Aella thinks she’s leading a normal life in LA, making ends meet as a waitress. Until she finds something she wasn’t meant to; A dragon’s egg.
Now on the run from secret government agents and protecting the vulnerable hatchling, Aella finds there’s more to her past and her parents than there seemed.
With no where to turn, Aella gets help in the unlikeliest of places and has her eyes opened to a secret world of mythical races and creatures living hidden among the humans of the world.
Can she find a place for herself and her dragon? Or is she bringing danger to everyone she meets?
Jess was born in the quaint village of Woodbridge in the Uk, has spent some of her childhood in the States and now resides in the beautiful Roman city of Bath. She lives with her husband Phil and her very dapsy cat, Pleaides. Jess can often be found either in a cafe, grinning behind a large mug of hot chocolate, at her desk, getting annoyed with her cat for sitting on her keyboard, or on her comfy corner sofa with friends, enjoying her high definition tv and surround sound system. Jess likes playing massively multiplayer on-line games and has written fan fiction for Entropia. Her choose your own adventure story, written under the penname Marie Woodell, covers a romance about two in game characters. She also runs Flight Productions, a film production company, with a fellow writer. Jess' role is managing script writing and she's involved with a science fiction twitter project, a television fantasy drama and a feature film. She also has a clothing company where she produces her own original designs in a gothic style.
2 stars. - Air Bound is a young adult fantasy novel about a young waitress, Aella. She ran away from her adoptive parents and has been trying to make it on her own in LA. She feels like an average person, but one day, she enters a world that suggest that perhaps she’s not meant for a normal life after all. She stumbles upon a dragon’s egg and so (naturally) she takes it home and waits for it to hatch. But of course, no one can have a dragon egg, and some mysterious secret government agency is then after Aella and her egg, and so she then has to go on the run, meeting friends and foes along the way. - To give it to you straight: is this the best-written book out there? No. Are the characters a little annoying and is the story pretty much predictable the whole way through? Yes. I think what the main problem with this book is that the story idea is really interesting, but it just hasn't be executed very well. It felt as though I was reading a rough first draft of the book, and not the final version. If it could be more polished and edited, I think it could have made a really great story. It feel as though you’re constantly waiting for something to happen, and then another chapter ends and you’re sat there thinking “when’s the good stuff going to happen?” - Having saying this, one thing I really did like was the author’s descriptions of Zephyr and his mannerisms! He was so adorable!! He just reminded me of my family dog and I could see him really clear in my head. I think it’s safe to say that Zephyr was definitely the star of the show in this one. You can read an extended version of this review on my Wordpress blog at: https://loiereads.wordpress.com/2020/...
I’m going to break this down for you by chapters so you don’t have to read this.
Chapter 1 to 2: karate, late for work, miss bus, get fired, lots of descriptions about walking, random parts of LA
Chapter 3 to 4: walk home, find egg, realize bad people will be coming for egg, get ready to run Chapters 5- 15: on the run, many descriptions about carrying backpack, trying to find food and shelter etc., descriptions about how heavy backpack is and how much feet hurt, running from agents, hungry dragon, dragon pooping in toilet.
Chapters 16- 17: find new trainer,Learn ancestry is half elf half dragon, learn magic, accepts all of this even though didn’t know ANY of things existed yesterday. She’s a natural… eye roll Chapters 18-19: Found by agents, decides to attack them back with magic, even though outnumbered by agents, manages to win, decides she’s over running and decides that she is going to fight the agents at their homebase. Chapters 20-23: tracks agent back to base, comes up with brilliant plan (eye roll) involving a birthday-gram singer, posting photos on social media, level of patience- negative Chapters 24-25: amazing fight scenes with air, dragon breath, and this beautiful line to the “person in charge”… please remember- she has been doing magic for 2 days and found her dragon 20 chapters or 4 days ago…. She is so wise and studied….
“You’re not hearing me,” I replied, growling the words as I took a step forward. “Your agency doesn’t exist anymore. Or at least, I could have made sure it didn’t. The only reason it does—still—is because I have allowed it. If you don’t leave us alone, I will end your agency.” Also: “Maybe you can, but I defeated all of these with a three-day-old dragon after four training sessions.” And finally this: I just want to protect this dragon and raise him in safety. He came to me, and I’m some kind of mother now. Mothers do whatever it takes to protect their babies, and I’m doing no less. Barf, eye roll, don’t read this…
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I don’t think it’s necessarily a good read when you’re already midway through the book and all you’ve read so far is a girl running away from agents, sneaking into alleyways, seeking refuge at people’s houses, running away again, with a dragon in her bag. This was probably one of the most redundant plots I’ve read in my life and now that I’ve decided to dnf it, I’m starting to feel stupid for not doing it sooner.
