This book was not quite what I hoped for unfortunately. I was excited about this with all the hype and the fact that it has dragons in it, but this book simply wasn't for me. This isn't my kind of book. I had a hard time with some of the way the POVs of the characters switched during the story and was lost as to which character was talking some of the time. I also felt like they were trying to break the fourth wall during part of the story and it felt weird and I didn't like it. Whether they meant to break/try to break the fourth wall on purpose or not I don't know, but in this kind of story it didn't work the way they were doing it/trying to do it.
I'm sure that a lot of others will like and enjoy this story and follow the series simply because it has dragons in it. I personally expected something different because it had dragons in it. I know this will be something a lot of others like and that there are a lot who do like it already. I simply wasn't the audience for this and it's not for me.
Thanks to NetGalley and DAW books for letting me have a chance to read and review this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read. However, this book wasn’t it for me. I could not get invested and did not enjoy the romance.

thank you to netgalley, the author and publisher for this arc!

3 stars.

before starting this review, i will say that i did not finish this book. i tried starting it three times, and for whatever reason, it just wouldn't work for me. and it's not because of the writing – the writing was beautiful, from what i've read (hence the three stars) – but i just couldn't get myself to pick this up again. sometimes that just happens and i'm so sad about it. :(

i do hope to give this another shot in the future because i really do not like leaving reviews when i haven't finished the book, but i feel obligated to. should i ever get back to it, i do intend to edit this review.

Dragonfall is a queer epic fantasy with Dragons, who were once revered as gods, were banished and now Everen, the first male-born dragon on years walks among men on a quest to free his people.

The author it tells their story in a way that feels very much as if it was a rubber band that they’re slowly pulling taught until finally feel the tension snaps the band. LR Lam has a whole new world to build from the ground up and they take advantage of the freedom they have in doing so, gently unravelling each aspect of the world.

We also have a second main character, Arcady, who is a nonbinary thief struggling with a magic disability that Arcady has to hide because the disease essentially makes someone possessing it a pariah. It reminds me a lot of the way Hansen’s Disease was seen in the 60s. Sign Language is also used very freely in the book and is just another way of communicating.

This book feels very unique in many ways. The book presents a concept of gender reminiscent of Neon Yang’s The Black Tides of Heaven where people are born genderless until they choose or choose not to be assigned a gender.

I will admit I struggled getting into the writing as Everen would narrate his portion as if directly speaking to Arcady and I’m not a huge fan of second person. However, I did come to realize later on that it added a lot on making the book even more queer, since it allowed to Everen refer to Arcady without assigning a specific gender, even pushing it beyond using gender neutral pronouns. I’m pretty sure that Arcady wasn’t even assigned the gender-neutral pronouns “they/them” throughout the book, only referred to as “you” by Everen, or directly by name. Which was honestly very interesting.

Dragonfall is very much a first book in an epic series. We have definitely only scratched the surface of what could be and I’m incredibly excited to see what else Lam has to offer. There are so many secrets and layers upon layers in the relationship between each very complex character that future books are sure to be even more brilliant.

Thank you to Netgalley, DAW Publishing, and the author for gifting me the eARC for this book. I cant wait to read the rest of the series!

"𝐴𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑢𝑛 𝑘𝑒𝑝𝑡 𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑘𝑦, 𝐼 𝑘𝑛𝑒𝑤: 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝐼 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑜 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛."

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read dragonfall early! Unfortunately, when I started the book I was completely oversaturated with fantasy romance, so I couldn't really enjoy this book as much as I would've liked. BUT(!) don't let this deter you: This book is a gem that I'm sure will conquer the fanatsy romance community in a storm.

We follow along the journey of the humanoid-turned dragon Everen and human Arcady who's paths cross in a flurry of fate. I won't say much about the plot (read the blurb) , only that it's well-executed and entertaining despite its predictability. Both characters are interesting, and I loved to see how Everen learns the human world step-by-step thanks to Arcady. One of the thinks I truly admired and celebrated was the worldbuiliding (especially in lue of how gender identity works), and the queer representation. I went into this book knowing NOTHING and was positively surprised to find such great rep.

