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Dragon Den
A fast-paced, action-packed romantic urban fantasy inspired by The Fast and the Furious, perfect for adult fans of How to Train Your Dragon.
Markus Fredriksen, the First of His Name, more titles to come, always dreamed of breaking a Black Clubtail and becoming a dragon rider. He fails to break any dragon at all, marking the end of his tenure at Dragild Military Academy.
The commandant unexpectedly offers him a broken dragon, but with a caveat: Markus must infiltrate the clan running the Dragon Den, suspected of hijacking semi-trucks carrying precious obsidian.
He jumps at the opportunity to salvage his dreams. He has no idea what he's in for, but the clan leader's daughter is about to become his biggest distraction.
Markus Fredriksen, the First of His Name, more titles to come, always dreamed of breaking a Black Clubtail and becoming a dragon rider. He fails to break any dragon at all, marking the end of his tenure at Dragild Military Academy.
The commandant unexpectedly offers him a broken dragon, but with a caveat: Markus must infiltrate the clan running the Dragon Den, suspected of hijacking semi-trucks carrying precious obsidian.
He jumps at the opportunity to salvage his dreams. He has no idea what he's in for, but the clan leader's daughter is about to become his biggest distraction.
310 pages, Hardcover
Published June 20, 2024
11 people are currently reading
1380 people want to read
About the author
Kriss Dean
2 books30 followersKriss Dean is a hopeless romantic and an obsessive reader. By daylight, she puts her BA in Mathematics to use in the financial services industry. Come nightfall, she can be found writing books in the dark corners of coffee shops. She lives in Florida with her husband and their two golden retrievers.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 290 reviews
May 23, 2024
There's not much I feel worse about than rating an arc I'm sent low, but sometimes it's necessary.
When the description for this book said it takes inspiration from Fourth Wing and How to Train Your Dragon, I didn't think it quite literally meant the author sat and picked the parts she thought were best from each and threw them into this book without changing them much. To the point that Markus - our main character - almost exclusively calls his dragon "bud", the exact same nickname Hiccup uses for Toothless in HTTYD. It sounds like such a little thing but it would have taken literally nothing to have changed it to something else?
I wasn't a major fan of the "breaking a dragon" concept. It sounded as though riders at the dragon college forged collars that that they would wear and try to put a matching one on a wild dragon. That overrides the natural instincts of the dragon, forcing them to bend to the will of the rider. I can see why the author wanted the dragon bonding to be different to Fourth Wing - since not much else was - but part of what made the connections with the dragons so special in FW was the fact the dragons were willing.
I knew the story has lost it's way when the dragon races and Markus's attempt at winning Tobias over reminded me of Fast and Furious. I couldn't take it seriously after that. And I don't even make that comparison lightly. It copies the scene where Brian races Dom down to the dialogue.
Dom (The Fast and the Furious 2001): Ask any racer. Any real racer. It don't matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning is winning.
Tobias (Dragon Den 2024): Ask any racer. Any real racer. It doesn't matter if it's an inch or a hundred dragon-lengths. Winning is winning.
On top of all of that, the world-building in this book is next to non-existent. We have no idea where the dragons came from, how a recruit makes it into one of the dragon colleges, how they figured out how the collars were made and how they worked - how they figured out that a bond could be forced to begin with. It felt as though we were dropped into chapter 10 of the story. I missed the beginning where the setting was established and the background given.
Same with the characters. There was little to no development with any of them. I couldn't connect to Markus. I didn't feel anything for the forced romance between him and Amira. I wasn't even too bothered about his relationship with Loki. It was all just extremely surface level.
Again - I know this is a debut and I hate to shit on anyone's work, but this feels like a rough draft that isn't ready to be published yet. There is a lot of fleshing out that needs to be done, both with the world building and the characters we're meant to be rooting for, and I also think it needs to lean less on it's inspirations and more on what makes the book different from those. I couldn't see past everything it had cherry picked from other books (and films).
When the description for this book said it takes inspiration from Fourth Wing and How to Train Your Dragon, I didn't think it quite literally meant the author sat and picked the parts she thought were best from each and threw them into this book without changing them much. To the point that Markus - our main character - almost exclusively calls his dragon "bud", the exact same nickname Hiccup uses for Toothless in HTTYD. It sounds like such a little thing but it would have taken literally nothing to have changed it to something else?
I wasn't a major fan of the "breaking a dragon" concept. It sounded as though riders at the dragon college forged collars that that they would wear and try to put a matching one on a wild dragon. That overrides the natural instincts of the dragon, forcing them to bend to the will of the rider. I can see why the author wanted the dragon bonding to be different to Fourth Wing - since not much else was - but part of what made the connections with the dragons so special in FW was the fact the dragons were willing.
I knew the story has lost it's way when the dragon races and Markus's attempt at winning Tobias over reminded me of Fast and Furious. I couldn't take it seriously after that. And I don't even make that comparison lightly. It copies the scene where Brian races Dom down to the dialogue.
Dom (The Fast and the Furious 2001): Ask any racer. Any real racer. It don't matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning is winning.
Tobias (Dragon Den 2024): Ask any racer. Any real racer. It doesn't matter if it's an inch or a hundred dragon-lengths. Winning is winning.
On top of all of that, the world-building in this book is next to non-existent. We have no idea where the dragons came from, how a recruit makes it into one of the dragon colleges, how they figured out how the collars were made and how they worked - how they figured out that a bond could be forced to begin with. It felt as though we were dropped into chapter 10 of the story. I missed the beginning where the setting was established and the background given.
Same with the characters. There was little to no development with any of them. I couldn't connect to Markus. I didn't feel anything for the forced romance between him and Amira. I wasn't even too bothered about his relationship with Loki. It was all just extremely surface level.
Again - I know this is a debut and I hate to shit on anyone's work, but this feels like a rough draft that isn't ready to be published yet. There is a lot of fleshing out that needs to be done, both with the world building and the characters we're meant to be rooting for, and I also think it needs to lean less on it's inspirations and more on what makes the book different from those. I couldn't see past everything it had cherry picked from other books (and films).
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June 19, 2024huge thank you to The Nerd Fam and the author for sending me a copy of this book, I appreciate it beyond words and I am so grateful.
Unfortunately this book was not for me right now, I did have to DNF, hence the no rating.
The writing just wasn’t for me and I couldn’t connect unfortunately.
Unfortunately this book was not for me right now, I did have to DNF, hence the no rating.
The writing just wasn’t for me and I couldn’t connect unfortunately.
September 23, 2024
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC! I’m really sad to give such a low rating but I have to be honest.
What I dislike the most about following an MMC rather than an FMC - is to be inside the brain of the MMC. And this particular boy’s (he isn’t a man for sure) train of thoughts was hyper sexual towards Amira & Katie. It just rubbed me the wrong way right from the start.
What drew me to this ARC was that it was for fans of how to train your dragon and I’m a BIG HTTYD fan. I’m not exaggerating - I have a ton of merch and I rewatch the trilogy once a year.
That being said : it felt like a big HTTYD + Fourth wing + fast & furious knock off. The similarities were almost copy pasted. A few elements were changed to make it less obvious but I just felt like I was reading fan fiction from those 3 books/movies.
The thing that really took me out were the characters. They’re extremely unlovable, immature and surface levelled.
The world building is near to nonexistent and there were many plot holes.
What I dislike the most about following an MMC rather than an FMC - is to be inside the brain of the MMC. And this particular boy’s (he isn’t a man for sure) train of thoughts was hyper sexual towards Amira & Katie. It just rubbed me the wrong way right from the start.
What drew me to this ARC was that it was for fans of how to train your dragon and I’m a BIG HTTYD fan. I’m not exaggerating - I have a ton of merch and I rewatch the trilogy once a year.
That being said : it felt like a big HTTYD + Fourth wing + fast & furious knock off. The similarities were almost copy pasted. A few elements were changed to make it less obvious but I just felt like I was reading fan fiction from those 3 books/movies.
The thing that really took me out were the characters. They’re extremely unlovable, immature and surface levelled.
The world building is near to nonexistent and there were many plot holes.
June 9, 2024
eARC from netgalley :)
I thought that this book had so much potential, an urban setting with dragons and a dragon-riding school? sign me up and the cover is super gorgeous.
unfortunately not my favourite read, for a few reasons.
PLOT - we definitely feel as though we’ve been thrown in the deep end and are experiencing this world pretty dry. the plot doesn’t really feel as though there are any real stakes (possibly due to my non-existence attachment to the main character and lack of any real world-building) and most of the time the MMCs mind is just on what he wants to do to his girlfriend when he gets home.
CHARACTERISATION - not really there? markus is generally very unlikeable, consistently sexualising amira with every thought he has and somehow simultaneously having the worst self-esteem in the world and being incredibly full of himself. I really wanted to love amira and i was almost there, but she often just reads as a plot device and markus’ eye candy desire, when she could have been so much more. i feel like most of the characters were pretty much just easy stereotypes: markus is the good guy (questionable) with a crush on his best friend, amira is the pretty best friend who is super smart but secretly badass, theo is the hacker friend (who is mentioned to be gay like one time and then nothing is built on it), tobias is the cool older brother who hates the MMC. these would have been fine if there was some significant character development throughout the book, but the arc is only 180 pages and it does feel like it. gonna repeat this, i really wanted to love amira but she was so underutilised other than just being hot-smart-girl-he-wants-to-bone. also i dislike markus xD
I’m not black, so i can’t comment on how the ‘theme’ of racism was discussed, but it didn’t really appear in the narrative other than like one scene? so i dont really know in this case, but amira in general should have had so much character development and racism as a more key theme could have been one of the ways to do so.
DRAGONS - okay they were pretty cool, in concept and sometimes in practise. i did love loki, he could be very funny and just wanted to race and eat, and good for him. linking to the world-building, the emergence of dragons is just, they were alive with the dinosaurs and live in a volcano when they’re wild. like, one single volcano? all of them? also, the way they were ‘broken’ by forcibly having collars put on them and then belonging to the human who did that to them was quite icky to me.
overall, not the greatest reading experience, though I did manage to get through it quite quickly (180 pages) while reading a physical book alongside it. the potential is so there i just didn’t care for most of the execution.
I thought that this book had so much potential, an urban setting with dragons and a dragon-riding school? sign me up and the cover is super gorgeous.
unfortunately not my favourite read, for a few reasons.
PLOT - we definitely feel as though we’ve been thrown in the deep end and are experiencing this world pretty dry. the plot doesn’t really feel as though there are any real stakes (possibly due to my non-existence attachment to the main character and lack of any real world-building) and most of the time the MMCs mind is just on what he wants to do to his girlfriend when he gets home.
