I didn’t fall as in love with this book as I expected and honestly considered not finishing the book several times before I hit the 20% mark. However, I’m glad I pushed through because I ended up enjoying this book a lot.

My main problem at the beginning was that Everen’s point of view especially felt almost clinical and cut off from all feelings, it made it really hard for me to get through the first 20% of the book because I was bored, to be honest. There was also the fact that I didn’t care at all for Cassia and Sorin’s point of views, so I was often frustrated to have to read their part just when I was getting invested in Arcady and Everen’s stories.

After the point where the two protagonists met, I really enjoyed reading about the way their relationship grew, the way they learned about each other and their dilemmas.

The world building was deep and well-done, the different ways history was remembered and written according to who was writing it was interesting. I especially liked the fact that this was a queer-normative and inclusive world and the author included clever and simple ways to show how easy this could be.

And of course, the final revelations made me want to read the second book because I really want to see how everything is going to play out.

In the city of Vatra, where the dragons are worshipped as gods, a desperate thief, Arcady, steals an artefact from the grave of the hated Plaguebringer. When he used it for a spell, it pierces through the Veil to reach the realm of the dragons. The dragons, not gods but exiles from Arcady’s world, constantly look for a way back. The spell connects with Everen, the last male dragon, prophesied to save his kind. He is transported through the Veil and takes a human disguise form to get closer to Arcady, as only completing their bond could help his kin return to Vatra...

Dragonfall is an exciting enemies-to-lovers position with lots of action, intrigues, thieves and heists. And dragons, obviously. I found world-building fascinating. There are actually two worlds, divided by the Veil and two different versions of the shared history. The dragons are always at the centre. Interestingly, the LGBTQIA and gender fluid representation is strong in this book, and the use of sign language is common.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder Stoughton for proving me with an ARC of this book, which is out 02/05/23.

I was eagerly awaiting this one and I am still surprised that it hasn’t been a suspected subscription book box pick as it has all the hallmarks of one. Epic fantasy part 1 of a trilogy, queer representation, romance and dragons! Sign me up!

I had VERY high expectations.

The story is a multi-POV, from several viewpoints. You have Arcady, the human thief who is the last of the family line that ruined the world and wants to clear their family name, first step pulling off one last heist to make enough money to attend University. Then you have Everen, the last male shape-shifting dragon who is pulled through into Arcady’s world, where he may save it or destroy it. Then there are a few lesser points of view from Sorin, the assassin acolyte and Cassia, the dragon heir to the throne presumptive and Everen’s sister. Very exciting stuff.

In reality, this was a very mixed bag initially. There was a lot of info dumping at the beginning, which made it hard to get into. The world building was interesting, at least for the human side. I loved the idea of a post-dystopian world where humans had a small amount of stolen dragon magic and where the priests pretty much ruled the roost. I loved the inclusion of sign language as part of their everyday language and this had a plausible explanation.

I found the idea of a gender-flexible society fascinating, but I did feel that other novels I have read recently have explored gender flexibility in a way that was a little less confusing. This is obviously a current topic and one that is a little controversial to discuss - and a lot of fantasy and sci-fi authors are exploring these themes in their literature at the moment. ‘They’ pronouns were used to good effect in this book, but pairing it with a lack of description of the characters in general meant I had no mental picture of what our protagonists looked like at all until almost halfway through the book, which meant I found it hard to connect with them and was left trying to fill in a lot of blanks. There are descriptors you can use without gendering a character - like for example it would have been good to know earlier on Arcady’s build and height for example, whether their hair was long or short etc. I learnt halfway through that they were adrogynous looking, but this would have been better described earlier on in the book.

There were other gaps as well - Everin uses the word ‘wingspan’ to denote the size of something in the book, but we do not know what size wings are on these dragons so how is this a good indicator of size???

The dragon world-building was also a bit sparse and I would have loved to have found out more. Hopefully this is something the author is planning to explore more in books 2 and 3.

I did enjoy the romance in this book and it was deliciously slow and very well-written and showed tenderness, rather than spice - which was refreshing. I did however guess the ending a mile off.

3 stars - I read an ARC of this book and while some things might be changed before future release, this is the first ARC I’ve read that felt like I was still reading a draft and considering I’m reviewing a week before release, I’m not sure that’s a good sign. I did enjoy it and I will read the rest of the books in the series, but I will be surprised if this book ends up being in my top 10 for this year.

Top quotes:

“Fear and fury were fist-fighting, and I hated that fear was better at the uppercuts.”

“I do not fear these bones.”

“We had loved humans to our ruin.”

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

“Gender was a language I had not learnt to speak.”

“Maybe I want you to hurt me.”

