BOOK REVIEW: Dragon Rider by @taranmatharuauthor @harpervoyager_uk @harperfiction

4 Stars 

I was so excited for this book as I love Dragons and although it was different to what I expected, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. 

I have to be truthful and say I nearly DNFed at 10%, but I am SO glad I pushed through the slow start because the rest I was addicted to.
The Dragon Rider blurb is "a world of magic, warriors, and dragons, in which a fearless orphan and an ambitious handmaiden flee from the empire that would imprison them, with a dream to return to their homelands and a determination that's unbreakable."

Taran did a remarkable job with worldbuilding. It included politics, world structure, colonisation, slavery, war, mythical creatures and magic called soulbonding. It was brilliantly done except there was too much of the political aspect at the beginning. Also there are definitely less dragons than I expected given the name!
There is a lot of violence. Taran definitely puts his characters through the ringer and I felt extra connected to them in their times of strife. Please know this is an Adult book and there is torture, gore, imprisonment and slavery.

The lead characters are Jai and Frida. Jai is a quiet, unassuming boy at the beginning but grows into a brave, clever and wonderful man by the end. The second lead is Frida and I loved her strength and bravery and the small moments with Jai that she shows vulnerability and care for him. I adore them both and hope we get to know more about Frida in book 2. Also there is a cute baby dragon called Winter who has utterly stolen my heart.

Taran Matharu's writing was mainly stunning and I could see a lot of the beautiful things he was describing so well. It wasn't perfect, with pacing being off at times but the writing was brilliant.

Overall, this book grew on me and I am so glad I stuck with it as I loved it in the end. I highly recommend it to Adult Fantasy fans!

Please note that I was given this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Eragon for adults, with the feel of Lord of the Rings. A slow build with a lot more expected to come in the next books. Incredible world-building and characters. This broke my reading slump!

This book is well written however it is very long - so be prepared!
Lots of world building however it was very clearly written and easy to follow!

- dragons
- unlikely friendships


Lots of plot twists however they are very predictable

It is my honest opinion that you can never go wrong with dragons. Of course not all books with dragons are at the same level, but I’ve yet to find a book with dragons that I didn’t at least enjoy (always because of the dragon part). And dragons in epic fantasy? Sign me in. So of course I had to request this ARC as soon as I laid eyes on it.

I will, however, admit that when I reached the middle of the book, while I was enjoying the plot and the writing, that it added nothing new to the genre. Don’t get me wrong, I was really enjoying the book, but at the same time I felt like I had seen this plot before. The main character, a boy that is far from perfect or powerful but with a good head on his shoulders and knack for doing the right thing ends up (through events that are out of his control while he tries to do right thing) bonded to a dragon. This did not diminish my enjoyment while reading, specially because the politics and world building were done right. Also, I think this book was astonishingly great in terms of the writing quality and so, Dragon Rider was a much needed reminder for me of why I adore this genre.

But I was pleasantly surprised with the development of the plot during this book. I understand, of course, that this is the first book of a series and that there was a lot of information about the characters, politics and world to pass on to the reader. But as the plot thickened and developed, I found more and more elements that made this a different take on stories I have already read in the past. The politics, the war and greed are believable. This world has a beautifully complex history that we get to be privy to exactly at the right time.

Something worth mentioning is definitely how flawed, yet likable, the main characters are. And how much potential they show not only for this book, but for the continuation of this story. Jai’s relationship with Winter was adorable and inspiring from the beginning, adding so much love to this story in the middle of all of the intrigue.

I will definitely continue this series and I stand by my statement: You can never go wrong with dragons. Specially if they are loyal and adorable like Winter!


Thank you very much HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction, HarperVoyager and NetGallery for providing me this ARC.

This was a great read.

When romance is included within fantasy it can be good, so I was glad that it didn’t take away from the main story.

Full of fantasy,

Building the world and characters did make the initial 10-20% of the book feel quite heavy, but after that it was a complete page turner.

Dragons, violence, betrayal, and redemption. I adored this. A perfect introduction to the saga

A fantastic new fantasy! Really enjoyed this, and the dragon is so so cute! Small bit of romance but it's not a huge contributor to the story which I liked. My only issue is that it felt a bit slow at times. Otherwise really great!

Taran Matharu delivers a classic fantasy adventure full of dragons, politics, danger and magic with Dragon Rider.
Book one of his debut fantasy adult series, it's a novel that will appeal to fans of the Fourth Wing and Dragonfall.
The story starts a little slow but soon kicks into gear with a solid coming of age story set against a backdrop of political games and a clash of cultures.

