This debut novel by Hayley Reese Chow starts of quickly with action, lulls (so I thought) for a chapter or two, and then continues building with a burning intensity to a fiery end (puns most definitely intended)!
For the beginning 3rd of the book, I found Kaia, the Dragon Heir, a little hard to connect with, but it was her interaction with Gus, her hound, that really endeared her to me. He can sort of talk directly into her head (sort of), but it reminds of those adorable dog videos, where their owners give them their own voices – hoomans, food. This is literally the voice my brain gave to Gus:
Cue my laugh out loud. These little moments between Kaia and Gus, made me love this book.
That’s not to say that those interactions were the only thing that made me give this book 5 stars: The dialogue and back and forth between the Shadow and Dragon heirs was on-point and the descriptions of the action scenes was so well written I could literally see it in my mind. “Her nervous energy caused the flames to billow up in a swirling elmcore-sized tower of searing flame…Kaia brought the blaze down in from of her as if held the tail of a tornado of fire.”
Overall, a great read with fantastic dialog, well developed characters with complex fears and emotions and really great puppy thoughts!
I highly recommend this to readers who enjoyed Throne of Glass.
Thank you to Book Sirens for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Tria-saurus 