DNF at 40%

It is hard to pinpoint what did not work out for me. The prose is very beautiful. I have mixed feelings about the situational love triangle. On one hand, I don't like this trope unless handled very well and on the other hand I really liked Shiori and Seryu together. I also like Takkan but I don't think the depth of love between him and Shiori makes much sense. I also did not like how things kept happening without proper build ups. But, still, I would highly encourage people to pick this up. Six Crimson Cranes was truly delightful.

After finishing Six Crimson Cranes, I knew I had to read this right away! Shiori’s determination to do the right thing and follow her oaths made for such an interesting read.

I really enjoyed the whole quest to return the pearl and was very satisfied with how that turned out although I did find the plot was maybe a bit weaker than in the previous book

I love Takkan! I want a Takkan! Their strings of fate are just too cute

It was a strong sequel to a fab novel!

3.5 stars

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for my e-ARC! Xxx

Io sinceramente mi aspettavo molto di più, e invece ho ottenuto un collage dei concetti del primo libro con solamente un tocco da sirenetta e un finale sciapo.

TW SPOILER
sì, è poetico, ma che valenza ha se non quello di un'ulteriore separazione, anche se ne abbiamo già viste centocinquanta nel corso dell'opera?
FINE SPOILER

Insomma, ho letto tutto il libro saltando dei pezzi perché si capiva perfettamente dove volesse andare a parare, ma volevo comunque vedere il finale per completismo (ma forse anche per la speranza nel mio cuore di avere un risollevamento).

4.5⭐️

I went into this book with beyond high expectations given that Six Crimson Cranes was one of my favourite reads of last year, and I’ve been recommending it to literally anyone who will listen to me. So I have to be honest and say that The Dragon’s Promise didn’t quite get me in the same way, however, this was still utterly wonderful.

The story picks up where Six Crimson Cranes left off with Shiori venturing to Ai’Long. Around the first 3rd of the book takes place there and it feels almost like reading two separate stories. I did find it a little sad that after leaving Ai’Long, we never hear from Seryu again. Oh Seryu, you got done dirty my friend.

All of the original elements from the first book remained with a strong sense of family, loyalty and duty. I love the relationships between Shiori and her brothers, and obviously I can’t not mention Takkan. That dude has the actual patience of a saint! Their love story was just adorable, but lord Shiori really puts him through the wringer.

I didn’t much care for the “big bad” Bandur. I found him to be a less than a appealing villain; he just wasn’t really that interesting. He didn’t fill me with the utter contempt and rage that Raikama did in the first book.

All in all, this book still filled me with joy and I would literally read anything Elizabeth Lim writes.

Huge thank you to Netgalley and to Hodder and Stoughton for the advanced copy in return for an unbiased and honest review.

Shioris last adventure with an unsatisfied ending

"The Dragon's Promise" by Elizabeth Lim is the second book of the Six Crimson Cranes duology and follows on seamlessly from its predecessor and is therefore a sequel and cannot be read independently.

After finishing Six Crimson Cranes, I was immensely happy to join Shiori directly on her next adventure!
The world building is just fantastic again! I would love to live there myself and explore Kiatan and the seas! I'm still totally impressed with the imaginative descriptions - including Ai'long the Dragon King's underwater kingdom.

The characters in this universe grow directly to your heart. They stand out because of their diversity and uniqueness.

In the first book, Shiori had to learn a lot about herself and the magic she carries within her. In this volume, she has to face dangers again to fulfill the promise she made to her stepmother Raikama on her deathbed. I think her character development is really well done. Shiori grows more and more beyond herself and continues to develop. One notices the difference between the young girl that was coddled by her father and her brothers.

Seryu plays a bigger role in this story and that's what I was looking forward to, because for me, Shiori's dragon friend has come up way too short! In Six Crimson Cranes we met Seryu as a funny, cheeky and always cheerful dragon man who, at least in my case, wormed his way into my heart. In Ai'long we get to know a completely different side of him and that is, the dragon prince, grandson of the ruling king. This side of him intrigued me and I hope Elizabeth Lim writes a full story about Seryu.