DNF'd at 50%. For an 'adult' fantasy, the writing in this book felt incredibly juvenile to me, as did the characters and descriptions. I also felt like it detracted from the emotions the writer was hoping to get out of their readers, there were some pretty hard hitting scenes, but I couldn't really find it in myself to get upset because I simply wasn't bothered enough.

I liked the Dragon, but all the other characters felt bland and overly tropified in some ways, and it was just a bit of a slog to get through.

3.9⭐️

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperVoyager for this eARC!

First of all, dragons. What else do I need to say? 😂

We meet our protagonist Jai as a hostage to an aging Emperor, ten years after his father (a king) was overthrown.

Of course, shortly after the start of the story, chaos ensues and Jai finds himself on the run. Luckily for him, he manages to find himself in possession of a dragon egg - and then shortly afterwards, a dragon called Winter, plus special powers.

One thing I really liked about this book was that Jai doesn’t automatically have nearly immortal powers when he bonds with Winter. Too often in these sorts of stories, the protagonist goes from 0-100 in terms of power and brute strength, but although Jai has a burst of power when he first meets Winter, he spends a great deal of the book then working to build up his strength.

It did take probably 35-40% of the book for things to start moving along at a decent pace, but I expect world building in multi-book fantasy series. There was also a twist with one of the characters which I saw coming, but it was well done.

All in all, a great read and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in book 2!

I mean there are dragons! No more seriously this was a very enjoyable read, slower paced in the beginning than I usually enjoyed, A solid world build was created by the author with a very original (to me anyway) magical system based around soul bound animals. Jai is the main character we are introduced to from the start, a political prisoner like his older brothers he is the son of Rohan the last king of the plains people. Unlike his brothers he is the servant of the dowager-Emperor and knows more about the politics at play when the Dansk princess and the Dansk king the only dragon soul-bound practitioners from the north come to cement a final alliance to secure peace.

But a warrior people who has created an empire by the blood of others are not going to accept such a peace when they feel they have the right to colonise the whole world. Jai runs, taking with him the dragon-egg and the Dansk handmaiden to the princess, they must make it north before the conspirators catch them to want the Dansk but to protect his soul-bound dragon Jai must also learn on the run how to soul-bound, a process that usually takes years. My thanks to NetGalley and Harper Voyer for gifting me this eARC in exchange for my honest opinion. I loved it.

I am a sucker for dragons! But what a great story, I absolutely couldn’t put it down!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy of this book.

This story follows Jai, the third son of the executed King of the Steppefolk, he was traded to the Sabine kingdom as a royal hostage where he has been for 10 years as a servant to the old king who killed his father. We follow Jai as he flees from a royal Betrayal, finds a dragon egg which hatches and he must soulbond to or die. Soulbinding a dragon is a technique not known outside of the Dansk kingdom but Jai must learn how before he dies.

This book is a 3⭐️ for me, it didn't really grab me and it's a heavy book. It's filled with graphic gore descriptions, betrayal and heavy on the politics and world building. This story has a wonderful magic system that is thoroughly explained and it was easy to follow how and why things worked, following Jai as he learns was my favourite part of the book as well as the baby dragon.

The story started off really slow for me but it definitely sets the scene and builds up to give you a lot of information for future books. There was a lot of running and escaping as well as gruesome fighting. I was hoping we would in fact get Jai riding the dragon but Winter, the dragon he bonds to, doesn't grow up enough to even breathe flames nevermind fly so that was a bit disappointing to me.

But all in all, its a good start to a series.

I’m a sucker for anything involving dragons and so the cover and title were quite enough to draw me into this new fantasy. Once I started reading, I was completely hooked.
As some other reviewers have pointed out, there’s nothing really new in Dragonrider. A militant nation intent on subduing all of their neighbours, the insignificant third son becoming a major player, a young man discovering a dragon egg etc are all well used tropes. However, they are woven together in Dragonrider to create a story that kept me turning the pages and reluctant to put the book down.
I loved the world building and the politics especially the ruthlessness shown by several characters and the main character of Jai very likable. The magic system of being soul bound was well thought out although I’m not sure that we needed quite as much explanation about it as the author provided.
It’s the first of a new series and I’m always suspicious of how first books are going to end. I didn’t need to worry though. The ending of this first volume finishes this part of the story in a great way while still leaving the reader set up for the next instalment.
There were a couple of inconsistencies which jarred a bit and I’m a bit confused by the title as there is next to no dragon riding at all in this book although I’m sure that there will be in the future.
Overall this was a great entertaining fantasy and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what happens next.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers, HarperCollins, for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

It’s definitely the year of the dragon, as boy Matharu does NOT disappoint! What. A. Book. With impeccable worldbuilding, an intrinsically built magic system and royalty domain, Matharu has taken the time required to craft what is surely going to grow into an absolutely epic saga. The first few chapters feel slightly hard to get in to but I promise you, at the end you will be reeling and revolting as well as gasping for the next book. An absolutely wild ride. A fantasy for those who enjoy Dragons, Magic, Political fantasy and well… everyone in between!