**
I think I had expected this to be Big High Fantasy - sweeping epics, ancient prophecies, courts - and whilst some of it certainly has this feel, Lam contrasts this sharply by bringing you right down to earth with a thud, much like Everen. The last male dragon is suddenly plunged into the human world, tangling his life up with that of a (not-so-common) thief.

It was unexpectedly cosy as you see through Everen’s eyes the strange simplicities of a mortal trying to survive; and on the other hand, following Arcady, wonder what to make of this strange magic even as they desperately seek to reclaim a place for themself.

Despite dancing from one perspective to another, Lam manages to give both main protagonists a clear and distinct voice. No doubt as Lam intended, I found myself rooting first for one protagonist then the other - and desperately wishing for some way for their conflicting desires to reconcile.

Couple this with a slow and gentle burn - more of a smoulder - as Lam tantalisingly reveals more and more slivers of the mystery shading their worlds - and you have what I can only describe as a romance, in the oldest meaning: a quest where the characters are called upon to show both love and bravery.

Featuring:
- thieves and heists!
- shapeshifting!
- mysterious plague and afflictions!
- flawed religion and secret history!
- genderfluidity, goodbye strict binaries!
- soulfully attractive dragon!
- We’re not PARTNERS we’re just WORKING TOGETHER ok? because we have to (aka forced proximity)

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for an ARC!

AHHHHHHHH sexy dragon gender queer magic bonds betrayals family trauma ancient secrets !!!!!!!! Literally what else could you ask for?? I read this in a day. Then I immediately went to preorder it because a) I love it and b) it comes with extra stuff which is always exciting. This is, perhaps, my dream book. Part of me is vindictively angry that I didn't write it, but I can't be that mad because I loved reading it. I am already so psyched for the rest of the series!!! I need to know what happens!!!

That being said, the ending was still really well resolved which I appreciate. I'm not a big fan of books in a series ending with a massive cliffhanger or no answers because that's frustrating. Dragonfall ended by giving me a decent conclusion for the immediate events that happened but not the ongoing goals/quests of the characters.

Speaking of characters: I loved them. Arcady and Everen are my absolute favorites. My favorite chapters might have been Everen's because I like him and I also like the way he talks about Arcady. Cassia is my third favorite because she is a dragon and a lot of her stuff has to do with Everen as well. Cassia chapters always make me feel like I need to put on my detective hat to connect threads. Sorin was my least favorite, but I do still like her. It's more because I personally have less interest in her acolyte archetype than the others, so it has nothing to do with the writing and everything to do with me.

Plus I love tension and sexual energy and that stuff is riveting between Arcady and Everen. I- ugh. No spoilers, but it's my favorite kind of spice. I was literally reading parts with bated breath.

The concept of gender in the books is so good as well. It's groundbreaking without being groundbreaking somehow. If you're part of the alphabet mafia or just read and examined a lot about gender, the way it's portrayed in Dragonfall makes perfect sense and isn't surprising as an idea. However, it's so new to see it actually used in a story. It's excellent, it's wonderful, it healed little cracks in my heart, and Arcady is perfect.

There's even more I could say about this book but I'd be getting into spoiler territory and I don't want to do that, so you'll have to read it yourself to know what I'm talking about. Also, when I went to bed after reading this, I dreamed about dragons.

Combine a brimming fantasy world, dragons and a heist and you get DRAGONFALL as a result.

Filled with high stakes, adventure, tension, this book kept me on edge until the very last page. Such a promising start to a series, with so many opportunities to character developement, expanding the world. The ever changing POV's make the storyline/perspective really interesting - never have I ever read something like this before, but I must admit, after a few confusing chapters I was really into it!

I really enjoyed the queer rep in this book, how easily it fit to this fantasy setting! All in all, it was a pleasant read for me ( I can easily obsess over Everen and Arcady and everything they do!!!). Cannot wait for more!!

Thank you so much Hodder and Stougton for providing this ARC !

Unfortunately this one wasn’t for me, I found the pacing too variable, some parts dragged while others felt rush, the introduction of so many points of view/ especially in the latter section pulled me from the interesting parts. I found the characters hard to engage with and didn’t warm to them. As much as I wanted to love this story it just fell flat for me.

Very adventurous heist fantasy with dragons.

This book had some nice worldbuilding features and some good character moments, but, ultimately, wasn't for me. It was mostly dragonlore and heist, neither of which is particularly my preference, but I can see fans of "The Lies of Locke Lamora" liking this.
The queer-normative world was interesting, but I did not like the constant changes in writing style (three points of view, three different writing styles: first person, first person addressing a you and third person). I also found one of the point of views very uninteresting, and the first half of the book very slow and descriptive.
The final twist was somewhat interesting, but not enough for me to read the next.

