My Goodreads rating - 3 stars

Before the actual review, I'd like to preface this with : this isn't a book I intended to pick up at all. I'd read the summary on goodreads after some people in a discord server i was in mentioned it, and it didn't sound interesting enough for me to read. The only reason I read it is because a very good friend of mine really loved it and recommended it to me, especially since it inspired them in some worldbuilding for a roleplay we're doing. So I exclusively read that book to understand my friend better, if that makes any sense. Now that this is out of the way...

SYNOPSIS

Synopsis taken from goodreads :

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

WRITING QUALITY : 5/10

Let's start with the premise. A war college that kills most of its students. It is, to me, very silly, and I don't quite think the worldbuilding and storyline justified it entirely, but it is a necessary setup for anything here to work. It does I needed a fairly high suspension of disbelief the whole way through. Of course, a silly premise isn't indicative of overall writing quality, but that does to me mean that you need to be really good and/or really straightforward with it to work. It's played straight and it works fine. You do eventually look at all the side characters and try to figure out who's next, who you're rooting for, etc. And while you do assume that Violet will survive to the end by virtue of being the main character, it is always interesting to see how she handles things thrown her way.

I'll admit I was startled by the way this was written : first-person, and in a way that unpleasantly reminded me of YA (this is not a jab at the genre in general and I have enjoyed YA books, it is simply that the last few times I have read YA, I was tremendously bored). I then looked it up to see this book was considered New Adult, or NA, and I guess it means they have somewhat the same qualities in terms of easy reading, the characters are simply older and sex can appear on page ? Interesting. It did mean I rolled my eyes at some of the writing style. Specifically, the amount of times the word "badass" is used felt really strange to me in a fantasy book, and there were several parts that felt like a shoehorned-in 2023 twitter post. A quote, without spoilers, that comes to mind is "You are not attracted to toxic men, Violet", which feels incredibly strange given the overall worldbuilding (if we're using that word, a toxic environment where these people are literally soldiers) and tone of the rest of the book.

Speaking of tone, one thing that always breaks any thing built upon is the love interest. Again, without spoilers, there is always mention of how hot this character is, which will often break the flow of a scene. And like, I get it. Hot people make you stop dead in your tracks sometimes. But every single time you see them, even though you've been living in the same place for ages ? It feels like a way to force you, the reader, to see things the same way the main character does (even though you're already in her head, giving you proximity to her thoughts and feelings from the get-go), to force you to pay attention to these attempts at building sexual tension throughout the book. It's not a choice I can really get behind, because as someone in about the age range Violet is in, that's exactly how I'd expect a 16 year old to behave (source : was that 16 year old).

Side characters, depending on plot contrivances, will go from cardboard cutout to fully fleshed-out, three-dimensional characters and vice-versa in a way that does not always feel natural. More than a few times, I've felt like I was seeing the cogs of the machine, its guts spillin onto the floor, in a way that clearly wasn't intended, without digging much. That's kind of endearing, but it does not to me make for a good story unless it's on purpose. If you're not trying to show me the cogs, why am I seeing them out in the open ? I should have to open up your smooth-running machine to go "oh, YES, that's the thing !". That might just be me, though.

A good point I'll give the book is the banter between characters, a lot of their interactions do help sell you on their friendship, despite the environment they live in, and you do end up caring for them. That, to me, is one of the nuggets of good writing that make people like this book.

Oh, and the sex scenes are fine. Given my overall misgivings about the writing style and tone of the book, I wasn't expecting much, but I didn't roll my eyes too much nor skipped them entirely because they were bad. They were just fine.

ENJOYMENT : 7/10

I am... a VERY, VERY good and forgiving audience when dragons are involved. And BOY, WERE THEY ! I loved the dragons, my favorite character from this book is one of them. He is the funniest guy ever. I did enjoy the worldbuilding around the way they "bond" to humans and what this entails for the person ! Some bits of this worldbuilding reminded me of Eragon, although that's based on very fuzzy memories (I was very young when I read Eragon). In fourth wing, a lot of the dragons manage to be more entertaining and pleasant than some of the humans, despite being the guys who "burn the weaklings".

What else can I say... I had a genuinely good time. I grew attached to Violet, to her childhood best friend, to the new friends she made in Basgiath... I thought the love interest was fine. It was overall a light, fun read that absolutely helped me get back on track reading-wise - i'd been in a terrible reading block for a while before this. I have SOME criticism of the choices in the latter half of the book, but as I'm trying to keep this review spoiler-free, I'll only say these narrative decisions docked a few enjoyment points off the rating.

INSPIRATION : 7/10

I can't say too much without spoilers, but remember the friend I mentioned before starting this review ?

There's a good amount of tidbits, of nuggets of worldbuilding that interests both of us a lot, which has helped us pull a few threads we'd like to explore in our roleplay shenanigans. It's been making me think of a few things besides my usual "Words Are Power" stuff going on in my writing, and build a whole new magic system for my roleplay. So, I'd say that's pretty great !

Reading fantasy generally makes me want to keep writing fantasy, too, so I'm pumped to get back to my own WIPs now.

FINAL THOUGHTS AND OVERALL RATING : 6,5/10

It's not a Good book, but it is decent, and a really enjoyable read if you're like me and just Really Love Dragons.

I think the best way I can sum this up is with the short review I posted on Goodreads, actually :

"The quality is just like eating popcorn - it's fun, and then you get near the end of the bucket and you kinda want to throw up because you've eaten so many and there's a weird tasting one, and once you're done you want to eat another whole bucket... Preferably later. Sometime in the next few months. "

Would I recommend it ? Only to someone who doesn't want to think too hard and wants to go on a ride with dragons and a whole lot of murder.