Thank you so much L R Lam and Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have been really itching for a book with more dragons in it lately and I definitely got it with this one!

Arcady is a brave, tough thief who’s really going through it pretty much the entirety of this story.

Everen is the last male dragon, and in his own way he’s really going through it too.

With a whole bunch of side characters and a lot of trouble for everyone involved this will take you from confusion to pain for the characters, to joy, to screaming “I KNEW IT!” To yourself (or maybe everyone around you too)

This was a fun read with a lot of world building and a lot of attention to detail from the author.

This is the first book in a new trilogy following Arcady and Everen. Arcady is a thief with a secret looking to pull one last heist to fund a new life and right an old wrong. Everen is the last male dragon foretold to save his kind. Arcady and Everen are tied together through a spell. Each has their own interests at heart, but as they start working together, their bond could harm both of their worlds.
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I was hooked on this story from the first few pages. I particularly loved getting the viewpoint from Everen as he adjusts to being human but also getting his perspective of what it’s like to be a dragon. He details what it’s like to fly, and you can imagine everything he’s experiencing. The world building is incredibly well done and well thought out. There’s a remarkable descriptiveness to the story. I also really enjoyed studying how Arcady’s mind worked as he plotted out his heist. It was reminiscent of Kaz Brekker planning various escapades in the Grishaverse. Also, I have to take a minute to mention the cover art. It’s one of the most gorgeous covers I’ve seen in a while. All in all, this has me wishing book 2 was at my fingertips, so I could continue Arcady and Everen’s story.
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The only complaint I have is that the the story seemed to lose momentum at times, particularly with Sorin’s POV. For much of the story I didn’t understand her tie in other than giving insight to the Order of the Dragons. However, if you’re like me, hang in there. It all makes sense by the end.
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Book Editions Shown: eARC provided by netgalley and DAW in exchange for an honest review

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC.

I wanted to love this book. It hit all the fantasy sweet spots with dragons and magic. The world is fairly well developed,. I enjoyed the gender system but using They/Them as honorifics took a little getting used to.

I didn't really connect well with Arcady until nearly the end of the book and wish they would have explained more of what exactly starvelings are. The romance between dragon and human was a little eh for me, but some may like that.
The cliffhanger at the end with Everen could be interesting but it took so long for me to really get into the book that I'm unsure I would continue the series.

I was expecting this book to be so good based on the description but it just wasn’t. The build up just took too long and there wasn’t really a plot until the last like 100 pages. There needed to be more explanation of the world. Like what is a preterit, what’s the whole dragon prophecy/plan. The ending was great but it just doesn’t make up for how boring the rest of it was. I’m not sure why the author didn’t put the like heist planning earlier, like around page 100. It took me so long to get through this that I’m going to read the next book, despite the cliffhanger.

Four friends have stolen aboard the Titanic. They're after the Rubaiyat - a book inlaid with priceless jewels. Josefa is a charismatic thief, Hinnah a daring acrobat, Violet an outstanding actress and Emilie a talented artist.

It is Josefa's plan, but she needs all of their skills. Despite their very different backgrounds, in a world of first-class passengers and suspicious crew members, the girls must work together to pull off the heist of their lives.

Sadly, this is the first NetGalley ARC I’ve received that sounded fascinating but I wasn’t able to finish it. I just couldn’t get into it. Even though I understand how the use of flowery language for the dragon’s perspective is a great differentiation tool, I just found that it took me out of the story instead.

I wanted to like this book so badly. I really did. The concept was fantastic and I loved the queer representation. But it ultimately was lackluster in its execution.

There were first some aspects that were simply not my taste, that mainly being the use of 2nd person in one particular narrative. It felt entirely unnecessary and was a very odd choice. That one narrative was written as though the character was writing a letter to the other, but yet the other wasn’t doing it back, making it so disjointed. The writing style felt lackluster to me and made it hard to relate to the happenings. I also was kind of put off by the seeming pandemic that they discuss having happened - I’m still quite uncomfortable with pandemics and my readings.

I also, genuinely, disliked one of the characters (Everen). I know there was a certain level of that being intentional (I think…), but I just found there were very little redeeming qualities. I liked Arcady, but their character wasn’t very complex either. Yes, they had wants and needs, but they didn’t seem to have a very clear streamlined goal that we felt we were successfully moving towards.

I do think that some would enjoy this book, especially if they are okay with some of the things I mentioned above, so I won’t say it’s plain bad, I just think it’s down to taste.

Thank you to DAW for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Whew. I don't even know how to start this review except by saying I LOVED this book so, so much. The world building is incredible. We don't get a heap of detail of the human world and the dragon realm (Vere Celene), but we do see hints of a larger society and magic system that I'm sure will be explored more in the sequels. The romance arc was super slow burn, but incredibly well executed, and Everen was a swoony male lead. The other MC, Arcady, a scrappy thief, was easy to root for - their character was so nuanced with a complex backstory which made me as a reader understand their motivations. And the found family aspect was just lovely.

Plus, L.R. Lam's writing is just so beautifully evocative - there were so many sentences I read twice just to savour them. I enjoyed this read so much and cannot wait for the sequel.

DNF at 20%

an amazing premise but ultimately flat executions.

i knew this book wasn't going to work out for me from very early on. i couldn't connect with anything that was thrown at me and it was a chore to to keep on reading. my problem lied in the book as a whole -- i didn't care if any of it was going to get better.

i may or may not get back to this but queer sff readers should still find something worth their while here.

(4.5 stars)

First fantasy book I've read in a while and, oh god, was it a great choice to get back to the genre.

