Dragon's Child

Blood of the Covenants #6

by Leah E. Welker

Two children, one birthright. . . .

Nineteen years after the Tree of Ice died to trap the dark Devourer in a time freeze on Earth, Earth has begun to thaw, and now Sarah and Ben's grown children must find their consorts to help them defeat the Devourer once and for all.

Korrien Moontouched is the Heir of Light. As if the pressures of helping his mother and Queen lead their growing clan weren't enough, he and his twin sister have grown up knowing they are the keys to the Devourer's final defeat—to concluding the Battle for Earth, which has been frozen in time since before he was born.

When Earth's time thaw begins, Rien is thrown into the Seven Realms' efforts to secretly protect humanity from their common enemy. The thaw also offers Rien his only chance to find his consort—because Rien has to marry a pure human of Ice.

But the only Earthren to have escaped the time freeze is nothing like what the logical, perfectionist prince had so carefully planned for himself. As feisty and unpredictable as she is pretty and petite, Sierra Knight encapsulates everything Rien finds aggravating . . . and irresistible.

Serona Sunfilled is the Heir of Flame. Even so, the bubbling young woman has only three goals in One, keep her twin brother sane. Two, make her papa and King proud. And three, find the mate the Tree of Flame promised her and live happily ever after.

Yet things aren't quite that simple. When the Tree of Flame sends Rona to an unknown world, the dragon who awaits her is nothing like she had expected—and belongs to the rarest of Powers, one that can only be born from the embers of calamity.

Suddenly, nothing is as perfect as the sunny princess believed it would be. Though Drevior is as tantalizingly handsome as he is scarred, he returns with her carrying secrets and sorrows—and he brings a dire warning of an entirely new threat to the Seven Realms . . . which he will risk everything, even his life, to deliver.

For there are other dark powers besides the Devourer, and as the Devourer weakens and its defeat approaches, one of them turns its thirst on the Seven Realms. If the Realms and Earth are to survive, both Rien and Rona will have unite all four Powers of Life—Flame, Ice, Light, and Ember . . .

. . . in one.

777 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 20, 2024

About the author

Leah E. Welker began crafting stories almost from the moment she learned to speak. One of her very first novels was a fantasy retelling of Robin Hood, emailed to her siblings and best friend chapter by chapter.

Though she voraciously read all sorts of fantasy, she found her home in the full-fantasy realms of Gail Carson Levine, Patricia C. Wrede, Tamora Pierce, Mercedes Lackey, Christopher Paolini, C. S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Tolkien. She hopes The Blood of the Covenants, her young adult fantasy series, pays homage to these greats (with an added dash of romance, too).

Leah lives in the DC area with her family and a handsome rescue Australian shepherd, Wes. You can find out more about her (and Wes!) at leahewelker.com.

Reviews

[veetheworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a lot of potential and an intriguing plot, but it ended up feeling rushed. However, everything felt too “set up,” and it lacked the natural social and environmental interactions that stood out in the other books, mainly in four and five. Even so, it still hit some emotional blows and was the only book in the series that made me shed a tear or two.

I missed having Sarah and Ben’s perspectives, and it was hard to adjust at the beginning. The inner monologues of Rona and Rein were too self-denigrating. I wouldn’t expect Sarah’s children to be that way.

Some of the stronger moments in this book, character-wise, came from Drevior and his redemption arc. To be honest, he was my favorite character in this one, probably because Kor wasn’t around as much. Watching him learn how to use his new body and adjust to his surroundings was a real highlight. What I still don’t understand is why his and Rona’s relationship never got any resolution. Once again, most things in this book felt rushed, and that was one of them.


By the time I finished, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the series deserved a stronger conclusion. With such a large time skip, there needed to be more character development for all the new and grown-up characters. Lizzy, Abby, and Tom are big examples of that; they felt empty, not like real people, but like plot devices. I understand that there was a lot to fit into one book, but that’s exactly why I think this story should have been split into two. There was simply too much information to fit into one book while keeping the progression natural.

There were also a few other things that bothered me and came to mind, though I don’t feel like going into detail about them:


What exactly is a Sunfather, and why were they never mentioned before?
Why did we get a wedding for Rein and Sierra (if you can even call that fragment of a scene a wedding) but not for Rona and Drevior? I didn’t care much about an Earthen wedding; I wanted a heartbinding.
What was the aftermath of the Thirstier attacks?
Did people’s attitudes toward Drev change?
Why weren’t there any scenes with Drev and Rona as drava and draka, respectively?

[Saidah Gilbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seems that this is the end of the series. Sigh. The worldbuilding kept me reading throughout this whole series but I was disappointed in the end. What's the point of a portal fantasy where the characters can move back and forth between worlds and then you ignore one of the worlds? There was a whole plot point where the protagonist needed to be on Earth but instead, the narrative stayed in one place and characters were moved to that place as the plot demanded. I wanted to see Earth and the other world interact but I guess since this is a romantasy, the romance took precedence. Boo! It was practically a fairy tale, there was no plot needed. The girl is dropped in front of the boy, the boy sees the girl and the girl sees the boy. The end. Even the secondary romance wasn't much better. I feel a lot of background details were cut just to have more scenarios where the romantic leads can display their romantic feelings.
Yes, I know that was the point of the story but I would've liked it not to be so blatant. I really wanted to know about the Trees and how it would work on [alternate] Earth. Instead, I only got breadcrumbs and implications.

[Winter Friesian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a satisfying ending. It felt like the author had to pull in a lot of deus ex machina events to tie off the plot she'd begun. The conflict resolution only makes sense if you read it with a Christian background/lens because the whole series is heavily allegorical, which I think would be confusing for any secular readers.

I found myself skimming a lot of the explanations about the Trees and time travel, and the author has a tendency to be somewhat redundant and be overly explicit about themes such as worth and worthiness. Although Drevior's redemption arc was very explicit about the idea of being purchased back and freed from indwelling evil, and I appreciated that.

[Seth J · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed all the books from this series. The ending of the final book did feel a little anticlimactic though and got a little confusing. But the main bulk of the final book was good.