“Your fate is bound to mine now… Your heart is my own, and where you are is my home. Whatever we face, we face it together.”

In the sequel to the beautiful ‘Six Crimson Cranes’ by Elizabeth Lim, the heroine, Shiori has been taken to the underwater realm of the dragons. She is meant to hand over the broken pearl (a dragon’s heart) her late stepmother gave her, to the king of the dragons.

But her stepmother had asked her to give it only to the one to whom it belongs. And so begins her next quest. If Shiori wants to protect her kingdom, her family, and her betrothed, she’ll have to face many new dangers.

I just love Shiori. She’s smart, feisty, and won’t be told what to do. She’ll follow her heart and won’t shy away from challenges. I enjoyed ‘The Dragon’s Promise’ immensely. Like its predecessor, it’s a beautifully written and gentle read.

This was one of the sequels I was most looking forward to and I must say that I am not overall disappointed! This volume is even more immersive than the previous one, action packed and full of twists!

I got many answers to the questions I had while reading the first volume. I really like the unconventional paths that Emizabeth Lim has chosen to take, going where we didn't expect her to go and sweeping away my fears easily!

The evolution of the characters is relevant and interesting! Honestly, I didn't expect anything from some of the characters and once again Elizabeth Lim has convinced me.

There is only one thing I regret: I am not completely satisfied with the exploitation of magic and two universes on some points. I would have liked it to be more developed, it was even one of my expectations, especially when it comes to the world of dragons, their powers etc.

This ending... It is so original and pleases two aspects of my personality which are totally opposite, I won't say more to avoid spoiling but... Well done!

I really preferred this second volume to the first one (although I really loved the first one too) and I can only recommend it!

The Dragon's Promise by Elizabeth Lim is a sequel to the best selling Six Crimson Cranes, and I would highly recommend that readers start with that book before picking up this one which picks up right where its predecessor left off. It is difficult to provide a summary without spoilers for book one but suffice it to there are dragons and demons, magic and mystery and even a hint of romance. Those readers who enjoyed the first book will certainly enjoy seeing how Shiori's story pans out. The reader sees how she grows stronger as a character both physically and emotionally as she is pushed to her limits and beyond. There are strong themes of family that also appealed to me and I appreciated the author's writing style which was almost poetic at times.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

What does it feel like when one of the most anticipated books of the year becomes the biggest disappointment of the year?
I'm talking about The Dragon's Promise, Six Crimson Cranes book 2.

2.75 stars

The storyline felt really repetitive and unnecessary and after reading this sequel I would have preferred Six Crimson Cranes to remain a gorgeous standalone.

In The Dragon's Promise I never found the vibes I loved so much about Six Crimson Cranes and even the descriptions of this fabulous and wonderful world in this sequel got a bit lost.
Even the love triangle is a half disappointment ... I admit I'm not a fan of love triangles but if done right I appreciate them and they entertain me, but here the romance part did not thrill me at all.

The thing I appreciated the most was finding all the beautiful characters that I missed so much, especially Kiki and Seryu ... I love them too much and I would read a book dedicated only to them!

In a nutshell, this sequel certainly made me return to the wonderful world created by Elizabeth Lim and made me find some characters that I had missed so much but it didn’t satisfy me and to be honest it also bored me a little.

Six Crimson Cranes certainly remains a beautiful book with a much more compelling storyline.
If you want to read my opinion on Six Crimson Cranes, here is the link to the Goodreads review: Six Crimson Cranes Review

Thanks to Netgalley, Hodder & Stoughton and Elizabeth Lim for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Dragons promise is the highly anticipated sequel to Six Crimson Cranes. It dives straight into how the first book in the duology ended with Shiori entering the realm of the dragons.

Shiori has to keep her promise to return the pearl to its rightful owner. With her dragon companion, Seryu she needs to take on the crafty dragons and return to Takkan so that she can finally defeat the demons in the mountain. The first third of this novel, set in the world of the dragons was a wonderful, exciting start to the book, the middle felt like it dragged on a bit but, it did really pick up towards the end. That said, I still devoured this book as though my life depended on it.

I truly love the characters that Lim has created, although I found Shiori's rash and headstrong decisions to be rather irritating at times. I adored the bonds between the siblings. The best aspect of this novel is the rich depictions of mythology and legend. I'm not sure it lived up to its predecessor, but TDP was a satisfying and exciting conclusion to this duology.

