Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am loving all of these dragon fantasy books that have been coming out recently! This one was unique too because it was a debut Indigenous fantasy novel and I am always here for more BIPOC books!

I enjoyed this book quite a lot. The layers of hard topics and complexities were so well done and there were several times that I had to pause my reading because I needed to sit there to fully absorb what I read.

Not only is this book tackling racism, colonialism, structural violence, and parental abuse, it also tackles gender and sexual fluidity, autism spectrum, and how important oral histories are to communities.

I am excited to see where this story goes and what the author’s future works will be.

This is an absolute fantastic debut for dragon fantasy lovers!
I was immediately intrigued by the summary, and I was NOT disappointed.

Anequs is a 15 year old girl living on an island that hasn't seen a dragon for years. So when she finds an egg and begins to bond with the hatchling it's totally a big deal. However, some people on the island are total karens and think they know how to raise the dragon best. They make a deal with Anequs to send her to a dragon school. If her and the dragon don't succeed, the dragon will be killed.

Firstly-Why kill a dragon when you haven't seen one in centuries??

That's besides the point. This book was a very fun and light fantasy read. There is something special reading about this bond that grows between the dragon and Anequs. The world building was super impressive and I was completely immersed. The only thing I could wish for was a little more drama!! Fantasies always need a bit of conflict, and although there was some, I want more!

This book is so delightful. Blackgoose is such a wonderful writer who has such a keen sense of writing and character building. Anaqus is an Indegenous person on Masquapaug. She is incredibly happy with her life, until it is shaken up by receiving a dragon egg. She is then pushed into a New England-like world during the time before the Revolution.

I loved Blackgoose's world. Anaqus is proud of her heritage and she will fight for her own humanity. I loved how often she is able to ascertain the judgments of others and how little they matter in her own world. I loved the worldbuilding and the use of dragons, and how the teaching and use of science and lore was able to layer into the story. It was a great book, and I cannot wait to continue.

What a great start to a series.

Dragons have disappeared from Masquapaug Island. 15 year old Anequs witnesses a dragon flying off the coast and eventually discovers a dragon egg. When the dragon, Kasaqua, choses Anequs as her person. To learn how to control her dragon's breath, Anequs must leave her island home to attend an "Anglish" school on the mainland. She is expected to assimilate into Anglish culture, which is very different from her own.

A lot of this book is outsider goes to an elite academy, which is one of my favorite tropes. Anequs is a great protagonist. She really knows who she is and what she wants. She understands that she needs to conform to learn what she needs to, but she does not compromise herself. She makes friends and allies in this new world. She is subject to extreme racism and prejudice.

The world building is excellent. The details of the indigenous cultures are rich with details and we learn about Anglish Society through Anequs's eyes. The big bad is colonization, and not just one evil person. I can't wait for the next book!

Thank you Del Rey and NetGalley for the advanced electronic review copy of this book. I was really excited to read a book about dragons with an indigenous main character. If anything, it could have been about 150-200 pages shorter without losing any of the important story elements. I was glad to see some minor semblance to Eragon, which I loved. The indigenous main character was a great idea, but I feel she could have been better developed and the writing a bit more less detached.

This was a fantastic YA fantasy full of dragons, magic, and both queer and indigenous representation. I am so happy to see that we are finally getting more novels by indigenous authors and I can't wait to see what else Blackgoose writes.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This novel envisions a North America that was colonized by the Norse in a fantasy world featuring dragons, in which a dragon’s breath can be shaped into a type of magic that can split objects into their component elements. Anequs, a young indigenous woman, finds a dragon egg of an indigenous breed long thought to have died out. She brings it back to her tribe, and on hatching, the dragon, Kasaqua, bonds with her. But Anequs soon finds out that by the laws of the Anglish who have colonized the area, she must register her dragon and attend a dragoneering school where she can learn to control Kasaqua’s breath. She does not want to go, but she finds that the dragon’s breath uncontrolled is a danger to her people, so she goes to learn what the Anglish know about dragons, information that has long been lost to her people. Living among the Anglish, Anequs is pulled in different directions, between what she wants and what “proper” Anglish society expects from her, and has to face constant racial prejudice and hostility against her people.

I really REALLY enjoyed this book! Some of the foreign/fantasy terms used take a little getting used to, but overall it was a richly rendered fantasy setting featuring interesting characters. Pacing was a little uneven at times, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the novel at all. I’m very much looking forward to the next installment!

