Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Actual rating: 3.75 ⭐

I'm still trying to figure out how to put my words into this review. here's the things i did like. i like the aspect of languages and dragons and how they intermingle with one another. it's fascinating to see how the language plays a huge role into this book. i found the characters complex and a little frustrating at times, but i think it worked very well for this book. i also really like how the history intertwined with a fantastical element with dragons and how they mingle with humans, hence the language usage.

however, i did think the story did drag a little. i thought vivien's thoughts were too repetitive we get the dangers of what will happen to your family and sister. we get it. please stop mentioning very three pages. i think it would be much stronger if it was mentioned maybe a few times throughout the book. i also thought the ending was a little flat to me. it felt too rushed and too all over the place. i'm going to assume the there will be a sequel with the books, since it did leave us on a cliffhanger at the end cause why else would that line be there.

all in all, i thought it was an interesting story. could use a bit of work, but i enjoyed it nonetheless.

3.5⭐️
The premise of this with the dragon language studies was what initially drew me to the story. I loved that the dragons were able to communicate in their own way and had their own autonomy. The wold building was well placed and didn’t feel info dumpy at all which I appreciated. The plot was very fast-paced which did keep me engaged. Despite this, I struggled to connect with the FMC. Vivian came off as a very judgmental selfish person in this. She was often in a state of denial and was constantly trying to excuse her reckless behavior. Her choices made it very hard to connect and like her in the book and by the end when she began to change, it almost didn’t matter. Overall it was still an enjoyable read but I wish the pacing was a bit better and the character made better choices so I could really fall in love with them.

A Language of Dragons

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

-YA Romantasy
-Dark Academia
-Morally grey FMC
-Historical fantasy: war and politics, relations between human and dragons

Omg ok, I started this book a few days ago and at first I hated the fmc sooooooo much that I was about to rate this gem of a book 3 stars. 😱

When did it become a 5? When I realized the author wrote a very annoying fmc on purpose and how she made her grow very slowly from a girl completely brainwashed by the government to a girl who want to do things right, to protect not only her family and comfortable life but also the dragons and the freedom to study a befriend them.

So I’m going to tell you this: if you feel like dnf’ing because of her, please continue to read because the more you read the better the story and character development get 🥰

I am so happy I started 2025 with a great dragon filled book 🥹💞

Vivien has always had a love of both human and dragon languages. So much so that she has worked endlessly to get into the University’s coveted Linguistics program and secure her position as a Second Class citizen. However, on the eve of being accepted, Viv’s world is turned on end. Her parents, uncle and cousin are arrested for being rebel sympathizers — the rebel coalition that fights the oppressive Prime Minister, her dividing class system, and the maltreatment of dragons. This catalyst opens Vivien’s eyes to the world outside her immediate future and sets her on a course that could forever change Britannia.

This is a solid first book where we have some major character development and we are introduced to the greater world that our protagonist lives in. There is immense growth in Vivien as she transitions from being a child in her parents’ home to an adult making real decisions for herself. The world of humans and dragons is also pretty cool — how they have evolved together and have their own societies in this 1920s European world. The light romance is also a treat. 4 stars.

Review based on a digital Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by HarperCollins Children’s Books and NetGalley. Thank you!

Already one of my favorite reads of the new year. Intense right from the start. Got me hooked right away and I will absolutely be recommending this book to so many people.

This book captivated me from start to finish! It’s a fascinating blend of rebellion, moral ambiguity, and the discovery of how dragons communicate. The protagonist, Viv, is caught in a struggle to save her family while grappling with her own uncertainty about who to trust. With the rebellion gaining momentum, she’s torn between conflicting sides and unsure of where she truly belongs.

As Viv navigates her internal conflict, her journey takes her to Bletchley Park, where she is chosen to become a codebreaker alongside her cousin and a former friend. The shifting dynamics between them, shaped by their differing statuses and relationships, add another layer of complexity to the narrative. The world-building is superb—concise yet immersive, providing just the right amount of information without overwhelming the reader.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read, and that cliffhanger! I’m already eagerly awaiting the next book in the series!

Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins, and S.F. Williamson for providing the e-ARC.

Amazing. Like blood over bright haven meets babel meets dragons. I loved the concept of language and communication being what wins the war just like in the real world wars. The addition of dragons and class wars and politics made this even better. Every character was detailed and well fleshed out, and had their own backstories and motivations. The growth of some of the characters and moral conflicts they faced were incredibly well thought out. Honestly a masterclass in writing I devoured this in one day. A compelling plot with excellent characters.

RATING: 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars

Thank you to S. F. Williamson, NetGalley, and Harper Collins for an opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

With YA having the most diverse range of fantasy books in its demographic, it can be a challenge at times to search for a book that catches my eye. Fortunately, A Language of Dragons piqued my interest, which I describe as World War 1, but the fantasy element is the implementation of dragons in our real world.

The story follows Vivien Featherswallow, a 17-year-old girl who grew up in a wealthy social class and dreams of being the best draconian language expert in the UK. When her family is arrested for wanting a society where humans and dragons could peacefully co-exist, a desperate Viv does a move that lands her as a recruit for the government's war effort. But being a recruit tests her existing values as she becomes gradually torn between saving her family and saving her entire country from ruin.

The academic elements were my favorite parts of this book. Taking the time to delve into the history and linguistics of dragons helped to shape a realistic world. The mystery behind echolocation was fascinating to figure out, and I loved how this was done through the perspective of a female character who was intended to be unlikable. Viv is cunning and ambitious, but she's also vulnerable toward the people that mean so much to her.

I did wish the romantic subplot and Viv's character development had more room to be fleshed out. There weren't enough on-page scenes for me to truly connect with Viv and Atlas as a couple, and Viv took a little too long for my personal tastes to have her epiphany of how terrible she was for the decisions that she made.

Nonetheless, I do recommend this book if you want your dragons prominently featured as part of the main plot, the romance takes a back seat, and the depiction of war isn't taken lightly.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

What an amazing fantasy!! This book sucked me right in!!

I love this book up until about 20% in and then it was a little bit hard to get through till about 35%. However, once I got through that part, which was very much them just describing the languages and trying to describe echolocation, it ended up being amazing.

Viv is a second class citizen, trying to free her parents and her sister after she accidentally starts a civil war. She’s given the opportunity to free them and redeem herself from the Prime Minister. So she is sent to a secret military location to try to start deciphering the “echolocation” type language that dragons use.

I would give this 4/5 stars. This book was so wonderful and I can’t wait for the second one to come out. I would highly recommend this to everyone and I will be buying a physical copy for my shelf.

"A Language of Dragons" by S. F. Williamson is a fantastic 5-star fantasy read! Vivian Featherswallow has ambitious goals, but her carefully laid plans come crashing down when the Guardians arrive at her home, forcing her onto an unexpected path. With the country in turmoil and on the verge of war, Vivian must decide what course to take to secure a safe future for her family. Will she support the Coalition uprising against the Peace Agreement and the oppressive Class System, or will she remain loyal to the government she has trusted her entire life?

This is an excellent book for fans of fantasy with a dark academia vibe. The author does an impressive job of putting readers inside Vivian's head, allowing us to fully understand her motivations and decisions. The world-building is immersive and vividly detailed, making it easy to picture yourself alongside the recruits.

As the story progresses, a cast of well-developed supporting characters helps balance the tone of the determined and complex FMC. While Vivian’s personality and worldview may not appeal to everyone, Atlas, her fellow recruit, and Marquis, her cousin, bring moments of humor and hope that lighten the narrative.

If you’re looking for a fast-paced book filled with dragon battles, this might not be the story for you. Instead, it’s a slower-paced tale focused on linguistics and unraveling the secrets of language. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope to see a sequel in the future!

Thanks to HarperCollins, S. F. Williamson, and NetGalley for providing me with the opportunity to read this ARC and share my honest review.

