laid in the fact I didn’t jive with the writing style all that much, it wasn’t my favourite and parts of it I felt like I had to really suspend my disbelief

But overall, it was a very fun read!!

Was this review helpful?

This book was a very enjoyable read and I loved the storyline! Dez (Desiree)was a very likeable character and all she really wanted was to protect the people she cared about without hurting them in the process. The other characters really made the story exciting especially the brothers who were both very different but cared for each other deeply. The storyline itself reminded me a little of the inheritance cycle but with a whole new twist! Overall I loved reading it and look forward to the next one...
thankyou netgalley for letting me read this amazing book early.

Was this review helpful?