I wish I could say I enjoyed this. I stuck with it until the end, but the whole time I just wanted to be done with it.
I couldn't stand Talliana. She felt young and naive. She seemed incapable of making rational decisions, always letting her emotions get the best of her, and would rush into danger and put everyone else at risk. She went from being helpless and needing protection from either her sister or her boyfriend, to somehow turning into an all-powerful water healer with a bonded dragon for no other reason than she just got mad enough. Of course, the dragon had to wait until her boyfriend died from Talliana's stupidity in order to decide it was time to bond. Like, if the dragon had bonded two hours prior they probably could have saved everyone but no, we are forced to read through this preventable tragedy.
Half of the book is filled with high school drama and Talli's turbulent relationship with Trey. Trey doesn't want Talli to be a combat fighter or go on missions, because frankly she sucks at it. Talli wants to anyway, because she needs to be the best at everything. They bicker constantly over her wanting to do whatever she wants and Trey being the cautious one and suggesting she just stick to healing. They have sex twice and break up once. Most of the book Trey is either captured, presumed dead, or at odds with his girlfriend, so I have no idea why the author wanted to torture his character so badly only to kill him off in the end. Major disappointment.
I wish this was set in a purely fantasy setting, because trying to explain how a bunch of magic communities thrive in the forests of the US is exhausting. Apparently they have pretend hospitals with humans working, just to keep up appearances? Even though they heal with elixirs and have no need for them. I guess this is why there aren't enough doctors for the rest of us lol. And they can't use guns because they're too loud and would alert the authorities... except when an army of 500 gun armed Brethren storm into town and blow the place up, there are no consequences so that excuse is meaningless as well.
I honestly can't think of anything I personally enjoyed, but perhaps a younger reader would find the characters more interesting or the magic system cooler than I did.