Representation: Indigenous characters in a fantasy version of North America written by a Native American author, other POC characters, LGBTQ+ characters including bisexual main character, autistic major character

CW: bigotry

- thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc to review!

- a stunning debut about dragons, fighting in a hostile world, and reclaiming power against those who oppress you. the main character was a determined heroine, and her bond with her dragon was a relationship that had me invested from the get-go. Blackgoose is an author to look out for, and i can't wait for the second book in the series!

I am kicking myself for taking as long with this book as I did.

What a masterpiece.

The characters are all dynamic and have faults and come by them honestly. Trying to work through a world that doesn't accept you for breathing, while still trying to do the things you need to do in order to fully live. It was heartbreaking, but also full of self love.

I've read a lot about dragons as of late, I don't think I've enjoyed half of them as much as I did this one. This was soft but fierce. It was so tastefully written that I felt like I had the perfect meal. It was lush and also made you take a hard look at yourself and society. All in all, just an excellent read.

I don't have the words to do this review or book any justice, but it was quite literally the perfect read, and I want nothing more than people to experience the melancholy and beauty that is this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ballentine for an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was amazing!!! This is an explosive, sharp, fun, and angry book that will stay with me. I loved the exploration of anticolonialism and the queer poly indigenous characters. I cannot recommend this enough!

Consider a world where the Norse went a conquering even more than in our world. So there are Norse settlements and cities on what is North America in our timeline Add in dragons and magic that can be shaped by human directed dragons. alongside nineteenth century technology. This is the world of Anequs, a native inhabitant of the islands of the east coast of Markland, who finds a dragon's egg and becomes bound to it. According to Anglish law, she need to attend a school of dragons to learn how to control the dragon and gain skill in working with dragons. This requirement poses issues both for Anequs and for Anglish society which is working out issues of equality, political representation, and social norms. Anequs's foray into Anglish schooling and society allows plenty of room for storytelling that provides a different look at the world we live in. An interesting and engaging read on many levels. It will be interesting to see what a second tale set in this world will bring forth!

Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read this title.

I enjoyed many things about this book. There's the diversity of the characters, the world-wide got, and the generally cozy atmosphere. I do, however, think the story could be a couple hundred pages shorter and still fit in the same amount of information.

Several events, pieces of exposition, themes, and conflicts show up repeatedly, get discussed or explained multiple times, even after these points have been resolved. It gets repetitive. It sometimes feels that the story dwells on itself instead of moving forward.

My main issue with this book is its black and white view of the Anglish versus the Masquisit. Everything Madquisit is good and right and ideal. Everything Anglish is bad. There is very little nuance.

And because of that, Anequs, the main character, doesn't really have a character arc. She doesn't grow or learn any particularly paradigm-shifting lessons. She's just always right. She's always logical and empathetic and moral, and everything to the contrary is actually a misunderstanding or malicious misrepresentation. It's all very holier-than-thou. And that gets tiring.

Still, I'm interested enough that there's a 75% likelihood I'll pick up the next book. I did have a good time, and this book felt like a Part One more than an entire story anyway. I want to see more of the dragons and steampunk elements.

This book was interesting from beginning to end... you have Anequs seeing a dragon that was thought to be extinct and then finding its egg before being shipped off to an Anglish school to be "civilized" and taught how to shape her dragon's breath through what is basically magic. Kasaqua is the little dragon that helps Anequs look inward and discover strength and truths about herself that she may not have discovered otherwise. The backdrop to their story is one of colonizers and "savages" and their ability/inability to coexist. I look forward to book two seeing as Anequs and Kasaqua BOTH have a lot more growing to do.

THIS BOOK. It's only March but this is going to be one of my top reads of the year. Absolutely showstopping, I couldn't put it down. To Shape a Dragon's Breath is a blockbuster of a book that you will regret missing. It's sharp, wise, fun, and angry all wrapped in one which makes for the most brilliant mood for a book. Highly recommend this to anyone looking for anticolonialist writing with dragons (which should be everyone, by the way).

This book doesn't hold back at all? the white people are called the ANGLISH. This book is a loosely veiled story of colonialism and i'm HERE FOR IT. If white men can do loosely veiled medieval England time and time again, indigenous authors can and should do loosely veiled colonization. Incredible. I can't wait for more by Moniquill Blackgoose.