Overall, a great "enemies"-to-lovers forced-proximity book with forbidden love for everyone that wants a dragon(-shifter) romance with an entertaining plot and intense, dragon-centered world-building.

Thank you NetGalley and publishers for approving this copy for an honest review. This novel starts out with our main character wanting to clear their grandfather’s name. Enter a dragon and his plot to reclaim a world that was taken from the dragons and you have an enemies to lovers with a human dragon twist. If you like a slow burn, slow moving plot with a heist in the works, this book is for you. This story wasn’t quite for me because the way the book was written the pacing was so slow once I understood what all the characters wanted. I did enjoy the found family aspect. 3/5 🥭

This was a really anticipated release for me for 2023 but unfortunately the magic system isn’t clear cut enough for me - I really struggled to keep up with this one and had difficulty picturing what was going on. Maybe I’ll revisit in the future when a sequel is announced but for now, it’s not a new favourite.

Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨(3.75/5)
I really enjoyed the story. Although I also recently finished Fourth Wing, the stories are nothing alike except that they both have dragons.

I feel like Dragonfall is a little closer to a mix of the fold and Grisha powers from Shadow and Bone with the heist elements of Six of Crows (both from Leigh Bardugo).

It’s set in a kingdom where gender is fluid. You never assume someone’s gender until they introduce it to you.

Dragons have been banished to a different world beyond the veil. Their world is in danger therefore they need to cross the veil to return to their natural world. A human accidentally connects themselves to the only male dragon and drags him through the veil.

The lower rating for me was the fact that when they addressed someone as “they”, it was capitalized. Therefore I kept pausing in the reading flow to make sure I didn’t miss something since it kept making me stop mid-sentence which made it a lot harder to read. Also the magic system, mythology, and history was a little confusing.

It’s part of a series therefore we are left with lots of questions. However, I liked the story enough to want to continue.

Honestly, if it wasn’t for the strange capitalizations of pronouns, I probably would have liked it better. I 💯 support someone’s choice of pronouns, but they are not titles or names and therefore, do not need to be capitalized.

Unfortunately this book didn’t work for me and I DNFd at 45%. Rating 2.5 for what I read..
The writing style just didn’t work for me.
Yes there’s Dragons and yes there’s diversity rep but I just didn’t feel engaged. The main draw of this book that I saw in reviews seems to be that Everen would seduce Aracdy in order to save his fellow dragons and Aracdy is gender-fluid…. 30% in they only just meet…. My word it was a slow start. By that point the told but not shown, the awkward two POV with Everen told from second person just didn’t work for me anymore. I got somewhat disinterested.
Put it down and picked it back up weeks later and felt the same…
There were some really interesting eLements like the Struck and the magic stone systems but the plot felt all over the place with a random assassin’s POV and training a dragon to be a thief. I’m not a big fan of heist plot lines and this had that too.
I found myself skim reading more often than not.

More dragons, please! All kinds of dragons—sapient ones, feral ones, ones that pillage and hoard and burninate, and ones that just want to stay home and read a cozy book. When I saw L.R. Lam was coming out with a dragon-centric novel, I jumped at the eARC from NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton. Dragonfall has a lot going for it, from an original and well-constructed world to a compelling premise. In the end I wasn’t left completely satisfied, but this is still a good book.

Everen is a dragon (spoiler?). He is, in fact, the last male dragon. His kind once worked alongside humanity, dragons and humans often bonding and then becoming comrades in a battle against evil. But centuries prior, humans rose up and drove dragons out of this world into Vere Celene, which is where Everen was born. There is a prophecy that the last male dragon will lead his kind back and retake what’s theirs—no pressure, though. Meanwhile, back in the human world, Arcady is a poor, young orphan with a plan to pose as a rich noble and find a way to exonerate the relative who, even in death, is blamed for a plague that ravages the nation. Everen and Arcady’s paths not only cross but become inextricably entwined. Forced to work together, they grow very close—until Everen has to choose between Arcady’s life or his loyalty to his people.