The rating is one star; not because it’s that bad but because there’s no redeeming qualities to persuade me to rate it higher.
Felt immature and contradictory in places with some contrived plot points although with some interesting aspects that I was hoping would be developed much further. Easy enough light read but not convinced I’d read another in the series.
Thank goodness the tiny, hot Chosen One girl was able to find a Chinese man well versed in Japanese prophecies to train an elf so she can run from the FBI
I'm always looking for a fresh new take and this book definitely fills the bill. Who'd a thunk that non-lethal violence would be a centerpiece. Hoorah for Jess.
I highly recommend this exciting beginning of a spectacular series to readers who love reading thrilling Urban Fantasy. I am off to read the next book. Enjoy!
yikes ... i wished i loved it more because did you see the book cover? but this was bad... i'm being nice with the 2-star
-urban fantasy i guess? set in modern day where no one is shocked to see a real dragon after maybe one chapter? -the dialogue from the heroine is so cringe, trying to sound badass but she was so dumb and trying to act 'not like other girls' -became overnight badass -the ending doesn't make sense -writing flow very choppy
This series had quite a bit of premise. Unfortunately it did not really come through as far as I’m concerned.
As the book blurb indicates this is about Aella, a young girl who leads a normal life until she, probably not so inadvertently, find a real dragon egg. So all of a sudden she finds out that, not only are dragons real, but so is magic in general. Normally this would be right up my alley.
The main protagonist is reasonably likable but not really the kick-ass hero that I would have liked her to be. The story quickly devolves when a bunch of unlikable agents from some shady government organisation shows up and starts to hunt her and the dragon.
The story follows pretty much the standard formula. Magic is real, lots of surprises, find some new friends that actually believes her, learn about magic, lots of problems thrown in our main protagonists way etc. etc.
There’s nothing really wrong about that. I do like that general type of story. The problem can be summarised by the note I made somewhere halfway into the third book: “This constant on the run and slow development of both her and the dragon is getting tiresome.”.
The story is one long being on the run story. Every time Aella gets a breather these government agents shows up as by magic (pun intended) and it got tiresome already in the second book. At the same time Aella’s own development goes at a snail’s pace. She never really grows. In the third book I would expect her to kick a few government agents asses but no, it’s just time to run again.
I may or may not have a go at the fourth book in the series but I am certainly not in any rush to do so.
Really wanted to like it but I kept waiting for something to happen or something to keep me interested. Unfortunately, it's basically one large internal monolog and I didn't connect to any of the characters. This definitely needed some polish.
Boring coming of age story. They only interesting part was how she found the dragon, and their were questions there also. She kept making dumb, selfish decisions, then against all odds … (spoiler) defeated or escaped those trying to capture her and her dragon egg/baby.
Air Bound by Jess Mountifield 🥋🐲 Air Bound is pretty short, I finished the audiobook in a day. This one’s an urban fantasy set in LA but I don’t know in what time period. Not a huge deal for me but I know I’ve seen reviews for other books where that has bothered people.
We follow Aella, a waitress that has been doing karate for years. Awesome, a girl that can kick some booty. She finds a dragon egg and that’s when her life takes a sideways shift. Now I did enjoy this book but must admit I finished it feeling a bit disappointed. Everything magic and supernatural wise comes to Aella extremely easily. 4 days spending some time practising with her magic and she’s amazing at it and controlling it as easily as breathing or riding a bike (that’s even almost how she herself describes it in the book). Now there’s absolutely nothing wrong with her being just that awesome, she’s a cool character. However, unless they are using their magic since birth, I think I just prefer my newly discovered magic wielders to have to work for it a bit. I spent most of the book waiting for something just a little more to happen and then the “big fight” towards the end felt a bit anticlimactic. Don’t get me wrong, there’s foot chases, Aella beating up the bad guys and Zephyr’s breath attack, which was all great. The potential is there I think and there are a number of books in this series so I’m hoping we get “more” in the upcoming books.
Zephyr 100% carries this book. He is described in a such a loving way. All his little mannerisms were adorable and the audiobook narrator did his growl perfectly.
A beautiful story you want to read about a dragon.
