Dragon Den by Kriss Dean has a great premise. Dragons, military school and a mystery to be solved? Sign me up. The action scenes were quite good and the ending was well executed. However, i felt like i was missing some world building and a bit of character development. The urban fantasy aspect was interesting and it was a fun read. The writing was vibrant and the pacing was good. It was a nice read and i hope to read what comes next in this world.

3 stars

The premise of this book was great! Dragons, military school, solving a mystery type plot that is right up my alley. What fell short, and I mean massively short, was the worldbuilding and characters.

The easiest way to explain the worldbuilding situation is that it felt like this was a book 2 in a series. I am missing all of the worldbuilding from book one. How do you get into the school? What do you do beforehand? Is there some kind of test to get in? We pick up at what seems like halfway through the school year. We learn nothing about even the reason behind the school. If there are only 18 dragon riders in the whole program, then how do they even stay open? The school was set in Oregon, but it is sometime in the future because of the obsidian, yet transports are done by semi trucks, not planes…or dragons? Everything just felt very lacking.

The characters. I understand not every book needs to have a huge cast of characters, but it would have brought a little more life to the story. Catrina, Jonas, and Theo have zero character traits. I can’t tell you a single thing about them except that Theo is gay (which was randomly talked about ONCE near the end of the book). Even Loki had little backstory or any kind of character development. Markus wasn’t even likeable! All he cared about was sleeping with a pretty girl and getting to keep a dragon.

The action scenes were interesting, and I liked the ending to a degree, but I was just so confused the entire book. It felt half-baked and left me with too many questions.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

A fun read with a well thought out plot & wonderfully magical setting. Loved this book and the little nods to how to train your dragon throughout. A nostalgic, whimsical read.

Love an academy setting and dragons. Similar vibes to fourth wing but still unique in its own right. Truly loved it!

I just finished Dragon Den by Kriss Dean, and honestly, it was pretty underwhelming. The bond between Markus and his dragon, Loki, was cool, and the action kept things moving, but the story felt way too familiar. There were so many similarities to How to Train Your Dragon, Fourth Wing, and The Fast and the Furious that it sometimes felt like a mashup of those rather than its own thing. The characters didn’t have much depth, so I never really connected with them, and the world-building was almost nonexistent, which made it hard to get fully into the story. If you’re looking for something fast-paced and fun, you might still enjoy it, but for me, the lack of originality and weak storytelling made it a letdown.

I'm sorry to say I was not a fan of this book. It feels like it needed more work from the author and from editors before being ready for publication. The writing and storytelling felt sloppy and undeveloped and the plot felt a little too similar to other dragon-based stories I've read. The characters also weren't very well fleshed out and felt one dimensional. I can't say I would recommend this unfortunately.

This was a decent read but it took a while for me to get into the story. I am a sucker for anything dragon-related. The writing just left more to be desired.

Thanks to Yggdrasil Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I approached Dragon Den with high hopes, as I love stories featuring dragons and intricate world-building. While there were aspects of the book that showed promise—such as its unique premise and vivid imagery—I ultimately found it difficult to connect with the characters and the pacing of the story.

I gave it my best shot, but I wasn’t able to finish the book. This might be a case of the story not aligning with my personal preferences rather than a reflection of its overall quality. I believe readers who enjoy a slower burn or a more introspective narrative might have a better experience with this book than I did.

Thank you to the author for their creative effort; I hope this story finds its audience among other fantasy enthusiasts.

This took me by surprise! I decided to read because of the cover - who doesn't love a good dragon book? This plot kept me hooked! I loved the modern twist with dragons! It was a quick, easy read and it left me wanting MORE! Definitely How To Train Your Dragon meets Fast and the Furious!

It was a pretty interesting read, though it didn't quite hit the mark for me. The story dives into a fantastical world filled with dragons and adventure, and Dean’s vivid imagery really brought the settings to life.

The characters had potential, but I found their development a bit lacking; some felt one-dimensional, which made it hard to connect with them. The pacing also dragged in parts, particularly in the middle, where I felt the action slowed down too much.

Overall, Dragon Den has some strong world-building and imaginative concepts, but it could benefit from deeper character exploration and tighter pacing. It’s a decent choice if you’re looking for a light fantasy adventure.

DNF I will not be rating this and feel like it isn't appropriate to do so on my part.

Thank you to Netgalley and Yggdrasil Press for this arc copy in exchange for an honest review.

