A good conclusion to the series but wasn't as amazing as I was expecting it to be. O felt like the pacing was a little off and some things are solved too quickly and easily. A great read nonetheless.

The incredible story continues! The follow-up to Six Crimson Cranes in The Dragon’s Promise we get to see what happens next with Princess Shiori and the family we loved.

While hard to live up to the incredible momentum establishes in Book 1, Lim finds away to continue this captivating journey. As a reader we are comforted by the return of the fast, yet still eager for resolution that keeps us turning the page.

I will always read anything Elizabeth Lim writes and know I will absolutely love it, and The Dragon's Promise is no exception. The sequel so Six Crimson Cranes, The Dragon's Promise continues Princess Shirori's story and see her returning a cursed pearl. Along the way we enter the world of dragons which was amazing and the detail was fascinating! Such an interesting and unique story and I loved returning to this world!

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The Dragon's Promise is the follow-up to Elizabeth Lim's fabulous YA-Fantasy novel, Six Crimson Cranes. I have had this on my shelves since its release, but couldn't read it, because I hadn't gotten around to reading the 1st-book yet. Also, a long-time veteran of my shelves.

Earlier this month, I finally decided to pick up Six Crimson Cranes and I absolutely adored it. I fell in love with the world, as well as the characters. I had to have more. After the heart-breaking conclusion to SCC, I needed to know immediately what was going to be next for our protagonist, Shiori. There were a lot of possibilities.

This story begins with Shiori now in possession of the powerful dragon's pearl. Her goal is to return it to its original owner, but that is not to be an easy task. At its heart this is a quest, which works well for me as that's one of my favorite Fantasy tropes. It also features most of the characters that I grew to love in the first installment.

We travel to places such as the dragon realm and to Shiori's step-mother's homeland. The brothers are back supporting Shiori and offering her guidance when she needs it. Her love interest, Takkan, also played a role here and I ended up loving him even more after this. They have the cutest relationship. The way it developed over the course of the two books just feels so natural. They're easy to root for.

While I still loved the writing, the characters and the world, I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the first book. I know this doesn't get said a lot, but I actually wish this had been longer. By that, what I really mean, is that I wish it had been broken into two books. This feels, in a way, like two distinct stories. We have the first part, where Shiori gets to travel to the dragon realm. In the second part, she returns to the mortal realm and travels around there and does what she needs to do.

Personally, I loved the dragon realm and wish we could have spent more time there. There was a lot of political happenings and interesting new characters that I wanted to know more about Then in the same vein, the mortal realm section was just as interesting, but I also wanted to know more. It just felt rushed and like the two halves were smooshed together, when Lim's fantastic writing could easily have carried this into two separate books.

With this being said, I still really enjoyed this story. It's actually a compliment to say I wanted more. I loved how quickly this kicked off. Having read the two books pretty much back-to-back made this a seamless experience for me. I love the lore behind the dragon pearl and learning more about that along with Shiori was so fun.

I can't wait to the get to the prequel, [book:Her Radiant Curse|66092846], which tells the story of Shiori's step-mother, Raikama. She is actually one of the most intriguing characters in this series for me, so I am so happy that prequel exists. She needs her time to shine!

I would recommend this series to anyone who loves YA Fantasy, particularly stories that incorporate fairy tale elements, or quests. Elizabeth Lim's writing never disappoints. It's always engaging and fast-paced.

Thank you to the publisher, Knopf Books for Young Readers, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I'm sorry it took me so long to get to it. This is a fabulous series!!

While I’d ended up loving Six Crimson Cranes, I was still a bit wary going into this one. With Lim’s other series, I also adored the first book and ended up being pretty disappointed with the second book, and I was worried the same might happen here, especially after seeing some reviews. However, I was actually pleasantly surprised by this sequel, even if it wasn’t perfect!

I think one of my favorite aspects of this sequel was getting time to focus on areas of the setting that we hadn’t really had time for in the first book. In Cranes, Shiori is much more limited in her ability to travel and do things, so we spend much of the book in only one corner of her kingdom. In The Dragon’s Promise, however, she’s both got promises to hold up and the power of her royal title behind her, and it gives her a bit more freedom and autonomy to make her own choices (with some limitations still, of course). I felt like we got a wider view of her kingdom, and how that kingdom fits in with the rest of the world beyond it.

While I did find the structure of this story and its plot a bit odd at times, I think it ended up working for me. We definitely jumped around spaces and focus a bit, but it came together strongly in the end, with all the pieces of the puzzle clicking into place. I also enjoyed how part of this story focused on looking back and seeing the consequences of past events. We got to see history continuing to have an impact on the present, both in the form of characters themselves and their experiences and in terms of myths and traditions.

The Dragon’s Promise isn’t necessarily Lim’s strongest book, but I did really enjoy the story and getting to see Shiori grow further as a character. It also made me quite excited about Her Radiant Curse!

Review will be live on my blog on February 20th!

I loved book one. And the follow up got off to a great start…but then the pacing, amount of superfluous details at times, and distractions kept my attention wandering. It was harder to finish with waning attention.

such a fun conclusion!! I adored this duology. Elizabeth Lim is a master of creating stories that feel like mythology. Whilst I think it felt a bit rushed, it was still utterly charming and ghibli-esque.

