Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

Thank you Netgalley for providing this book for an honest review. I have mixed feelings about this story, which is why it took me so long to actually write a review for it. Elysia and Isabella's relationship toward one another progresses at what I felt was a steady rate and allowed time for the reader to get to know each of the characters' quirks, good or bad. Elysia was an interesting hero as she doesn't brag about her exploits or exaggerate more of what she's accomplished, to the dismay of those who admire the stories surrounding her, like Isabella did. The fantasy creatures in the story also are decent to note and I found myself rethinking how I perceive such creatures in other books and my own writing. I think my biggest problem with completing the book was the pacing. There were long drawn out scenes that just made me have to put the book down a few times and had to push myself to keep reading through. I typically like slow burn romances and the development of Elysia and Isabella's relationship I think was well done overall, but interactions with other characters felt like it was being to just add length to the story without much cohesiveness regarding the main plot. It is not a book I would consider rereading, but it is interesting enough to talk about some of the elements in it to my friends when we discuss during our monthly writing club ideas and things we notice in other novels that stood out to us.

Reading this book felt like playing a video game on the early 2000s with poor graphics.

The first thing that drew me to this book was the cover. It looks amazing and something that might belong as a cover of a graphic novel (or a video game). The blurb was very consistent to the story. However, the quality of the story and writing was lacking. It didn't feel like a book, rather more like a collection of children's stories someone was trying to pass off as adult novel.

I am sad to say that I didn't even read the end part fully, I just flew over it because I could not engage with the story. All in all, sadly this book was a huge disappointment. I was looking forward to a good story with dragons. But did not get it.

I received an ARC of the book from the publisher, via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The two main problems I have with this book is its pacing and how after going through about 30% of it, I still feel like the story doesn't seem to offer anything that's special or unique despite the interesting premise. In the end, I could not finish this book. The first problem is evident through the prologue itself. It is incredibly long (a lot longer than most chapters even) and there is a lot of exposition. It's full of rambling details that I can't see the importance of and this characterises the rest of the book. With regards to the latter, it just seems like a generic fantasy setting with knights and goblins. While there appears to be a subversion of the damsel in distress trope as the female lead acts as a knight, the author doesn't seem to have properly engaged with this trope. Overall, the work falls flat and regrettably, I couldn't see the point of reading on.

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley #netgalley

Definitely not what I expected I loved all of the adventure and romance

2 Stars even. I don't often like to give out reviews like this, but I did not like this book at all. Like a lot of reviews on here, I believe the premise to be interesting and the cover art is really good, but the writing style and the way the plot played out was not to my taste.

The story is really about Elysia Dayne rescuing and coming to fall in love with Princess Isabella, who had a bit of a backstory herself, but it is so full of flashbacks that the main storyline gets lost. The author also does not do a great job of balancing his showing and telling. It took an extremely long time to get any actual dialog to get going, and it was one or two lines, then went back to the telling. This form of storytelling is what makes people who hate first person perspective hate it. The story is told mostly through Elysia's first person perspective, and she isn't the greatest of narrators. She felt too flat for me. Like everything that happened to her was just another point in the story, and doesn't open up too much until the end of the story.

One of the best examples of this is when we first meet Isabella, and instead of showing reactions of Isabella torpedoing Elysia's planned rescue, we're just walked through what could have been a pretty funny and harrowing bit of adventure, we don't get too much dynamic storytelling. Even Isabella doesn't get a line of true dialog despite spewing some, what could have been, excellent insults at Elysia after they're both somewhat safe. In fact, and this kind of made me stop reading, Elysia kind of negs Isabella out of nowhere. Isabella says something nasty, but we are only told that it was nasty, not what was said, then Elysia throws an insult at this woman. It just makes Elysia feel like she has no personality beyond mean.

This is one of the few LGBT+ high fantasies that I can't recommend, and it hurts, because there aren't that many out there. I love high/epic fantasies, and wish there were more LGBT+ ones out there, but this isn't just that good for me.

I received a copy of the book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book was amazing, and the prologue chapter was very promising, so I went into the story with high hopes. Unfortunately, this book didn't work for me.

I will start with the good things. As I mentioned, the premise sounded great. The protagonist, Elysia Dayne, who is a dragon slayer goes on a quest to save a princess. We learn more about her past, her adventures and watch as she and the princess, Isabella, get closer. The world seems rich and interesting, with some of the lore scattered throughout the story.

Now, I must move on to what I didn't enjoy. As I mentioned, both the plot and the world seem interesting, but my biggest complaint is that it all seems underdeveloped. The story had great potential, but I feel like we don't get to experience it in its full glory.
My first issue was the pacing. It made the book hard to read. It's slow in the beginning, but with a lot of info-dumping in the prologue chapter, and the plot of some of the later chapters seems to be dragging more than it's necessary and enjoyable.

There were many flashbacks incorporated, and while it's a writing element I usually enjoy, here it was distracting from the main plot. The main plot was Elysia's quest to save Isabella (and their journey) and the flashbacks provide information about Elysia's past. The flashbacks were often, and pretty lenghty and sometimes they were more interesting than the main plot. Which, in my opinion, defeats their purpose which is to be filler content and provide exposition. There was a lot of back and forth and the way it was done made the story dizzying and confusing at times.