Love love LOVE this book. The story is immersive/involved and the writing is atmospheric. There is war, politics, rebellion, interesting complicated characters, and dragons used as more than just a weapon of war! I love when writers give dragons personalities and make them into characters in the story. Loved all of the twists and turns, I couldn’t put this book down. Can’t wait to read this again and to make all of my friends read this since it’s officially out!

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for a copy of this EARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Language Of Dragons ARC review
4.8 🌟
What a truly magnificent story, I was completely swept up by this book! It's dark academic setting with code breaking, swoon worthy romance (that had me blushing and giggling more times than I can count), banter, self discover and of course dragons!
This book is everything I could possibly want in a fantasy, and some things I didn’t know I needed.

The plot was constantly twisting and turning into places I did not expect. If a little slow throughout the middle, by the end the story more than made up for it with a jaw dropping finale. The side characters are all very well developed but don't steal the spotlight or overshadow the protagonist (who is awesome by the way), I had so much fun inside of Viv’s head and by the end of the book I did not want to leave. The journey she goes on through the course of the book feels so human the way it is written. Her character arc in particular was so much fun to follow. I can’t say too much without giving away that end of the book, but I will say that she has to make some very interesting and self defining decisions.

All in all this book was really a blast to read, I loved ever second of it and truly hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Thank you so so much to NetGally and HarperCollins children's books for giving me a chance to read this amazing book ahead of publication.

Wow!! I was definitely not expecting this to be as good as it was!
Dragons
War
Alliances
Romance sub plot
Class systems
Did I mention dragons?
This book is set in 1920’s London where our FMC Vivien, a polyglot, a speaker of dragon tongues, finds herself in the midst of a civil war between her government and a mass of rebels fighting to destroy not only the allegiance between dragons and humans but also the class systems put into place.
Will her knowledge of dragon languages save her family or doom humanity? What happens when the line between good and evil becomes distorted? What if everything you thought you knew about you world was false?
This book was so well written. I found myself swiping so fast thru the action scenes that I had to re-read some pages twice. The romance plot was not the main focus, although it was a very emotional side story. I cannot wait to get my shelf trophy!

This book is stunning. I stayed up late finishing this one and I'm a go to bed early kind of girl. If you love dragons, politics, and complex characters read this. The author built a epic world and plot without it being confusing or boring at all. I have zero interest in languages and I loved the language aspect of this book. I'm definitely looking forward to more from S.F. Williamson.

3.5 stars rounded up.

TL;DR: A Language of Dragons took me on a rollercoaster of thoughts and emotions. This fantasy world where humans and dragons co-exist had a fascinating premise and overall, I think the author executed it well. This has a little something for everyone—an in-depth exploration of linguistics and the power of language, political intrigue and subterfuge, romance, and dragons, and I think its comparison to Babel and The Hunger Games (or any other dystopian YA) is apt. Despite being a historical fantasy, it explores evergreen themes of social inequality, redemption, forgiveness, and justice, among others. The main struggle I had was dealing with the wildly negative feelings our protagonist, Viv, brought out in me as she's one of the most flawed and unempathetic YA characters I've ever read. Upon reflection, I appreciated what the author did with Viv and how it made her eventual growth more satisfying—even if I didn't reach that level of acceptance while reading, lol. If you're affected by unlikeable protagonists then you might not enjoy this but if you can have patience, I think you'll come to appreciate Viv too! Overall, this was a very solid debut and I can't wait to see where Williamson takes the story next!

The world-building was very interesting. This fantasy is set in an alternate post-WWI world where dragons and humans live together. In Britain, a fragile Peace Agreement allows humans and dragons to co-exist peacefully but humans are divided into strict social classes, and dragons have become “fourth class” citizens to be feared and abhorred. This dystopian Britain is a result of greed and an unmatched hunger for power that has corrupted the ruling class and resulted in a burgeoning rebellion that leads to civil war. We're gradually introduced to various elements of the world and I think it's set up brilliantly. I enjoyed learning about the various regional and familial spoken dragon dialects, but especially about Koinamens, the unknowable language of dragons that Viv spends most of the book trying to decode. You can tell how passionate the author is about linguistics and the power of language as it shines through in the writing and Viv's character who is a polyglot. This does read similarly to Babel but again, it's very clearly written for a YA audience with its simplified language, and I think that will be appreciated by all readers. The author also does a great job of exploring the heavy but important themes of social inequality, the class system and oppression, morality, forgiveness, redemption, and justice.

