Wow! Any book with dragons draws me in, and this one was so good! This book is an epic, sweeping fantasy with an incredible Dark Academia setting, a clandestine, slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance, and an unputdownable story, filled with twists and turns, betrayals and secret identities, I recommend giving this title a read!! Not to mention how gorgeous some of the special editions are!

This was a well written fantasy debut novel. It takes place in London, 1923, in a world where humans and dragons interact under the guise of a peace agreement. Then a young girl, Vivien, inadvertently starts a war. There were times when Viv annoyed me, but overall she was a good character who showed depth. There were some surprising twists. The story moved along at a good pace, and towards the end it picked up, though it didn’t feel rushed. I feel the ending was left somewhat open ended and I would definitely read more from this world.

Imagine 1920’s London with dragons, rebellion, a touch of romance, but most importantly dragons! The world building was really interesting and I think it was done really well. I loved that the bulk of the story took place at Bletchley Park. The index cards with different coding terminology for dragon”language was an actual method used by the code breakers at Bletchley during WW2 to break Nazi transmissions. It was really cool that the author had some real world Bletchley history in there.

As for the cast of characters, in the beginning Viv wasn’t my favorite, I felt she was really naive and selfish. She’d definitely fit the morally grey category and I’m not used to that. I love her growth the whole time though. I loved her and Atlas together and I wish there had been more scenes with them.

I can’t wait for the next book in the series. I’m glad it didn’t end on a terrible cliffhanger, but I’ll still be waiting impatiently for the next release. That ending nearly killed me.

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It's 1920s London and dragons and humans coexist under the Peace Agreement. Viv Featherswallow is on her way to living the Second Class life she's always dreamed of, until her parents are arrested as rebels. With England now in the midst of a civil war, Viv is given an opportunity to save her family through a mysterious job, which throws her into codebreaking for the war effort.

This was such a wonderful first read of 2025 for me. I was immediately drawn in to this imagined version of England where dragons lived and worked alongside their human counterparts. The pacing of the story was on point, the character arcs and development felt natural and well thought-out, and I found myself eager for the next book by the end.

Williamson also did a wonderful job of drawing attention to social class and making it a huge part of the story without making the entire book feel like a social commentary.

Read if you like:
Speculative fiction
Dark academia
Dragons
Slowburn romance
Commentary on social class and racism
Political intrigue and rebellion
Codebreaking and linguistics

I want to start off by saying that I apologize for late review. But I really wanted to take my time reading this book. I am reading this book after reading Iron Flame. I have to say that I really enjoyed another fantasy about dragons. But the special language of dragons. I really enjoyed being in this world. I have never read anything from this author. And it definitely won’t be the last book. Now I am not sure if there will be a book two. But I am kinda wandering what become of Viv parents? That was left unsaid at the ending. I really had so much fun reading this book. The characters and world building amazing. I could see the dragon flying around.
This book did or as come out January 7, 2025.
I would highly recommend this book. If you are looking for a young adult dragon book. With each chapter and page turner with this book. I know this book took me a little longer to finish not because I didn’t like it. But I rather enjoyed it and didn’t want it to end. I didn’t want to not be in this world anymore.
Thank you the author and publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read such a fun and amazing book.

This novel takes place in an alternate version of London in 1923, a version with dragon citizens. Vivien Featherswallow is studying dragon languages at university, with the goal of becoming a draconic translator. She is looking forward to a dinner with an important guest that could lead to an apprenticeship. Her life drastically changes that night and not for the better. This is an interesting story about redemption and I was intrigued by the dragons being part of day to day life.

Dragons and humans co-existing? Learning that you can't punish yourself for the rest of your life for some choices that you made out of desperation, and understanding that your family is more than just who you're related to by blood.

A great YA to merge early 1900's and fantasy together, with still keeping some of the same political chaos from that time period. I do wish that we had gotten more from some of these characters, and I hope the author revisits this storyline in the near future.

A Language of Dragons is a book that I read and hollowed me out. It's a story which hit me during a reading slump and made me want to keep reading. Beginning with an authors note about how even villains are the heroes of their own stories, A Language of Dragons asks us whether it's too late to change. It's a story about naming mistakes, making amends, and forgiving ourselves. This book deeply explores what we will do, what people we will sacrifice, to remain in the class we are, to linger in whatever safety we have even if it's an illusion.

This was an interesting book, and I liked how the dragons had different languages and also a special language that they used with their siblings.