CHARACTERISATION - not really there? markus is generally very unlikeable, consistently sexualising amira with every thought he has and somehow simultaneously having the worst self-esteem in the world and being incredibly full of himself. I really wanted to love amira and i was almost there, but she often just reads as a plot device and markus’ eye candy desire, when she could have been so much more. i feel like most of the characters were pretty much just easy stereotypes: markus is the good guy (questionable) with a crush on his best friend, amira is the pretty best friend who is super smart but secretly badass, theo is the hacker friend (who is mentioned to be gay like one time and then nothing is built on it), tobias is the cool older brother who hates the MMC. these would have been fine if there was some significant character development throughout the book, but the arc is only 180 pages and it does feel like it. gonna repeat this, i really wanted to love amira but she was so underutilised other than just being hot-smart-girl-he-wants-to-bone. also i dislike markus xD
I’m not black, so i can’t comment on how the ‘theme’ of racism was discussed, but it didn’t really appear in the narrative other than like one scene? so i dont really know in this case, but amira in general should have had so much character development and racism as a more key theme could have been one of the ways to do so.
DRAGONS - okay they were pretty cool, in concept and sometimes in practise. i did love loki, he could be very funny and just wanted to race and eat, and good for him. linking to the world-building, the emergence of dragons is just, they were alive with the dinosaurs and live in a volcano when they’re wild. like, one single volcano? all of them? also, the way they were ‘broken’ by forcibly having collars put on them and then belonging to the human who did that to them was quite icky to me.
overall, not the greatest reading experience, though I did manage to get through it quite quickly (180 pages) while reading a physical book alongside it. the potential is so there i just didn’t care for most of the execution.
May 10, 2024
One star for many many reasons. It is disheartening to give such a poor review to an ARC, but I was given it in exchange for an honest review. I feel bad for this review because Dean is a debut author and I prefer to give debuts a better chance, but I have to give an honest review of the many issues I had with this book. I will be separating this review into themes (there are spoilers in the below):
World building
Characters and character development
Writing
Plot
The world building in this book was both over informative and underdeveloped. Many details of this book were inconsistent, didn’t make sense, or were never explained. For example, the dragons are asleep in a volcano and are only awake one day a year. It is never explained how the dragons at the school are awake all days of the year. It is also never explained why the dragons are only awake one day a year. The explanation for the lack of knowledge about dragons is that they have a magical shield preventing humans from going into their den. This makes no sense, as riders can communicate with dragons. So why not just ask your dragon for more information? Also, the dragons literally live in a volcano. Why would humans enter a volcano? They would, quite obviously, die before being able to enter the dragons’ den. As well, multiple times in this book a distance is referred to as “a dragon’s length”. Considering we’re given multiple dimensions for a variety of dragons, what exactly is “a dragon’s length”? Why do all the dragons have the dimensions of a square? Is there a reason their wingspan and length are all the same? There’s also been wars beyond World War 5, but never any discussion of the impact of these wars like how it impacted society and how they interact with the dragons. There’s also no discussion of the role dragons have played in society since they supposedly evolved during the triassic period, beyond their use in vaguely mentioned wars. Do leaders of major countries have dragons? Are they used as bodyguards for celebrities? Why are the only people with dragons mentioned the people at the school/Goldwings? There were so many ways we could have been given details that made the dragons feel like an integrated part of the story, but yet we were not given that.
For me, the hardest part to believe when it comes to worldbuilding was the setting. Setting a book about dragons in the PNW is kind of insane, considering the amount of forest there. I simply cannot imagine dragons flying across Portland and Seattle without any issues. During capture the flag, they’re told they can only play IN city limits. This is a HUGE liability. Why would you have dragons fighting IN the city? Every time they open their mouth, they’re likely to set something in the city on fire. How can you control a dragon if they’re attacked and drop out of the sky, wouldn’t they destroy a building? Some of these dragons are 50x50. Surely there’d be property damage during capture the flag, no matter the precautions taken. Also, the dragons having echolocation felt so ridiculous and unbelievable. How can they be stealthy if they’re constantly chirping all the time?
The characters in this book felt underdeveloped and unbelievable. My largest issue when it comes to characters is the way the MMC was written. He was, to be quite frank, disgusting. He viewed women as nothing more than sex objects and was mean to everyone around him. His inner dialogue was uncomfortable to read. He was incredibly unlikeable, and not in a way that is enjoyable. At no point was I rooting for him. In fact, I thought he was a whiny jerk. He did not deserve to have a dragon, and I felt he did not have the strength, endurance, or positive qualities to actually convince Mamba to let him be his rider at the end. That decision makes absolutely no sense, even though I saw it coming from a mile away, but I'll come to that point in the plot section of this review. He was uncurious and made many assumptions during his mission without solid evidence. Amira was solely a sex object and plot point. I think the fact that Markus didn’t have ANY friends was very telling. His focus in his relationships with other characters were all related to plot, and never for developing a relationship with others that supported his character traits and showed he was a real character. Amira was provided solely as a plot point, and I believe the only reason her character is Black is because it provided a reason for Tobias to not like Marcus. She also did not feel like a real person. Markus also never explains why he likes Amira beyond sex, but yet somehow falls in love with her. Further, the sex scenes between the two lacked chemistry and were uncomfortable to read. They felt absolutely pointless in this book, and added to meet the checkmark of people on tiktok loving spicy books instead of for relationship development. I think Amira deserved a whole lot better than Markus and I hope she dumps him in the next book. The other characters were also underdeveloped and consistently had awkward dialogue when interacting with Markus.
This leads me to the writing. I do not feel the writing encouraged plot progression or character development. The conversations between Markus and other characters felt awkward and they frequently felt underdeveloped. Conversations would happen where there would be a conflict of some sort, but then they’d immediately be solved, and Markus never had to solve any of these issues on his own. Conversations that should have been more in depth frequently felt cut short. Some sentences in this book and the way they were written made my jaw drop in shock, and not in a positive way. Some of the writing was cringe.
Plot. I have a lot of issues here, as well. The dragon lore is both under and over developed and the mission, the main point of this book, felt unbelievable. He walks in to the infirmary after failing to break a dragon and somehow his commander is like, “oh yes you failed but it’s alright because coincidentally we have this abandoned dragon and I have a mission you can do to stay in school”. There was no explanation as to why Markus was chosen for the mission and the discussion was done in front of a witness when it was supposed to be highly secretive. If there are semi trucks, why are there not planes? Couldn’t they have a plane fly overhead of the semi truck as extra protection if the obsidian is so valuable, and why weren’t they doing that the whole time? If the obsidian is so valuable, why didn’t they have plans for contingencies and setbacks, especially knowing that clans would be out to steal the, once again, very valuable obsidian? When it comes to the illegal dragon racing, once again, why are there no police planes? Wouldn’t that be a massive help in catching the racers considering there are only a few dragons used in the police force? Wouldn’t it be safer to transport the obsidian in a plane with weapons on it? Since it’s literally for military purposes? Also, the clans/gangs dynamic was never explained. What are they and why do they exist? What do they do? What’s the history between the two competing clans in this book and why are they at odds?
The explanation for the reason why the collars are used was also incredibly unbelievable. It connects neurons between the rider and dragon? That’s insane and makes no sense.
Oh I’m not done yet, either. Now I get to the main points that irritated me: the exploitation of Amira as a Black woman for plot purposes, and the way the book ended (with Markus “breaking” Mamba). Tobias explains that Amira, as a Black woman, could have been arrested for Katie’s death since she was almost found next to Katie’s mangled body. Tobias disliked Markus as he didn’t try to take Amira away from Katie’s body and because Markus didn’t consider what can happen to Black people when they interact with police. Somehow, however, the word “racism” is used once in this book, and is only used in a paragraph where Markus is trying to convince himself he stands up for “my girl” (she wasn’t his girl) and is not actually racist since he frequently “stands up” for her. Amira’s Blackness and connection to her culture is almost never relevant otherwise, except to explain why she wears headbands in traditional African patterns (which really only feels like it’s mentioned to remind the reader she’s Black). The fact that Tobias dislikes Markus primarily because Markus doesn’t understand the racism his sister faces feels like it was written in only to further the plot. Tobias had no other reason not to like Markus, but the book wouldn’t have been able to progress without a serious reason for Tobias to not want Markus around. It’s disappointing this serious reason is because of racism, and then the theme of racism is never explored. This is also interesting to me because, in the content warnings, the author expresses that there is both “implicit and explicit racism”. This implies to me that the author would explore racism, allyship, and potentially the dynamics of an interracial relationship. Yet, the ebook version I had was only 200 pages, demonstrating to me that the book had plenty of space to incorporate this theme more seriously. Following this, I felt I could not really identify any major themes in this book. In the Fast and the Furious movies, family is a MAJOR theme, yet Markus is not connected to his family. I will acknowledge family seems important to Tobias and Amira, but it’s also not explored and in fact gets shut down by Amira. I think the author may have tried to write in a theme of “you can overcome anything if you put your mind to it” with the way it ends, but considering Markus is pretty much handed his mission and his dragon, after failing to get his own dragon, he doesn’t really have to overcome much. This leads me to my most frustrating point. How was it possible for him to “break” Mamba, since Mamba burned every other person who entered his stall alive? What about Markus made Mamba trust him enough that he didn’t immediately burn him alive when Markus entered the stall? Markus does not have any remarkable character traits, a pleasant and calming personality, or any personal strength. I also knew the moment Mamba was introduced that Markus would try to break him. I expected some conflict to occur in that situation and for Markus to struggle to achieve his goal he wanted so badly, but for some reason Mamba almost immediately lets Markus collar him without issue. I was not rooting for Markus at any point during this book, and felt it was unbelievable that he was able to break one of the most volatile and dangerous dragons currently alive without issue or injury. He did not deserve to be able to break Mamba and it made absolutely no sense. I feel this is yet another thing that has been handed to him in life, with little effort or acknowledgement on his part. I think the author could have connected Markus being handed everything in life to Amira’s struggle to receive fair treatment due to racism, and that perhaps could have allowed her to explore both their characters more and their motivations. But even more than that, this is literally a fantasy book. Why did the author include racism? She got to make up the whole world and its social dynamics, yet chose to include it to further the plot. This is concerning considering there SHOULD be different social dynamics from our society in a culture where some people get to ride powerful and important dragons (and also use them as weapons), while others are not, and I feel that could have added an intriguing element to the story.
Ultimately, I feel this book is not actually ready for publication. It does not feel like this book had an editor at all. I personally think it needs a lot of work before it can be a fulsome novel. Considering the amount of low star reviews for this book, I know I’m not the only one who thinks this way. I think Dean has a lot of room for improvement and I hope to see her take the reader’s feedback seriously (while also acknowledging reviewers are for readers, not authors).