Loved the characters and their interactions, the queer rep, the whole worldbuilding and plot.
Also, I finally found a fantasy book that doesn't make me go "oh I feel like I've read this already" as sadly many of recent releases did.
Aside from the first chapters which took a while to capture me, the rest of the book had me glued to the pages.

OMG that ENDING. I will be waiting with bated breath for book 2! This book was so beautifully plotted, with all the fun of a classic fantasy and a compelling romance to boot. The world is well built and complex, and I wish our own world would adopt the signed gender signals used here—so simple and elegant. Great characters, great story, great heart.

A ferocious beast of a book loaded with magical adventure and fiery romance revolving around a human thief and a princely dragon who must work together in order to fulfill their own wants and instead, end up wanting each other...AHH!

I really enjoyed reading this book. It has a fresh take on fantasy. It creates a world that has a lot of echoes with our own without shouting about it. While a little slow here and there, it’s generally paced well and does the difficult job of building its world with very little exposition. I’m looking forward to the next in the series.

Thank you to Netgalley and DAW for sending me an early copy of this book! All opinions are my own!

OH MY where do I start with how perfect this book was?? It ended up being everything I wanted and so much more, and I need the rest of this series right this second! The writing style immediately sucked me into this beautiful world, and then the worldbuilding, the magic, and the characters kept me glued to the pages. The world itself was so unique, and it was such an amazing take on the familiar tale of dragons. I loved that it was unlike anything I've read with dragons before.

The plot twists are to die for, and I swear the last couple chapters of the book literally left me dead. The plot was so complex and you can tell from the ending that it's just now getting started and it's going to open up even more in the coming books. This book was full of worldbuilding but in a way that keeps you from realizing how much worldbuilding is truly going on, and then you can tell that the next book is going to whisk you away on this huge adventure.

The characters are a bit too relatable, and I ended up loving Arcady and Everen so so much. The slow burn of this book was killing me, but I can't wait to see where their relationship goes, especially after the very last page of this book. I am so intrigued by all of the characters and the way their stories are so intricately woven together.

If you're a scifi/fantasy lover, please do not miss out on this amazing new series!

Thank you to the publisher for giving me a free copy for an honest review!

Wow, wow, wow!! It has been a couple of years since I read Pantomime from Laura Lam and I remember loving her writing style. I can tell you that I was so happy to receive this arc since I was so excited by the blurb and everything.

The story building was amazing! The characters were likable and man did I not expect the ending like that. I was on the edge of my seat and still am, eager to know what happens next. The writing style was as amazing as last time I read her books and I can only recommend picking up her books.

Thank you for this amazing book and the amazing world building, it felt like I was there with the characters experiencing the things they were. Simply just amazing!

Highly recommend!

*Thank you to NetGalley and DAW for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review*

I really wished to like this book. I mean COME ON, dragons? I love dragons. Dragons who take human form? Even more. But something didn't click for me. I thought that in the scenes you wanted details were rushed and the scenes that you wanted to pass they were dragging on. Some words were really repetitive (preterit, rings a bell?) and in overall I should have dnf it. But I didn't. I wish I had.

So good! While it took me a minute to get absorbed in the story, as Arcady and Everen’s relationship built I was sucked in. Arcady is so scrappy and the supporting characters were so engaging. I especially love Kelwyn the fence and the relationship he has with Arcady. I’m already looking forward to the next book and this one hasn’t even come out yet. Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this early!

I’m DNF’ing this book at 35% which is a lot longer than I wanted to read it for. I had such high hopes for the premise of this book, but the writing style was so jarring to me. The different POV’s sound the same so there’s no difference in your head when you’re reading it. Certain words and phrases sounded out of place and pretentious. See examples:

“With dawning horror, I realized I was still in my diminished preterit form.”

“Their tainted smoke could never be allowed to rise toward the firmament.”

“Locmyria cleaved right down the middle like a pig corpse in the abattoir.”

There are more but those are the first three I found all by the second chapter in this book. I love fantasy books, so I entirely understand the information dump in the beginning of them. It’s usually necessary to set the groundwork for the book (or series) and can be daunting to get through. However, this book just lists names with zero context in such a rapid fire way it made it impossible to lay any groundwork. With no explanation for anything, it was incredibly difficult to follow along. For example, all within the first two chapters again are these titles/names with no explanation: Spirit Moon, Plaguebringer, Locmyria, Marricks, Lightfinger, Laen the Ignited, Jask, Vatra, Schism, Consul of three Chancellors, Barrow Eremia, Lumet, Blue Kalsh, Piater. As you can tell from this trend, after the second chapter is where I stopped trying to be so critical and really tried to get into the story. With that being said, it didn’t work.

I didn’t feel any connection to these characters and the writing style wasn’t that great. It was incredibly slow paced, didn’t explain things fully, and the first person POV was really dragging me down. I kept putting this book down and picking up my phone because of how boring it was.

I really wanted to like this book, but I have to be honest with myself. It wasn’t for me and the main issue was the execution.

Thank you to L.R. Lam, the publishers, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book. I also want to express that all opinions are my own.

Dragons will always be a sweet spot for me. Give me dragons, and I am all in.

The premise of this book is absolutely fascinating, and one that carries over into the makeup of the world. It's truly an incredible piece of fantasy. That said, I just did not love the writing style. This is a totally person preference, and I know it will work well for others! It just wasn't for me.

The world building on this is fantastic, although I feel as though over half this book is just that. I did enjoy the exploration of gender/queer vibes in this book. But, I didn’t get much character development, up until the very end. The romance is minimal, EXTREMELY slow burning. I didn’t feel much of a connection between Arcady and Everen. I wish there was more banter or something to give the characters more substance. I struggled to finish this. Maybe an index of what a word translates to or what a starveling is, for example.