The entire premise of this book really drew me in. Queer enemies to lovers, dragons, magic system, and a prophecy to fulfill.

It took me a bit to get hooked and settled in, the world building was thorough and a bit wordy in the beginning. The magic system was really unique, I found myself a little confused at points as well as a personal disconnect with the writing style and perspectives though. One thing I love is when a fantasy book can completely immerse me into the new realm, and i wanted it to click so bad, but I struggled to be fully immersed with certain confusions throughout the story.

Love the gender fluid representation, and queer enemies to lovers with the “i don’t want you!” tropes. But this book fell a bit short for me.
3.5/5 stars because even though the beginning didn’t have me, the way it wraps up & the plot twist gave it a push and left me needing to know what’s next.

This book was sent to me by Netgalley as an ARC in exchange for an honest review, thank you!

Okay so this was a very interesting and intense read.
First of all, dragons. Like you can’t go wrong with dragons…
Then the storyline was so interesting and the world building, the magical system, even though they were a bit confusing and hard to get into at first, they turned out to be quite unique and fascinating to read about.

Definitely needs some adjustments to make it a 5-star read for me but it was still such a great read!

Sometimes I feel like I'll never read a good book again. Sometimes I have to settle for an "it was ok" one.

<b>Characters</b>

Everen. The last male dragon in Vere Celene. He's red. There's prophecies about him, and in order to fulfill one he flies into a rip between worlds and is in a diminished preterit form. This is eventually described as humanoid. He falls into a cave and finds a human.

Everen is not the best narrator. He refers to Arcady summoning him, drawing him to the human world (which the dragons were evicted from), but the first chapter is him actively choosing to fly through an opening between worlds. He wasn't forced to do it, in fact he was pumped: "I was giddy with the potential spread before me." Later he says to Arcady, "You stole me from my home." He does this to manipulate Arcady, because for some reason if Arcady falls in love with him the bond is completed. But Cassia, Everen's sister, says, "This human is powerful, to have been able to draw you through in the first place."

He didn't really seem like a dragon, largely because we get no real concept of dragon culture or what being a dragon means. Having his POV written in the second person and narrated to Arcady was a choice that made no sense. Perhaps the sequels will explain it. It's imitative of <i>Harrow the Ninth</i>, sans payoff.

Arcady is a thief. Their family fell out of favor and their grandparent was held responsible for creating a plague. Their plan is to steal enough money so they can go to magic school and work their way up the social ladder under a false identity. They want to look for evidence their grandparent was innocent.

<i>"Somewhere on that hill, there would be records of the sham trial."</i>

It seems only members of the upper class, the drakine, have access to locations the evidence might be kept. The thing is, Arcady regularly uses magic to transform their appearance. By chapter two they have the magic ID amulet for their false identity. They are a skilled thief with years of experience and contacts. What is stopping them from walking up that hill and stealing what they need?

Arcady doesn't like merchants or the government, and pointedly doesn't use the honorific pronoun They for them. They do use it for university people, who they respect. Their parents venerated education, so that's part of the reason, but it's a little naive. The university is very expensive (they have scholarships Arcady can't apply for lest their identity is exposed) and has a library inaccessible to the public. I struggle to see how this elitism is better than that of the merchant class who, by all accounts, are just merchants.

They aren't a very competent thief, and they frequently overreact, scream, and generally cause a scene.

Sorin - she's some kind of assassin for the Order of the Dragons. She shows some signs of a backbone but it amounts to nothing much.

<b>Writing</b>

Descriptions are often sparse. When Everen looks into a pond he sees his "preterit form." There is only one brief description of this a few chapters back. Why not describe what that looks like and how he feels about that?

<i>"The topiary had been carved into the shapes of mythical animals…"</i> - What kind? Does this world have the same mythical creatures as ours? There is a lot of this sort of fill-in-the-blank description. This line occurs while the characters are at a ball. The only thing described in any detail is the food.

Why is "preterit" used for a dragon's human form? The literal meaning is something like "past," which implies dragons are humans, right? Is that the big secret? If so, is the word just a name to the dragons that use it, or are they aware of its meaning?

<i>"I could barely see two wing-lengths in front of me."</i> - We are never told how big the dragons are, so that unit of measure is meaningless. No detailed description of a dragon is given until the last 40 pages, around 90%.

Same with "handspan of years." Handspan is a measure of distance, not time. Is it meant to be five years?