World building
Characters and character development
Writing
Plot
The world building in this book was both over informative and underdeveloped. Many details of this book were inconsistent, didn’t make sense, or were never explained. For example, the dragons are asleep in a volcano and are only awake one day a year. It is never explained how the dragons at the school are awake all days of the year. It is also never explained why the dragons are only awake one day a year. The explanation for the lack of knowledge about dragons is that they have a magical shield preventing humans from going into their den. This makes no sense, as riders can communicate with dragons. So why not just ask your dragon for more information? Also, the dragons literally live in a volcano. Why would humans enter a volcano? They would, quite obviously, die before being able to enter the dragons’ den. As well, multiple times in this book a distance is referred to as “a dragon’s length”. Considering we’re given multiple dimensions for a variety of dragons, what exactly is “a dragon’s length”? Why do all the dragons have the dimensions of a square? Is there a reason their wingspan and length are all the same? There’s also been wars beyond World War 5, but never any discussion of the impact of these wars like how it impacted society and how they interact with the dragons. There’s also no discussion of the role dragons have played in society since they supposedly evolved during the triassic period, beyond their use in vaguely mentioned wars. Do leaders of major countries have dragons? Are they used as bodyguards for celebrities? Why are the only people with dragons mentioned the people at the school/Goldwings? There were so many ways we could have been given details that made the dragons feel like an integrated part of the story, but yet we were not given that.
For me, the hardest part to believe when it comes to worldbuilding was the setting. Setting a book about dragons in the PNW is kind of insane, considering the amount of forest there. I simply cannot imagine dragons flying across Portland and Seattle without any issues. During capture the flag, they’re told they can only play IN city limits. This is a HUGE liability. Why would you have dragons fighting IN the city? Every time they open their mouth, they’re likely to set something in the city on fire. How can you control a dragon if they’re attacked and drop out of the sky, wouldn’t they destroy a building? Some of these dragons are 50x50. Surely there’d be property damage during capture the flag, no matter the precautions taken. Also, the dragons having echolocation felt so ridiculous and unbelievable. How can they be stealthy if they’re constantly chirping all the time?
The characters in this book felt underdeveloped and unbelievable. My largest issue when it comes to characters is the way the MMC was written. He was, to be quite frank, disgusting. He viewed women as nothing more than sex objects and was mean to everyone around him. His inner dialogue was uncomfortable to read. He was incredibly unlikeable, and not in a way that is enjoyable. At no point was I rooting for him. In fact, I thought he was a whiny jerk. He did not deserve to have a dragon, and I felt he did not have the strength, endurance, or positive qualities to actually convince Mamba to let him be his rider at the end. That decision makes absolutely no sense, even though I saw it coming from a mile away, but I'll come to that point in the plot section of this review. He was uncurious and made many assumptions during his mission without solid evidence. Amira was solely a sex object and plot point. I think the fact that Markus didn’t have ANY friends was very telling. His focus in his relationships with other characters were all related to plot, and never for developing a relationship with others that supported his character traits and showed he was a real character. Amira was provided solely as a plot point, and I believe the only reason her character is Black is because it provided a reason for Tobias to not like Marcus. She also did not feel like a real person. Markus also never explains why he likes Amira beyond sex, but yet somehow falls in love with her. Further, the sex scenes between the two lacked chemistry and were uncomfortable to read. They felt absolutely pointless in this book, and added to meet the checkmark of people on tiktok loving spicy books instead of for relationship development. I think Amira deserved a whole lot better than Markus and I hope she dumps him in the next book. The other characters were also underdeveloped and consistently had awkward dialogue when interacting with Markus.
This leads me to the writing. I do not feel the writing encouraged plot progression or character development. The conversations between Markus and other characters felt awkward and they frequently felt underdeveloped. Conversations would happen where there would be a conflict of some sort, but then they’d immediately be solved, and Markus never had to solve any of these issues on his own. Conversations that should have been more in depth frequently felt cut short. Some sentences in this book and the way they were written made my jaw drop in shock, and not in a positive way. Some of the writing was cringe.
Plot. I have a lot of issues here, as well. The dragon lore is both under and over developed and the mission, the main point of this book, felt unbelievable. He walks in to the infirmary after failing to break a dragon and somehow his commander is like, “oh yes you failed but it’s alright because coincidentally we have this abandoned dragon and I have a mission you can do to stay in school”. There was no explanation as to why Markus was chosen for the mission and the discussion was done in front of a witness when it was supposed to be highly secretive. If there are semi trucks, why are there not planes? Couldn’t they have a plane fly overhead of the semi truck as extra protection if the obsidian is so valuable, and why weren’t they doing that the whole time? If the obsidian is so valuable, why didn’t they have plans for contingencies and setbacks, especially knowing that clans would be out to steal the, once again, very valuable obsidian? When it comes to the illegal dragon racing, once again, why are there no police planes? Wouldn’t that be a massive help in catching the racers considering there are only a few dragons used in the police force? Wouldn’t it be safer to transport the obsidian in a plane with weapons on it? Since it’s literally for military purposes? Also, the clans/gangs dynamic was never explained. What are they and why do they exist? What do they do? What’s the history between the two competing clans in this book and why are they at odds?
The explanation for the reason why the collars are used was also incredibly unbelievable. It connects neurons between the rider and dragon? That’s insane and makes no sense.
Oh I’m not done yet, either. Now I get to the main points that irritated me: the exploitation of Amira as a Black woman for plot purposes, and the way the book ended (with Markus “breaking” Mamba). Tobias explains that Amira, as a Black woman, could have been arrested for Katie’s death since she was almost found next to Katie’s mangled body. Tobias disliked Markus as he didn’t try to take Amira away from Katie’s body and because Markus didn’t consider what can happen to Black people when they interact with police. Somehow, however, the word “racism” is used once in this book, and is only used in a paragraph where Markus is trying to convince himself he stands up for “my girl” (she wasn’t his girl) and is not actually racist since he frequently “stands up” for her. Amira’s Blackness and connection to her culture is almost never relevant otherwise, except to explain why she wears headbands in traditional African patterns (which really only feels like it’s mentioned to remind the reader she’s Black). The fact that Tobias dislikes Markus primarily because Markus doesn’t understand the racism his sister faces feels like it was written in only to further the plot. Tobias had no other reason not to like Markus, but the book wouldn’t have been able to progress without a serious reason for Tobias to not want Markus around. It’s disappointing this serious reason is because of racism, and then the theme of racism is never explored. This is also interesting to me because, in the content warnings, the author expresses that there is both “implicit and explicit racism”. This implies to me that the author would explore racism, allyship, and potentially the dynamics of an interracial relationship. Yet, the ebook version I had was only 200 pages, demonstrating to me that the book had plenty of space to incorporate this theme more seriously. Following this, I felt I could not really identify any major themes in this book. In the Fast and the Furious movies, family is a MAJOR theme, yet Markus is not connected to his family. I will acknowledge family seems important to Tobias and Amira, but it’s also not explored and in fact gets shut down by Amira. I think the author may have tried to write in a theme of “you can overcome anything if you put your mind to it” with the way it ends, but considering Markus is pretty much handed his mission and his dragon, after failing to get his own dragon, he doesn’t really have to overcome much. This leads me to my most frustrating point. How was it possible for him to “break” Mamba, since Mamba burned every other person who entered his stall alive? What about Markus made Mamba trust him enough that he didn’t immediately burn him alive when Markus entered the stall? Markus does not have any remarkable character traits, a pleasant and calming personality, or any personal strength. I also knew the moment Mamba was introduced that Markus would try to break him. I expected some conflict to occur in that situation and for Markus to struggle to achieve his goal he wanted so badly, but for some reason Mamba almost immediately lets Markus collar him without issue. I was not rooting for Markus at any point during this book, and felt it was unbelievable that he was able to break one of the most volatile and dangerous dragons currently alive without issue or injury. He did not deserve to be able to break Mamba and it made absolutely no sense. I feel this is yet another thing that has been handed to him in life, with little effort or acknowledgement on his part. I think the author could have connected Markus being handed everything in life to Amira’s struggle to receive fair treatment due to racism, and that perhaps could have allowed her to explore both their characters more and their motivations. But even more than that, this is literally a fantasy book. Why did the author include racism? She got to make up the whole world and its social dynamics, yet chose to include it to further the plot. This is concerning considering there SHOULD be different social dynamics from our society in a culture where some people get to ride powerful and important dragons (and also use them as weapons), while others are not, and I feel that could have added an intriguing element to the story.
Ultimately, I feel this book is not actually ready for publication. It does not feel like this book had an editor at all. I personally think it needs a lot of work before it can be a fulsome novel. Considering the amount of low star reviews for this book, I know I’m not the only one who thinks this way. I think Dean has a lot of room for improvement and I hope to see her take the reader’s feedback seriously (while also acknowledging reviewers are for readers, not authors).
May 18, 2024
3.2/5
This is a perfect read for those who loved Fourth Wing and Fast & Furious.
Personally, I really enjoyed the parts of this book where the dragons are mentioned but the beginning of the book felt like we were just dropped into this world and if I didn't read the Fourth Wing, I would have probably been very confused. That being said, I do not like the parts that were copied from that particular book. Not because I didn't like the Fourth Wing but because the beginning of the book kind of felt like reading the Fourth Wing from another student's perspective, instead of Violet's - that's how many similar elements there were. The author must have gotten inspired by it but took it a bit too far for my liking.
There was a little nod to Daenerys Targaryen (ASOIAF) as well in there with how the main character introduces themselves but I wish the author spent more time on his backstory.
Some social issues were covered in the book as well and I wish the author spent a bit more time on those as well.
The version that I was given had only 181 pages, so I am guessing this isn't the ending of the book. But, the point where this version ends does makes me want to read the rest of it. Mostly because of the dragons. Not a big fan of the whole "I want to destroy and build a better world from scratch" trope (Is it a trope?) because it often ends up being cringe but I can see where the characters are coming from and I would be interested in finding out more about it. I may purchase the full version when it's released next month!
My first Netgalley read. Thank you for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
This is a perfect read for those who loved Fourth Wing and Fast & Furious.
Personally, I really enjoyed the parts of this book where the dragons are mentioned but the beginning of the book felt like we were just dropped into this world and if I didn't read the Fourth Wing, I would have probably been very confused. That being said, I do not like the parts that were copied from that particular book. Not because I didn't like the Fourth Wing but because the beginning of the book kind of felt like reading the Fourth Wing from another student's perspective, instead of Violet's - that's how many similar elements there were. The author must have gotten inspired by it but took it a bit too far for my liking.
There was a little nod to Daenerys Targaryen (ASOIAF) as well in there with how the main character introduces themselves but I wish the author spent more time on his backstory.
Some social issues were covered in the book as well and I wish the author spent a bit more time on those as well.