See what I mean? Compelling premise here. The reluctant allies-to-lovers trope, the “I love this person but I’m going to have to kill them” sword dangling over the relationship. The utter mismatch of species. It’s a good time! Lam works hard on the slow burn of the romance, developing it quite gradually, layering on the physical attraction, the chemistry, the personality clashes. Anyone who enjoys romantic subplots more than me will hopefully quite enjoy this dimension of Dragonfall.

The diametrically opposed desires of Arcady and Everen are also important. There is so much conflict here between the two of them, and I love it. I caught myself cackling at points as I read because of the dramatic irony (the chapters alternate between Arcady and Everen’s points of view—Arcady’s in first person, Everen’s in second person addressed, epistolary style, to Arcady). The storytelling is quite effective, and Lam kept me wondering throughout how things would be resolved, whether Everen could keep his promise to his kin and, if so, how that would affect Arcady’s plans.

Also, I couldn’t work this into my summary, but there’s a heist, or at least, a caper. It’s not the smoothest of jobs and not the main focus of the book, but it’s prominent enough that I sat up when I first caught a whiff of it—you all know how much I love a good heist.

Finally, loved the subversion of cisnormativity, the way that Locians use hand signals to communicate their pronouns, and Arcady’s role as a nonbinary or genderfluid protagonist.

For all that I enjoyed Dragonfall, though, there were elements to it that I found lacking. The ending is a classic cliffhanger to set up the sequel. I don’t mind that by itself, nor do I even mind so much the huge reveal at the very last moment. Lam is trying for tantalizing rather than tricksy, so it kind of works. On the other hand, it didn’t get me excited for the second book. I’m not on the edge of my seat, not particularly invested in Arcady or Everen or Sorin’s next chapters.

The thing is, I feel like I should be? There’s so much in here to recommend it, but that’s just the problem—Dragonfall might be pulling from a mixture of too many brilliant tropes, and while Lam uses many of them to good effect, the final result is still a messy kaleidoscope. When I zoom in on it, I can appreciate the individual parts and find lots to praise. But when I zoom out and try to look at the novel as a whole, I’m left with less enthusiasm. If anything, this is a good example of how literature is not only a subjective experience but also can change within an individual reader’s perceptions. I am left, I suppose, decidedly ambivalent.

This was a book I was super excited to read and I was so happy when I got the arc for it. However, it did feel a bit like a disappointment. The concept was super cool, the plot was interesting, and the characters were well developed but I could not for the life of me immerse myself in the story. The descriptions were there, and the fancy language was there, but I couldn't see the setting or the characters. I also could never picture Everen as anything other than human, the descriptions simply weren't descriptive enough for me. I thought it was awesome to see so much queer representation in fantasy, but Dragonfall lacked the immersive writing that Lam's other books have /along/ with queer representation.

As a self proclaimed connoisseur of dragons in literature (feel free to ask for recs) when I saw this book on netgalley as one of my most anticipated reads I had to request and couldn’t not be more grateful!
To start off, let me be clear this book is not for fantasy newbies, this is a high fantasy book. There is a big info dump, with world building and tone setting that lasts for about 150 pages before we get to the meat of the plot. With high fantasy there is an amount of learning the language of the world, such as Drakine in the book meaning Nobleman, which was well done I felt I adjusted quick enough. After finishing the book and realize the direction these books (it is not a standalone) will be taking I would agree that this info dump is necessary in order to make this story as compelling as it was.
Now to the actual plot I loved it. To me it gave 80s/90s fantasy (think Dragon Riders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey) with modern ideals. A major part of the book is the acceptance of being non-binary and gender fluid. There are many conversations of not constricting oneself to a box of what gender values are assigned and it’s refreshing to see in literature, if we are not quite at that stage in society unfortunately.
I’m keeping this review spoiler free because I feel like it’s best to just experience it blind like I did. But to hit some main points while I think the romance is while not quite a subplot it isn’t the main plot in this first book at least. But it is giving enemies to lovers to ???, there is longing, tension, hiding parts of yourself because you are afraid of the others reaction. Found family, a heist, betrayal and riding the line between how much we do is destined or based on free will.
I will be picking off the next book whenever that comes out as I can’t wait to see what happens next after that shocker of an ending. Thanks again for sending me the arc in exchange for an honest review!