<i>"Fear and fury were fist-fighting, and I hated that fear was better at the uppercuts."</i>

Arcady is in the Locked Tombs which 1. Reminds me of another series, 2. Isn't described in <i>any</i> detail other than "it has stalagmites," 3. Is a place where children are taken to be scared by all the people deemed too evil to cremate, 4. Arcady is self-described as being very afraid, but this line is cheesy af.

Also, how are the tombs locked if they let kids run around them?

Sweetsphere - a honey and seed snack. There are a lot of sphere-shaped foods, and a lot of sweet foods. Why not give this an actual name in the local language, and describe the honey flavor and seed texture while Arcady is eating it so we know what it's made of? Why is honey so fortifying? We learn that magic users can starve to death if they use too much magic, so is magic use tied to fat reserves? Is it fueled by glycogen stored in muscles?

There's also "saltsphere." There can't just be one kind of salty, ball-shaped snack lol

<i>"But my taie [grandparent] had been brilliant. He’d been able to see what others couldn’t. In magic, and in life. It was what made him so dangerous to the Consul."</i>

What about "seeing what others couldn't" (whatever that means) made him dangerous? We never find out.


Repetitive writing, like: "Throwing it into sharp relief," and a few pages later, "throwing it into stark relief"

Chaise longue - does France or the French language exist in this world?

<i>"...examining a gemstone through a small microscope fastened to his eye."</i> - there's an actual word for this. It's called a loupe. How about, "...examining a gemstone, a patinaed brass loupe fastened to his eye. The lens caught the candlelight as he leaned back…"

Arcady lives in an abandoned shop called Loc and Key, a pun that only works in English. Their magic is done using something creatively called the Old Tongue, with phrases like, "Ar-réal vanok vaugain." It looks pretty far removed from English. How are they related?

There <i>are</i> some nice lines. I enjoyed

<i>"I ate a curl of apple peel, the sweetness fizzing along my tongue."</i>

However, apple skins have a lot of tannin. Tannins are bitter and astringent, not sweet and fizzy. I've never been fizzed by an apple.

<i>"I always found the clack, clack, clack [of playing cards] so satisfying."</i> - The fuck are the cards made out of, slabs of wood?

<b>Worldbuilding</b>

How does magic work? Arcady has a cylindrical amulet and does something and thing about the dragon gods and boom, magic.

It's kind of dumb that everyone in Arcady's city is identified by a stone carved with a unique seal given to them at birth. What happens if you lose it? <spoiler>Arcady says at one point they are warded against theft, yet their original one is stolen at the end.</spoiler>

The naming is simplistic, e.g. Order of the Dragons. There are five dragon gods with different powers. Why aren't there five different orders?

Everen is the newcomer to this world and would naturally be the one to explain things to us. The minimal description suffers most here: things are named (clothing, dock, shop), but we don't get colors or materials. Smells are "spicy," "human sweat," "rotten." How big are the ships? What color are the sails? How does wearing clothing feel to a dragon? Beer tastes "awful," but in what way? Sour, bitter, like one of the alleyways he walked past? What impact does it have on a preterit dragon? Does he get dizzy? Nauseated? Does he throw it up right away?

His sister Cassia's face is "draconic." No shit, she's a dragon. What does that actually look like?

Ammil, the former last male dragon, went crazy hundreds of years prior. Is he still alive? <spoiler>Called it!</spoiler> How old is Everen? How was Everen conceived? <spoiler>It turns out the dragons reproduce asexually and the temperature determines sex. If that's the case, why does it matter that Everen is male?</spoiler>

Everen and Arcady are bonded. It's not clear how or why that happened, or what it means practically or culturally.

The reason Everen gives for the dragons being stuck in Vere Celene (based on what a dragon who lived through the Banishment/Betrayal/whatever said) is that humans thought dragons were lying about humans being unable to shapeshift into dragons and were jealous. Petty, right? What's the human perspective? And now dragons are all "kill all humans." Also, Arcady's main thing is shapeshifting, which Everen sees over and over again, and some humans can shapeshift into animals. You're telling me no one tried to shapeshift into a dragon? Ever?