The version that I was given had only 181 pages, so I am guessing this isn't the ending of the book. But, the point where this version ends does makes me want to read the rest of it. Mostly because of the dragons. Not a big fan of the whole "I want to destroy and build a better world from scratch" trope (Is it a trope?) because it often ends up being cringe but I can see where the characters are coming from and I would be interested in finding out more about it. I may purchase the full version when it's released next month!
My first Netgalley read. Thank you for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
April 29, 2024
I usually don’t give arcs anything lower than 3 ⭐️’s, because I’m one of the first few hundred people reading a book that isn’t out yet, and it just doesn’t feel right, but sometimes it’s necessary.
This books lacks necessary depth to make the story work. The story begins in the middle of Markus’ journey, and though this method sometimes works, making the reader catch up to what’s been happening, it didn’t work this time. Partly because we don’t get much information from before the book begins. The reader is just placed in these moments, and just has to deal with whatever happens. This also hurts the character building as well, since we haven’t been with them from the start, the reader doesn’t know them and can’t connect. I certainly couldn’t connect with anyone.
The romance felt very insta-love since everything was rushed. The whole book was rushed, with my version being 180 pages. On Goodreads it’s supposed to be around 300. Don’t know what happened there 👀
This book was advertised for fans of the Fast and the Furious, Fourth Wing, and How To Train your Dragon. And it certainly was, with an actual quote being taken from the Fast and Furious movie and incorporated into the book, nearly word for word.
Dom from Fast and the Furious: “Ask any racer. Any real racer. It doesn’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning is winning.”
Tobias in this book: “Ask any racer. Any real racer. It doesn’t matter if it’s an inch or a hundred dragon’s lengths. Winning is winning.”
It wouldn’t surprise me if there are more lines taken from the movie and placed in the book, this was just an obvious one.
There’s also the aggravating constant of Markus calling his dragon ‘bud’, just like Hiccup calls Toothless from the HTTYD movies. Do with this information what you will.
I wouldn’t recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an arc anyway. They are always appreciated.
This books lacks necessary depth to make the story work. The story begins in the middle of Markus’ journey, and though this method sometimes works, making the reader catch up to what’s been happening, it didn’t work this time. Partly because we don’t get much information from before the book begins. The reader is just placed in these moments, and just has to deal with whatever happens. This also hurts the character building as well, since we haven’t been with them from the start, the reader doesn’t know them and can’t connect. I certainly couldn’t connect with anyone.
The romance felt very insta-love since everything was rushed. The whole book was rushed, with my version being 180 pages. On Goodreads it’s supposed to be around 300. Don’t know what happened there 👀
This book was advertised for fans of the Fast and the Furious, Fourth Wing, and How To Train your Dragon. And it certainly was, with an actual quote being taken from the Fast and Furious movie and incorporated into the book, nearly word for word.
Dom from Fast and the Furious: “Ask any racer. Any real racer. It doesn’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning is winning.”
Tobias in this book: “Ask any racer. Any real racer. It doesn’t matter if it’s an inch or a hundred dragon’s lengths. Winning is winning.”
It wouldn’t surprise me if there are more lines taken from the movie and placed in the book, this was just an obvious one.
There’s also the aggravating constant of Markus calling his dragon ‘bud’, just like Hiccup calls Toothless from the HTTYD movies. Do with this information what you will.
I wouldn’t recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an arc anyway. They are always appreciated.
April 19, 2024
2.5 stars
I fully requested this book because of the Fourth Wing and How to Train You Dragon comparisons and was let down.
My biggest problem with this one was 100% the characters. Though the side characters got the worst of it, I think they all lacked any of the depth needed to make me care for them. Like, by the time I got toward the big reveal and shit hit the fan, I realized I didn't really care what happened to anyone.
And because of that, the whole romance aspect of the story did absolutely nothing for me. I felt virtually no chemistry between Markus and Amira, and the build-up was nonexistent.
I do feel like this book had a lot of potential and, who knows, maybe the sequel will be better. And even if it's not, I will probably read it.
I fully requested this book because of the Fourth Wing and How to Train You Dragon comparisons and was let down.
My biggest problem with this one was 100% the characters. Though the side characters got the worst of it, I think they all lacked any of the depth needed to make me care for them. Like, by the time I got toward the big reveal and shit hit the fan, I realized I didn't really care what happened to anyone.
And because of that, the whole romance aspect of the story did absolutely nothing for me. I felt virtually no chemistry between Markus and Amira, and the build-up was nonexistent.
I do feel like this book had a lot of potential and, who knows, maybe the sequel will be better. And even if it's not, I will probably read it.
June 7, 2024
I really, really hate giving this a low rating because it was an ARC, but honestly there were sooo many issues I just couldn’t get past 😭
To start, I felt like the writing was geared more towards young adult but then it would get super graphic during a spice scene and it was SO jarring. A lot of the dialogue and writing in general was choppy and felt awkward, and there were many conversations that were strangely underdeveloped and cut short?? There was one scene where the main character Markus tells a girl that her “dress was lit” and I wanted to just DNF.
The plot did not make sense to me at all. The main character fails at “breaking” a dragon and then gets chosen for this ultra secret spy mission on his way out?? It was just so strange 😭 there’s absolutely no background information on what’s happening so I honestly was confused for most of this book.
I really wanted to enjoy this because I love dragons, but this book was missing SO much. The vibes were there sometimes but the lack of worldbuilding and choppy dialogue overshadowed that.
Thank you to Netgalley and Yggdrasil Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!
To start, I felt like the writing was geared more towards young adult but then it would get super graphic during a spice scene and it was SO jarring. A lot of the dialogue and writing in general was choppy and felt awkward, and there were many conversations that were strangely underdeveloped and cut short?? There was one scene where the main character Markus tells a girl that her “dress was lit” and I wanted to just DNF.
The plot did not make sense to me at all. The main character fails at “breaking” a dragon and then gets chosen for this ultra secret spy mission on his way out?? It was just so strange 😭 there’s absolutely no background information on what’s happening so I honestly was confused for most of this book.
I really wanted to enjoy this because I love dragons, but this book was missing SO much. The vibes were there sometimes but the lack of worldbuilding and choppy dialogue overshadowed that.
Thank you to Netgalley and Yggdrasil Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!
May 27, 2024
Thank you so much to NetGalley and to Yggdrasil Press for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of Dragon Den by Kriss Dean.
What made me want to read Dragon Den in the first place was of course the Dragons! Anything Dragon AND romance related already has my attention!
I enjoyed the characterization of Amira. She was an independent, admirable character. I felt like I got some ASOIAF vibes from this book while reading. The mentioning of the Green and Black dragons just read very HOTD to me personally. Sometimes I found Markus, the male lead, a little much at times. Especially with him calling himself "I, Markus Fredriksen, the First of His Name" at the end of the novel. I understand what he's saying but like isnt that a bit much? I enjoyed reading all the details that Dean included about the Dragon's and that was the best part of the book to me. I also liked how fast-paced this book was. Some work could be done to edit/fix it, but overall I felt like it was a good start for a debut novel. I give this book 3.5 stars, but I'll round it up to 4.
What made me want to read Dragon Den in the first place was of course the Dragons! Anything Dragon AND romance related already has my attention!
I enjoyed the characterization of Amira. She was an independent, admirable character. I felt like I got some ASOIAF vibes from this book while reading. The mentioning of the Green and Black dragons just read very HOTD to me personally. Sometimes I found Markus, the male lead, a little much at times. Especially with him calling himself "I, Markus Fredriksen, the First of His Name" at the end of the novel. I understand what he's saying but like isnt that a bit much? I enjoyed reading all the details that Dean included about the Dragon's and that was the best part of the book to me. I also liked how fast-paced this book was. Some work could be done to edit/fix it, but overall I felt like it was a good start for a debut novel. I give this book 3.5 stars, but I'll round it up to 4.
June 21, 2024
I received Dragon Den in return for an honest review from The Nerd Fam.
I love Markus willing to do anything to get a dragon and stay with the girl he's in love with at the academy. Even take a undercover mission to find the group stealing obsidian. As this book is the dragon version of The Fast and the Furious with the dragon rider twist. I loved the way that Markus connects with Loki they have this mind connection that allows them to feel each other and talk.
I loved Dragon Den it's one of the best dragon stories I've read in ages plus I love the inspiration of one of my favorite movies. This is a fast paced action packed story that I couldn't put down, and ended up devouring in just two sessions. The characters are easy to connect with you can't help cheering Markus and Loki on as they try to find out the truth.
This is my first book by the author but I'm obsessed I loved every moment of Dragon Den it's exactly what I hoped for and when I finished the last page I had chills. This is the start to an amazing fresh series perfect for fans of Fourth Wing and action movies. The story is captivating right from the start and kept me hooked till the very end. I can't wait for the next book in the series as the author exceed my expectations with this one.
I love Markus willing to do anything to get a dragon and stay with the girl he's in love with at the academy. Even take a undercover mission to find the group stealing obsidian. As this book is the dragon version of The Fast and the Furious with the dragon rider twist. I loved the way that Markus connects with Loki they have this mind connection that allows them to feel each other and talk.
I loved Dragon Den it's one of the best dragon stories I've read in ages plus I love the inspiration of one of my favorite movies. This is a fast paced action packed story that I couldn't put down, and ended up devouring in just two sessions. The characters are easy to connect with you can't help cheering Markus and Loki on as they try to find out the truth.
This is my first book by the author but I'm obsessed I loved every moment of Dragon Den it's exactly what I hoped for and when I finished the last page I had chills. This is the start to an amazing fresh series perfect for fans of Fourth Wing and action movies. The story is captivating right from the start and kept me hooked till the very end. I can't wait for the next book in the series as the author exceed my expectations with this one.
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May 20, 2024I received an arc for an honest review. And unfortunately, I have a hard time rating this work.
It is one thing to be inspired by a movie it is another to completely copy it.
Our MMC is a hot shot who goes undercover. Falls for the criminals' sister. There are scenes that are directly ripped from fast and furious.
The hey vince, what restaurant did you want to take me to the scene is in this.
The running and ending up in enemy territory scene is in this. And the enemy territory is even of the same ethnicity region as fast and furious.
The sneaking into enemy territory
You're kind of dropped into this world with no explanation to it. And a fantasy that exists inside of contemporary modern times is very hard to do. Dragons flying inside of city limits
I was very bothered by the MMC thought process. Regarding the potential racism our FMC would face and wasn't impressed. The brother expresses concern. The male main character isn't going to protect his sister as she's is a Black woman, and altercations with the police could be tragic.
"What the hell? Are you kidding me right now? I can’t stop the racism she faces, but I always have my girl’s back. Wrapping her wrist after she punched that asshole out in the courtyard, holding her tight after she spent an hour in the commandant’s office… I laugh because I just can’t help it. This is so stupid."
This is not stupid. This is a real-life thing that black Americans face. And i'm appalled that somebody would write a Black main character and make the hero have this opinion. This why sensitivity readers exist.