What an amazing story. So unique and a beautifully written story. It makes so much sense this is the start to a series because there's so much of this story that's begging to be told. The characters are incredible and the stories are interesting. The fantasy aspect is just cool and that coupled with the intriguing characters makes for a perfect fantasy. I think this deserves all the hype and more. It was easily better than most of the really popular fantasy I've read and there's a lot to be said within its pages. A lot of things happen in this book, but I couldn't put it down. There's so much emotion in this story and I loved it so much. I'm also a sucker for any dragon kind of story, big or small, so this had me right away. This book is amazing

This book was well written and I enjoyed the perspective of an Indigenous character, but I struggled to finish this book because it was just a little boring. For a fantasy book with dragons, I was not often excited. And I get that this book was not about dragons; it was about racism and politics and whatnot. But the lack of page-turning-ness made me finish this book pretty slowly.

What I liked: a unique type of dragon magic, BIPOC main character(s), LGBT+ perspective, important themes, the stories within the book

What I disliked: Why does everything have to be renamed something different if it's essentially the same thing? Lindmarden is called England. Hydrogen Oxygen and other chemicals have all new names. The dialogue also didn't feel like dialogue. I get that this was written in the past, but couldn't they have talked in more distinct ways? Still didn't fully understand how the dragon magic worked, but okay. What I will say is the word "nackie" was perfectly chosen; it gave me such a negative connotation, which I think was deliberate. The themes also seemed to hit you over the head and felt extra hashed out.

Anequs both frustrated me and inspired me. If there was one thing she was going to do, it was ride for her people and say exactly how she felt. At the same time, as clever as she was, it felt like she didn't understand that her actions had consequences, fatal ones at that. But she kept doing what she was doing. Frau Kuiper was trying to insist that it's either assimilate or die, but Anequs was just like NO. I guess she got a small victory in the end and seeing how this is a continuing series, maybe Anequs will continue to see how her actions play out, for better or worse. Maybe she'll learn how to move smarter somehow without assimilating.

All in all, though I wasn't a big fan of the storytelling and writing, the author is a competent one and the book was pleasant enough for me to finish, though I wished I'd skipped some sections. I hope maybe the author can liven things up in subsequent books, though I don't know if I'll continue to read this series.

Received a Netgalley ARC in exchange for honest feedback.

Fantasy is my least read genre. I'm always a little intimidated and confused going into one, but I couldn't put this one down! The world building was great and set up where it's easy enough to follow along but still have to pay attention. The OwnVoices Native American rep was great to see as fantasy, I feel, is very behind in opening doors for marginalized authors. It's one of the straightest, whitest genres on the shelves and bringing diversity to it is both important and exciting. As a bonus, there's also dragons!

The plot moved at a good pace and the characters were well fleshed out. As a non fantasy reader I was really impressed by this one!

This book touches on so many topics - with quiet rage and grace. Discrimination. Sexism. Women pitted against women. The fear to be honest about sexuality. Classism. I could go on.
Anequs finds a dragon's egg - changing in her life along with her family and community. She feels it is an honor, a gift, rather than others at the prestigious school.
She posses such grace and strength, refusing to bend to the acceptable version of herself.
Great start to a new series.

Wow was this good. Before anything else, highly recommend!

This book is about Anequs, an Indigenous teenager who just happens to see a dragon, and be chosen when said dragon's egg hatches. Her people have not had dragons for quite some time, and they decide to report the dragon's birth, and Anequs' choosing, to a nearby Anglish school for dragoneering in order to comply with the law.

This book is in a fantasy world with fantasy countries and fantasy peoples, but they're very clearly supposed to be reflections of our own world. This is very much a book about colonialism and racism, and because of that, I would heavily suggest readers who are sensitive to those topics check trigger warnings. As a white reader, it was very difficult to read through Anequs' repeated mistreatment. However, I think this book has so many important things to say, and I would recommend it repeatedly.

This book does not hold back, and it will anger you. The Anglish are the worst (shocker, I know), but Anequs is resilient. The tone of this book is uniquely angry and proud. Anequs truly loves her people and her culture, and she was willing to stand up for them in front of anyone. My only critique is that Anequs can, at times, feel a bit overly confident for her age and situation. Regardless, I loved cheering her on, and I can't wait to see what she will do in the sequel.

Thank you to RHPG - Ballantine and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for a review!

Dragons and academia aren't top of my list in reading interests but this one pulled me in and I can't wait for the next book. What a refreshing take on alternate history, colonialism, and an indigenous protagonist.