A big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this eArc!

An amazing sequel to an exquisite series! So rich with mythology and culture, a world filled with fantastical creatures and amazing characters. I highly recommend this series!!

Can’t wait for my physical copies to arrive when this book releases!!

I was so excited to get approved for this book!!
Six Crimson Cranes was easily one of my favourite books from last year, and I have had The Dragon's Promise preordered for quite a while. But I couldn't resist a sneak peek!

While for me, this book didn't quite live up to the standard of the first book, I did still really enjoy being immersed in the world that Lim has built.
I think the reason I was slightly disappointed was that I didn't want this book to follow a love triangle. Because I had a feeling it would be executed...as it was. Shiori and Seryu never really had enough of a romantic connection for me to be invested in the love triangle. It seemed a bit forced as there was never anything visibly unwavering about Shiori's devotion to Takkan I guess?
Overall I think if SCC had originally been made 100 pages longer, the finale of this story could have been incorporated into the first instalment and there would have been no need for it being a duology.

Again, this was just my own personal opinion - I did still immensely enjoy reading this as I do love the characters, but wasn't as captivated as I was with Six Crimson Cranes. But I feel so lucky to have read this in advance and can't wait to have a physical copy!

why are all my most anticipated 2022 releases so disappointing 😭

Please, let there be no love triangle

If you’ve read my review for Six Crimson Cranes you know just how much I loved that book. While I was concerned that the sequel would include a wholly unnecessary love triangle angle, I wasn’t at all preoccupied with the possibility of not liking it. And of course, 2022 being my underwhelming reading year, it turns out that *plot twist* I low-key disliked almost everything about this book. With a few modifications, Six Crimson Cranes could have easily been a stand-alone novel, and I actually think it would have resulted in an even stronger book. Alas, as this is a duology, we get The Dragon's Promise, a lukewarm finale that came across as boring and repetitive. Characters I previously enjoyed reading came across as very one-dimensional, the villain was far less compelling than the (apparent) one from Six Crimson Cranes, and the meandering plot failed to grab my attention. One too many chapters end with Shiori falling and or possibly facing some other type of danger (being attacked etc.). While the story doesn’t include an actual love triangle it teases one, something that I almost found more annoying than having to put up with a proper love triangle.
If you, like me, loved Six Crimson Cranes I’d still recommend you check out this sequel as you might find it a more captivating read than I did.

If you don’t mind reading minor spoilers here is my more in-depth(ish) review:

The Dragon's Promise picks up right after the cliffhanger Six Crimson Cranes. Shiori and Seryu have gone to the kingdom of dragons so Shiori can give the dragon’s pearl to the king of dragons, Seryu’s grandfather. But, Shiori doesn’t really plan on handing him the pearl as she promised her stepmother on her deathbed that she would return the pearl to its true owner. How she planned on escaping the consequences of not doing what she said she would is a mystery to me. Of course, the king is not pleased with her refusal to hand the pearl over to him and this results in a lot of back-and-forths where Shiori repeatedly believes that her newfound allies may or may not have betrayed her. Shiori is imprisoned, freed, imprisoned, freed, and so on. She comes across a character that will quite clearly play a role later on in the story but I didn’t find him as amusing as the narrative tried to make him into. Seryu’s character becomes rather unlikable and his bond to Shiori didn’t feel particularly believable. He confesses to having feelings for her (or something to that effect) but Shiori loves Takkan so she turns him down. She does now and again seem to entertain the possibility of being with Seryu but not in any serious capacity. For plot reasons, the two are of course forced into an engagement. It would have been far more refreshing to have their relationship as strictly platonic as I am tired of these YA novels where we have these two hot guys falling in love with the spunky clumsy heroine who has only very superficial and off-page friendships (here there is a weak attempt at giving her a positive relationship with a girl her age but funnily enough this friendship is mostly relegated off-page because of plot reasons).
After what felt like forever Shiori returns home and reunites with her beloved and her own family. Her brothers, who felt like such a crucial element from 1, are given very few lines and the remainder of the book sees Shiori and Takkan travel from place to place in an attempt to defeat the Bad Guy and are later on aided by a witty side character we met earlier in the book. I didn’t feel the stakes, the Bad Guy was very cartoonish, and the plot was just repetitive. In no time Shiori’s act-now-think-never attitude started to irritate me and while the story seems intent on portraying her as extremely special or whatever I didn’t feel that she was a particularly memorable or unique character. I missed the atmosphere of the first book as here that spellbinding magic is lost to samey action sequences.
Additionally, the dialogue was distractingly anachronistic. I don’t understand why the author randomly dropped archaic words into the characters’ dialogues as they merely stood out and consequently took me out of the story.
This was a deeply disappointing sequel. Not only did it make me fall out of love with the characters and setting of its predecessor but it was just a painfully ‘meh’ read. The content struck me as boorishly vanilla and Disneyesque (not in a good way as, so far as i remember, there were no lgbtq+ characters…).
I wish I could have loved it but as things stand the only reason why I gave The Dragon's Promise a 3-star rating is out of my love for Six Crimson Cranes.