It is one thing to be inspired by a movie it is another to completely copy it.
Our MMC is a hot shot who goes undercover. Falls for the criminals' sister. There are scenes that are directly ripped from fast and furious.
The hey vince, what restaurant did you want to take me to the scene is in this.
The running and ending up in enemy territory scene is in this. And the enemy territory is even of the same ethnicity region as fast and furious.
The sneaking into enemy territory
You're kind of dropped into this world with no explanation to it. And a fantasy that exists inside of contemporary modern times is very hard to do. Dragons flying inside of city limits
I was very bothered by the MMC thought process. Regarding the potential racism our FMC would face and wasn't impressed. The brother expresses concern. The male main character isn't going to protect his sister as she's is a Black woman, and altercations with the police could be tragic.
"What the hell? Are you kidding me right now? I can’t stop the racism she faces, but I always have my girl’s back. Wrapping her wrist after she punched that asshole out in the courtyard, holding her tight after she spent an hour in the commandant’s office… I laugh because I just can’t help it. This is so stupid."
This is not stupid. This is a real-life thing that black Americans face. And i'm appalled that somebody would write a Black main character and make the hero have this opinion. This why sensitivity readers exist.
April 10, 2024
Thank you to Netgalley for a gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I requested this book because duh, dragons. I’ve never seen fast and furious but the summary compared it to that as well as fourth wing and SJM lovers. In this book we follow Markus as he tries to break a dragon and stay in school. When he doesn’t break a dragon, he’s given a second chance to stay in school ONLY if he can complete a mission with a different dragon.
The book starts in the middle/end of our MC first year at school. We are given really no background information on what goes on, and the world building is pretty non-existent leaving me confused a good chunk of this book.
I feel like because we didn’t get a lot of explanation or world building I didn’t understand our characters either, making me not really want to root for them at all. The one character i did like was Loki, the dragon.
Without a lot of explanation I also didn’t really care for the plot. I did like the dragon communication aspect, but even that was lacking some.
I would say if you go into this book wanting more dragons and missing fourth wing, just go in for vibes.
I requested this book because duh, dragons. I’ve never seen fast and furious but the summary compared it to that as well as fourth wing and SJM lovers. In this book we follow Markus as he tries to break a dragon and stay in school. When he doesn’t break a dragon, he’s given a second chance to stay in school ONLY if he can complete a mission with a different dragon.
The book starts in the middle/end of our MC first year at school. We are given really no background information on what goes on, and the world building is pretty non-existent leaving me confused a good chunk of this book.
I feel like because we didn’t get a lot of explanation or world building I didn’t understand our characters either, making me not really want to root for them at all. The one character i did like was Loki, the dragon.
Without a lot of explanation I also didn’t really care for the plot. I did like the dragon communication aspect, but even that was lacking some.
I would say if you go into this book wanting more dragons and missing fourth wing, just go in for vibes.
May 14, 2024
Thank you Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review <3
There might be some spoilers, so here’s your heads up ✨
Okay, let me start this by saying that this had a lot of potential. The synopsis is good and it immediately called my attention. I really liked the first few chapters too because, even if we were basically just thrown into action and things were confusing, I figured they would explain in more detail further into the book.
Nope.
So many things stay confusing and the pace is so fast that many of the problems don’t require more than half a paragraph to get solved. Here I was stressing over how they would get out of a difficult situation because, surely they are going to get caught and everything is going to go to shit.
Nope. It was that easy.
And all this basically comes down to the fact that it’s Markis, our protagonist, the one doing the entire monologue. That guy is a stupid idiot with all the letters. He lacks personality, hobbies, dreams, backstory, friends… a spine… Even within the story (not in the action descriptions) he fails to do his one job which is to inform his superior about anything.
Instead, he spends his time drooling over Amira’s body and what he’d do to get her and what he’d do once he got her (which I skimmed over because it was a bit terrible. I know. ME. SKIMMING OVER SEX SCENES. What is this?)
And speaking of Amira, the racism towards her (or the talk of it) just felt like a plot point that was there to… pretend to cause drama? Nothing really happens and nothing is actually talked about in depth, so it just felt like it was written to tick some kind of checkmark.
In one of the instances, Tobias (Amira’s brother) starts antagonizing Markus for not getting his sister out of a situation where she could have been hurt for being Black. The situation: Markus’ friend dropped a thousand meters out of the fucking sky and is now sprawled in the floor, bent at unnatural angles and blood coming out of every pore of her body. The police are coming to check what happened and Amira is just standing there.
Like, I completely get that Amira could have suffered discrimination, but this mf’s friend is literally dead and I don’t think Amira is the first thing on his mind right now. Cut him some slack.
Other things that didn't make much sense in no particular order that I won't go into detail about bacause I'm already dissapointed enough about the book:
- The dragons are on a "special diet" where they only have one sheep a day. I'm sure one or two mroe wouldn't hurt, but Markus constantly gives Loki two or three every single day?
- The dragons are only awake one day of the year and then go to sleep in a volcano. All of them? To one volcano? To sleep for a year?
- Loki's past only getting mentioned in the very end even tho it should be an important part, not only of his life, but the plot?
- The very little protection they place on the obsidian trucks after having already been hijacked plenty of times
- I hope I just didn't get this right, but: they get sent to random posts after graduation. I don't mean as in the place, that doesn't really matter, but the job they will be doing. Theo likes research and hopes to be put somewhere where he can do it? Do you mean to tell me that some random brute built for only fighting could get assigned one of those places even though they are not made for it?
- Mamba being completely chill with this absolute nobody on his stall after having killed many other people who, I'm sure, were way better than him.
And one last thing: the ending was a bit obvious. The last few chapters in general.
Despite all of this, I liked the potential of the story (maybe something could be done about that??) and I’m totally biased because I love dragons, so.. Also, the cover is really pretty.
There might be some spoilers, so here’s your heads up ✨
Okay, let me start this by saying that this had a lot of potential. The synopsis is good and it immediately called my attention. I really liked the first few chapters too because, even if we were basically just thrown into action and things were confusing, I figured they would explain in more detail further into the book.
Nope.
So many things stay confusing and the pace is so fast that many of the problems don’t require more than half a paragraph to get solved. Here I was stressing over how they would get out of a difficult situation because, surely they are going to get caught and everything is going to go to shit.
Nope. It was that easy.
And all this basically comes down to the fact that it’s Markis, our protagonist, the one doing the entire monologue. That guy is a stupid idiot with all the letters. He lacks personality, hobbies, dreams, backstory, friends… a spine… Even within the story (not in the action descriptions) he fails to do his one job which is to inform his superior about anything.
Instead, he spends his time drooling over Amira’s body and what he’d do to get her and what he’d do once he got her (which I skimmed over because it was a bit terrible. I know. ME. SKIMMING OVER SEX SCENES. What is this?)
And speaking of Amira, the racism towards her (or the talk of it) just felt like a plot point that was there to… pretend to cause drama? Nothing really happens and nothing is actually talked about in depth, so it just felt like it was written to tick some kind of checkmark.
In one of the instances, Tobias (Amira’s brother) starts antagonizing Markus for not getting his sister out of a situation where she could have been hurt for being Black. The situation: Markus’ friend dropped a thousand meters out of the fucking sky and is now sprawled in the floor, bent at unnatural angles and blood coming out of every pore of her body. The police are coming to check what happened and Amira is just standing there.
Like, I completely get that Amira could have suffered discrimination, but this mf’s friend is literally dead and I don’t think Amira is the first thing on his mind right now. Cut him some slack.
Other things that didn't make much sense in no particular order that I won't go into detail about bacause I'm already dissapointed enough about the book:
- The dragons are on a "special diet" where they only have one sheep a day. I'm sure one or two mroe wouldn't hurt, but Markus constantly gives Loki two or three every single day?
- The dragons are only awake one day of the year and then go to sleep in a volcano. All of them? To one volcano? To sleep for a year?
- Loki's past only getting mentioned in the very end even tho it should be an important part, not only of his life, but the plot?
- The very little protection they place on the obsidian trucks after having already been hijacked plenty of times
- I hope I just didn't get this right, but: they get sent to random posts after graduation. I don't mean as in the place, that doesn't really matter, but the job they will be doing. Theo likes research and hopes to be put somewhere where he can do it? Do you mean to tell me that some random brute built for only fighting could get assigned one of those places even though they are not made for it?
- Mamba being completely chill with this absolute nobody on his stall after having killed many other people who, I'm sure, were way better than him.
And one last thing: the ending was a bit obvious. The last few chapters in general.
Despite all of this, I liked the potential of the story (maybe something could be done about that??) and I’m totally biased because I love dragons, so.. Also, the cover is really pretty.
May 16, 2024
3.5, rounded up to 4.
I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, i absolutely ate it up and read almost the entire thing in one sitting. That being said, I cannot, unfortunately rate ARCs based on vibes. I do have to be a little more objective than that. IF I rated ARCs based on vibes, this one would be five stars. However, when taking a closer look, there are a lot of things that just come up short in this book.
My biggest gripe with this book is the lack of world building. There are so many interesting references to the history of this world, but I still cannot for the life of me figure out if it's meant to be in our future or simply an alternate timeline. I felt like there wasn't enough detail to make a definitive claim either way. I would have loved to hear more about the history of this world, especially since there are at least five world wars mentioned. You'd think something like that would have a major impact on society. I want to know more about how dragons have an impact on society, I want to know how Dragild came to be. Where does the rest of the world stand with dragons? There are so many questions I have that weren't given any sort of answer.
The plot was alright although the plausibility of it does give me pause. As I've seen others point out, Markus never really has to work anything out himself. Everything just sort of falls into his lap. I didn't have a problem with Markus as a character. I found him charming if a bit shallow and lacking development. I mean, he has almost no reaction to finding out who's behind the hijackings. He just sort of goes along with it. You'd think he'd question WHY these people are hijacking semi trucks that are transporting millions of dollars worth of obsidian to the school he's trying so desperately to keep his place in.
And this brings me to the characters. For me, a lot of the side characters blended together. I got tired of keeping track of which ones liked or disliked Markus as they had no discernible personality traits aside from that. That caused certain events in the book to have a weaker impact than I believe the author intended. And again, Markus seemingly has no thoughts of his own despite the fact that the book is from his point of view. He just goes along with what everyone around him tells him to do without question.
As a quick, fun read, or even a palate cleanser, this book serves its purpose. And I love that! Like I said, I really did enjoy reading this book, but it has so much more potential. It has every possibility of being a very strong debut. I had no problem with the references to The Fast and the Furious or HTTYD. I didn't see it as ripping anyone off, but rather as an homage to the works that inspired this one or even a little easter egg for others to find. It scratched the dragon itch that I had for sure.