Once the action kicks off, tensions steadily rise as Viv finds herself placed in Bletchley Hall "fighting" for her family's survival. Might you have to suspend your disbelief that it's down to criminal teenagers (albeit with brilliant minds) who are set to save the country from war? I don't feel like it was too much of a stretch considering how eagerly the Prime Minister exploited whomever she could for personal gain. I will say that although tensions are high, it doesn't necessarily feel like we're entrenched in civil war due to Bletchley Park's "isolation" and what we do hear is through minor radio reports and news clippings interspersed in chapters. It would've also been great to get a better understanding of the PM's motive because yes, she's greedy, power-hungry, and wants full control but... To what end? The pacing also could've been better but I think that's in part due to the many pages of internal monologuing and teenage angst we're subjected to being in Viv's head. All of the explosive action that takes place towards the end is crammed into about 15% of the book and for being over 400 pages long, I think it could've been moved up to better set things up for the next book. That said, the tension was enough to propel the story forward and keep me eagerly turning the pages to find out what comes next.

When it came to the characters and the relationships, much of it was told rather than shown, which made some of the interactions and larger “shocking” events fall slightly flat as I didn’t feel the emotions needed for it to have hit harder. This most affected how I felt about the romance, which had its cute and sweet moments, but in my opinion, the depth of their feelings for each other was unbalanced with what we see of their interactions on-page. It's also very much *not* enemies-to-lovers although if you stretch the idea based on how Viv acts for most of the story, you can take it that way. 🤷🏻‍♀️

This leads me to our main character and... my very mixed thoughts about her throughout the read. To be fair, the author does pre-warn us that Viv is a very flawed character so you don't go in completely unaware. Did that warning help how I felt about her? Not particularly, lol. Viv Featherswallow is... someone who would do anything for her family and to maintain her comfortable status quo as part of the Second Class. She has done truly unforgivable things to hurt the people she claims to love and care for most in the world, and despite the guilt she suffers, she knows she'd do it again if it meant keeping her family safe and her worldview intact. She is naive to a fault, self-centred with a superiority complex, an insufferable kiss-ass, and a coward. She has made and continued to choose to make selfish decisions regardless of the impact on others, and it's fair to say that I found her wholly unlikeable and completely unempathetic for close to 90% of the book. She does eventually begin trying to make amends and essentially be a less selfish and more forgiving version of herself, which was satisfying to see.

However, it was only after I finished reading and had time to process my reading experience that I came to significantly appreciate how Williamson chose to write Viv's character. Viv is human and a teenage human at that. She makes infuriatingly naive decisions and frustratingly avoidable mistakes, and sometimes repeats them! But does that truly make her a bad person? Even if it was irritating to read, Viv's flip-flopping felt true to her because she's not going to suddenly be 100% on board with the rebellion after fighting so hard to keep her blinders on. Does this make me dislike her any less? Not really, no, but I can see what the author was trying to do with Viv's character and I'm keen to see what she will be like in the next book and where the story goes from here.

