As with many fantasy books I've read this year, the premise was very interesting but the characters were lacklustre and the worldbuilding was often convoluted.

I really, really enjoyed this book. This is the kind of story you need to read if you're entering a Fourth Wing/Iron Flame slump! Would definitely recommend!

This book just wasn't for me. I went in without any expectations, except DRAGONS, and I ended up having to read some synthesises to understand what was happening and to keep some motivation. I'm sorry overall this book was too slow, not enough dragon, and not quite a writing style I enjoy to read.

A really enjoyable read with a good level of world building and good character development. I will definitely be looking to read more by this author

This book is the ultimate hype for fantasy lovers.

Dragons were living in the mortal realm where they were ruling as gods. But long ago, the humans betrayed the dragons, stole their magic and banished them in a harsh dying world. Years later, dragons are worshiped as gods and magic is used to classify people’s class in the mortal world.

The main character, Arcady, in order to create a place for her in the nobility will steal an old powerful artifact. However, using the artifact will bring to her world the last male dragon, Everen. Everen that is the last hope to save his kind, needs to gain the trust of the Arcady in order to fulfil his destiny. The more they get to know each other, the more complicated things get for them achieving their goals.

This read really was very special for me. I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of it. I liked the characters. They are strong willed and determined to prove themselves. The culture dynamics of both human & dragon worlds. The magic system was easy to understand and follow. The world building is just much enough to animate it in your head. The writing and prose were amazing and the ending wasn’t predictable ( which doesn’t happen often) and didn’t reveal anything for the sequel which makes you craving for more. Overall, an excellent experience reading this!

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for a e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars
This is one of the books that have a great premise but unfortunately felt really flat for me. I was really drawn with the description of this book and obviously the title and the cover. From the start, I was having a hard time to understand and get through this book. I really love a fantasy books with an amazing world-building and detailed writing, but for this book I find the detailed writing doesn't help me to understand this book more. The characters fell flat for me. The swit ching POV between the characters also one thing that I don't like from this book.

I don't know wether I'm going to read the next book or not.

If you picked up Dragonfall to read about dragons (with them literally being the cover and in the title), beware, there isn’t actually a lot of dragon content. Everen is the last male dragon, pulled through the veil from his home when Arcady performs a spell using a powerful artefact, the spell linking the 2. The problem is that for the majority of the book Everen is in human form to not be detected. While this could change as the books go on, as this is only book 1 in a trilogy and yes the ending does finally get quite busy and promising, this book focuses more on performing a heist using their combined skills than anything you expect it to be about.

Lam is very focused on gender issues which of course is absolutely fine although has been addressed more subtly elsewhere, however the vagueness in the writing when describing particularly Arcady makes it quite difficult to picture them in your mind. Throughout the book I don’t even know if I liked Arcady, I just couldn’t get a grasp of them as a rounded, vulnerable character. Everen at least reads like a dragon, he’s predatory in the sense that he wants something from Arcady and sets out to manipulatively get it, he’s cunning and arrogant at times. But he does also feel the more rounded of the characters, including Sorin the dragon hunter with a vow of silence who, sadly, doesn’t really contribute anything.

The writing style is also a little off putting, jumping from 1st, 2nd or 3rd person, which gets a little messy and confusing as the book goes on.
Of course as I’ve already said, plenty of grumbles or criticisms could easily be addressed as the series continues, including character depth and development as well as greater focus on the dragons and magic system.
Unfortunately I don’t think I will be continuing the weird to find out though. Thank you NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received this free by the ou lis her via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The book's summary drew me in; I never say no to dragons.

I have little to say about the story, it was certainly rather slow, especially the first 200 pages, but it's still an ok read.

I did, however, have a lot of trouble with the prose and the writing in general, which I didn't connect with. This was definitely one of the reasons why I didn't finish it until recently.

I usually love second-person point of view, but here I found it didn't fit with the overall mood at all.

All in all, a book that could have done better. I don't think I'll be reading Volume 2.

I really enjoyed the world building and uniqueness of this queer normative fantasy story about a dragon, a human and a prophecy. I loved the description of Everen and how they were able to change from dragon to human and the ‘in-between’ characteristics.

It was a really interesting plot where dragons despise humans who caused huge damage to their World and powers, but as centuries have passed humans have come to look at the memory of Dragons as Gods. Everen, the last male dragon is in search of saving his World when he drops through the veil into the human world.