The concept of Fourth Wing/Dragons x Fast & Furious was a solid one and it is why I requested in the first place. Unfortunately, this one just wasn't worth my time as there are more quality books out there. Though this does have a lot of potential if the author went back and did some heavy edits. This is not personal at all as writing a book is very hard and mentally taxing. I commend this author for putting their work out there to be critiqued. For this review, I really have nothing to add as other reviewers have stated the same issues that I had with this book. These include poor pacing, lack of connection with the characters, and "alleged" plagiarism.

Unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me. The world and characters were underdeveloped and lacked depth. I didn’t find myself being interested in their story or wanting to know how it will end. The premise was very intriguing, since I’m a huge Fast and Furious fan, but the blending just didn’t really work for me.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

I was excited to read Dragon Den especially since it marketed as a book that Four Wing readers would like.
Unfortunately, Dragon Den fell short. The world building needed more substance and at times it felt like it is a version of the Fast and the Furious movie but with Dragons instead of cars. The characters also lacked development, and overall I didn’t enjoy this book.

Unfortunately this book didn't hit the mark for me - whilst I like the general concept of the story, I felt it needed to be woven together better. Due to the nature of it being a shorter book, there is a lack of a descriptive element which could help immerse a reader better. Poignant moments were often lacking due to this lack of build-up.
I wish I could have liked the book more, but it fell flat for me.

Thank you so much to Yggdrasil Press and NetGalley for the arc copy and for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts on the book.

This book felt like a roller coaster ride that was a bit too fast and then it’s over and you feel thrilled but also wish there had been a bit more. I really don’t feel as if there was enough development within the plot or characters for me to really get attached. If there had been 100-200 pages more, I think this book could have really benefited.

Any book with dragons will immediately intrigue me, and that was a huge selling point for me, the end did redeem some of my disappointment but overall I felt no real connection to this story.

thanks to netgalley for providing an e-arc in exchange for a review.

oh boy. this was tough at times. but i did finish it, so three stars. this felt like reading fourth wing but less developed. i had a hard time connecting to any of the characters except for Loki, who was underdeveloped similarly to all of the other characters. i wanted to know more about what Loki had gone through and what that meant for him as a dragon, but that was never told to the reader. this needs both to be longer and edited down, i can't figure out what would be better.

I contemplated DNFing this one but still had hopes for it. Unfortunately, Dragon Den was a miss. From the advertisement of an adult How to Train Your Dragon meets Fast and Furious, I was soooo intrigued and excited but it just didn't deliver. This should've been a YA with the graphic sex scenes cut out because it felt so out of place and honestly the MMC was annoying. It felt like a knockoff Fourth Wing or attempt to be the next FW which I couldn't get passed either.

Literally fast and furious with dragons... storyline was okay, execution could've been better but still and enjoyable story

While this book was a relatively quick read there were certainly things that I didn't enjoy as much about it and that made it feel more like a YA book just with some spice. The dragons themselves were well developed - I particularly like the way that different coloured dragons had different skills but overall I didn't feel any super strong connection with any of the characters and often finding myself forgetting that I was reading this resulting in me not picking it up for a couple of days so I'm giving this book a 3 star rating.

I so so so hate to leave less than 3-star reviews on ANYTHING but especially an ARC. That being said, I despise Markus with every bone in my body and it's been a while since I've read anything with a character I disliked as strongly as him.

There were elements of this I really liked for sure! Urban fantasy is always interesting to me and I found the lore with dragons and Mt Rainier very interesting (I actually didn't know this was urban fantasy until I started reading and thought it was funny that Dragild was near a "Mt Rainier" and thought maybe the author just wasn't very creative with fantasy place names, then realized it took place in Seattle and I was just a silly goose!). I think uncovering a smuggling operation while fighting for your place at a dragon riding academy was an exciting premise and I did enjoy that storyline.

As I mentioned, I found Markus insufferable. i think it's absolutely wild to objectify 2 female characters within the first scene of the book and I found a lot of his dialogue to be juvenile. I also think the way that dragons are treated in this universe and the way that they're "broken" by their riders was quite barbaric and I expected that to be addressed by one of the characters. The whole book had very overt social justice 101 vibes so I was a little surprised that none of the characters felt strongly about that, especially given Amira's apparent love for animals.

The last few chapters picked up really fast and actually made me really interested to read a potential sequel! Whether I'm willing to suffer through more of Markus just to find out what happens is unfortunately TBD.