There were a lot of great elements here! I enjoyed the way gender is handled in the world, and the world-building in general was really well done. I also enjoyed Arkady as a character and found her really compelling.

However, I think Everen, the dragon character, could have been more interesting as a character. And I think the “connection” element between the two main characters ended up feeling a bit forced. Those type of magical bonds are not my favorite trope, so others who enjoy that may like the book better.

I also didn’t really connect with the writing style, which sometimes felt like it was just trying to be different for its own sake, but without much guiding purpose. But that is largely personal preference.

Thanks to netgalley for providing me with this ARC!

There were a lot of great elements here! I enjoyed the way gender is handled in the world, and the world-building in general was really well done. I also enjoyed Arkady as a character and found her really compelling.

However, I think Everen, the dragon character, could have been more interesting as a character. And I think the “connection” element between the two main characters ended up feeling a bit forced. Those type of magical bonds are not my favorite trope, so others who enjoy that may like the book better.

I also didn’t really connect with the writing style, which sometimes felt like it was just trying to be different for its own sake, but without much guiding purpose. But that is largely personal preference.

3.75/5 thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.

There were many things I loved about this book- the main one being the queer normative world. Lots and lots of casual queer rep here! The main character Arcady uses all pronouns and is genderfluid. Every character is referred to with they/them pronouns at first. There is also a type of sign language that the characters use to give their pronouns! I also loved that there was a deaf character who used sign language to communicate. I also enjoyed the romance. It was really well paced and had lots of tension and banter. It utilized one of my favorite niche tropes ‘I have to kill you but I’m falling in love with you’. There is also a heist plot line part way through!
Now onto the less positive things. The one things that held me back from giving this the whole four stars was the Magic system and world building. It was very confusing, and often info dumpy, especially at the beginning. The humans stole the dragons magic? How? It seemed like the characters just used magic and there wasn’t any explanations. Outside of that magic use causes hunger and will make you eat people if you use to much, which really wasn’t explained either.
The writing was also a bit weird, Everen’s pov is told in a mix of first and second person. It’s explained why at the end of the book, but it didn’t really feel necessary to me and just disrupted the flow. Certain characters were referred to in pronouns that were capitalized to show their status in society, and that bothered me as well. Also there was a third POV that was added in like every five chapters and I didn’t care about it, and it wasn’t super relevant until the end of the book.
Overall though this was a highly enjoyable book, and I’m definitely will be picking up the rest of the series!

This fantasy story will work for some readers, for me, it didn’t really vibe. I understand this the first story in a trilogy so I do give it some grace. I can see the bones of the story, five gods, numerous genders/fluidity, magic systems and guilds… it just doesn’t seem to matter. Yea there are five gods, but how does this affect the people? Their thoughts? They are also very accepting of different gender norms, but not very accepting of literally anything else, especially poverty. I feel like a society so accepting of other genders and that makes a big point of this should possibly flow into other parts of theirs lives…. I did like Arcady’s POV okay, especially in the first few chapters however I didn’t care for the other two POVs.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC for a review!

I'm giving this a solid 4.5 stars out of 5 stars, and rounding to 5 because WOW. This book was so unique, with a splash of Six of Crows...the magic system was so interesting, the world building was complex and simple at the same time, and I just ate it up. The slow burn of the romance was perfect, and when the tension broke, boy did it break.
I love love loved how it touched on LGBTQIA+ and gender roles. I had no idea that was what I was walking into when I started it, but it was a very pleasant surprise. With one or two plot twists I DID NOT see coming, the ending of this book certainly has left me crush, and I'm extremely eager to read the next in the series! Thank you so much to L.R. Lam, DAW Books, and NetGalley for giving me a free copy in exchange for my honest review/feedback!