This does have the feel of enemies to lovers with the anguish of cannot touch without causing pain. The magic was intriguing and I definitely want to learn more about it!

‘Books were thresholds, and you could cross them and leave yourself behind, or use what you found inside to transform into someone else.‘

I really liked the ending of Dragonfall which was intense, full of little nuggets and left you waiting for the next book!

‘Even the tiniest cinder can be nursed back into a flame.‘

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

If there are dragons involved, consequently so am I.
I admit, Dragonfall is not the novel of the century, but it kept me entertained.
There are some things I liked, others a little less.
Despite a not bad start, I am honestly curious to read the sequel .

I was looking forward to reading Dragonfall and I was not disappointed. The dragon is in the title, how can I not?

I struggled with some parts of the book, while others were extremely engaging and entertaining. The premise was very interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC copy of this book, in exchange for this honest review.

Dragonfall was such a great read so I feel bad about not having been able to review it… So I’m going to give it a try and hope it’s not too incoherent. But I’ll start with this: if you’ve been looking for queernormative high fantasy, try this book.

In Dragonfall a dragon, stuck in a humanoid form after falling from his homeworld in another dimension, has to work together with human thief Arcady — to strengthen their bond, and then kill them. The story is told through multiple perspectives, with the framing device of being compiled by an unkown archivist. This is one of the things I loved, but that put off a lot of readers in the more negative reviews I’ve seen.

Another complaint I noticed is the amount of ‘infodumping’ at the start, which surprised me because I thought the worldbuilding was set up in a very organic way for a high fantasy… So I’m guessing those last words are key. If you’re used to reading books from writers like Robin Hobb, or worse (/teasing) Tolkien, this kind of worldbuilding set up is probably second nature to you. If you’re me it’s one of your favourite parts of the genre.

I could tell you about the painfully slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance (they can’t touch! because it hurts because of magic!), but I wanted to centre my review on the stuff I liked that some other people didn’t. Not to hate on those people, because tastes differ and that’s fine! Just to show that one person’s turn-off can be another person’s favourite thing.

I loved the setting, the characters, the magic system, everything and especially the ‘weird’ stuff. More please! Where is the fanart of dragons and dragon people! Send it to me! I will be over here, patiently waiting for the sequel.

So parts of this book I enjoyed and parts I really struggled with. I found the take of gender very interesting, the religion about the dragons intriguing and I enjoyed the tension between the main characters. I did find it way too infodumpy in the beginning, the different povs confusing and that the story dragged in parts.

TL;DR I loved Dragonfall. It was like a magical Ocean’s Eleven with dragons.

In this queernorm world, gender is not assumed, instead citizens default to they/them for strangers and the capitalised version They/Them in the honorific if they are respected or in a higher class.

There was a clever use of a mix of narrative perspectives from 1st person for Arcady, 3rd person for secondary characters to the more unusual 1st person direct address (or 2nd person), written to “you” (Arcady) for Everen.

As you can probably tell, when you first start reading, there is a lot to take in, but for me it just meant slowing down and really concentrating, which you don’t necessarily want to do in a fantasy (you want to be swept away) but in this case it was worth it.

Despite the heavy start, it got to the crux of the plot quite quickly, which I liked. It grounded the reader, you knew exactly what was happening, you knew everyone's agendas and that of course, things would not go as expected.

Moving through the story I loved the heist parts, they were fun and entertaining and anything to do with the dragons, of course. The slow progression of Everen and Arcady’s relationship was artfully done. I thought the dynamic between them felt fresh despite being the familiar ‘enemies to lovers’ trope.

All in all, I found it deeply entertaining, swoon worthy in parts and that ending…I did not see it coming!

3.5 stars

Dragonfall follows three main pov characters, Arcady, Everen and Sorin.

Whilst trying to cast a spell to steal a powerful artefact that will give Them more power, Arcady accidentally bonds Themself to Everen, who unknown to Them is a dragon.

Everen is the only male dragon for hundreds of years and has to navigate the human world that he knows very little about, amongst the humans he hates.

Sorin is a religious fanatic serving Magnes, killing and spying for him whilst under a vow of silence.

There is a heist, slow burn enemies-to-lovers-enemies romance that gets a little tense as they can’t touch each other. There’s betrayal, friendship, found family between Arcady and Kelwyn.

The book was very slow to start and info-dumpy to start, and I personally feel it could have started at least a chapter or two later than it did. There were three narrative styles, first person, second person and third person. Once I got into the flow of it I actually enjoyed switching between them and thought the second person was done really well.


