2.5 -- thank you to NetGalley for the ARC copy in exchange for an honest review

Dragon Den follows Markus, a student dragon rider, who is given a mission to infiltrate a clan that is hijacking semi-trucks that are transporting obsidian in order to keep his given dragon and remain at the Dragild Military Academy. In the midst of his mission, he fall for the clan leader's daughter (who also happens to be the girl of his dreams).

I love the idea of dragons and humans being paired and becoming a team together, but I felt like this universe just didn't make sense to me. I couldn't tell what time period we were in, how fantastical this world was, and I think it was because the plot was underdeveloped. I honestly don't remember the first time the plan got explained to Markus. I think this was too fast paced and did not provide enough world building for this to feel really interesting. I am newer to dragon-type fantasy, but I didn't love this one.

I didn't really feel connected to the characters. I kept confusing Tobias and Jonas and I felt like the way all of their dynamics/relationships developed and shifted was too quick. I also didn't love the main couple that much... they just didn't have the chemistry the author was trying to give them. I also just feel like Markus was written to be this cool guy but at the same time a mega loser? Idk, he just wasn't that great. I liked Loki, but again, I just didn't really get connected to him.

I just thought this was boring, however I don't know if I was the market for the book since it WAS described as being inspired by The Fast and The Furious, Fourth Wing, and How to Train Your Dragon (all of which I have never seen or read).

Dragon Den by Kriss Dean
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Described as being for fans of The Fast and Furious and Fourth Wing I knew I had to read this. I’d say it is Fast fan fiction, there’s times where the characters say and do the same thing as they do in the first film. There are some awesome dragons and it is set in a dragon riding school with high stakes like Fourth Wing but I’d say the similarities end there really.

I enjoyed moments of it and liked the book overall, but did feel like I knew what would happen next throughout the entire book as I have seen the film too many times. I’d have preferred it to be more inspired than The Fast and the Furious with dragons instead of cars and racism thrown in. It felt like the racism was added unnecessarily. My main issues were that there wasn’t enough world building and character development because it is following the film’s storyline too much. I really love Markkus and Amira as the main characters but they could have done with more skin on their bones.

I’d like to see where the next book goes, and if it is more unique fiction than fanfiction.

This tried to be fourth wing and how to train your dragon but missed the mark. It was fast paced but lacked in being set apart from other dragon novels.

This book was trying to be a lot of things all at once. I liked the concept of dragons in modern day but they just kept throwing words around and hoping it would make sense. It felt like poor fan fiction of Fourth Wing. And I love fan fiction but this just missed so many marks and felt like a lot of half thoughts that could have been so good if executed with a bit more care.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read Dragon’s Den.

Unfortunately, I personally didn’t find it to be that great. It was extremely fast paced and it felt as though the entire book was rushed. There is so much information regarding the characters and the dragons that the book was lacking. There is no proper background on who these characters really are and it’s makes the book difficult to read because it doesn’t allow the readers to fully grasp and understand these characters or to know where they come from or why the act a certain way.

“Dragon Den” was a very fast paced read, promising a thrilling ride. But the fast pace leaves little room for character development. The protagonists remain elusive, mere silhouettes against a vivid backdrop. However, the world-building shines—a thousand realms waiting to be explored. Spice and intrigue abound, yet without character connections, they feel forced. Our underdog, Markus, lacks a compelling reason for his status. In sum, “Dragon Den” is a decent tale, but its trail fades swiftly.

This book was ok. I thought the premise was exciting and I enjoyed where it was going. I don’t think it’s marketed correctly as a comparison to fourth wing in my opinion. The writing style wasn’t my thing unfortunately.

📚Dragon Den
🖋️Author: @krissdeanwrites
📝P.g.:310
📆Publication date: June 20
🖌️Publisher: Yggdrasil Press
🗂️Genre: Romantic Fantasy

•𝒜𝑅𝒞 𝑅𝐸𝒱𝐼𝐸𝒲•

“My head feels light from the elevation, but I’ve never felt so alive. So free. Part of it comes from Loki. Two minds, one wavelength.”

📌Summary:
The story follows our hero, Markus Fredriksen, who after failing to break a dragon at Dragild Military Academy
( a school for dragon riders), has to complete a mission in order to stay in school. He is given a dragon named Loki and
the mission is to infiltrate the clan running the Dragon Den, suspected of hijacking semi-trucks carrying precious obsidian. Markus has to succeed in his mission while falling for clan leader’s daughter, Amira.

📌Review:
The book is a mix of Fourth Wing and Fast and Furious. It is set in a modern world where dragons have been there since the beginning. So it was very exciting to read about dragons racing in modern cities.

The book is action packed, it is literally non stop. I really
liked the connection between Markus and his dragon.

I wanted the book to be a little bit longer so we could have a chance to get to know the characters more.

I will definetely read the sequel when it comes out.