A strange beautiful egg is found in a building that should not be there by a young orphaned woman. She knows she needs to protect it but from what she doesn't know. This will lead her on a wonderful adventure where she finds friends and enemies. At first she will not know one from the other so she runs from everyone till the first to have offered help proves he and his had really meant to help by saving her and her dragon from the agents trying to capture them. She realized she needed to make some kind of deal with whoever was in charge of the group after them. So this story is the beginning of their adventure as a team and if gives you a lot of information about her biological family's background and some about the dragon.
I'm going in knowing that this has 12 books to read. Because of that I think I'm going with expectations low knowing it should only get better and more interesting from this first book. I always enjoy reading clean paranormal books so I'm thankful for that. This book was a pretty quick read, obviously Zephyr is my favorite. Idk yet how I feel about the MC but I'm willing to give the 2nd book a shot.
Some parts of this book were a bit annoying and it felt like we were just going in circles but overall I enjoyed the quick read. Nothing too dramatic or violent happens, it ends kinda anticlimactically if I'm honest. Hopefully the next book you get more into that world. We'll see....
It boggles the mind that somewhere right now creatures may appear that people thought were but folk tales. And that elves might be real. Or dwarves. Even a dragon or two. I can imagine the real excitement that would exist should any such be discovered. Yet, in Air Bound the government would try and hide such discoveries. As Aella discovered accidentally. And what a discovery....a dragon egg. Viable and about to hatch. But it is what happened subsequently that raises the hair. Writer Jess Mountifield/Talia Beckett with Air Bound created a young adult fantasy that certainly makes one turn the pages. Enjoy.
Thus is a fun story for preteen and teen readers; it’s about an orphan girl who discovers the world is not as she thought *****spoiler alert****** And she discovers a dragon egg and bonds with the dragon. There’s some nice, witty dialogue and it’s a clean story, which was great. The emotional connection Aella has with Zephyr is sweet. I gave it three stars because the story felt too similar to other dragon stories I’d read. I’d like to see the author also deepen her characters
I really enjoyed this book even though it was a bit weird when it came to pacing. I mean a lot happened but still it felt a lot like a long introduction to the world and the general plot wasn’t really clear to me. Still I’ll read the rest of the series no question. One other thing, I felt like I missed some kind of relationship involving the MC like friendship or something (I don’t care if romance is not a thing) just something to make her feel more relatable in a way. But I guess I’ll see what the other books has in store for me.
Abandoned as a baby, raised by a family too different to her, living her own life on her terms...until she finds an egg. Suddenly chased by agents, not knowing who to trust, can she protect her dragon and herself? Can she trust her newly found friends? If you enjoyed Dragon School or the Beaufort series, I recon you'll enjoy this one...definitely a set for my TBR!!!
This book is one big eat, run, train, fight scene. It just keeps repeating over and over, with very little depth to the characters or the story. I mean, think the "Karate Kid" with a dragon and nothing else. Its boring! I found myself skipping through the fight scenes and 10 or more pages later its still going!
This is a YA book in my opinion, but at 7o, I had trouble putting it down. Parts are predictable and other papers are not. The key characters have some depth and the Shadow Dragon is lovable and fierce and intelligent. This was a fun read.
What do you do when you you find an abandoned egg? Take it home, of course. How do you protect yourself and your egg from those who wish you both harm? Take matters in hand and face the issues. This is an intense and action packed story that has lots of heart. Must read. Can't wait to get book 2!
I found this to be a very enjoyable, entertaining story. A really great idea, who knew finding a Dragon egg could cause so much trouble. The story is generally well written but parts of it a little clunky. The series looks good and I will be listening to more of it. Elizabeth Platt does an excellent job with the narration bringing the story to life. I would give this 4.5 stars
This book was kinda boring. The only reason I finished is because I started just heavily skimming. The characters are so shallowly drawn. They lack emotional lives which prevents them from having any depth. The bonds are supposed to be forming yet the author gives them no feelings, which is the essence of bonding. This book really fell flat. I'm disappointed.
I'm really looking forward to reading this series. The storyline is great and intriguing. I really like the writing style of this author. The flow and vocabulary aren't written for a junior high school student, but the wording isn't so complicated that I have to look up every other word. Good book.
A young woman is fired from her job, discovers an egg, runs from men in black, is rescued by a Japanese organization, A dragon hatches from the egg, learns to fly, and the story continues in the next book. YA novel. Needs less cussing.