Thank you so much to the publishers and Netgalley for an arc of this wonderful novel.

I loved the first installment of the duology, so I was very excited to read this. Although it was very interesting and well written, it felt a little rushed. In my opinion, the story would have worked better, either as a trilogy, or as one book.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest review.

A BIG thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the opportunity to read this arc.

This review is spoiler free.

I literally read The Dragon’s Promise straight after finishing Six Crimson Cranes and I was looking forward to being able to continue Shiori’s story without endless waiting for a publication date. SCC was action packed and TDP doesn’t disappoint on the action front. A LOT is packed into the 456 pages and I mostly enjoyed it.

The plus points: Takkan, the journey to Ai’long and everything that happened during Shiori’s stay, Kiki, a nice little plot twist and finally learning more about Raikama and her early life. On the downside: we are introduced to a host of new characters who are barely developed leaving you wanting more, Shiori appears to have learned next to nothing from her adventures in SCC and is still behaving recklessly at every opportunity, blink and you miss Seryu who deserves more plot and, the biggest bugbear of all, the convenient wrapping up of every plotline in a nice neat bundle to complete the duology. I feel like there was enough material here for a trilogy. If all the new characters and locations had been developed further, we could have had the 'Empire Strikes Back' novel that most trilogies are given, ending with a mind blowing cliffhanger before sending the heroes off to conquer the bad guys forever in book three. On the other hand, SCC could also have easily been a standalone novel with a few adjustments. I feel that either option would’ve worked in the author’s favour over this effort to tie up the story in duology format. 3.5/5 stars

This is the second and final instalment to the ‘Six Crimson Cranes’ duology and unfortunately, I think Kim should have just left it with the first one! The premise of this novel is really engaging but entirely misleading. It starts with the protagonist’s adventure in the Dragon Kingdom, which I found really interesting and connected to a lot. But unfortunately, unlike the synopsis suggests this exploration of a new land last about 100 pages which are then followed by a series of random adventures for the rest of the 300 pages. It just didn’t flow well for me.

Also, I just didn’t connect with the characters or their romance. It seemed as if the love interest followed the protagonist blindly even though there was a lack of romantic connection - half of the time Shiori was pining for a dragon which she suddenly lost interest in after five minutes back in her homeland. Saying this, I did enjoy Shiori’s connection with Kiki as well as the writing style of the novel which is what ultimately connected me to the story. Sadly though, I don’t think I’d recommend this one as it just wasn’t for me!

TW: demons, violence, fire, death of a parent (mentioned), torture

Six Crimson Cranes was such a wonderful read and so naturally my expectations were high for this book and I got to say I was not disappointed! I definitely need to get physical copies of these two books 🪷💕

The Chinese mythology found in these novels are just so intriguing and beautiful. The author took these Chinese mythology elements and added her own fantasy elements, this was done well.

I enjoyed this duology and can definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for some magical young adult fantasy filled with some romance and adventure! 🪷🐉💖

Thank you @netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton publishers for sending me this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. Okay

4/5 🌟

Thank you so much to @hodderscape for sending me an eARC.

Six Crimson Cranes was one of my favourite books of 2021 so I was really looking forward to The Dragon’s Promise!

This book continues on from the adventure of Six Crimson Cranes. Princess Shiori made a promise but it’s no easy thing to fulfil and she’s being pulled in more than one direction. This book was full of adventure, political intrigue, magic, and of course dragons. I enjoyed the journey Shiori went on even though I did find her impulsive nature frustrating at times.

There was a lot packed into this one and a few interesting new characters were introduced. Sometimes things felt rushed to me but I do still think this was a great follow-up to Six Crimson Cranes. There was also still a heavy romance element like in book one. As someone who rarely reads books without any romance involved somewhere I enjoyed this.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to seeing what Elizabeth Lim writes next!