A beautifully written sequel. I really enjoyed the new characters we met in the dragons kingdom and the romance between Shiori and Takkan was lovely. Its not normally the type of romance I enjoy but the characters were so well written you couldn't deny they were meant to be together.
I was disappointed we said goodbye to Seryu so soon, I'd love to read more about him in the future.
The story was easy to read like the first one and doesn't get bogged down with unnecessary information.
Definitely worth checking out!

I recently read Six Crimson Cranes and fell in love with the story, so of course I was thrilled to be giving the chance to review the second book in this series The Dragon's Promise. The story follows on from the events of the first book with Princess Shiori once again fighting against danger on all fronts in order to seek answers and fulfill a final promise, whilst trying to protect her family and people that fear her magic will become their ultimate undoing.
I can honestly say that I loved the Dragon's promise even more than the first book as we get to see the struggle Shiori has between protecting her family and exploring her magic and what it can awaken with not only herself but also within the country.
Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton Publishers as well as Netgalley for allowing me to review this book.
All thoughts and opinions all completely my own.

This was the PERFECT conclusion to a perfect duology. I was crying by the end because I was so emotionally invested in all the characters, and I wasn’t ready to part with the world just yet. But all good things must eventually come to an end, and boy was this book GOOD.

One thing I disliked in Lim’s previous book Spin the Dawn was that the story wasn’t particularly linear; it changed the endgoal of the book in the middle of the story which made everything feel a bit disjointed. Lim fixed this in Six Crimson Cranes, and I’m so happy she kept up with it in The Dragon’s Promise. You always knew what the characters were fighting for and what their goals were, even if the way to achieve those goals could change. It made the end feel extremely rewarding and it truly felt like you had been on an extraordinary adventure with the characters. This also made the book feel like a fairy tale or a legend, and together with the magical world Lim had created made the experience of reading this book an absolute pleasure. Lim shows you firsthand that even if you’re older you can still experience the magic of fairytales!!

My favorite thing about this book (if you don’t count Lim’s wonderful prose and the beautiful world she has created) was Shiori and Takkan. I can’t remember the last time I squealed over a couple in a book, but the number of times I put my Ipad to my chest was almost embarrassing. Takkan and Shiori were SO SWEET together. SO SWEET. The way they cared for each other, thought of each other and how they acted around each other. Takkan’s gentle and patient personality together with Shiori’s chaotic and passionate one made them into such a cute couple, and I loved seeing them together. They were also so good at communicating which… thank you Lim. For not creating any romance drama because of communication issues. The level of communication skills and respect these two had for each other was absolutely amazing to see and I could not wish for anything else. There’s even one point in the book when Shiori doesn’t want to tell Takkan something, YET SHE STILL DOES and I just loved her for that. I love Lim for doing that. I JUST LOVE WHEN COUPLES ARE GOOD AT COMMUNICATING.

Another thing I loved was how much this book focused on maternal love from a stepmother which defies so many stereotypes. We got to know more about Raikama and her background, and there were several times throughout the book I almost teared up because of how misunderstood Raikama actually was.

The ending was also amazing. I am so happy with the ending. It wrapped everything up so well and it truly truly made this book feel like a fairytale. It was bittersweet in a way, but at the same time, I would not be happy with any other ending.

