Another fantastic novel from Taran! I absolutely loved the characters dynamic and growth throughout the book and can't wait for the sequel!

Fantastic. Beautifully written. I am completely speechless by this book, and am struggling to find the words to describe just how incredible it was. I simply can not recommend this book enough!

It said Dragon on the cover and I was hooked.
Taran Matharu is a compelling writer who doesn't disappoint in this book. If you loved the Summoner series, you'll adore Dragon Roder. Written with the same reflective style, Dragon Rider delves past the surface niceties into the barely-disguised horrors and viciousness of a complex empire.
While it is initially slow due to world-building, it sets off speedily once Taran escapes.
There are shades of Eragon when Jai bonds with the dragon and gets to grips with his magic.
Lots of political intrigue, other magical creatures, and a slew of twists and turns.

Well, that was one pure adrenaline pumping, heart racing ride! I have a theory that every book can be improved upon with a dragon, but this book just blew them all out of the water. Dragon rider is a mix of all the best dragon bits from Fourth Wing and all the blood and politics of game of thrones.
This is the story of Jai, third son of the great leader of the steppe folk who has been the personal servant to the decrepit emperor who killed Jai's own father. When his life is on the line, he and the handmaiden of the Dansk nobility are forced to go on the run, Jai's true adventure begins.
I LOVED everything about this book!! The characters are fantastic and deep, the plot tested my heart at every step and the world building and mythical creatures were breath taking. The concept of the soulbond was a unique take on the dragon bond. I've always wanted my own dragon...now I really want my own Winter!! Although this is fairly long book, the short chapters made it a fairly quick read. This book is in my top 3 books from this year. I cannot wait for the second book in the series.
This is a real must for all those who love dragons and an underdog.
Thank you so much to netgalley and the publishers for providing an arc in return for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book, there can never be enough dragon books and this one is far better than some of the bestsellers lately!
High stakes, epic and just a book to absolutely get lost in! It does drag a little in places but it’s definitely worth it over all!

A new addition to the ever growing Dragon fantasy genre , Taran Matharu brings a high stakes, adventurous quest with great results.

Finally a good dragon book! I absolutely love the main character and the adventure. The world building gripped me from the start and felt so fresh, yet nostalgic. Sometimes it did drag a bit but it didn’t bother me a lot since we know it’s gonna be a series.

We always need more of Dragon books! Dragon Rider was following story about Jai, actually a prince who must serve as hostage at Empire who beat and rules his Kingdom. Although dont get luxurious life but Jai "fortunate" enough to serve the old king. As his servant he can educate him self with political wisdom and other lesson that useful for future life.

The earlier plot is predictable and nothing we not seen before. I put my high expectations to the Old King for Jai. But his fate at book was realistic and I thought it is important for Jai's personal growth. But, the plot become extra interesting when Jai found dragon egg.

I fell instanly into the worldbuilding and cant wait the next installment to see other details the world offers. I am so excite to see more uniq animals from each countries and get deeper development in the future. The magic and bond system aren't new but I really appreciate how the author introduces the details slowly without dump it.

It is a promising story from the series and really entertaining.

Thank you Netgalley and Harper Voyage Publisher from Harper Collins UK, Harper Fiction for providing copy of this ebook. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Expecting Publication : 25 April 2024

Utterly brilliant! Excellent world building, tense and captivating.

This is the story of Jai, third in line to a traitor king from a neighbouring kingdom, now in forced slavery as penance for his father’s crimes. And Freda, the handmaiden to a Queen being forced to marry the narcissistic Price to force peace between their kingdoms.

When something goes terribly wrong at the wedding rehearsal, Jai and Freda are forced to run for their lives and find their way back to their own kingdoms.

The main characters as well as support characters are all superb. Character development is spot on, relationship development is perfect, the characters are incredibly realistic that I felt right there with them.

It’s a brilliantly constructed and cleverly crafted novel, it had me hooked throughout and I cannot wait for the next one in the series!