As always, thank you BookSirens for the ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, i absolutely ate it up and read almost the entire thing in one sitting. That being said, I cannot, unfortunately rate ARCs based on vibes. I do have to be a little more objective than that. IF I rated ARCs based on vibes, this one would be five stars. However, when taking a closer look, there are a lot of things that just come up short in this book.
My biggest gripe with this book is the lack of world building. There are so many interesting references to the history of this world, but I still cannot for the life of me figure out if it's meant to be in our future or simply an alternate timeline. I felt like there wasn't enough detail to make a definitive claim either way. I would have loved to hear more about the history of this world, especially since there are at least five world wars mentioned. You'd think something like that would have a major impact on society. I want to know more about how dragons have an impact on society, I want to know how Dragild came to be. Where does the rest of the world stand with dragons? There are so many questions I have that weren't given any sort of answer.
The plot was alright although the plausibility of it does give me pause. As I've seen others point out, Markus never really has to work anything out himself. Everything just sort of falls into his lap. I didn't have a problem with Markus as a character. I found him charming if a bit shallow and lacking development. I mean, he has almost no reaction to finding out who's behind the hijackings. He just sort of goes along with it. You'd think he'd question WHY these people are hijacking semi trucks that are transporting millions of dollars worth of obsidian to the school he's trying so desperately to keep his place in.
And this brings me to the characters. For me, a lot of the side characters blended together. I got tired of keeping track of which ones liked or disliked Markus as they had no discernible personality traits aside from that. That caused certain events in the book to have a weaker impact than I believe the author intended. And again, Markus seemingly has no thoughts of his own despite the fact that the book is from his point of view. He just goes along with what everyone around him tells him to do without question.
As a quick, fun read, or even a palate cleanser, this book serves its purpose. And I love that! Like I said, I really did enjoy reading this book, but it has so much more potential. It has every possibility of being a very strong debut. I had no problem with the references to The Fast and the Furious or HTTYD. I didn't see it as ripping anyone off, but rather as an homage to the works that inspired this one or even a little easter egg for others to find. It scratched the dragon itch that I had for sure.
As always, thank you BookSirens for the ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
April 5, 2024
In her debut novel, Dragon Den, Kriss Dean spins a masterful tale of a young man, Markus Fredriksen, who hails from a modest family and has a lifelong dream—to break and ride a dragon. Along the way, Markus encounters a young woman, Amira Obi, who’s from the other side of the tracks and comes from a loving and wealthy family that owns several ginormous blacktail dragons. Amira’s family has been tragically wronged by others, putting her at odds with the institutions that can deliver Markus’s dream to him.
Dragon Den is an urban fantasy packed with action, intrigue, and a heated romance that takes you on a wild ride with Markus and Amira chasing their hearts' desires. You’ll love, laugh, and even cry as they take you along this wild ride through Dragild Military School and the institutions threatening to tear this young romance apart.
Dragon Den is an urban fantasy packed with action, intrigue, and a heated romance that takes you on a wild ride with Markus and Amira chasing their hearts' desires. You’ll love, laugh, and even cry as they take you along this wild ride through Dragild Military School and the institutions threatening to tear this young romance apart.
June 22, 2024
I don't think this book should be compared to Fourth Wing as it's a story in its own right.
I did enjoy this book, which was an easy read with writing that flowed well and it had dragons!!
However, it lacked a little in world-building and character development.
I really enjoyed the setting in the Dragild Military Academy, the descriptions of all the dragon types and the premise of the plot involving one of the main characters Markus who is tasked to infiltrate the clan running the Dragon Den.
A wonderful world of dragons in the making. 3.5 stars
Thank you to Booksirens and the Publisher/Author for this advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I did enjoy this book, which was an easy read with writing that flowed well and it had dragons!!
However, it lacked a little in world-building and character development.
I really enjoyed the setting in the Dragild Military Academy, the descriptions of all the dragon types and the premise of the plot involving one of the main characters Markus who is tasked to infiltrate the clan running the Dragon Den.
A wonderful world of dragons in the making. 3.5 stars
Thank you to Booksirens and the Publisher/Author for this advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
September 20, 2024
This didn't work for me... I absolutely loved the cover and the synopsis, so I'm left a bit disappointed about the actual plot itself.
Right away in the first chapter, it felt like I was thrown in the middle of Markus' journey and in the middle of his relationship with Amira. It truly felt like I was opening a book in the middle and just started reading from that point onwards. Therefore, I wasn't able to really connect with them or root for their relationship. I simply didn't care about any of the characters or their relationships.
And phrases such as "your dress was lit", I mean...??? What was that?! The synopsis draws comparison to 'Fourth Wing' but can anyone imagine Xaden telling Violet that?
And finally, thank you to Yggdrasil Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Right away in the first chapter, it felt like I was thrown in the middle of Markus' journey and in the middle of his relationship with Amira. It truly felt like I was opening a book in the middle and just started reading from that point onwards. Therefore, I wasn't able to really connect with them or root for their relationship. I simply didn't care about any of the characters or their relationships.
And phrases such as "your dress was lit", I mean...??? What was that?! The synopsis draws comparison to 'Fourth Wing' but can anyone imagine Xaden telling Violet that?
And finally, thank you to Yggdrasil Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
July 1, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley, Kriss Dean, and Yggdrasil Press for an advanced copy of this book.
DNF @ 28%. This is a book that is trying to be Fourth Wing so badly but it doesn’t even come close. The writing is very choppy and juvenile, even though it’s supposed to be an adult book. It’s hard to imagine dragons living in Washington/Oregon and in the same universe as 18 wheelers. I think this could be good a good idea for a children’s novel, but not adult.
DNF @ 28%. This is a book that is trying to be Fourth Wing so badly but it doesn’t even come close. The writing is very choppy and juvenile, even though it’s supposed to be an adult book. It’s hard to imagine dragons living in Washington/Oregon and in the same universe as 18 wheelers. I think this could be good a good idea for a children’s novel, but not adult.
August 26, 2025
Oh man, I don’t like to give ARCs low reviews but i do have to be honest.
This fast paced urban fantasy was indeed fast paced. There was barely any world building. And a scene could change in a sentence.
I’ve heard it described as the fast and furious but with dragons and how to train your dragon for adults. I can see how they relate, but they are bad versions of both those things.
This fast paced urban fantasy was indeed fast paced. There was barely any world building. And a scene could change in a sentence.
I’ve heard it described as the fast and furious but with dragons and how to train your dragon for adults. I can see how they relate, but they are bad versions of both those things.
April 19, 2024
Overall: 2.5 Stars
Dragon Den follows young Markus Fredrikson, who is nearing the end of his first year at Dragild - the school for dragon riders. After failing to break a dragon of his own, he is given a second chance with a dragon - Loki - who lost his ride. In return, he has to infiltrate a clan on behalf of his Commandant.
As the book description mentions, it is inspired back Fast & Furious, of which I am a fan. However, in some cases, I found that the book leaned a little too far into the F&F relation in areas that didn't translate well to reading. F&F is action-packed and extremely visual. Most people don't watch it for the plot, but for the loud sounds, visually action-packed scenes...and the sexy cast. Having dragon racing occur around a city, was exciting in parts, but felt a little too unrealistic in others. For how rare dragons were, it seemed that the city was far too adept at hiding and sneaking around with dragons.
The book was fast-paced, but being a fantasy book, I felt lost and rushed. There was a lot of background information that I felt was lacking and impacted my ability to follow along. I consistently felt like I missed something, and went back to check if I had. There was also a lack of character intros. Times when a character's name was mentioned, but with no context for the reader until much later.
The first spicy scene was far more detailed than the rest of the book. As a spicy reader, I found it well written, but there was no chemistry between Amira and Markus leading up to the event. It was implied that there should be, but the scenes laid out didn't show it. After their first date though, this smoothed out a lot and you should see that chemistry growing.
I did love Loki, and his telepathic dialogue reminded me of Fourth Wing. It's always interesting seeing that kind of relationship develop between dragon and rider.
The end felt just like the end of an F&F movie, fast and furious. It wrapped up quickly but set itself up for a second book.
All in all, this book lined up with the quality of F&F. It's quick and enjoyable, but isn't written to be an in-depth book. I recommend it to those who like F&F and Dragons.
Thank you NetGalley and Yggdrasil Press for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.
Dragon Den follows young Markus Fredrikson, who is nearing the end of his first year at Dragild - the school for dragon riders. After failing to break a dragon of his own, he is given a second chance with a dragon - Loki - who lost his ride. In return, he has to infiltrate a clan on behalf of his Commandant.
As the book description mentions, it is inspired back Fast & Furious, of which I am a fan. However, in some cases, I found that the book leaned a little too far into the F&F relation in areas that didn't translate well to reading. F&F is action-packed and extremely visual. Most people don't watch it for the plot, but for the loud sounds, visually action-packed scenes...and the sexy cast. Having dragon racing occur around a city, was exciting in parts, but felt a little too unrealistic in others. For how rare dragons were, it seemed that the city was far too adept at hiding and sneaking around with dragons.
The book was fast-paced, but being a fantasy book, I felt lost and rushed. There was a lot of background information that I felt was lacking and impacted my ability to follow along. I consistently felt like I missed something, and went back to check if I had. There was also a lack of character intros. Times when a character's name was mentioned, but with no context for the reader until much later.
The first spicy scene was far more detailed than the rest of the book. As a spicy reader, I found it well written, but there was no chemistry between Amira and Markus leading up to the event. It was implied that there should be, but the scenes laid out didn't show it. After their first date though, this smoothed out a lot and you should see that chemistry growing.
I did love Loki, and his telepathic dialogue reminded me of Fourth Wing. It's always interesting seeing that kind of relationship develop between dragon and rider.
The end felt just like the end of an F&F movie, fast and furious. It wrapped up quickly but set itself up for a second book.
All in all, this book lined up with the quality of F&F. It's quick and enjoyable, but isn't written to be an in-depth book. I recommend it to those who like F&F and Dragons.
Thank you NetGalley and Yggdrasil Press for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.
August 5, 2024
This book is advertised as perfect for fans of Fourth Wing and Sarah J Maas but I found there to be little link and it was clearly written in the wake of Yarro's Fourth Wing success. Yes the book is set at a dragon school, they need to bond a dragon and they all dress in black clothing, but that's about as far as the similarities go for me.
As a debut novel I think this has got some potential but in my opinion it is a first draft and it needs a lot more work before it should be published. To compare to the likes of Yarros and Maas the author needs to focus on intense world building, character development, more lore and some layers plotlines to justify the comparison. For now I would say this book is a fun quick read.
The pacing of the book is very fast and perhaps a little 2D. We barely get chance to connect with any of the main characters and the world building is a little lazy for a fantasy book since it is set in Seattle/Portland area of the US. The book does explore some heavier topics such as responsible retail, racism and police brutality but it did feel like a tick box exercise unfortunately and it needs expanding on rather than one character simply explaining to another that its happening.