In conclusion, I’m sad this series is over, but I’m so happy I got to experience it.

Looking forward to seeing what else Lim will write in the future!!!

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the e-arc for an honest opinion.
I absolutely loved six crimson cranes, so I was so excited when I got accepted to have the E-ARC of Thr Dragon's Promise, book 2 of the series.
I loved it. I found it was fast pacing and easy to follow. I liked the way it was written and how the characters gelled together.

**Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for a copy of this ARC. These are my honest thoughts.**

The Dragon's Promise picks up where things left off in Six Crimson Cranes, though I can't say it's the same reading experience as the first book. This novel reminds me a lot of Spin The Dawn by this author, where it has distinctive parts to the storyline. Whilst The Dragon's Promise doesn't signify these moments like in the book I mentioned, you can easily break it up into different chunks. And whilst that worked in Spin The Dawn, I found the storyline to be a little too disjointed in The Dragon's Promise for it to move fluidly and have good pacing as its predecessor did.

The time spent in the dragon underwater kingdom felt so left-field for me, as did the rushed love declaration down there. I found myself a little exasperated by the waste of such a good friendship between Seryu and Shiori, even if his affections were noted in the first book. Whilst I'm grateful the love triangle didn't last for long, I found it unnecessary. I also thought this of the first 30% of this novel. Nothing was truly solved or set up enough through the time underwater, aside from the introduction of a new character - which thankfully was welcomed by me.

The return of a loved favourite from The Blood of Stars series made perfect sense, given the demon Bandur was also present in this novel. The use of Gen brightened it for me when it felt a little bleak or jumping over the place. Again, he was only in it for some time until it moved into the next plot change/destination, but at least Gen's presence allowed for more setup and understanding of what was to come further into the novel.

I continued to enjoy the connection between the brothers and Shiori, and their endless protection and willingness to risk all for each other. It warmed my heart that despite time apart, their bonds were stronger than ever. I didn't much enjoy the emperor and his placement in this novel. I had hoped for more, but it was a little hasty at times as if he was thrown in as an afterthought.

One of my favourite things about this sequel was the continuing learning about Raikama for Shiori and how important her promise was to fulfil for her stepmother after her death. I appreciated Lim's approach with this part of the storyline, allowing Shiori to learn more about the woman who had loved her with all her heart. It was incredibly well done, with the balance of heartache and warmth exceeding all expectations that I had for Raikama's part in this world.

The buildup of the romance between Shiori and Takkan was also beautifully done, especially as it weaved into the task of risking everything to remove Bandur from Kiata. Watching them work together, even when it was difficult to allow the other to be at risk only made their love story more formidable. And after waiting as long as I had for their first kiss - it was worth it all. Lim has a wonderful way of making the beauty of love just that - beautiful to read and imagine.

Sadly, as I've mentioned, the fact that this book is all over the place with the happenings did decrease my love for this world, and the ending, whilst sweet, felt a little disappointing to me. I wished somehow that the flow and building of the world that happened in Six Crimson Cranes continued over into this book. It is still a wonderful read, and I'm so fortunate to have received this arc and look forward to purchasing my own copy when it's released later this year.

<i>I received this ARC thanks to the Publisher and NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Six Crimson Cranes was one of the loveliest novels I've read last year, so to have an opportunity to dive into the sequel so early was an honour for me. And what can I say? I'm writing this review through tears that block my view, so I'm not sorry for any missspellings lol.

I usually take a different approach to these reviews, but I guess I don't want to spoil the fun to anyone as I assume you're already a fan of the series if you reach for this sequel so I don't have to tell you why it's worth it. I know you know :*

In the beginnig I have to tell you one thing -- <b> PLEASE</b> reread <i>Unravel the dusk</i> before getting yourself involved with Dragon's Promise, I remembered Elizabeth mentioning Spin the dawn character involved, and I guess if you've read second book your wild guess would be Edan's presence, but considering this book comes out in 6 months even if you're the bestest reader with bestest memory, you'd fail just like me to remember few things. And they're crucial to make you fall in love with this story ten times more. (Really, I was mad where's my boii and in the middle of the book simple realization made me hit my head hard several times reconsidering my life choices and priorities. So I guess you'd also need a reread and a bunch of <b>notes with who's who, what location is which and aliases of well known characters</b>. I guess you'll thank me in a few months).