After reading the synopsis of this book, I couldn’t wait to read it. Unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. I wasn’t invested in the characters and didn’t really feel the chemistry between the two. The terms used are also confusing and I found myself wishing for a glossary. The last 100 pages of the book really saved it for me and has kept me interested enough to find out what happens next. Thank you NetGalley and DAW for the arc.

When fantasy and dragons collide, they generally follow one of two paths: either the dragons are gone and we're trying to bring them back, or the dragons are here and we're trying to get rid of them. L.R. Lam's Dragonfall, the first book in in the new Dragon Scales trilogy, introduces a potential third option: romance the dragon.

In fairness, this is more like a fourth or fifth option. The setting of this new trilogy is a world in which humans have achieved the use of magic though—as far as the humans are concerned—the blessings of dragon gods. This magic is carefully controlled through the use of seals, which are tied directly to individuals and have a degree of identity protection on them. Ask the dragons, however, and they'll see it differently: humans stole the magic of dragons, banishing the dragons to a different dimension.


That's not the only theft going on in this book, either. Our protagonist, Arcady, kicks things off by committing some light identity theft for a good cause: to prove their grandfather's innocence. But the spell required to begin using their grandfather's seal has a side effect. Everen, currently the only living male dragon, is dragged through a tear in the Veil, trapped in a weakened human form in the human world. But this has been foretold, and his kind see it as an opportunity: use Arcady to his advantage by the next big human festival, and dragons may have a chance at taking back what's rightfully theirs.

But then, Everen starts to fall for the human. And as their magical bond strengthens, so does their emotional bond... leaving Everen conflicted.

While Everen and Arcady's strange blossoming romance is the heart of Dragonfall, the bulk of the central plot is a heist. And we all love a heist. While the whole book is a fascinating read, the actual elaborate scheming of the heist is well-crafted and fun. It slots nicely into the worldbuilding that came before, with a nice balance of risk and reward colored by the setting's magic system. For example, a clever (magical) disguise is a key piece of the plan—but there are plenty of opportunities for intriguing slip-ups.


The enemies-to-lovers romance between Everen and Arcady isn't slow-burn so much as hot and cold. It's clear there's a long way to go between these two as they figure each other (and themselves) out, and the book leaves off on a tantalizing cliffhanger. Readers who are hoping for drawn-out steamy scenes may find themselves disappointed; those who are in it for the long haul will, I feel, be rewarded.

Overall, Dragonfall has a good flow, deftly balancing worldbuilding and storytelling. The plot does occasionally screech to a halt for commentary on the construct of gender—something that's already shown well as each character contends with their own identity and place in this particular corner of the human world. Short of Everen's education in hand signs for pronouns and introduction to the concept, it makes little sense for people for whom this is a normal part of life to stop and expound on how weird it would be to think otherwise. This feels more like being taken aside by the author than immersion in a world where this is the norm and we are being invited to see it as the norm. Both Arcady and Everen—one versed in this society, one having left a world where masculinity is seen as automatically violent—give ample opportunities to explore this simply by existing near and with each other.


There is a secondary plot that I am deliberately leaving out... and that is because to say much about it at all would spoil an amazing final-chapter hook. While the book's outro for our romantic leads is compelling enough to bring readers back, this finale rolls in like a mid-credits sting to insist on our presence for book 2.

There are still plenty of questions left for this trilogy to answer. What was the original relationship between humans and dragons truly like? Will we ever get to see this at full power with Arcady and Everen? What about Arcady's grandfather? Heck, what about... that final-chapter sting? There's so much more to come, all of it exciting.

Dragonfall is equal parts searing romance, heist adventure, and high fantasy. The world it introduces us to is fascinating, and one readers will be itching to return to as soon as possible.

Everen is the last male dragon prophesized to save his kind when he suddenly finds himself back in the dragon's home world half-bound to human, Arcady. As he figures out how to act human, he partners up with Arcady to gain their trust and potentially complete the bond in order to take their magic. Arcady has their own plan, which involves stealing an important artifact, in order to fund their university tuition. The characters are well-developed and the world is intricately created and laid out with lots of nuance. Overall, an interesting start to this fantasy series.