There were elements of this book that I really enjoyed . The dragon bond was explored in an interesting way, especially with the dragons being able to take a human-esq shape.

Themes of gender were explored, however I feel that they could have been explored a little deeper in the nature of show don’t tell, having the concept as casual representation (which is the direction I thought it was going). In a small country where gender isn’t assumed and there is a specific sign language used for each gender (so every one goes by they/them unless asked) it would have been interesting to explore this deeper, how has fashion evolved because of this? Why are there specific gendered clothing if no one really discusses gender and those expectations don’t exist? How does this effect politics in the world? If Arcady has lived in this world where gender doesn’t matter since birth did they really need to have a discussion about what non binary meant? It felt like the author not trusting the reader with the concept.

Thank you NetGalley, Harper Collins and the author for the arc copy for review.

Dragonfall, aka the Sexy Dragon Book, is one of my favourites of recent years. I can't wait to find out what happens next with Everen and Arcady!

Thank you so much for accepting my request for this novel.

This novel had me hooked from the first page. I enjoyed the storyline and the characters were fantastic.
It's fantastically written and the details were perfect.

this was such a gripping book! i took such a long time reading it as i really did not want it to end - i haven’t read a fantasy book like this in such a long time. i devoured this book and i was on the edge if my seat the entire time.

this is a fantasy book that gives you everything: dragons, thieves, GODS, everything. there is so much representation in this book and the world building was fantastic. normally with fantasy books, i can get quite lost because of the world building but this is not the case here.

GIVE ME BOOK TWO RIGHT NOW!!!

Dragonfall is a hard book to review, as there is so much going on with this one. Just to name a few things, it's establishing a bigger, wider story than just this volume (yes, it's part of a series), it's got a fairly audacious plot in itself, it introduces us to Arcady and Everen, two fascinating and deep characters (but to some others as well) and it gives a glimpse of a fascinating and convincing world (well, two actually).

Central to all this is I think the Arcady-Everen relationship. Arcady is a familiar kind of fantasy chancer - a thief and a con artist living by wits, the enemy of the authorities in the city of Vatra and of its underworld, but happily half a dozen steps ahead of both. He also has secrets, including kinship to the Plaguebringer, the most reviled magician of recent times, a relationship for which Arcady would be proscribed and shunned were it known. Arcady is determined to vindicate his grandfather, and will do whatever it takes - theft, dark magic, betrayal - to achieve that. Or at least he believes so. The first step he takes on this road - a forbidden spell worked late one night - sets events in motion.

Everen is a dragon, exiled with his kind to a bleak, dying world and believing that he is born to save his people. Caught up in the backdraft of Arcady's magic, he falls into Vatra. His relationship with Arcady is based on a magical entanglement that remains mysterious through much of the book - variously a source to both of strength, of weakness, of knowledge and of great peril. Others on the periphery of the story may be aware of events and manipulating them: or they may themselves be deceived, manipulated. There's a lot hinted at that doesn't exactly come to fruition here, rather the story closely follows the two central characters as they come to terms with who and what they are (or may be - there are no certainties!)

The balance between Everen and Arcady, underpinned by equal parts fascination, dread, longing and hostility, is a kind of barometer of this book, the main event (apart from some episodes of showy magic and a heist that brings Arcady unwillingly back into the fold of his former criminal associates). It's a complex, fascinating affair, one that certainly has romantic overtones but which is also deeply, richly explored in terms of their backgrounds and motivations - which in both cases make any kind of Happy Ever After rather problematic. Indeed it has complications that would make Romeo and Juliet seem one dimensional by comparison, as both Everen and Arcady have personal and immediate, rather than just familial, reasons for fearing the other. The drive to betrayal, as well as a powerful urge not to, is strong and I was genuinely uncertain how things would turn out.

The relationship between the two is only made more tricky by the fact that they lack complete, or even much, knowledge of what's going on, being, rather, fed scraps by others determined to manipulate: and not all these others are actually in plain sight. (I'm being a bit vague here to avoid spoilers).

It all makes for a powerful, involving, even if at times frustrating, novel which shows signs of growing into something rich, strange and fascinating.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This book took a little while to get going to me, and I didn't connect with the writing style completely. I was interested in the narrative choices in terms of the character perspectives you experience, though I think you really needed more of the Sorin character. This seems very much like a scene-setting book and suffers a little due to this. Perhaps the plot will be more driven in the next book.