Kriss Dean's dragon descriptions are really interesting with them being much less fearsome and a lot smaller than most dragon portrayals we see in books and instantly friendly with humans. An Ick for me was the colloquial language "this sucks" "yes bud", it would be easier to like the MC if he were even slightly intellectual. He is an 'almost' drop out wannabe jock and it doesn't even hit the mark for me.
I did enjoy the dragon races and fighting pits as a concept but I felt that they should have had a better reason to do that than just to make money, I wanted to see much more of a developing friendship and bond with the dragons, they might as well have been a broomstick. It did feel very 'fast and furious' with little consideration for dragons safety and that came through very clearly towards the end with the big heist and how little emotion the characters had.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
As a debut novel I think this has got some potential but in my opinion it is a first draft and it needs a lot more work before it should be published. To compare to the likes of Yarros and Maas the author needs to focus on intense world building, character development, more lore and some layers plotlines to justify the comparison. For now I would say this book is a fun quick read.
The pacing of the book is very fast and perhaps a little 2D. We barely get chance to connect with any of the main characters and the world building is a little lazy for a fantasy book since it is set in Seattle/Portland area of the US. The book does explore some heavier topics such as responsible retail, racism and police brutality but it did feel like a tick box exercise unfortunately and it needs expanding on rather than one character simply explaining to another that its happening.
Kriss Dean's dragon descriptions are really interesting with them being much less fearsome and a lot smaller than most dragon portrayals we see in books and instantly friendly with humans. An Ick for me was the colloquial language "this sucks" "yes bud", it would be easier to like the MC if he were even slightly intellectual. He is an 'almost' drop out wannabe jock and it doesn't even hit the mark for me.
I did enjoy the dragon races and fighting pits as a concept but I felt that they should have had a better reason to do that than just to make money, I wanted to see much more of a developing friendship and bond with the dragons, they might as well have been a broomstick. It did feel very 'fast and furious' with little consideration for dragons safety and that came through very clearly towards the end with the big heist and how little emotion the characters had.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
April 18, 2024
2 Stars.
🐉 The vibes:
- dragons
- Undercover mission
- Fast and furious inspired
🐉 My thoughts:
When Markus is unable to “break” a dragon at his dragon riding academy, he is given one final opportunity to get his own dragon if he accepts an undercover mission to find who has been stealing obsidian. There’s dragons, death, and of course the secret ops mission.
There was little to no world building on this one. You’re thrown in to the dragon den (heehee) immediately and you have to learn quick. There’s a lot of names; a lot of backstory that I had to pick up on and assume. I felt like there was a lot of potential once we got to the plot line, but it was so rushed that I didn’t feel very invested in the characters or the plot.
There are heavy topics explored such as police brutality and racism but it is rushed through and I found myself confused on where these topics were introduced and was thrown right in the middle of the plot which unfortunately was the theme of the book. I was confused most of the book and had a hard time following the plot.
There’s a romance element but that also felt rushed for me.
It did feel like the Fourth Wing universe as far as the dragon school. And I think a lot of the elements were taken from Fourth Wing and implemented in this novel.
Overall- I really liked the idea of this book. A dragon rider academy with dragon racing akin to Fast and Furious sounds both fun and unique. I think I would have enjoyed this one more if the plot and characters were fully fleshed out and less rushed through. The ending is a bit of a cliff hanger and it appears there will be more books to come.
Release date: June 20, 2024.
Thank you so much to Kris’s Dean, Yggdrasil Press, and NetGalley for the gifted copy.
🐉 The vibes:
- dragons
- Undercover mission
- Fast and furious inspired
🐉 My thoughts:
When Markus is unable to “break” a dragon at his dragon riding academy, he is given one final opportunity to get his own dragon if he accepts an undercover mission to find who has been stealing obsidian. There’s dragons, death, and of course the secret ops mission.
There was little to no world building on this one. You’re thrown in to the dragon den (heehee) immediately and you have to learn quick. There’s a lot of names; a lot of backstory that I had to pick up on and assume. I felt like there was a lot of potential once we got to the plot line, but it was so rushed that I didn’t feel very invested in the characters or the plot.
There are heavy topics explored such as police brutality and racism but it is rushed through and I found myself confused on where these topics were introduced and was thrown right in the middle of the plot which unfortunately was the theme of the book. I was confused most of the book and had a hard time following the plot.
There’s a romance element but that also felt rushed for me.
It did feel like the Fourth Wing universe as far as the dragon school. And I think a lot of the elements were taken from Fourth Wing and implemented in this novel.
Overall- I really liked the idea of this book. A dragon rider academy with dragon racing akin to Fast and Furious sounds both fun and unique. I think I would have enjoyed this one more if the plot and characters were fully fleshed out and less rushed through. The ending is a bit of a cliff hanger and it appears there will be more books to come.
Release date: June 20, 2024.
Thank you so much to Kris’s Dean, Yggdrasil Press, and NetGalley for the gifted copy.
April 29, 2024
2.5 -- thank you to NetGalley for the ARC copy in exchange for an honest review
Dragon Den follows Markus, a student dragon rider, who is given a mission to infiltrate a clan that is hijacking semi-trucks that are transporting obsidian in order to keep his given dragon and remain at the Dragild Military Academy. In the midst of his mission, he fall for the clan leader's daughter (who also happens to be the girl of his dreams).
I love the idea of dragons and humans being paired and becoming a team together, but I felt like this universe just didn't make sense to me. I couldn't tell what time period we were in, how fantastical this world was, and I think it was because the plot was underdeveloped. I honestly don't remember the first time the plan got explained to Markus. I think this was too fast paced and did not provide enough world building for this to feel really interesting. I am newer to dragon-type fantasy, but I didn't love this one.
I didn't really feel connected to the characters. I kept confusing Tobias and Jonas and I felt like the way all of their dynamics/relationships developed and shifted was too quick. I also didn't love the main couple that much... they just didn't have the chemistry the author was trying to give them. I also just feel like Markus was written to be this cool guy but at the same time a mega loser? Idk, he just wasn't that great. I liked Loki, but again, I just didn't really get connected to him.
I just thought this was boring, however I don't know if I was the market for the book since it WAS described as being inspired by The Fast and The Furious, Fourth Wing, and How to Train Your Dragon (all of which I have never seen or read).
Dragon Den follows Markus, a student dragon rider, who is given a mission to infiltrate a clan that is hijacking semi-trucks that are transporting obsidian in order to keep his given dragon and remain at the Dragild Military Academy. In the midst of his mission, he fall for the clan leader's daughter (who also happens to be the girl of his dreams).
I love the idea of dragons and humans being paired and becoming a team together, but I felt like this universe just didn't make sense to me. I couldn't tell what time period we were in, how fantastical this world was, and I think it was because the plot was underdeveloped. I honestly don't remember the first time the plan got explained to Markus. I think this was too fast paced and did not provide enough world building for this to feel really interesting. I am newer to dragon-type fantasy, but I didn't love this one.
I didn't really feel connected to the characters. I kept confusing Tobias and Jonas and I felt like the way all of their dynamics/relationships developed and shifted was too quick. I also didn't love the main couple that much... they just didn't have the chemistry the author was trying to give them. I also just feel like Markus was written to be this cool guy but at the same time a mega loser? Idk, he just wasn't that great. I liked Loki, but again, I just didn't really get connected to him.
I just thought this was boring, however I don't know if I was the market for the book since it WAS described as being inspired by The Fast and The Furious, Fourth Wing, and How to Train Your Dragon (all of which I have never seen or read).
May 21, 2024
It honestly breaks my heart to give such a low rating to an ARC about dragons, specially because I do love a great dragon story, but honestly the dragons were the only interesting part in this book. This was sold to me as Fast and Furious meets How to Train your dragon, so I was immediately excited, but I didn’t expect that the author just picked some concepts from both and put together a book without caring much for world building or character growth or, even, the overall plot. Honestly, the main character exclusively calls his dragon “Bud” (just like Hiccup calls Toothless) and the riders use boost in dragon racing.
I was not a fan of the concept of “breaking” dragons and completely remove their free will. Or the dragon college that some kids apparently go to in order to get to try to break a dragon? And then they get sent on missions and ride dragons in the middle of cities? That really doesn’t sound safe at all.
Plot holes aside, this book had a good premise, but it feels like it could use a lot more editing and beta reading. There is no character growth, at all. The book starts with the main character being unlikable and ends in the exact same way. He kept raving on about how he wanted to keep the dragon, but I didn’t even feel like he deserved it at all: Loki was amazing from day 1, but I felt like Markus never really appreciated him, as it gets evident in the end when he gets his goal: To break the dragon he wished for from the beginning. But why him of all people? I’m missing a reason for this.
It is disheartening to give such a low rating to a debut novel, however, in this particular case, it feels necessary.
Thank you so much to Yggdrasil Press and NetGallery for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I was not a fan of the concept of “breaking” dragons and completely remove their free will. Or the dragon college that some kids apparently go to in order to get to try to break a dragon? And then they get sent on missions and ride dragons in the middle of cities? That really doesn’t sound safe at all.
Plot holes aside, this book had a good premise, but it feels like it could use a lot more editing and beta reading. There is no character growth, at all. The book starts with the main character being unlikable and ends in the exact same way. He kept raving on about how he wanted to keep the dragon, but I didn’t even feel like he deserved it at all: Loki was amazing from day 1, but I felt like Markus never really appreciated him, as it gets evident in the end when he gets his goal: To break the dragon he wished for from the beginning. But why him of all people? I’m missing a reason for this.
It is disheartening to give such a low rating to a debut novel, however, in this particular case, it feels necessary.
Thank you so much to Yggdrasil Press and NetGallery for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
April 19, 2024
Thank you NetGalley and Yggdrasil Press for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.
This book was clearly written in the shadow of the success of Fourth Wing by R. Yarros. For those who still are in hangover after reading FW this is perfect. Why? We have dragons and riders who wear all-black leather everywhere. Unlike what I initially thought this is not High Fantasy but an Urban Fantasy set in a far future in the USA - thing that I was not expecting but was a nice change of pace.
I did like the Fast and Furious x Dragons. In this case we don't have illegal car races but illegal dragon races. Even my love for cars (and I'm a mechanical engineering student mind you) isn't enough to win again dragons - because yeah dragons are dragons and nobody can't change my mind on the fact that they are automatically cool.
What didn't tune with me was how quick we were shoved into action, the first 30% of the book felt too rushed, chaotic to be well-looked at. Taking out the writing, very colloquial, very easy to read but at times too repetitive (I would have been surprised if Amira did not wear her Vanilla lotion). At times the plots infos were not explained /would have liked knowing more on the little lore the author has dropped, something I hope we'll see in book 2.