Besides Shiori and Seryu, Shiori's brothers again play a central role. Their appearance was a bit of a highlight in the story for me. I love the bond between the siblings, I missed their love, affection and pecking.

The plot of this sequel focuses a lot on Shiori and her family. The love story between her and Takkan is almost non-existent. And I find that more than a pity. I loved the first book so much because of these two and then he just plays the role of an unloved supporting charakter. Unfortunately, the ending also left me more than unsatisfied. It seems totally loveless and quickly written down - really aborted and some things remain open, which should not remain open in a final volume. Still, I found "The Dragon's Promise" to be an exciting and imaginative story full of adventure, friendship and family.

"The Dragon's Promise" by Elizabeth Lim gets a well-deserved 4 out of 5 stars.

"The Dragon's Promise" by Elizabeth Lim " will be published on August 30th 2022 by Hodder & Stoughton
[ARC kindly provided in exchange for a honest review]

Really enjoyed this duology. I wasn't sure how the story would be wrapped up but it was done nicely. An engrossing read.

I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review and a huge thank you to Hodder & Stoughton allowing me to read this.

I would give this book a 3.75 stars.

This was a great sequel to Six Crimson Cranes which I absolutely LOVED. I really enjoyed the uniqueness of this series and the family relationships that are shown between Shiori and her brothers. The strength between the seven of them was so lovely to read and I enjoyed watching their bond strengthen throughout this book. I adored Takkan and their relationship, I would say it was some of my favourite parts of the book to read. Shiori did keep me on my toes with how their relationship was going to go and I wish I could read more.

I really enjoyed some of the plot points in this book however, I did find that the beginning was quite slow paced and yet there was so much going on, so I found it hard to get my head around it to begin with This does pick up after around 20% ish and I inhaled the rest of the book and read it in a day. I do wish that we saw more of Seryu as he had such a big presence in the first book, but nonetheless the bits we did see of him showed great character development and made my heart melt.

Six Crimson Cranes is still a definite favourite for me and I would read any of Elizabeth Lim’s books because they are so enjoyable to read!!

I was fortunate enough to get the e-arc on Netgalley and I was actually very excited to read this book. As much as the MC annoyed me a lot in the Six of Cranes, I really needed to know what was going to happen when she went to the Dragon Kingdom. And here it goes: I placed my expectations a little too high, thinking that Shiori would’ve changed (aka showed better character development) but it was somewhat disappointing. I am not saying she didn’t have any development but the part that annoyed me the most didn’t changed at all. Enough said about that.

Putting that aside, I really enjoyed most of it especially when Shiori went to the Dragon Kingdom. I love how vividly the author described and brought the world building in the dragon’s kingdom to live. It was amazing. As for the other characters, I really liked Seryu and Taikan. I am torn who I liked best but they both deserved better. Fight me if you disagree.

Another part that I really enjoyed was reading about the her stepmother’s back story. That was such an emotional and tragic story to read. I’m a sucker for all things tragic.

Basically, Shiori annoyed me, Seryu and Taikan my best bois. Thank you Netgalley for send me the e-arc in exchange for an honest review. 3.8 stars.

Loved this book. Great ending to the story. Loved the while legend premise and that it explained older legends and that this story was to be a new legend. Just an all round great story. One of my favourite of the year!

A very beautiful and meaningful closure to the amazing Six Crimson Cranes!

Thank you so much for the Publisher and Netgalley for the e-galley.

I have always loved the writing style of Elizabeth Lim and the worlds she creates effortlessly. I was super excited to dive into The Dragon’s Promise because I really wanted more of Seiru! Although he has appeared little, his presence and friendship to Shiori was meaningful. The hardships m the quests Shiori had to fulfill in order to keep her promise to Raikama , led her to the magical, whimsical kingdom of the dragons — under the sea and then back to the shore. I loved getting to know the brothers and Takkan better.