Rating: 4/5🌟
#TheDragonsPromise #NetGalley

I was so excited to get an Arc of this , this is a wonderful sequel, so magical and such a beautiful story. I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as Six Crimson Cranes, but it was still a fantastic read. I just find Elizabeth Lim’s writing so beautiful, almost lyrical and it’s just so easy to get swept away.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I was so delighted & excited to be #gifted this e-Advanced Reader Copy of The Dragon's Promise by @elimpix thanks to @hodderbooks & @netgalley

I devoured this one in a few days & it's every bit as fabulous as it's predecessor!

"Find the light that makes your lantern shine"

Brief synopsis ~
Shiori made a deathbed promise to return the dragon's pearl to its rightful owner, but keeping that promise is more dangerous than she ever anticipated.

She must venture to the kingdom of the dragons, navigate the political landscape in both the land of the dragons & humans alike while fending off thieves who covet the pearl for themselves. All while cultivating the appearance of a picture perfect princess to dissuade those who would see her burned at the stake for the magic that runs in her blood.

The pearl is no ordinary cargo; it thrums with malevolent power, jumping to Shiori's aid one minute & betraying her the next...

It will take every ounce of strength Shiori can muster to defend the life and the love she's fought so hard to win.

What I loved 😍
1️⃣ Kiki! She is just so precious & joyous to read!
2️⃣ Shiori - she is just an incredible heroine who I feel most people can relate to as she strives to protect those she loves ❤️
3️⃣ The Plot - so intricately woven! Just such a joy to read! Almost every twist & turn surprised me & left me wondering what would happen next - leaving me desperate to keep reading!
4️⃣ Seryu - I adored him even more in this book! I desperately want a spin off focusing on him & his adventures - I'd buy it immediately 🧡
5️⃣ Shiori's brothers - I loved learning more about them but again I would be so interested in spin offs about them - they're so interesting & wonderful 🧡
6️⃣ Takkan - just an utter delight to read! He's my new dream crush in a book 😍
7️⃣ Elang was so interesting!
8️⃣ The ending- just sublime!

A little fantasy checklist to encourage my fellow fantasy lovers to give it a go ✨️
✨️ magic ✔️
🌍 world building ✔️
💕 romance ✔️
🧡 family & found family love ✔️
⚔️ enthralling battles ✔️
🗡 strong lead character ✔️
🧡 cultural representation ✔️
🔮 mythical creatures ✔️

#TheDragonsPromise #NetGalley

"𝑰𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒔𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒄, 𝒊𝒕 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒔.."

After that cliffganger in Six Crimson Cranes, I was eagerly waiting for the second book in the duology 'The Dragon's Promise.' And boy!! It definitely did live up to the magic of it's predecessor.

Just like the first book, this is a truly lyrical fantasy world full of magic, amazing characters, dragons and demon gods. The writing is descriptive and eloquent. The first part of the story was interesting mainly focusing on Shiori, Kiki and Seryu, the dragon prince travelling to the Dragon Realm to return the broken pearl to the Dragon King. The plot was action packed, however, it lulled a bit in the second half and given the title, I really wanted to see more of Seryu in the book.

There were a couple of surprises here and there and the ending was bittersweet and was wrapped up in a neat way. Overall a great way to finish this duology.

The Dragon´s Promise was one of my most anticipated sequels of 2022 and overall, it did not fully disappoint me. While it felt (at least for me) quite different from the first book and I have some mixed feelings about certain things and the ending, I truly enjoyed diving back into Shiori´s world.

"A promise is not a kiss in the wind, to be thrown about without a care.”

The story picks up right where we left off… Shiori, accompanied by her devoted paper crane Kiki, going to the dragon realm with our shapeshifting boy dragon Seryu. The first approx 30% of the story which we spent in the underwater dragon kingdom felt a bit different and kind of disconnected from the rest of the book. And while I enjoyed the rest too and missed Takkan at the beginning, I think I prefer it. The dragon´s realm called Ai'long is magical and very dangerous at the same it. It´s full of ruthless dragons, giant turtles, and shark and jellyfish patrols. I loved seeing Shiori, Kiki, and Seryu navigate this sea world and the unexpected problems that came their way. It managed to enchant me and keep me on my toes. Overall, the first half of the book was incredibly enjoyable.

"Be it bright or dark, you are the light that makes my lantern shine."

The rest which could be described as the demon plot was still entertaining. I loved that we got to know more about Shiori´s stepmother, see more of the brothers, and reunite Shiori with Takkan but at the same time I missed Seryu and the underwater realm. On top of it, I missed Takkan´s sister who was an absolute delight in the first book. She is only mentioned there a few times and makes one brief appearance.