The world building seems effortless and is full of political intricacies which I do not doubt will stand the test of time. The characters are skilfully created but what impressed me the most was the honesty in the difficult relationships that are explored and challenge allegiances. The plot has twists and turns and the ending just leaves you ready for the next instalment. Dive in to the world of Dragon Rider - you won’t be disappointed.

I found the beginning of this book to be quite slow and struggled with this. It began to find it's footing about halfway through, and from there it was a really exciting read.
I enjoyed the very detailed magic system and felt the world-building was really well done.
There were some scenes that were quite dark and hard to read, but there weren't too many which I appreciated!

I DNF'd this at 25% so I won't review this fully. Mostly, it just wasn't for me. I wasn't connecting with the characters or story. I would still recommend that people give this is a go, though.

As a political prisoner, Jai serves the elderly Sabine emperor who murdered his father, and has done since his imprisonment as a young boy. As the caregiver to him, Jai learns from him about his past, offering insight into how he won wars and claimed land and people.

Now in peacetime, the Sabine royals have their eyes set on the upcoming marriage between the Dansk and the emperor’s son, hoping to form an alliance and gain access and knowledge to their dragons, and how to soulbond to them.

Seeing an opportunity, conspirators take their chance and wreak havoc, upending the Sabine Court with the potential to end the shaky peace and start an all out war. Jai flees with the Dansk handmaiden, finding a dragon egg that soon hatches. For Jai, whilst on the run, must quickly learn all that the Dansk have kept a tightly guarded secret, honing new skills and powers so he can get the revenge he so badly wants.

Wow. This was nothing like I was expecting. There was so much to learn, and so much happened, but at the same time nothing really happened? It started off strong, giving the lay of the land, the magic system, and the main people, and I was excited for it to really get going. Except it took way too long, and I kept losing interest, and when the conspirators began their chaos, it felt dragged out, as well as everything after that.

There was so much that felt unnecessary, and what I imagine would have been a book I would have highly enjoyed, turned out to be a let down.

I quickly detached from MC Jai, and Frida, the Dansk handmaiden, who was there purely to aid Jai as her only contribution to the plot. They both felt so flat and boring, and it was hard to actually finish the book.

I usually love high fantasy books, I have so many favourites, and I love how descriptive they are to fully immerse you in the world, but this just didn’t have that real intrigue to keep you interested. It quickly became repetitive and long, and I won’t be picking up the sequel.



Did I like the book? No.

Did I love it? No.

Would I recommend it? No. It’s too long, too slow, and everything interesting that happens is in the synopsis.

Unputdownable book.

With short chapters and fast pace I was always saying "one more chapter".

Taran Matharu was able to build a fantasy world,, develop characters and make them likeable, explore the political situation and have magical creatures all in one book and make it interesting and not overwhelming to read.

100% recommend.

I adored this book. The world building, the animals, the political intrigue. Very reminiscent of classic fantasy and reminded me very much of the books I grew up on.

Dragon Rider is Taran Matharu's debut adult fantasy novel, following Jai who lives as royal hostage alongside his elder brothers in the Sabine Court as children who have to serve the empire that is responsible for the death of their father. But as the empire continues to grow, a betrothal between the emperor and Princess Erica of the Dansk Kingdom is set to take place. But with the princess, comes her dragons that only her people can bond with. However the betrothal doesn't go as planned and Jai escapes with the Princess's handmaiden and one dragon egg.

I really wanted to love this book but I was struggling, the more I read the more I wanted to dnf but I pushed through it in hopes that it would get better and it didn't. The world building was lacking, the plot was lacking and I felt no connection to the characters in any way. None of it made me invested enough to hold my attention for long and often found myself skimming through the chapters. Why did it feel like something even happened despite it being nearly 500 pages long?

The pacing was so inconsistent, it took until 30% of the way through for something to finally happening but then it went back being dull once again. And when it finally picked up again towards the end, it felt so rushed. At this point, I'm still on the fence of continuing with the series because I know I would want to know what happens next but I won't be in any rush to read it if that's what I decide to do.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF'ing this. I'm not one to shy away from crude jokes, but this was just... too much for an adult book, in the way it felt very juvenile. Had trouble connecting with the characters as well, it all felt very tropey and unoriginal. Sad, cause I do love me a dragon book.