Everything was timed perfectly, it was full of with tension, kindness, love and hope. A beautiful conclusion to the duology! Please preorder this book because it won’t disappoint you!

A lively sequel that progresses the plot from the last book in an interesting, if not altogether unexpected, direction- something I would definitely have enjoyed as a teenager, with a refreshingly low-angst romance as a bonus. I especially enjoyed the first part of the story set in the dragon kingdom, though it did feel like Shiori was quite flippant in some of the confrontations with the dragon king which lowered the stakes a little bit.

Overall, a fun read with some lovely, vivid descriptions.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for sharing the ARC in exchange of an honest review,

Let's start of with saying I absolutely loved the first book and the Spin the Dawn duology. The Dragons Promise is the perfect sequel and also ties off the two series beautifully. Highly recommend reading Spin the Dawn before this book in case you haven't already, it makes the story even better. This review is spoiler free for the Spin the Dawn duology and The Dragons Promise. There are spoilers for Six Crimson Cranes.

In this book we continue to follow Shiori and her brothers to fulfil the promise that Shiori made on her stepmothers deathbed. She continues to learn more about who her stepmother really was, and the true nature of dragons and demons. Throughout this journey she learns about what is most important in life and finds her companion to share a deep and true bond with. I simply loved all the characters in this book (especially Kiki!), and the last chapters had me in tears. No spoilers on whether they were happy tears or sad tears (or a mix of them).

Thank you Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

You are the light that makes my lantern shine. 💙

Firstly, I started this book invested more in the plot than the romance which is a rare occurrence for me. And while the plot was fine this time around it wasn't as good as I expected to be. Exploring Ai'long was my favorite part of the sequel.

The romantic scenes were some of the best scenes in the book. Their puppy love was adorable.

Character wise, Our Shiori seems to still be doing some reckless actions/choices, thus making me very frustrated. Takkan, my dear angel, is a saint for having that much patience. he wasn't as present and as active as I wanted him to be. Gen was a lovely addition. He was charismatic and a nice comic relief in the story. I would've loved to see more of our beloved brothers, alas I loved the bits we got of them.

Bandur, the villain, was disappointing and wasn't that interesting and didn't ignite any hatred in me like Raikama did. She was definitely the better villain.

Don't go into this with high expectations, so you won't get disappointed. Everything was good but not as great as the first book. It needs to be said that Six Crimson Cranes is the superior one in the duology.

Another amazing book from the phenomenal Elizabeth Lim. Every book I read by her is just amazing and this one did not disappoint. Kept me hooked til the very end and just look at the cover design how beautiful!

Another great book from Elizabeth Lim! Six Crimson Cranes was a phenomenal read that I consumed in one sitting last summer, and The Dragon's Promise was no different.
The pacing and plot were great for me, and I loved how emotive it made me feel throughout - I was fully immersed into the world.
The covers are in my opinion the most beautiful covers that have existed and I cannot wait to have them both next to each other on my bookshelf.

ARC received through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
4/5 stars

This is a book where the sequel is better than the first book!! I don’t even know where to start with this one. Those who have read Six Crimson Cranes will absolutely love this one!

The sequel starts where the first book ends and we’re reunited with all the characters we love so much. I said it in the first review, the characters are just so loveable and they stayed the same in the 2nd book also.

This book was a lot more heavy on the plot and I stayed engaged throughout the whole book. The pace was consistent and it seemed faster paced compared to the first. This is some great writing from Elizabeth Lim & I’ll be reading other books by the same author also! Whilst this is YA I didn’t feel too old to read this one which I appreciated more in comparison to Six Crimson Cranes.

I enjoyed this book and wholeheartedly recommend it too. I needed a book like this to remind me why I enjoy reading fantasy books so much!

I thank Netgalley for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I really wanted to love this book considering the first one was just wonderful and really stole my heart, but alas, my love affair with this series had to end sometime. Although it wasn't to my full satisfaction, I still enjoyed this book to a degree. It was nice revisiting the world that Shiori is a part of and spending more time with the characters but I felt for the most part that something was missing that really made the first book stand out, and I couldn't quite place my finger on why.