I love how the author intertwined both stories, even thou I think recalculating durations of few events, making some shorter, some longer, wouldn't hurt, after all once again I feel as my life's been complete by finishing another duology set in <i>Blood of Stars</i> universe. Now all I need is a reread of all four, to simply devour everything once again. Let me just go grab several more tissue boxes and I'm ready. Really, if you thought you have no tears left after unravel the dusk, start drinking water now as you might be dead of dehydration by the end of Six crimson cranes two-pack.

Hear me out, I'm not satisfied with the ending, it might feel mild as of what could happen, but I still find it cruel. But why, you either have to wait and find it out yourself, or if you're lucky or broken enough to have read <i>Warrior witch by Danielle L Jensen</i> you might be already prepared for this kind of emotional damage.

I was conflicted in what to rate this book first, as it didn't feel as fast paced as the first one, but after I made that realisation of how stupid I am, and how much I've missed out already I devoured it in one sit and now all is left for me is to sit in the corner waiting for another masterpiece by Elizabeth Lim. So if you haven't already guessed correctly, it's a solid 5 star read and you won't change my mind, If you don't agree with me, please do yourself a favor and google who Gen was. <b>Either your welcome, or please don't slap me on my face for my stupidity and bad memory, I've already done it enough myself</b>.

To Sensei Elizabeth if she's somehow reading this -- can we please get at least one flowery-sugary-happy engding, with no emotional damage to the reader? Thank You, I love you but I'd be forever grateful for one, as I don't know how much of your stories my heart will take before I'll be gone from an attack.

<img src="http://www.simbasible.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/1-7.gif" width="400" height="auto" alt="description"/>

I really loved Six Crimson Cranes so I was incredibly excited to get the chance to read and review this sequel. I absolutely fell in love with Shiori in book one, and it was wonderful to carry on with her story.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I do feel it had some minor issues compared to Six Crimson Cranes. The main thing is that first third of the book feels a tiny bit disjointed from the rest. I loved all the parts in the dragon realm, and the demon storyline, I'm just greedy and would have loved more time spent in both, and more world-building, especially on the plot points that linked the two.

Shiori continued to have my heart in this book, my reckless, bold, brave, ever-hungry angel, and Kiki continued to be an absolute scene stealer. The plot is fast-paced and frantic, which lead to me being unable to put the book down, so worried about my favourites making it through to the end that I had to keep reading just one more chapter until the end. I love a book that feels like falling into another world and this very much gave me that sensation.

It was overall a satisfying and beautiful conclusion to the story and I loved reading it.

The Dragon's Promise moves away from the close focus on one fairytale to expand on its worldbuilding elements, and definitely has fun with it. We get to see more of the dragons, demons, magic, and even get to dive a bit more into the intriguing story of Raikama. But the problem lies with the whirlwind tour through all of those aspects: there are so many phases and resolutions without truly committing to being episodic. Instead, I was just left constantly confused by where the plot was going, and it was hard to becomes invested in characters and details that then vanished. I can't help but feel this has been limited by the duology format: a looser and probably longer series, with more time to deal with each setting, antagonist, and quest, would have unburdened the series, because it is undeniably witty and pacey. The ending feels like it would have been tremendously impactful if built up to; instead I'm left feeling like these two books were pleasant but hard to latch onto.

The Dragons Promise
(Six Crimson Cranes #2)
Elizabeth Lim
Sci-Fi & Fantasy, YA
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Initially I wasn't too sure if I would like this book or not but I'm glad I read it and I was pleasantly surprised. An enchanting tale of duty, destiny and fates intertwined, it follows Shiori on her quest to fulfil promises she made previously. The world building is creative and the characters developed enough that although this is the 2nd book in this series, it was easy to keep up. There were a couple of surprises here and there and the ending was quite sweet.

*Thank you to @netgalley and the publishers @hodderstoughton for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review*

5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the e-arc for an honest opinion.

Please take in mind it’s my opinion, and everyone is allowed to have one.