Dragon Rider is the first book in Taran Matharu’s epic adult fantasy series, and it absolutely gripped me from the first chapter with its rich and intricate world-building and political intrigue. What an opening to a series! I loved learning about the different cultures through the characters and events – Matharu did a remarkable job, painting a rich picture of the political landscape without resorting to info-dumping. I also thoroughly enjoyed the variety of magical creatures: dragons, gryphons, chamrosh and khiro.

I’d recommend Dragon Rider to those who enjoyed Game of Thrones: the world is brutal, and there are a significant amount of political manoeuvring, a bloody coup, and some fairly gruelling scenes of torture, slavery and death. My one minor point of contention, which didn’t’ detract from the easy five star rating, is that the title feels a bit misleading. There is in fact not very much dragon riding happening, barring when the Dansk nobility arrive on their dragons: the main focus of the plot is on Jai escaping with a dragon egg and bonding with the newly hatched dragon.

Dragons are one of my great loves in fantasy, so how could I resist this book? It’s got a stunning cover, and the premise really intrigued me. It had a great start, too: a strong opening scene, a compelling character, an impression of a world… there were enough familiar tropes for me to settle straight in, but the author kept throwing in new things that made the setting unique. Jai is the personal servant of Leonid, the old emperor whose reign was one of war as he carved out an empire for himself, killing Jai’s father and enslaving many of his people in the process. Now that most lands are conquered, the old man has settled down and passed the empire on to his son, who is forging new alliances through marriage. Jai and his brothers, princes of the Steppe people, are hostages until each turn 20, when they will then take their place among their people and maintain their allegiance to the Sabine empire. That is, until Jai stumbles upon a plot to reignite war within the heart of the royal family. Up until this point, I was hooked. Unfortunately, Dragon Rider failed to keep me interested much beyond the 30% mark.

First of all, I began to realise that Jai was just a collection of tropes, and I never quite got the gage of his personality. He would be fierce and decisive one moment, and cower and hesitate the next according to what the plot needed. It also took him an excessive amount of time to escape once he had enacted his plan, and I grew bored by the time he actually had… I had a brief spark of excitement when Jai bonds with his dragon – and Winter is very cute – but things soon slowed down again. From being an interesting person with a few of the usual fantasy tropes, Jai turned in to a bit of a walking trope collection, and not a very clever one at that. He’s supposed to be well read and strategic, but would constantly ask dumb questions and make rash decisions. I understand that without this element some of the plot wouldn’t progress, and the reader wouldn’t have the information Jai is after, but the pieces didn’t quite fit together.

Another incongruity was the magic. People who bond with an animal can then do ‘magicking’ (why not just call it magic, I ask myself?), and so when Jai and Winter become soulbonded, Jai’s senses heighten and he can start to access a new core of power. This core needs to be replenished, and takes practice to learn to access, and it felt as if half the story was dedicated to this. If you like the intricacies of learning to use magic, especially with a strong focus on the inner self of the characters and a training montage set during a road-trip, then you’ll probably really like this book. Unfortunately, it did not land with me. From the blurb I was expecting a lot more action and politics, which the story does start strong with, but it just fizzled out around the middle. I must admit to skimming the pages from about the 60% mark, as I still wanted to see where Jai ended up, but didn’t want to slog through.

I saw Dragon Rider pitched as Eragon meets Game of Thrones but I think it would be more accurate to compare it to The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, as there is a similar meandering feel to it, as well as an intense magic-learning section. So, if that’s what you’re into, you might enjoy this. I would probably be interested in picking up the next book in the hopes of seeing a bit more politics and action, but I wouldn’t count it as highly anticipated.

I enjoyed this book but it wasn't a "I'll tell all my friends about this book and read it again because I can't stop thinking about it" kind of book for me.

The book hooked me in the first chapter so I was excited to read more and see where things went. However, then the pacing fell short and it took awhile for things to ramp up again.

I enjoyed the journey and I was emotionally attached to these characters. I thought that the evolution of the character was done really well.