Dragons have always been popular, but 2025 is shaping up to be THE year for Dragon Lit. We all know about Onyx Storm hitting shelves later this month, but do you know about A Language of Dragons? Pull up a chair, let's talk. Set in an alternate London in 1923, dragons are in the world but it's an uneasy existence with humans. A rigid class system is in place that moves people up and down among classes like chess pieces. Viv Featherswallow isn't concerned with any of this, though. She's got a level of privilege as a member of the Second Class, and has her life sorted: she's going to get a summer internship studying dragon languages and attain a comfortable job as a dragon translator. She may have done some awful things to keep her comfortable spot, but she did what she has to do. Until the night her parents are arrested for being part of a rebellion. Viv's world is turned upside down; desperate, she leaves her sister with family friends, focused on one task that will destroy evidence against her parents. All she has to do is free one dragon. By midnight, she's sparked a civil war. Viv is brought to Bletchley Park as a codebreaker - translate the dragons' hidden language, and she and her family will go free. But it's never that simple, and the more Viv discovers about the hidden language, the more she learns about the Peace Agreement between Britannia and the dragons, and the corruption that goes all the way to the top: the Prime Minister. Will Viv give the Prime Minister the information she needs, putting all of dragonkind at risk, or will she risk her family's safety? A Language of Dragons has it all: a conflicted heroine, a romance, and a richly layered story with very high stakes. Unputdownable for fantasy fans and dragon aficionados.

I received an ARC of this book but the views expressed within represent my personal opinion.

I enjoyed this book a lot. There was a lot of action and an interesting commentary on forgiveness and redemption. I believe in a good redemption ARC and few authors, especially in the YA sphere, do it well. I think people should not be judged solely on their worst day, but on the other hand it shouldn't be overlooked either. A lot of authors and readers go one way or another. Characters must be perfect, and one bad day can wipe out a lifetime of good and they must never be forgiven. Or one good day means their lifetime of bad is forgotten, and those who can't forgive or forget are truly evil and responsible for every time they slip. But it's a lot more nuanced than that, and this author does a good job of portraying that.

The characters are interesting too. I was surprised by how much I rooted for and identified with some of them. I know the author starts with saying the main character is unlikable, but both she and her choices are relatable from the begining. I also like that the author didn't cheapen the unforgivable thing she did, because it really is something that could be unforgivable. However, a weak point is that a couple of the supporting characters were under-developed to the point that key emotional moments felt weak and unimportant. There's a lot that happens in the books, but it felt as if some more bonding moments could have been included at the expense of some of the teen angst, or the book could have been longer, to help those emotional moments pay off.

I sped through this book and had a lot of fun reading it. Where it lost one star was the fact that the characters and language felt much too young or too old at times, in a weird and inconsistent way. I get that teenagers can be pretentious at times and whiny at others, and maturing isn't a linear journey, but there were definite moments where i had to suspend disbelief to pretend the characters were older. Also the extent of one of the factions just defied all expectations, but I won't say more because spoilers. Still, these are minor qualms in an otherwise great story which absolutely deserves 4 stars, possibly 4.25 if goodreads allowed that.

I'm a sucker for anything with dragons, so this was an instant-request for me. And I really liked it! Interesting premise, characters we care about, mysterious happenings, etc. I don't see it listed as Book 1 anywhere, but this definitely reads like the start of a series. If it's not... then I have a lot of questions re: worldbuilding and consequences and the like.

I thought this was a great blend of romance, dragons, and action! I haven't given dragons x dark academia a thought before this book, but now I'm definitely a fan!

I thought this book about dragons and language had what seemed to be very few actual dragons that you actually got to know, and a main character who constantly talked about all the bad things she had done. If you want to right an anti-hero or a morally grey character, I think there are ways to do it without them self referencing their supposed "badness" all the time. While I found the concept interesting (dragons, language, code breaking), the world building felt over explained (there was so much info dumping, especially towards the end) and not really shown. The explanations that were used to explain the main character's drive were also not enough for me (and not even enough for the character it seems!). Also, I saw the romance described as "enemies to lovers" and also the setting as "dark academia" but I think those are both a bit of a stretch!
I still hope this is a big success so we can get more dragon books out in the world, but it's lacking both the emotional complexity of Babel (which I saw the marketing team comparing it to) and the bare minimum steaminess of Fourth Wing (which I also saw the marketing team comparing this to you, which, ????). Also, unlike those books, this is YA - maybe if it hadn't been, it would have been richer. But, for now...this wasn't it.