Nevertheless, thinking about the last ⅔ of the book, it felt a bit… underwhelming. I just think the first part of the story flew more naturally than the second where it started to be really complicated, yet kind of convenient, despite a certain level of recklessness of the characters. I still enjoyed it, it was not boring but I cannot overlook how convenient and kind of all over the place it felt. Shiori, Takkan, Kiki, and Shiori´s brothers are on the move most of the time, meandering from one place to the next. The stakes are HIGH and while the characters travel the realm to fulfill the quest and save Kiata from Bandur and his demons, they encounter many problems which take their toll, but in the end, it somehow feels a bit random and a bit much. While the plot was fine this time around -like I said, I enjoyed the book - it wasn't as great as I expected it to be.

In addition, let me say that Shiori is still an amazing main character, though still making a bit reckless choices, and I still love my precious lord Takkan. I felt their love and kept rooting for them but… yes, here comes the but… I think their romance was, kind of naturally, more intriguing in the first book. They are the sweetest but this time I missed more… spark. Speaking of romance, I was a bit concerned about the possibility of a love triangle and now I can assure those curious about it that it is not there.

While I cannot tell you much about the ending because of spoilers, I can safely say I feel VERY conflicted about it and it feels kind of bittersweet to me.

It was a pretty good enjoyable book but not as amazing as the first one - while I enjoyed it my heart was not in it AS FULLY AS it once has been, therefore I give it 4 stars instead of 5. My advice is… don't go into this with huge expectations, so you won't get disappointed.


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

I've really enjoyed this book, almost as much as the first one. A lot of second books in a series have middling syndrome, and I don't feel like this one did. It was a great book in and of itself.

We follow Shiori on a new adventure to keep a promise that she made to a loved on on their deathbed. She will do anything it takes to keep that promise and also to save her homeland from the demons threatening to invade. The question is, can she accomplish all of the dangerous tasks? With the help of her brothers and her betrothed, she might have a chance.

The twists and turns in this book were not massively surprising but still very good to follow. Though I was expecting the first part of the story to be a little more prolonged and for a certain dragon to take up a bit more of the story, I'm happy with how the story went and ended up.

I very much recommend, it's been a great journey to follow.

I was so excited to read The Dragon’s Promise, because I loved Six Crimson Cranes so much, and was chomping at the bit to read the sequel. I tried not to have too many expectations for this book, but, even so, it was a huge disappointment.

The Dragon’s Promise starts off slow, and doesn’t really pick up. For me, it felt like so much of the magic present in Six Crimson Cranes just didn’t make it into the sequel. The characters felt one-dimensional - these couldn’t be the same characters I’d loved in the previous book, could they? They felt so different. Shiori felt like she’d gone backwards in her character development, almost like the events of Six Crimson Cranes had never happened. Her relationship with Seryu felt off-kilter, at odds with the friendship they’d previously developed. Her romance was Takken was flat and dull.

The plot scattered across lots of conflicting storylines, and I was bored by all of them. There was no tension, no high-stakes action — every time Shiori got into trouble, things got resolved in bland and unbelievable ways. Even the magic system seemed watered-down and sparse. And I was disheartened by the dragons, which were so paper-thin and not as majestic, magical, or mythical as I’d hoped.

Between reading Six Crimson Cranes and this, I’d caught up on Lim’s other duology (Spin the Dawn/Unravel the Dusk), and whilst it was nice to see some solid connections between the two duologies, even these felt forced. The world-building, also, was lacklustre and I found myself consistently wanting more. I noticed that there was a pattern here — Unravel the Dusk had me feeling in a similar way, though not as extreme as this.

Overall, this book was disappointing — to the point where I cancelled my pre-order of the hardback edition, and I don’t think I’ll pick up another by this author.

I received an e-ARC from the publisher, Hodder & Stoughton, through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is the sequel to Six Crimson Cranes and I was really looking forward to reading the next instalment. The story is still magical and does give somewhat of a good end to the duology but I feel like it was a disappointment when compared to the first novel. It has so much potential with new plotlines but everything seemed to be rushed and wrapped up so quickly it was hard to see how they impacted the story and I wanted more from them.