A beautiful follow up to her first book "Six Crimson Cranes". Lim does an amazing job showing readers a fun fantasy world. She really knows how to pull you into the story and immerse you in the details.

Though incredibly different in many ways, the story really reminded me of Axie Oh's "The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea".

I may be a.taf biased because I am yet to find an Elizabeth Lim book that I did not love, and The Dragons Promise is no exception. Lims writing pulls you into these amazing fantastical worlds while still keeping true to her Asian mythology/fairytale fusion style of storytelling.

I absolutely loved Lim’s Spin the Dawn duology, and I loved the first book in this series. But while this book was good and I will continue to read Lim’s books, it wasn’t my favorite. She made a lot of interesting decisions on how to end this series, and while it had a lot of potential, it ultimately fell a little flat for me.

The queen has done it again!! I was SO excited to read Shioris story again & i waited so long for it. Which is why i can’t believe i have to wait AGAIN for the next book!!!

Please read SIX CRIMSON CRANES if ure into asian fantasies because this was a blast!!

Thank you netgalley and publisher for the free ARC

I absolutely loved Six Crimson Cranes, and the ending was a pretty satisfying one, so I was surprised to see a sequel planned. I was so excited to read this but I don't know. This one fell a bit short. I had to push myself through this dialogue heavy, meandering story. Shiori seemed to thrive and rely more on her cunning as a voiceless servant, but given her voice back, she doesn't know how to use it, but that's not going to stop her. Lim's writing is still magical, but it's not quite enough to lift the slogging plot.

I loved the conclusion of this duology. I am sitting here sobbing, unsure how I will live without Takkan, Kiki and Shiori. The story is over and it was beautiful and I don't want it to end. I love what Elizabeth Lim weaved for us. I wish there was a third. Maybe more of this world could have been touched on. But overall I am so satisfied with that ending.

I wanted to love this because I loved the Six Crimson Cranes. The Crimson Cranes was very a heart-wrenching and beautiful book. However, this one fell flat. I did like that the love interest was absent for the majority of the story. I also didn’t like how it became a love triangle. It made the first novel lose its meaning. Thus, this sequel was not really needed. Nevertheless, I love Shiori and will continue to reread the Six Crimson Cranes. Elizabeth Lim is an excellent writer that has a beautiful world and could not meaningful stories. I recommend this novel for fans of Juliet Marillier, Robin McKinley, and Shannon Hale!

I absolutely love these books, they are so magical. I ended up rereading the all of the previous books to fully immerse myself in the world again and it was totally worth it. I love the story telling, the characters, the setting, the relationships, ALL OF IT. If you haven't joined the Elizabeth Lim fan club now is the time.

This was a good follow up to Six Crimson Cranes! I did not enjoy it as much as the first, but still liked it. I will still continue to happily read more in this world.

I’ll be perfectly honest…Six Crimson Cranes would have been fine as a stand alone book without the pearl as a story device to write a second book. This book was completely different than the first (not necessarily in a bad way). Truthfully, it felt unnecessary. Most of what I loved about the first book was absent in the second regarding Shiori herself.

That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, as I did give it 4 stars.

The setting and world building was the best aspect of this book. Lim’s writing is lush and decadent. Her world descriptions of both the dragon’s kingdom and Shiori’s kingdom were stunning. I love her food descriptions (they always make me hungry). Her writing alone is the kind of gorgeous prose that speaks to my heart. Overall, that made for a transportive read.

This was, at heart, an adventure story. It was a mash up of segments presenting challenges to Shiori. From traveling to the dragon kingdom, to facing evil forces within her own palace, to visiting the island of the demons where the dragon Wrath lives, there’s danger everywhere she turns. Each destination poses its own obstacles, forcing Shiori to press for victory.

However, there was one important aspect missing. What I loved about the first book was the character development and internal conflict with Shiori’s character. TDP didn’t feel internally focused. It felt 100% plot based. The goal was obvious—return the pearl to its owner. Sure, fine. But I like a character with an obvious flaw who must grow and change. That’s what a story is, at heart, isn’t it? Growth and change?? But Shiori herself wasn’t struggling with anything personal beyond her grief, and that simply didn’t offer the internal conflict I yearned for.

Whomp, whomp…

Overall, though, I did enjoy this. The writing swept me away, despite the lack of conflict within Shiori form the onset. Elizabeth Lim is an auto-buy author for me. I love all her work. I guess I just felt that SCC could have been a stand alone, with all the lose ends neatly tied up at the end, OR, some kind of obvious internal conflict with Shiori from the outset, to make this book necessary to her character.

I loved this book. I love everything Elizabeth Lim writes and I really just love this world. This book made me feel all the feelings and I already need spin off books for several of the characters. The way Elizabeth weaves her stories together is unparalleled and I desperately hope she continues to write stories in this world.

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I loved loved loved book 2! Not as much as book 1 because I felt that the relationships were so strained and that makes me uncomfortable as a reader. So for a personal preference. It felt rushed in some areas and in others it was kinda lost. I had to reread and reorient myself a few times. However, the characters are phenomenal, the plot moves well and isn’t predictable, there is character growth and lots of heartache in this one as well! Elizabeth had me stressing and now I just need more. So thanks for the arc! I can’t wait to do a reread with the audible version before book 3!

This was a decent sequel. Not as interesting as the first, but I still enjoyed the worldbuilding. Overall, this was a good series that I have enjoyed.