The writing style in general consisted mostly of telling and not showing, using many filler words, and there were many drawn-out details that just failed to keep my interest. It seems more like I'm supposed to guess what the author meant to do, rather than actually experience it while reading.

The characters were, in my opinion, underdeveloped. They had the potential to be really interesting, but they sadly were not. It is clear what the author meant to do with the characters, but they seem unfinished. They seem pretty flat, two-dimensional and even the main character had next to no personality. I was well into the book (about 70%) when I finally felt like the main character had a personality whatsoever. This made it hard to connect with the characters and care about their stories. It again seems like I am guessing who the characters are, but because I'm assuming and not because they're presented that way in the book.

The relationship between Elysia and Isabella falls flat for me. There is no buildup to it, and while they spent time together, there is no chemistry between them and it doesn't look like a significant bond is forming. These are the chapters where the plot dragged the most, as it seemed that every chapter is exactly the same just packaged to be slightly different. They don't seem to like each other at all, especially Elysia, whose POV we're reading from. She seems to view Isabella as a child and complains about her constantly, and there are no actual indicators to tell us she is getting more fond of Isabella but all of a sudden she is in love with her. It seemed very uncharacteristic, and there wasn't anything leading up to it, it was like a switch went on.

The dialogues seemed stilted, and the banter seemed forced. There were a couple of instances of banter between Elysia and Isabella I enjoyed, but like most things in this book - it was underwhelming. In the flashbacks, most of the dialogues are used as exposition, to find out more about Elysia, but many of them just seem to be pandering. Many characters tell Elysia how great of a hero she is, how they admire her, and so on, but I think those dialogues could've been used to show what her actual personality is, and not just to tell us that she is a great hero. Asides from Elysia and Isabelle, no other character seems even remotely important, they just seem to be there to push the plot, and I wish there was more to the side characters. The main character also doesn't experience any character development, in my opinion, she is exactly the same throughout the entire book.

I did like the world, but I wish there was more world-building. It is obvious that the author put a lot of thought into creating this world, but we only see it in snippets. Hopefully, the next book incorporates more world-building, as I think this world has a lot more to offer.

Unfortunately, this was not the book for me. I think this would be more suited for someone who is less character-oriented while reading, and/or for someone who likes episodic storytelling - the flashbacks provide fun little adventures that someone might enjoy more than I did.

This book started of promising with the story of the childhood of our MC. I tried to ignore the immens amout of detail because I thought it would pick up the story and get me interested. Sadly, it didn't.

I liked what I read but there were too many drawn out details an the back and forth just could not keep my attention. This story has a lot of promise and I'm sure there are readers out there that will enjoy it more than me. I just had to stop because I felt my attention slipping and just did not enjoy it enough to continu reading it.

[DNF 20%]

The publisher provided an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This story kicks off with an exciting bang and really draws you in. If you like a knight-in-shining armor type adventure then you will greatly enjoy the story that is told in this book. I immediately related to the main character. I loved that she was not a typical helpless woman but instead headstrong with a clear vision of who she was and what she wanted to accomplish. She also has a dash of sass which is one of my favorite qualities for my favorite female characters to possess. The main character in this story has a way of making you want to root for her immediately. You are convinced very quickly that she is the right type of hero to be rooting for throughout.

The story is obviously well thought out with a clear vision in mind from the author. With that being said, about a third of the way through the book the author starts incorporating flashbacks into the main character's story to give you a sense of who she really is, what she has been through, and what her motivations are. I am not against a flashback as it gives you more of a connection to the why of the story but the way it is done in this book made it hard to follow the current story line. The author intertwines the backstories not as small clips or memories but as full back-to-back chapters. It grants a good look at why our heroine is who she is but it also really bogs down the main story that the book started with. This book is long with a lot of back and forth. It might have been a bit more successful to simply right two books as the flashbacks are lengthy, detailed, and carry enough story to stand on their own as a piece of world and character building.

If you give this book a shot and can push through the constant back and forth then it really is an enjoyable adventure story. Anyone who is a fan of dragon slaying and adventures of knights protecting people will truly enjoy this story. Give it a fair shot because the world, character, and story building is top notch. This author is incredibly talented and you will find yourself being unable to wait to see what happens next!

An lgbt fantasy novel?? sign me up! is what I thought when I first saw the novel and the synopsis however this suffers from a lot of wordy dialogue and info dumping. It was a bit clunky to read and took me quite a long time to finish. I loved the world and our characters but I found it extremely hard to, keep track or even pay attention.

I DNFed this 5% in, I just couldn’t get into it. It’s too much saying and no showing at all. The world may be interesting but it didn’t shine in those first pages.

The publisher provided an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[DNF at 25%]

I'll admit that I did enjoy what I read. Ultimately I had to put it down because the structure, the pacing and the staggering amount of filler words became too much.

That is not to say that I don't have faith that it has potential because it does. The conversation does not feel stilted, and the banter made me audibly chuckle.

But, unfortunately, I have to draw the line somewhere. I am a firm believer that if a story does not manage to lure me in and hold my interests at the 25% mark, then it most likely never will.

This Sapphic book is such a fun read, I love the story, the character and how brave the 'dragon slayer' is. While i did have quite a few issues, like the pacing which was an issue cause it took time for me to really get into it but it kept me hooked to the end and I'm excited for the next book.