Another thing was more or less the flatness of the characters? More or less every member in Tobias' gang taking out Theo felt bland, Amira and Theo being the more spirited. I would have liked seeing more character from Jonas and Tobias himself. Markus is the typical boy who speaks before acting, thinking is left to others.
The very last thing that felt very off was the whole dragon x rider bonding. How easily Loki seemed to forget his previous rider (the whole book is more or less set in less that a month). That Markus didn't really have to struggle with him. That after less than two weeks they were already best friends.
The ending was half predictable, both in terms of relationship and plot, but still well executed leaving space for what I think will be book 2.
Will I be reading the sequel if It comes out? Probably, but not sure.
This book was clearly written in the shadow of the success of Fourth Wing by R. Yarros. For those who still are in hangover after reading FW this is perfect. Why? We have dragons and riders who wear all-black leather everywhere. Unlike what I initially thought this is not High Fantasy but an Urban Fantasy set in a far future in the USA - thing that I was not expecting but was a nice change of pace.
I did like the Fast and Furious x Dragons. In this case we don't have illegal car races but illegal dragon races. Even my love for cars (and I'm a mechanical engineering student mind you) isn't enough to win again dragons - because yeah dragons are dragons and nobody can't change my mind on the fact that they are automatically cool.
What didn't tune with me was how quick we were shoved into action, the first 30% of the book felt too rushed, chaotic to be well-looked at. Taking out the writing, very colloquial, very easy to read but at times too repetitive (I would have been surprised if Amira did not wear her Vanilla lotion). At times the plots infos were not explained /would have liked knowing more on the little lore the author has dropped, something I hope we'll see in book 2.
Another thing was more or less the flatness of the characters? More or less every member in Tobias' gang taking out Theo felt bland, Amira and Theo being the more spirited. I would have liked seeing more character from Jonas and Tobias himself. Markus is the typical boy who speaks before acting, thinking is left to others.
The very last thing that felt very off was the whole dragon x rider bonding. How easily Loki seemed to forget his previous rider (the whole book is more or less set in less that a month). That Markus didn't really have to struggle with him. That after less than two weeks they were already best friends.
The ending was half predictable, both in terms of relationship and plot, but still well executed leaving space for what I think will be book 2.
Will I be reading the sequel if It comes out? Probably, but not sure.
April 22, 2024
2.5*
the concept of this book was so intriguing, if it was longer it would be such an amazing book with all the depth that could be written about the setting, the plot, the characters etc, but it all felt so rushed, the amount the setting could be expanded on compared to the minimum of about 3 lines on it, the world sounded like it was going to be such a unique and well thought out one, but there wasn’t much too it which I was upset about! the characters had a slight intrigue to them, but it fell so flat, especially the male main character, it was such a miss not making this dual pov, the male main character was annoying at times, very self centred and just was not a character I could connect too, again, if it was longer the development and depth that could’ve been added to him could of made him such an interesting character! I feel like with a fantasy book with this amount of calibre, it being this short is such a downfall to it, this could’ve easily been a big series with the right amount of planning, long books and a lot of books in it! the female character, amira from the shirt snippets of her, was so much more intriguing, I really wish it was told from her pov, she just seemed to have so much more about her! I miss LOKI, he was written off way to fast for my liking, I was not a fan of how it ended:( However, overall if you enjoy short fantasy novellas you may like this, the concept was really good and intriguing, it’s such a shame that I just couldn’t connect with any of it unfortunately
the concept of this book was so intriguing, if it was longer it would be such an amazing book with all the depth that could be written about the setting, the plot, the characters etc, but it all felt so rushed, the amount the setting could be expanded on compared to the minimum of about 3 lines on it, the world sounded like it was going to be such a unique and well thought out one, but there wasn’t much too it which I was upset about! the characters had a slight intrigue to them, but it fell so flat, especially the male main character, it was such a miss not making this dual pov, the male main character was annoying at times, very self centred and just was not a character I could connect too, again, if it was longer the development and depth that could’ve been added to him could of made him such an interesting character! I feel like with a fantasy book with this amount of calibre, it being this short is such a downfall to it, this could’ve easily been a big series with the right amount of planning, long books and a lot of books in it! the female character, amira from the shirt snippets of her, was so much more intriguing, I really wish it was told from her pov, she just seemed to have so much more about her! I miss LOKI, he was written off way to fast for my liking, I was not a fan of how it ended:( However, overall if you enjoy short fantasy novellas you may like this, the concept was really good and intriguing, it’s such a shame that I just couldn’t connect with any of it unfortunately
April 12, 2024
Ok, so this book caught my attention because of the dragon on the front and the fact that it was called Dragon Den. I had no idea what to expect other than the short little blurb.
This book was a wild, exciting, non-stop ride from start to finish. I started and could not stop. All other books I was reading went on an immediate hold while I sped through this story.
Markus is a bad-boy with a soft spot for the good girl, Amira. Amira is the sister of an incredibly intimidating, overprotective brother Tobias, so Markus has to work some serious bro-magic to get anywhere close to Amira.
The book takes place mainly in Seattle and Portland, and is set in a world exactly like ours but with dragons that have been around since the beginning. The idea is that they hibernate all year in volcanoes around the world, but on the summer solstice when the dragons come out, a few daring, gifted souls can break said dragons and become a Goldwing (essentially a member of the dragon army).
Markus has his sights set on breaking the biggest, baddest dragon out there, a Black Clubtail. But on the solstice, things don’t go the way he was hoping, and he ends up staying at the Dragild Military Academy by a stroke of sheer luck.
As Marcus gets pulled into a world of espionage and secrecy he never expected to be a part of, can he get everything he wants? Will he actually walk away with a dragon, a girl, and the life of his dreams?
Read Dragon Den to find out!
This book is 3/5 on the spice meter 🌶️🌶️🌶️
A 5/5 in ease of reading
A 5/5 in storyline/plot
A 5/5 in characters
Overall 5/5 for me
Tropes include
- Bad boy / good girl
- annoy each other to lovers
- gang
- interracial
- DRAGONS 🐉
- undercover mission
- underdog
- win her over
This book was a wild, exciting, non-stop ride from start to finish. I started and could not stop. All other books I was reading went on an immediate hold while I sped through this story.
Markus is a bad-boy with a soft spot for the good girl, Amira. Amira is the sister of an incredibly intimidating, overprotective brother Tobias, so Markus has to work some serious bro-magic to get anywhere close to Amira.
The book takes place mainly in Seattle and Portland, and is set in a world exactly like ours but with dragons that have been around since the beginning. The idea is that they hibernate all year in volcanoes around the world, but on the summer solstice when the dragons come out, a few daring, gifted souls can break said dragons and become a Goldwing (essentially a member of the dragon army).
Markus has his sights set on breaking the biggest, baddest dragon out there, a Black Clubtail. But on the solstice, things don’t go the way he was hoping, and he ends up staying at the Dragild Military Academy by a stroke of sheer luck.
As Marcus gets pulled into a world of espionage and secrecy he never expected to be a part of, can he get everything he wants? Will he actually walk away with a dragon, a girl, and the life of his dreams?
Read Dragon Den to find out!
This book is 3/5 on the spice meter 🌶️🌶️🌶️
A 5/5 in ease of reading
A 5/5 in storyline/plot
A 5/5 in characters
Overall 5/5 for me
Tropes include
- Bad boy / good girl
- annoy each other to lovers
- gang
- interracial
- DRAGONS 🐉
- undercover mission
- underdog
- win her over
September 23, 2024
Dude, this book goes by so fast! (It is VERY short for a fantasy novel, so that definitely made it easy for me to finish it in an afternoon. I don't think it took me more than two hours to finish!)
This book has dragons. Enough said. If you tell me a book has dragons, I am there. I am sat. I am reading.
This was SUPER fast-paced, which I love in books. I like having something always keeping my attention on the book. But I did find that it was a little too fast-paced with certain things. I thought the relationship was very insta-love/insta-lust and gave me the ick a little bit because of that. I find that insta-anything in a book really takes away so much depth to characters and to their relationship. And I am sad to report that did happen here. (Maybe the shortness of the book also contributed to the flatness of the characters too. I find that happens a lot with shorter fantasy novels.)
I wanted to read this because it was described as having Fourth Wing and How to Train Your Dragon vibes, but I find those to be some pretty dang massive shoes to fill, so when it didn't live up to that...I was a bit disappointed.
Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!
This book has dragons. Enough said. If you tell me a book has dragons, I am there. I am sat. I am reading.
This was SUPER fast-paced, which I love in books. I like having something always keeping my attention on the book. But I did find that it was a little too fast-paced with certain things. I thought the relationship was very insta-love/insta-lust and gave me the ick a little bit because of that. I find that insta-anything in a book really takes away so much depth to characters and to their relationship. And I am sad to report that did happen here. (Maybe the shortness of the book also contributed to the flatness of the characters too. I find that happens a lot with shorter fantasy novels.)
I wanted to read this because it was described as having Fourth Wing and How to Train Your Dragon vibes, but I find those to be some pretty dang massive shoes to fill, so when it didn't live up to that...I was a bit disappointed.
Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!
June 19, 2024
So this was described as “A fast-paced, action-packed romantic urban fantasy inspired by The Fast and the Furious, perfect for adult fans of How to Train Your Dragon.”
I enjoyed Fast and the Furious and I LOVED How to Train Your Dragon, always been a big dragon fan.
But the issue I had was that it felt much more than inspired by, the general story felt pretty much the same, with some sections, scenarios and conversations that were scene for scene, or word for word. Now I accept these may have been intended as nods to the Movie or as a tribute almost, but for me they were just a bit awkward. Instead of a nod, it was like a headbutt.
Now that I’ve finished being horrible, I did still enjoy the read, it was an easy read once I got past the issues I mentioned above. And there were enough little details that I really liked for their uniqueness.
Really enjoyed the relationship built between our main and his dragon, really liked the concept behind how interaction with Dragons has happened throughout the history of this world.
Plus Dragons, takes a lot for me to be mad about a book with Dragons.
I enjoyed Fast and the Furious and I LOVED How to Train Your Dragon, always been a big dragon fan.
But the issue I had was that it felt much more than inspired by, the general story felt pretty much the same, with some sections, scenarios and conversations that were scene for scene, or word for word. Now I accept these may have been intended as nods to the Movie or as a tribute almost, but for me they were just a bit awkward. Instead of a nod, it was like a headbutt.
Now that I’ve finished being horrible, I did still enjoy the read, it was an easy read once I got past the issues I mentioned above. And there were enough little details that I really liked for their uniqueness.
Really enjoyed the relationship built between our main and his dragon, really liked the concept behind how interaction with Dragons has happened throughout the history of this world.
Plus Dragons, takes a lot for me to be mad about a book with Dragons.
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