The Dragon’s Promise feels unsure of itself. It is not quite sure of the kind of story it wants to tell with elements ranging from a misguided love triangle, wildly changing landscapes, an undeveloped magic system and the worst culprit of all: a monolithic Asian culture.

The Dragon’s Promise starts right where we left off with Six Crimson Cranes with Shiori following Seryu into his homeland, the kingdom of dragons where Shiori promises to give the dragon’s pearl Raikama held to Seryu’s grandfather, the king of dragons. I’m not entirely certain why we even had this plot to begin with because Shiori didn’t even intend to hand the pearl over; she had made a promise to Raikama to return the pearl to it’s rightful owner. A series of unfortunate incidents happen where Shiori attempts to escape and is captured, escapes and is captured and finally, she is forced into a short-lived engagement with Seryu. The whole situation in the kingdom of dragons feels predatory and leaves a bad taste in my mouth. By this point, Seryu’s character has gotten fairly annoying: he’s no longer the charming magic mentor Shiori relied on previously. Instead, a strange non-love triangle is introduced where Seryu confesses his feelings for Shiori and she turns him down because of her love for Takkan. Things happen and Shiori finds herself back in Kiata, reunited with her brothers and Takkan. From there, another series of absurd events finds Shiori, Takkan and her brothers traipsing across the world from kingdom to kingdom to defeat Bandur.

This duology shouldn’t have existed. It should have stopped at Six Crimson Cranes because The Dragon’s Promise feels frustratingly repetitive. It’s tired, overdone and exhausted from running in circles. The atmospheric writing does nothing for how rehashed this plot is: girl fights big bad guy, big bad guy uses the love of her life as a weapon and takes away her power, girl is dejected, girl suddenly discovers something new or finds some new strength and the plot goes on. You know how this ends. At this point, The Dragon’s Promise feels like a mishmash of all the ideas that were developed during plotting lumped together in a giant novel to make up the word count.

The plot sees the characters running rapidly from place to place, never stopping long enough for any sort of meaningful worldbuilding to happen. I would have loved to learn more about Seryu’s homeland; the politics and magic of the dragons, even though unnerving was fascinating. Shiori and her crew also make a stop in Raikama’s homeland; it was an incredibly beautiful, poignant and meaningful trip but it was so short and it seemed more to serve the fast-moving plot than to create a connection with the characters.

Furthermore, none of the characters are particularly likeable. Shiori frequently got on my nerves; this is a character that has not learned anything from her past experiences. So, why write them in? She’s impulsive and not in the cool way. Takkan, as with all of Lim’s male characters, serves to provide the arm candy for the manic pixie dream girl main character and is boring. With the kind of political power Takkan has, I wish we had seen him grow into his royal shoes. Shiori’s brothers who were the focus of the first book are sorely underutilised here as well. Seryu, as I mentioned, grew insufferable. Maybe I could like Kiki more but she’s never been my favourite character; her sassiness seems forced in an attempt to give Shiori a cool sidekick. The Dragon’s Promise introduced a character who I guess was supposed to be funny and charming but did not match the atmosphere and felt out of place. There came a point when I sided with Bandur because I could not find any redeeming qualities in these characters.

I think my biggest issue with The Dragon’s Promise compared to the Spin the Dawn (link) duology is how the cultural representation is written from a Western lens. And, I don’t particularly like to mention or focus on authors when I do my reviews but it’s hard to do so when Elizabeth Lim is Asian herself. The culture in The Dragon’s Promise is incredibly monolithic and disappointing. It just reinforces the idea that Asian cultures are interchangeable with one another. In The Dragon’s Promise, they’re all lumped together from Chinese, Japanese and so on and a bunch of other fantasy-inspired elements. I can’t tell what’s Japanese, what’s Chinese, what’s North Chinese. Furthermore, none of the “cultural” elements introduced are unique to any one culture and screams Asian aesthetic to me from the royal courts, the monks, the gardens.

Perhaps, the one redeeming quality it has is that it’s so readable. Or perhaps it’s because I wanted to get through it so badly that I just freight-trained the whole book. I’m only giving this three stars because I can’t find anything truly atrocious and it may just be a matter of opinion.

Conclusion: Did I Enjoy It?