This serie was so incredible, I loved it! It was fast pacing, and really easy to understand. I loved how we got to learn more about everything.

The characters were great as well! Seryu is my favorite, do hope we will get to learn more of him.

Quality Rating: Five Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars

This duology has been a joy to read; the stunning fantasy, the complex characters, the vividly immersive adventure. It has quickly become one of my favourite series of all time and I can't wait to get some pretty hardcovers to go on my shelves (anyone know how to get the US editions to the UK because I'm in love) and read more of Lim's work.

I adore the Asian mythology weaved into what is in its own rite a wonderfully exciting and magical fantasy adventure. As I gushed about when I read Six Crimson Cranes, the fairy tale of The Wild Swans is my favourite fairy tale of all time, so to see it reimagined with full respect to the original as well as boundless imagination to its potential to expand is always a delight when I come across it. And, while the main homage to that fairy tale was wrapped up at the end of the last book, there are still elements dotted throughout The Dragon's Promise, where we get to dive even deeper (pun absolutely intended) into the Asian fairy tales and folklore that inspire a lot of this book's narrative.

Something that is often hit or miss for me is the romance in fantasy adventures; The Dragon's Promise got it perfect for me. I loved how Lim let her characters be tempted by the cliches we're so used to (hiding the truth from significant others, sacrificing themselves completely needlessly, being generally idiotic because 'I care about you too much,') and then had them consciously realise that's dumb and move on to do better. The characters are then so much more tactile, they have healthy relationships even when they're strained, and they recognise the consequences of their actions - that's good storytelling folks!

And that's not mentioning Shiori as the heroine herself. Lim runs a pretty concise masterclass of how to write an active protagonist. Taking into account the fantasy elements and the fact Shiori has magic at her fingertips, it is still her active decisions that move the story forward, which makes it all the more exciting and Shirori all the more impressively brave and beloved.

This whole book was just so satisfying because it acknowledged and took elements from all of Shiori's adventures (has it really only been two books?) to impact her actions in the finale. She really has learnt a hundred lessons, and she really has changed because of it. In only two books, Shiori and her companions feel like such real human beings (and a variety of other magical creatures) to me. I think it was a perfect ending - and yet I don't want it to be the ending. Here's hoping Lim sends some new characters our way to fall in love with soon.

I really liked Six Crimson Cranes, so I had high hopes for this book. The beginning was great and I thought this will be an amazing duology, but as it went on it just started to feel like a dragging mess and I ended up being pretty disappointed by it.

The first about third or so of the book is set in the magical underwater dragon realm, which was so much fun to read and engaging. I thought this would get a 5 star rating from me for sure. Then as the story leaves it behind it also completely abandons all the interesting characters we met there, including Seryu, who I was kind of expecting to be a protagonist in this book. In fact, he is doesn't even appear again after that at all and ultimately nothing that happened in this part of the book had any actual impact to the rest of the story that happens after. It felt like a whole other book altogether and I don't get why the title is The Dragon's Promise.

From there on out everything just completely seemed to lack structure and felt like an uninspired repetition of Unravel the Dusk with everything that already bothered me in that book included.
There were a lot of inconsistencies and there seemed to be no clear rules established when it comes to magic and its limitations. Everyone just could do whatever as it was plot convenient it seemed. It just all felt so random and without a clear goal, nothing but a disjointed meandering from one place to the next that ended with a lame conclusion.

Also there way too much focus on the very dull love story, that I didn't care for at all. The love interest really lacked personality, as did the 6 brothers and even Shiori started to wear me out.
The only part that got me invested again for a little while was the stepmother's background story, but that only was a pretty short intermezzo.

The pacing was weird, it really dragged and in the end I was just glad that it's finally over. The only reason I'm giving this 3 stars and not less after all my complaints is that the dragon realm part in the beginning had me really invested and my interest piqued, even if it was then dropped completely.

Just like Spin the Dawn I think Six Crimson Cranes would have been better off as a standalone in my opinion. I do however really love the world and lore Elizabeth Lim has created for these book and I would love to read more about Seryu.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher Hodder & Stoughton for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I don't like leaving reviews that aren't super positive, but sadly this book just felt . . . odd. Disjointed, strangely structured, and unfortunately a disappointment.