The university and the religion are related in some manner, which is never explained. I'm not sure why a religion that has five dragon gods resembles Christianity so much in its practices. This is reading way too much into things, but we call some Christian places of worship <i>chapels</i> because one of the relics of Christ was a piece of St. Martin's cloak (<i>capella</i>) that was toured around and stored in the buildings. Without that history, why would places of worship for dragon gods be called chapels? There is no specialized language (other than <i>drakine</i>) that reflects the influence dragon-worship has had on society. The head priest is Head Priest. There are chapels and cathedrals and temples where they sit in pews and sing hymns and listen to sermons. Priests listen to confessions and absolve sins (what exactly is a "sin" to a dragon?). They do have magic, which seems something pretty much anyone can do whether or not they're part of the religion, and burn leaves in effigy, but the bulk of their practices aren't very dragon-oriented. You'd think the wyverns, relatives of dragons, would be held in some regard. Nope, they're essentially pigeons.

The magic is mish mash. Humans get/steal magic from dragons. It's not always clear what they can do. For example, what are wards, and what's the point of them if they are so easily "disarmed"? Dragons are inherently magical, but they also use magic from stars and have silver pools for scrying and telepathy. There are ley lines, which classically means magic comes from the earth, that are related to the Veil. It's not so much a system as it is whatever's convenient for the plot.

They keep their magic ID stones in metal settings embedded in their chests. They can remove the stone to use them as stamps. Why not keep a fake stone in the mandated chest region and tuck the real one in another location so you can do magic discreetly? I'm honestly confused by the whole thing. Sometimes Arcady calls it a cylindrical amulet, worn as a necklace, sometimes it's a stone in a setting. Do they switch back and forth? Amulets usually have really big holes, and settings are usually for cabochons, stones without holes. The actual shape, size, and style of these stone seals is never described, just that they have carvings of names and "the stars of their birth."

How does the government work? There are Chancellors, which Arcardy says are monarchs by another name. But people from the Order of the Dragons are running around confiscating stuff and arresting people. Under whose authority?

<b>Plot</b>

Everen finds one prophecy and flutters off to see what happens. He flies through a dimension hole, lands in a cave, sees Arcady, then wanders off. His goal is the destruction of all humanity. He wants to kill Arcady specifically to get full use of his magic back, but how that will lead to removing the Veil is unclear. Everen's just going with the flow.

Arcady steals an amulet so they can make a new amulet and change their identity. They do this while making an absurd amount of noise in the Locked Tombs. Why didn't they leave and do the ritual somewhere less public, echoey, and filled with visitors for the holiday? No one notices. They don't even put the lid back on their grandparent's coffin.

I don't even know what the plot is. Everen and Arcady have goals, but the actions they take seem remarkably tangential to that. Everen doesn't do any research into the Veil at all, the thing he has to remove so the dragons can come back. Arcady wants to clear their grandparent's name and then…what? Go to school?

I was shocked at how little preparation went into the heist subplot. These people are supposed to have years, if not decades, of experience. They do almost no reconnaissance. Arcady has only met the person they impersonate twice.

Other reviews have noted how similar Dragonfall is to other YA/NA that has come out the past few years. They share an incomplete bond and quasi-telepathy (Feyre and Rhys), Arcady trains Everen in thieving (Jude and Cardan), the "enemies to lovers" thing but they are never really enemies.

This is supposed to be a romance too. I don't see it. There's an inadvertent bond, we are told there is mutual physical attraction, and Everen says he'll manipulate Arcady into falling for him. He doesn't do much other than be rude and go along with Arcady's thief training. They have nothing in common. When Everen first makes a move on Arcady, it sounds like he's putting them under arrest. "DO NOT MOVE."

I'm conflicted about the ending. On the one hand, it rendered the majority of the preceding events meaningless. On the other, there were two twists that did make me curious about what happens next.

<b>Conclusion</b>

I wasn't a fan of the writing, I had a number of issues with the worldbuilding, but the mystery of the Veil, the character twist, and dragonrider thing going on make me willing to continue with the series.

I wanted to love this book. The title, cover and synopsis drew me in but I just didn’t vibe with the writing style in this book at all.

The way this was written was so jarring that I kept closing my Kindle and giving myself some time to do something else before coming back and trying again, because I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just me. It wasn’t. The prose was all over the place. Between that and the unnecessary use of some of the wording here made for a very difficult read.