"Dragonfall" is a very promising start to a new series. I enjoyed the characters, the writing, and the story. I did feel like I was missing something though, and I'm entirely sure the fault lies with me and not the book. I'm looking forward to seeing where book 2 takes us (I may reread this one before I grab the second... Just in case).

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

I really wish I could have liked this book because I loved the cover and the premise and themes of gender identity, but the world building was confusing, and it was too slow paced for me. I felt I had to force myself to read it.

I had to DNF at 40 percent because I still wasn't enjoying it. I skipped to the end to read the last few chapters to make sure, but it still didn't capture my attention.

I think there was a lot of unnecessary filler at the beginning and think the main characters should have started interacting sooner. But even the enemies to lovers trope didn't interest me enough to continue because, by that point, I had already zoned out.

Firstly, the cover of this book is stunning. Secondly, I love the character representation in this book.

Overall, this book had a great premise, and the blurb immediately drew me in. However, I feel like this book just didn't hit the spot for me.

I do completely understand that fantasy novels need to world build. It's an unspoken rule. It's what happens, and I'm not mad at that. It becomes a problem, though, if in the first half of the book, that's all that happens and the lack of our main characters meeting which is something else that bugged me, more on that in a second. The world building in this book was just two much.

This book is from two characters, POV's. The cool thing is that one of them is a dragon this is fine, except the style in which this is written made me feel increasingly stupid, which is annoying because these chapters kept me wanting to read more.

This book had a diverse in characters, and I liked that, but the plot feels like it doesn't pick up until the second half of the book, to which it then disappears again.

A good read, if you really like to read about world building.

"I will share how I fell. But first, I must tell you what it is like to fly."

I was so happy when I was approved for the ebook on Netgalley - I heard dragons, and I was automatically invested.

From the explanation of the five gods, I was hooked and full of questions. Boy did those questions grow as the novel progressed. Why did the humans betray the dragons? Why then revere them as gods? What vengeance do the dragon 'gods' have planned?

Arcady and Everen have beautiful character development as they begin to explore their relationship and face both the human and dragon world together. They both managed to steal my heart - I was rooting for them the moment Arcady brings Everen to the human world.

A truly spectacular read.

Unfortunately I DNF'd this book at 30%.
This was quite disappointing because I usually love anything that contains dragons!
For me, the two most important things that are required in a fantasy story are 1) a detailed world build, and 2) a well-explained magic system.
With Dragonfly, I found the world build very hard to follow and vague in places. There really wasn't much detail and only vague references or offhand remarks which felt very confused.
The Magic system didn't seem to be very thoroughly explained at all, and left me with a lot of questions - How? Why? When? to what purpose? A lot of it felt very confused and complicated and without a more thorough explanation, it was difficult to understand how the magic works and its significance within the story.
Going on from this, I feel that the author may have had their priorities wrong. There were several pages, for example, explaining how pronouns are used in this world - which I can quite easily say in 2 sentences. Also, why did we need several pages describing the type of fruit that were being offloaded from the ships? what did that add to the story? The detail for these examples was unnecessary and should have been focused more on the world build/magic.
The pacing was extremely slow - which made the story sluggish and boring.
Very disappointing because I really wanted to love this.

As a long time lover of any fantasy novel featuring dragons, I had to request this one as soon as I saw it.

This is fantasy on an epic scale with dragons, magic, different worlds and betrayal. Eons ago, dragons and humans lived together and shared magic. Then the humans got greedy and betrayed the dragons, stealing their magic and exiling them to a dying world. The dragons have survived, just but there is only one male dragon left and he is the subject of a prophecy and might save the whole dragon race.

The story begins with Everen hunting the prophecy that he has so far been unable to see. He is a failure as he is supposed to be a great seer but is unable to foresee anything so he is trying to force the prophecy to come true. He manages to break through the veil back into the world where the dragons came from but he loses his true dragon form and is stuck in the near human form that the dragons can also assume.

The story is then told in alternating points of view by Everen, the human Arcady and the young girl Sorin who works for the mysterious Dragon Order. It’s actually basically a heist story as Everen helps Arcady to steal a valuable dragon relic which is also wanted by the Dragon Order. The story is extremely well-plotted and builds to an exciting climax.

I liked both of the main characters. The non-binary aspect of Arcady is really well done and I loved the part where they say that they could identify as male or female if they absolutely had to but in doing so, they would lose part of themselves. I also liked Everen and his struggles with his increasing attraction to Arcady knowing that he must betray them to save his people.

The world building is good but I wanted so much more. I really wanted to know more about the world where the dragons were exiled to and the events that led up to their exile. However, that is just me being greedy and there was quite enough detail for the story to flow well.

This was a brilliant opening volume to a new trilogy and I can’t wait to read the next instalment. I’m really grateful to Net Galley and the publishers, Hodder and Stougton for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hooder & Stoughton and L.R. Lam for providing me with an ARC of Dragonfall.