The first 30% feels like there's a lot just packed in all at once, after which things just felt as though it slowed to a crawl. At times though stuff was happening it also felt like there wasn't much going on at the same time. The characters felt a bit lackluster in comparison to previously, and though I do enjoy the relationships between them, I also felt like they were a little like an afterthought, and that we never really got to see a true bond between Shiori and her companions.

The ending especially felt anticlimactic for me.. perhaps because it felt as though it should have been building up to something more. At times I felt a little bored and wanted the pacing to pick up slightly or something more interesting to happen, but now looking back I'm struggling to even remember the majority of the middle of the book itself.

I will still be inclined to pick up another book in future but this author as I did rather enjoy the first one, and I'm still optimistic that I'll like more of the writing, however this book in particular only gets a 2.5/3 stars from me.

Six Crimson Cranes was one of my top reads last year. I love a fairytale retelling, and Elizabeth had kept the feel and tone of fairytales while crafting something very new. I was really looking forward to reading this second volume.

The problem - and you can probably say it along with me if you'd read many of my reviews - there's no recap. Cranes had a lot of revelations and status quo changes right at the end, and while I remembered the major one, a lot of the smaller ones had vanished in the year since I read Cranes, so I was quite lost for a long time. Everytime I thought I had a grip on the story, someone would mention a person or situation I had no idea about.

That aside, I enjoyed the story. Elizabeth clearly has a wonderful imagination, as while Cranes was based on The Raven Brothers and other fairy tales, this one seems much more original. There was some repetition in the middle - Shiori got stuck in a loop of 'sneak out of the palace to do A Thing, return to discover her situation has worsened, apologise to her father/Takken/her brothers, learn some new information, sneak out of the palace to do A Thing'...the beginning and ending of the book are definitely much faster paced than the middle, but I'm glad I hung in there with it.

If you're planning to read the book, I advise a reread of the first one - at least the last few chapters. I enjoyed reading this, but I would have liked it much better if I'd had any idea what was going on! I look forward to seeing what else Elizabeth Lim writes, and I really look forward to reading it.

Thank you netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. I absolutely loved the first book, so I was really exited for this sequel, and it did not disappoint! I loved how they developed the characters, along with the plot leading up to that ending. I was so excited to find out I received the arc, and immediately read it in less than a day, it was that good. Taking all of this into consideration, I’m going to give this book 5/5 stars because I don’t see any areas for improvement.

After alot of thought, I'm rounding my rating up to 4.
The Dragon's Promise is not a perfect book by any means and doesn't quite hit you in the way that Six Crimson Cranes does but it still pulled my heartstrings taut.

To start with the positives,

1. The duology builds one of lushest world's I've seen in YA and it does this without infodumps.

2. The strong focus on familial relationships and Shiori's desire to right by her stepmother, even when its not easy, is heartbreaking.

3. Elizabeth Lim's prose is very accessible but also very quotable, and its her strong writing that carried the book through its rougher seas.

Now on to the rougher areas,

1. It felt like the book crammed in too many plot lines and made them too convoluted. Shiori's travels take her to and fro from Kiata and it gets repetitive after awhile. Some editing could have chopped off some of the scenes and the book wouldn't have changed.

2. Takkan! The love interest I rooted for in book 1 becomes obsolete here. He is just so vanilla, there is literally no reason to why he is with her except for the fact that he is the LI. I feel that the book could have been alot stronger if it had focused on Shiori and her family's grief over losing her stepmother and how it changes their relationships. Shiori's connection with her stepmother is my favorite part of the book and I wanted it to be fleshed out well.

3. The ending! That was a pretty weak ending to the series and leaves me with so many questions on how it happened.

But even with all its flaws, the Six Crimson Cranes duology, which is kind of a prequel to her stunning Blood of Stars Duology, establishes Elizabeth Lim as the foremost fairyteller of our generation.
Recommended

Disclaimer- I received an e arc of this novel from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.