I don’t know. I liked reading it but I often felt as if I was reading an entirely different series. The Dragon’s Promise did not seem to keep with the themes and worldbuilding it introduced in Six Crimson Cranes and it’s a shame because there was something quite magical about it’s predecessor.

*2.5 stars, rounded up

Six Crimson Cranes was magical in all the right ways, and it made me expect great things from The Dragon's Promise. After all, wouldn't Shiori be travelling to the fabled underwater realm of dragons, the "most beautiful kingdom in the world" that made "Gindara look like a decrepit old village" (in Seryu's words)? Despite my reservations regarding the first book, I had no complaints about the plot itself, so I envisioned a similar engaging plotline in the second.

What I got instead was two disjointed stories failing to unify as one complete plot. The first fifteen chapters dealt with the promise Shiori had made in the first book: that she would bring the pearl to Nazayun, the Dragon King. Without this one throwaway line, these fifteen chapters would not even need to exist, since they served very little purpose within the greater plot of the novel. Their connection to the rest of the story was tenuous at best: a little knowledge regarding the Wraith and half a mirror shard were all that really carried forward into the sixteenth chapter onwards. Elang was never seen again. Ladies Solzaya and Nahma were never seen again. King Nazayun was never seen again. Seryu was never heard again, a fact that greatly disappointed me considering how he didn't feature much in the first book either. Gen stayed—for another fifteen chapters—but he didn't really do much save give Shiori some information that she could have found out in any other way had the underwater adventure never existed.

The issue here is that this underwater adventure was the only part of the book I liked. The dragon kingdom lived up to my expectations of it, filled with bright color and glamor and sinister motives underlying them both. It helps that I'm particularly biased towards Seryu, a fun-loving character who showed in this book that he has a serious side, too, and is ready to fight for what—and who—he believes is right. Shiori and Seryu get along well, even without the added romance subplot, which made me wish he'd been around for longer, even if it meant clashing with Takkan directly rather than simply grouching about him to the princess. Once the two said their goodbyes, the main plot began—and little of it was engaging. It did not succeed in gripping my attention the way the plot in its prequel did, and for a good portion of it I felt like I was reading simply to complete the book, not to see how the story unfolded.

While the novel itself is pretty medium-paced, the characters are constantly in motion. As soon as one problem is resolved, another must immediately be tackled. This may help avoid lulls in the story that would make a reader lose focus, but they also create a fast-paced atmosphere that tires one while reading. Even seemingly serene moments, like Shiori baking cakes in Sundau, don't last for longer than a few paragraphs before some new calamity befalls the cast of characters. I know this pace mimics Shiori's own nature, but she isn't as impulsive now as she was in the beginning of the duology, so maybe the reader should also be given a break sometimes, right?

If the book had revolved more strongly around the kingdom of dragons, this could have been a wonderful sequel. As it was, it felt unnecessary, and made me wonder if Six Crimson Cranes would not have been better off as a standalone, a few chapters longer than it is currently in order to tie up loose ends.

my rating: 4/5 stars

Thank you so much to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for providing a copy of this e-arc in exchange for my honest review!

I really love Six Crimson Cranes so I was really happy when I got approved!! <3 I have a high expectation of The Dragon's Promise, and I have to say I was a little bit disappointed by it. The Dragon's Promise starts right where Six Crimson Cranes ended.

Here are what I love about The Dragon's Promise:
- The setting! Just like Six Crimson Cranes and The Blood of Stars duology, Elizabeth Lim really did it with writing the setting and the atmosphere!
- The backstory of a certain character! I just have one word to say about it. OMG!
- The characters! We meet again with some characters from Six Crimson Cranes and I love to see their character development! Also, I was really surprised with one specific character from The Blood of Stars duology that I love dearly!
- The ending for me is perfect!

What I don't really like:
- The plot and storyline were kinda all over the place. I really enjoy the setting and Shiori's adventure in the dragon realm, but it was just for the first 20% of the book. Wish we could see more of the dragon realm.
- I don't really understand why it is necessary to put the love triangle thing to happen. I think it would be fine if Shiori and Seryu stay as friends, but thank goodness the love triangle doesn't really continue until the end of the book.

Overall I still think it's a good sequel for Six Crimson Cranes!