This is a wonderful fantasy book, that is, obviously, based on a dragon story telling. It found the dragon myths and overarching framing of the magical world to be interesting. I found the characters interesting but I wasn't emotionally invested in any of them really. This is not the fault of the writer, I just don't think that i was lusting to consume a high story story at the time I read it. That has not impacted my rating as I am sure that people wanting to read a dragon fantasy will love it.

I really enjoyed the queer and non-binary representation that occurs in this world. It is amazing that in 2023 we can have fantasy authors create fantasy worlds that are not subjected to our same hetronormative/cisnormative world. The queer romance was not a huge component of this book, it is much more a heist meets fantasy mystery read.

The big question - would I continue the series/trilogy(?). I believe so. I think having invested the time in this read that there is plenty of entertainment to be had out of the future books. But i would consume them when I was keen for a fantasy.

Releasing on 2 May 2023 - will post to socials closer to release date.

A most heartfelt thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for giving me a chance to read Dragonfall by L.R.Lam in exchange for my honest opinion.

An amazing first installement for an epic fantasy trilogy, Dragonfall takes flight with an artfully written story full of magic, intrigue and complicated characters.
A multi pov narration, focusing mostly on Everen -a dragon falling into the mortal realm- and Arcady -a thief with a secret and a mission for revenge- in a world where dragons are thought gods, unravelling a story filled with prophecy, treachery and danger that leaves you wanting more.
The thing I personally loved the most was by far the use of gender neutral/ non binary pronouns and the way gender in general was dealt with as a concept. Due to the fact that dragons have no concept of gender the way humans do, the scene that stuck out to me was the one where Everen was taught the meaning behind each signed gender (he/she/any) and even more so the sentence "It's polite enough to check [don't just assume]".
Furthermore, here is some of the tropes included in the book : jump-to-another-world, fated mates, knife-to-the-throat scenes ,slow burn romance
The only reason I'm rating it with four stars instead of five is simply because of the fact the next book is not published yet so I can read it .

This book is thrilling, breath-taking and wonderfully queer. Lam builds an intricate world on the edge of destruction, managing to weave the information to us in a skilful way. This world is enticing in it's differences to our own - gender is much more fluid, there's magic and there's dragons.

But the novel really comes into it's own with the two lead characters. Everen is a haughty fallen dragon, determined to hate humans, and Arcady is a skilful human thief who has lost everything. Their cataclysmic meeting is electric and this continues throughout their tense relationship. The highlight of the novel for me was watching them interact.

Overall, this was a really solid start to what will be an exciting trilogy. I'm eager to see where Lam directs the series next.

This was a book I didn’t know I NEEDED to read! It drew me in and I was captivated almost right away.

It’s been a while since I’ve had the pleasure of reading a multiple POV story in first person. I am writing this just as I have finished the last chapter and I think I will be reading and craving the second instalment for quite some time to come!

This is a story of an unlikely forced bond, both have secrets, both parties have their ulterior motives however they find themselves coming together in ways they do not expect.

The book is full of dragons, artefacts, many different manners of magic, friendship, growth, betrayal and so much more. Trust is gained, trust is lost and the ending while not quite a happy one, has left me needing more answers.

I have this book already on pre-order but if I didn’t I would be ordering now!

A big thank you to the author, the publishers and of course Netgalley for allowing me the opportunity to read an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy.

DNF at 31%. The start is very slow and I got uninterested. The description sounded really good but the execution was a bit lacking of the spark to keep you reading.

Long ago, Dragon's were betrayed by humans and banished to a dying world. Humans now revere Dragon's as gods. But the Dragon's cannot forget and definitely do not forgive.

The worldbuilding in this book is epic! I loved the world that was created, especially the decision from the author to introduce us to a world where gender is not forced upon you at birth but rather chosen for yourself. This seems a very modern approach that still, disappointingly, falls short in our environment today but has been displayed beautifully throughout this book. I want to live in this world!

Unfortunately, being a fantasy with a very intricate magic system, the first few chapters are a huge information dump, which slows the pace of the book down incredibly. I often felt bored and uninspired to pick up the book until the 50% mark where I just could not get enough. So please, bear in mind, it's a slow burn, but it's definitely worth sticking it out, in my opinion.

There are a few different POVs told in different perspectives that can take a while to come to terms with but are necessary for the plot of the book. All will be revealed if you just bear with the author here, and once it is, my mind was blown with how well thought out and patient the author must have been to write this book!

The character's are well balanced and adapt as we slowly begin to piece together their separate histories and how it all connects together in the end.

Be prepared for a rather dramatic reveal that makes you long for the sequel immediately after you've finished reading!

It was a very strong opening novel to what could be a fantastic fantasy series.