Unfortunately, the way this was written took away from the characters. Because I couldn’t vibe with the writing, I couldn’t vibe with the characters. I just didn’t care by the time we started to see some real development. I was also put off pretty early on by the way the information was given to us. I need context when I’m reading a fantasy book. That doesn’t mean I want pages upon pages of endless information dumps - but I need something. What I got here was mentions of things in this world that weren’t explained. Was I supposed to be able to just figure it out?

I held on to the end, hoping that if I trusted the process it would pay out eventually. It didn’t for me. An interesting idea for sure but not well done enough.

Dragonfall is a unique fantasy story featuring exiled dragons, dangerous consuming magic, and layers of deception. It follows different POVs, which interestingly, are written in different forms. Arcady, our FMC, is written in first person, Everen, the MMC, is written in second person addressing Arcady, as well as a few other characters with their own chapters, which are written in third person. The changes in POV and writing style for each made the story feel a little disjointed for me and I had a hard time connecting with the characters.

I enjoyed the overall premise of the story, the building tension between our main characters, and the magic system. I struggled with the pacing, particularly in the beginning of the story. There were a few parts where I was really just confused as to what was happening. I think this was because of the switching between worlds and characters, being thrown into a new life without knowing what I was walking into.

Overall, if you like dragons, stories with religion politics, betrayal, and enjoy multiple POVs, this would be a good book for you.

Love, love, loved this book and I will say this is one of my favorite books so far of 2023. The dragons were 100% my main focus. I do think that the characters could've used a bit of refining, but this is an ARC, not a completed copy.

The book takes place in a fascinating universe where feathered dragons exist alongside humans. The story revolves around a juvenile delinquent and a presupposed dragon saviour. It perfectly captures a battle between two worlds, the people controlling the chaos from behind the shadows and the collateral damages. This book is full of relentless magical possibilities and brimming with forbidden love. I applaud the author’s commitment in creating a world which is gender neutral with much more normalised LGBTQ+ scene. The mythical fictional background combined with self fulfilling prophesies kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the read. This books has high mainstream potential and I am already looking forward to further books in this series.

The real rating is 3.75.

Dragonfall by L. R. Lam for sure was a ride. I'm surprised how much I was engaged by it even though it didn't feel like my type of book.

Dragonfall follows our two main characters. Everen is the first male dragon in ages who is destined to save his race. Arcady is a genderfluid thief whose dark heritage secrets can bring a painful death. A chance brings them together and they don't have any options other than to work together, but they both, of course, have a hidden agenda.

Dragonfall is promoted as an adult fantasy, but for me, it felt rather YA. The difference is for sure blurred, but our main characters are rather young(and both describe themselves as barely adults) and the feeling of the plot and characters gave me distinct YA vibes.

What I liked about this book:
• Character dynamics. It was written well, and the tension between our characters was real. There was an enemies/lovers aspect and it worked.
• The plot was interesting and I was always curious about what was next. Especially, I liked the heist part, who doesn't enjoy a good heist?
• The concept and the idea of the world, the history of dragons and humans, the political, social, and religious aspects were nicely developed as well.

What didn't work for me:
• Characters. I'm just a little bit tired of edgy and prickly never trusting characters. I won't say they didn't have their reasons, I've just read too many such books and it didn't feel too deep for me.
• Some writing aspects. The book has a lot of info-dumbs(especially the initial part), but still, some things were rather confusing. And at some moments in the book, I wasn't sure I fully understood what was going on.

The ending was partly open but satisfying. Honestly, I'm rather eager to read the next book. Considering the first book hasn't been released yet, it's a lot of waiting for me.

I'm grateful to Netgalley and DAW for providing me with this advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest review.

The premise of this book was fascinating and I wanted to like it based on the description alone. I DNF'd at 45% of the way through due to a couple of things, but the biggest issue I had was that I simply didn't enjoy the characters. We had a few POV switches which helped move the story along (glacially), but at no point did I find myself caring for any of the characters in the story. There also wasn't a lot of distinction between the POVs, as the writing for them was similar.

The world also felt complicated for no reason, which I have seen happen in several fantasy books. Just because we're in a fantasy book doesn't mean everything needs to be redone. There were instances of words thrown into the text without an explanation and you had to rely on context clues to figure out what it meant, but even those clues didn't provide much guidance.

The book also felt like a slog in the half that I read and, honestly, the prose didn't need to be as dense as it was. Overall, I think this was a book that just wasn't for me, and that's okay! Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free ARC in exchange for a review.