Vivien frustrated me at times, but I get why it was hard for her to accept that her world was corrupt. She grew up a certain way her whole life and then realized it wasn't what it seemed.

I liked the articles at the end of some of the chapters, and the one after the last chapter has my gears turning.

This is a great debut novel, and I look forward to reading more.

This book was incredible. I cannot wait for the next book in this series.
This book grabbed my attention from the beginning and had me shocked at the ending. I loved the dragons!

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. DNF. I will not be finishing this novel. I’m not invested in the plot or characters. I’m only reviewing so it doesn’t hurt my feedback ratio and rating because it makes me.

This book just wasn't for me. I wanted to love it but just couldn't connect with the story or characters. I just wasn't the reader for it at this time. I will give it another try later this year

The buzz this book has been getting is so well-deserved! As a dragon lover, this was a new take and a fun read.

What a debut! I was so intrigued when I first read the premise of this book. Given that I've been fascinated with historical fiction lately, this book sounded right up my alley. This book took place in an alternate world to ours where dragons co-exist with humans. Going into it I assumed it would be similar to our history since it was set at Bletchley Park and had codebreakers too, but early on I could see this story would be different. The story takes place in a shaky period similar to ours after WWI, but before WWII. There's themes of colonization, race and class discrimination, and government corporation.

I enjoyed the journey this book took me on. I felt for the FMC, Vivian Featherswallow, and what she was going through, but was just as often very frustrated with her and wanting her to come to her senses already. The middle of the book does slow down a bit as it focuses more on relationship building and academia. I still found it interesting as I liked the unique take on the codebreaking and imagined those in WWII trying to decipher dragon language instead of German or Japanese codes. The last 20% of the book gets exciting with all the emotions and action!

I thought this was a very well written debut novel and eagerly await the sequel!

I devoured A Language of Dragons by S.F Williamson so quickly that it was one of those books I had to FORCE myself to put down to make it last longer. If you love a story that will suck you in from chapter one that has you rooting for flawed characters (oh! and dragons!) read this NOW!

The premise of A Language of Dragons is intriguing. It provokes thought about the power of language as well as the importance of the right to free speech. The style feels like it is on the younger side of YA.

A Language of Dragons by S.F. Williamson introduces the readers to Vivian Featherswallow, a budding Dragon Linguist and second class citizen, as she discovers the world is much bigger than her dreams of studying at the University of London. Her parents have been discovered to align themselves with the rebel cause, going against the Dragon/Human Peace agreement which is against everything that Vivian knew. Desperate to get rid of any incriminating evidence against her parents and uncle, she releases an imprisoned dragon to burn the evidence and free her family. By doing this, she unknowingly starts a war. Vivian struggles with the decision to keep her head down and save her family, or to stand up for whats right.
This book discusses many important themes of today, including the deliberate erasure of history and language and how that effects younger generations. Our main character, Vivian, is in a constant inner battle of forgiveness and whether she is worthy of it. She believes she is bad and therefore makes selfish decisions based on what she believes a bad person would do while also feeling guilt. My favorite thing about Vivian is her reluctance to be a hero, she has to fight everything that she ever knew to understand the world is bigger than what was taught to her.
A Language of Dragons is a YA book that is fit for any age from teen to adults. It contains heavy themes of war, betrayal and death. With themes that are relevant to the current world we live in, anyone could benefit from reading this wonderful book. This book had me dreaming about languages, it was fast paced, relatable, and fanciful in the perfect way, I have already recommend this book to anyone that will listen.

Excellent! I loved this story and it felt new and refreshing. Not like anything I’ve read before. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for work by this author in the future

A Language of Dragons by S. F. Williamson is a remarkable enemies-too lovers, academia fantasy with its twists, turns, and tons of betrayal.
The world building is lush and vibrant and so uniquely crafted.
The amazing characters and their friendship and found family were amazingly done.
The politics and world building is on a whole new level. Ana the beautiful writing.

Thank You NetGalley and HarperCollins for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I cannot recommend this book enough! I loved it!!
It’s a historical fantasy set in 1920s London and there are DRAGONS!
Honestly, right up my alley. This was my first historical fantasy and I need more of it.
The Language of Dragons has dragon politics, war, rebellion, academia, and romance. It follows a Vivien who is so close to getting into university to study dragon languages, but she finds herself on the wrong side of the rebellion against. After working out a deal to keep her family safe, she is sent to Bletchley park to help decode the secret languages of how dragons communicate with each other. While at Bletchley, Vivien discovers her life under the current regime isn’t what she grew up to believe and she begins to question everything around her…