I have read and quite liked the author's teenage fiction, and I am a sucker for anything with dragons in, so picked this up with interest.
The main character is in his late teens so my initial thought is that this is aimed at the crossover market, in the same way as Sarah J Maas or Sebastien de Castell? The language and slightly more adult content would certainly come with a few warnings for teenage fiction...
I have been reading fantasy for decades now so there is very little that stands out as being truly innovative, and this indeed includes many familiar if comforting themes, character traits and plot developments. This took a little while to settle in with lengthy context setting. Having said that, the world-building was convincing and the writing was engaging. The main character is the epitome of the lost-beaten-down-royal-but-determined-and-rising-to-the-task hero and goes through some very challenging physical and mental trials. The female supporting role offers no surprises (even the "twist") but is strong and brings a welcome initiative to the cast. The political intrigues and betrayals are suitably dastardly and will appease those who demand this element from their fantasy. The dragons are maybe not as prominent as expected given the cover and marketing but are nonetheless essential to plot progression - and Winter is both adorable and exactly what you would want from a bonded companion!
I found myself totally immersed in this despite any of the qualifications above. The tension once the scene had been set was maintained with solid writing and pacing. I look forward to the sequel!

This was a tough book to rate for stars because whilst I enjoyed the characters and the premise I found it extremely slow reading and I don't know at this point if it was because it was so in depth with world building or just the authors style. either way...patience is needed!
You can certainly relate to some real world political undertones with this book and the world it is setting up, which I admire in authors but also tend to shy away from (if I am reading a fantasy series I don't want to be reminded of the real world)!
I think the twist within the plot for the one of the characters is obvious but I would be interested to see how it plays out for the series and all the characters are well thought out and developed with some very interesting traits! It definitely feels like pushing through book one will pay off for the future books in this series as I am sure the pace can pick up now the world is built!?

I received this as a free ARC. I have provided an honest review

I really enjoyed this book. The world building in this book was fantastic but it was on the heavier side. It was definitely need as this book is full of Politics, War, Betrayal and Dragons. It’s a slow start for the book but once you get towards the middle that’s when the action starts. The slow start is needed to set the scene.

I loved the unique magic system in this book and I enjoyed learning about the Mana. I liked that you also learnt a little of the other types of creatures that can be bonded with.

The book follows Jai a Royal servant to his enemies after his father was defeated in war. For Children are sent to their enemies until they turn 20 to be servants. Jai becomes the carer for the previous emperor. The two have a complex relationship as the emperor had murdered his father.
After a political alliance is arranged between the Sabines and Dansk Kingdom.
It doesn’t take long before it completely unfolds and betrayal and murder unfolds.
Jai soon ends up blamed for the emperor’s murder and is on the run but the Sabines think him dead.
Jai finds a dragon egg and unexpectedly soul bonds with the baby dragon Winter.
Frida is another complex character that we meet in this book for she isn’t who we think she is.
The book is well written and I loved all the complex characters that we meet throughout the book. I liked that the author didn’t force the romance for this book. You get little hints in the book but it’s a really slow development which I do hope to see more in the next book now.

I look forward to reading the next book in this new series.

Thank you to Netgalley, the Author and the Publisher for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Dragons. Politics. Betrayal. I eat all these up like my favorite ramen dish.

This is my first book by Taran and I gotta say I’ve noticed they have more books on Goodreads. I need to pick them up. What an amazing start to a series.

Their world building was chefs freaking kiss.

Cant wait to get a physical copy and praying for a uk tour!

This book was so fun! The first part of the book was a bit slow however it did pick up towards the middle and the pace kept going from there until the end.

This book is similar to Eragon in which it is about a young boy learning to be a dragon rider while trying to escape evil, but after that premise, I think this book does actually standout against its similarities.

This book gracefully laid out the world building and historical events that will eventually help understand the events that will develop in future books. I also love the politics that were a main focus throughout the story.

If you love dragons and are able to read a darker, heavier fantasy with a lot of gore then this book is for you. I am excited to continue on with the sequel when it comes out.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an E-Arc of this book.

This read sits right in the middle with me I really enjoyed the story since I'm a huge Game of Thrones fan and think everyone who likes that will also like the book. Don't expect it to be like Fourth WIng because the Dragons are in trend like now, it's way more political and sets more focus on world building.
My problem with the book was the pacing. It read super slow for me and I had to push myself through (I dnf'ed LOTR for this reason even though I love the movies) so you should really be into that.