I was given an Arc copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion but I could not get into this book! I had the hardest time following the story line and I had to DNF this at about 20%.

I know this seems to be super popular so maybe it just wasn’t for me.

Holly molly! This book was a fantastic start to a trilogy! The world building was *chef kiss* and it is everything I want in a high fantasy read. The character development was fantastic and that twist at the end! So excited to see where this goes!

~ eARC provided by NetGalley

I'm not even sure where to begin with this review, because this book was a piece of art! This world Lam created is rich with such a unique magic system and brilliant characters you'll instantly love. Throughout these pages, I was completely hooked, even when the tension dipped down for a brief period. This dip doesn't mean it was necessarily bland, it was a dedicated space to develop the characters and let them lean into each other a little and I was grateful to see these characters grow in that space. Snarky and mysterious side characters emerge here too, creating more depth and expanding the plot.
As an avid lover of the Elder Scrolls franchise, the world in Dragonfall echoed that intensity and immediately I felt comfortable stepping into this setting. The relationship that builds between Everen and Arcady resembled that of Violet and Cyrus in Gina Chen's 'Violet Made of Thorns '- they are bound by more that just circumstances too - so if that was something you loved, this book is perfect for you.

Dragonfall caught my attention, as I loved The Inheritance Cycle. The teens I work with love any dragon series and this one will be a HUGE hit in today’s culture. Integrating a queer enemies to lovers story, with dragons, was genius! The story starts off with strong world building, which even though was a bit confusing, came together for me after the first few chapters. I loved the changing POV’s and was glad the book didn’t have too many - two or three feel about right to me in any book I read.

Thanks to the author for helping the world to become a safer place for young people who identify as queer. This story will stand out in youth fantasy, and more future books will try to copy the same themes. I encourage all libraries to stock a copy of this book - the waiting list will be LONG! Thanks to the publisher via NetGalley for this arc. I read this voluntarily and all reviews are my own. Review to be posted in accordance with publisher’s recommendations.

Laura weaves an intriguing world where humans still live off the magic they steal from the dragons. Everen is determined to save his race but this becomes harder the more time he spends with Arcady who will do everything he can, to be accepted into the world which turned on his grandfather for something he was falsely accused of. He believes that once he is accepted into the academic world, he will he able to find proof of his grandfather's innocence. He didn't plan on Everen being tied to his spell and the attraction that builds between them.

The magic system is somewhat complex and the world building is intense, sometime requiring a re-read to fully understand. She puts together a perfect slow-burn romance that entices and I love how she explores the angst that Everen feels when he draws closer to having to choose between the dragons and Arcady, and ultimately the human world as it exists. Cassia and Sorin are such strong characters, I hope to see more of them in the next book.

And that penultimate chapter? Absolutely jaw-dropping and leaves you needing the next book immediately!

This book is definitely one of my reading highlights this year.

I adored the characters, they were all very well written. Each POV served a purpose, so it never felt like too much or unnecessary.
Everen had a lot of character development in this, often aided by the plot, and became a person I, as a reader, could root for.
My poor Arcady has been through so much already and yet somehow still manages to hope. I just know they’re gonna be put through the wringer even more in the next book and want to take them away from the author to protect them. I really enjoyed seeing the relationship between them and Everen progress.
Sorin… my main feelings about her are pity for being in an abusive relationship and being manipulated so thoroughly. I hate it and want her to come into her own, to stand up for herself and be free.
I cannot say much about Cassia, at this point pretty much all of her POV chapters were to drive the story forward, not to get to know her better, but I feel like I might end up liking her.
The major side characters were mostly three-dimensional as well and very well written. I usually either loved or hated them.
The plot was great too, I suspected a certain person to be the “big bad” from the beginning. It all was very captivating, exciting and heartbreaking. There is so much manipulation going on behind the scenes, I feel like we cannot trust anyone.
The world building was strong and believable and super interesting, especially the mythology and religions of the different countries and worlds. The country this book is set in seems pretty queernormative (I am HERE for it!), I especially like that people introduce themselves with their pronouns.
Also, we get many disabled characters, including Arcady, whose hearing is impaired.

I also really enjoyed this book purely on a language based level. I loved that people use a honorific in the third person (They/Them) similar to many other languages, my own first language (German) included.
I really like that nearly everyone seems to speak the local sign language and casually uses it while simultaneously speaking out loud or simply to introduce one’s pronouns.
The author worked with a linguist on parts of this book and it really shows, this is great!