The story picks up right where Six Crimson Cranes left off, with Shiori going to the dragon realm, Ai'long, with Seryu. I enjoyed exploring the dragon's realm, but then about a third of the way through the book (maybe even less) we then leave Ai'long and Seryu essentially exits stage right from the story. We never meet him again. It felt so odd!

This isn't the fault of the author, but as I was reading the rest of the book, I kept thinking "why does this island of demons they're going to feel so familiar to me? Why does Bandur feel familiar to me (aside from being in the previous book)?" Eventually I realised it was because Bandur and the island feature in Elizabeth Lim's previous Blood of Stars series - and I also realised that meant we knew if Shiori succeeded with binding Bandur to the island, which took a lot of the suspense out of the journey for me.

Additionally, when they reached the island, everything was over so quickly! It felt as if the book had been structured to take us up to this big climactic struggle . . . and then it was dealt with quickly and easily, and we still had 20% of the book to go. This felt too long and almost like an epilogue - except there was then an epilogue! It was like an epilogue to the epilogue!

Also, what was the point of Gen? It felt a little like Lim was introducing him and then packing him off quickly so that she could do another series featuring him, maybe. Or maybe I was supposed to recognise him from a different series? Either way, he felt like an odd addition to the story. Kiata's issue with magic could have been shown another way. The mirror shards could have been introduced another way. He might have worked a little better if he hadn't actually been sent away on the boat, but as it stands his inclusion just felt very odd.

I'm disappointed. I really enjoy reading Lim's work, but this book felt like it was still very much a work in progress and not yet ready for ARCs.

Shiori promised her dying stepmother to take the dragon's pearl to the Dragon King, although crucially not to give it to him - intending to restore it to its original owner, The Wraith. The book starts with her going to Ai'Long, the kingdom of the dragons, and then back to Kiata and on to another quest. There are definitely two sections to the story, with Seryu's story being clearly closed off after the first section (a pity as he was a great character), and then it's back to Shiori and her brothers working together again, this time also with Takkan.

Shiori remains the likeable character she was in the first book, but it felt a little drawn out and lacking in the charm of the previous instalment. I was a little disappointed that I didn't love it, given how much I'd enjoyed Six Crimson Cranes, but I did like finding out more about Raikama's true background.

I will update the review with a link to our blog closer to publication date.
I'd like to thank the publisher Hodder & Stoughton and netgalley for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this sequel more than the first one.
The main problem with 'The Dragon's Promise' is exactly that- there are very few dragons, and very few promises. The opening to this book felt very promising- Seryu is my favourite character, so I was excited to see more of him, and I liked the set up of the dragon kingdom at the end of the first book, but it lasted only the first 30% of the book, and had very little relevance for the rest of it, introducing interesting characters who we then got no closure on, and closing the door on my favourite (and in my opinion, more interesting love interest) character of the duology, never to be seen again. The rest of the novel then felt very disjointed and strange, with many plot points and battles feeling out of place, rushed and repetitive.
One of my favourite parts of the first book was the whimsy of it- the gorgeous descriptions of food and Kiata at the beginning, the time with Meg later on- and this felt almost completely absent here. I think it could have done with a few slower scenes, with some more time to digest and get to know both new characters and old.
That being said, there was ultimately a satisfying ending, and I found Kiki to be lovely in this sequel.

(Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this eARC!)

Thanks to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Actual rating: 4.5/5 stars

The Dragon's Promise picks up straight after the events from Six Crimson Cranes, with Shiori accompying Seryu into the Dragon kingdom of Ai'Long. We then follow Shiori on her journey to fulfil her stepmother, Raikama's, last dying wish which ends in an unexpected and beautiful way.

While the first part of this book, covering Shiori's time in Ai'Long, did feel a little disjointed from the rest of the book, the reasons behind this visit fueled the rest of the story and held key elements needed for the end of the book.

The events and interactions in this part of the series actually made me more drawn to the characters. I found Shiori's impulsiveness annoying in the first book, but she has grown and calmed in this book, while still maintaining her feisty character.

I honestly loved this book. There was plenty of action, plenty of emotion, and a story I want to read again and again.