I cannot wait to read book two, I need it immediately. :D

Thanks so much for the arc! This book really had the power to get me out of my reading slump. It was soo good. I’m usually not a fan of romance in fantasy but I’m this book it didn’t feel pushed on you. I didn’t try to be something that it wasn’t. Everin and Arcady gripped from the first minute and didn’t let me go. I can’t wait to read more of them and this author. Definitely getting a physical copy of this to annotate and love. Thanks again for the arc.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, Thank You NetGalley for the e-ARC.

I saw dragon on the cover and I was like "This will be my next jam" and turned out I was right. First of all, since it was an epic fantasy I need long time to grasped the things out there. Dragons, in brink of extinction, a thief with, I'd say, having this heroic traits. and queer-romance!

20 first pages got me like, submerged into the story. I love Everen more than Arcady. His POV told me everything I was dying to know about the dragons and their history. The romance was a slow burn one but it was thick. I'm a romantasy sucker so it was just okay for me.

The writing was good, poetic and lengthy. There were not much dialogues. I'm not a fan, but since it was the first book of an epic fantasy series, I'll go with just okay.

This book left me with both excitement and confusion. It left me a big hole in my chest with the ending, at the same time it left my head puzzled. So, in the end, I'd go back to reread this and replaying all the scenes in my head to help me understand the book more.

Thank you NetGalley, Publisher and Author for the e-ARC. This book is expected to be published on May 2, 2023

“For if there was one thing I’d learned in my life, it was that knowledge was power. Knowledge was escape. Books were thresholds, and you could cross them and leave yourself behind, or use what you found inside to transform into someone else”
Dragons? Check
Diverse characters? Check
Enemies to something more? Check
A magical heist? Check!
Amazing worldbuilding? Check
Magic system that makes sense? Check
Multiple POVs? Check
Sign Language integrated into a whole society’s communication structure? Check

Honestly this book drew me in with the stunning cover and then kept me enthralled from page one! The opening words in the prologue, to the final words at the end of the book left me wanting more. The world building was exceptional, setting the stage for what I believe will be truly epic second and third books, the magic system had rules in place to keep things balanced & more importantly make sense, almost more than any other magic system I’ve ever read about this one explained the costs of using magic & how you need to replenish your energy if you don’t wish to perish. It almost felt like this book was written by two different people because the POVs in this are told from such distinctively different perspectives & writing styles, but I promise it makes sense once you get to the end of the book, it did occasionally throw me out for a few seconds though during the switches. I liked that they had their own chapters & they didn’t go back & forth within the same chapters. Everen & Arcady are characters I desperately want to meet & be friends with, both for different aspects of their personalities & both for their intelligence. I loved the Queer rep with Arcady, & how beautifully they explained why they are the way they are. I loved Everens instant acceptance of how people portrayed & chose to represent themselves. There was no fanfare, it just happens to be a world where gender & sexuality are fluid & no one cares, wouldn’t it be wonderful if the real world was the same? All in all a brilliant book & I cannot wait for the next book to see where it all goes! Thank you so much to the author and Netgalley for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review, this truly was a joy to read.

🐉 ARC REVIEW 🐉

Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Dragonfall by L. R. Lam
Publishing May 2, 2023

⚔️ Gender Fluid MC
⚔️ Forced Proximity
⚔️ Enemies to Lovers
⚔️ Multiple POVs
⚔️ A HEIST

When I first started Dragonfall, I was a bit confused. We are thrown into the world, and it takes a bit to get to the background story and to really understand the world.
However, once I begin to really understand how the world operated and the background stories of the characters, I fell in love with this story.
I love Everen and Arcady. I loved following along as they got to know each other and learning as they did.
The magic system and world is very unique. It is very different than anything I have read before. Also, there are dragons, which are one of my absolute favorite things to have in a fantasy series.

Overall, this is a 5 star read for me! I really liked Dragonfall, and I would recommend it to any fantasy lover.

DNF

This was very much not for me. I requested because I've loved Lam's past works (especially Goldilocks and the Pacifica duology), but this was too far outside my wheelhouse. The writing for Everen was very "we're going to a Ren Faire, put on an accent" and the POV of Arcady was a bunch of in-world gobbledygook that I absolutely needed a glossary for. I couldn't do it.