📌Thoughts: If you love Fast and Furious mainly and Fourth Wing, the book comes out on the 20th of June and it’s waiting for you.

Thank you Yggdrasil Press for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

I went in hoping for a Fourth Wing like book from the MMC. This was just like described, fast and the furious but with dragons. I felt a little lost in some of the work building and could’ve used more explaining in certain areas. It’s a fast paced read that feels a bit rushed at times. Overall a good story but hope there is a part two that can explain more for me.

Format: E-Book
Rating: 2.5 to 3
Spice: 🌶🌶
Genre: Fantasy

The book follows Markus Fredriksen, a first year dragon rider looking to break a dragon and solidify continuing his families legacy. When things do not go as planned Markus is given a second chance through redeeming himself, a broken dragon, and figuring out who is behind the heist. Markus and his friends work together to figure out what goes on outside the schools walls and everything may not be as it seems.

I first want to thank the publisher for providing my with my first ARC. Let’s start with the pros.

As an advice Fantasy and Romantasy reader, the cover art and comparison to Fourth Wing had me salivating for more. I love when books are able to come to life and especially when an author is willingly put their stories out into the world. Especially in a market like this one, you have to come out strong with what the people love. I also loved the diverse set of characters and personalities I didn’t feel as though it was a cookie cutter cast. I also thought having the present day mix with dragons was totally cool.

Now for the not so good. I felt as though I had two major problems with this. I do not think the plot was carrying itself well. I was left with so many questions when it came to how the dragons came around, how the collars were made, the history of these heists, and the characters background. It felt very surface and then in turn, the story fell flat. I couldn’t feel as thought I could root for any one just because the chemistry and build up was there. Additionally, the simplistic and VERY modern language through me off. I like the combination of both elements, but the way the story was written from the conversation to the inner monologue, it was very simplistic.

In the end, I think this was awesome for Kriss to take a chance and leap. I just don’t think the story was quite for me!

What a wild ride- literally! This book was described as Fast & Furious but with dragons and that is EXACTLY what we got!

I enjoyed the story and, as a fan of both dragons and F&F, I was so interested to see where the story went. I'm not going to lie, it was kinda weird though. I don't really think I enjoyed the whole "dragons in modern America" thing. The story was not actually set in modern America, so that's not an exact representation, BUT it IS set in Portland... and the whole deal with how "real" the world felt, the dragons just seems oddly misplaced? It's a cool concept and idea, but it honestly felt a bit goofy at times. Still enjoyed the story though and would recommend as a fun read! I liked that it wasn't too long so it's not a major commitment. Kriss Dean did a great job with her writing as well so it was easy to read and follow along with the story!

Thank you to NetGalley & Yggdrasil Press for the opportunity to read and review Dragon Den!

Dragon's Den is a good start to a series of energetic dragon adventures with intrigue, races, and a bit of romance thrown in!

The world-building was fairly well down. The book takes place in a modern, yet alternate, version of our world where dragons exist alongside cellphones and computers. The military academy is one of the main settings, yet there are very few interactions with teachers that make it feel extremely regimented. Students seem to have a lot of freedom.

Markus is a fairly relatable main character. He's a 19 year old kid trying to find his way in both school and the world. He holds himself to certain standards that he has trouble seeing past, as most 19 year old's do. He struggled to balance school, friendship, love, and some tp-secret-missions.

Over-all the book was a fun read, and I really appreciated that the author included a list of potential trigger warnings at the beginning. The book has some very spicy scenes, so beware if you don't have any spice tolerance!

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this arc!
I really enjoyed Amira and Markus. The world was a little confusing at times and I don’t think I was able to fully grasp the world building and what the politics were and what everyone’s role was, but overall I enjoyed the storyline and loved the inner discussions between dragons and their riders.

While this book was “fast paced” as it describes in the synopsis, it just fell short for me. It was almost too quick to move on from things that were important to development of the characters. This made it so that you weren’t able to fall in love with the characters or build a bond like those of Maas or Jensen.
I do appreciate being able to keep up with the world building and I did enjoy the overall story arc. I did also enjoy the spice that occurred but because there was no connection with the characters it felt forced just like it was thrown in there. I wanted to be able to cheer for our guy Markus but I really just didn’t care about him because there wasn’t really a reason to. Why was he an underdog? Other first years weren’t treated the same. He was privy to information as a first year that didn’t make sense. Overall it was a decent story, just fell short for me.

Title: Dragon Den
Author: Kriss Dean
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Review:
Thank you to Yggdrasil Press and NetGalley for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

A low-fantasy twist on the dragon rider trope, Dragon Den throws us into a world where dragon academies exist in the Pacific Northwest (major bonus points for a PNW dweller like myself!). Markus, our aspiring rider protagonist, is a refreshing departure from the typical female lead in this genre.

However, Markus's character development felt a bit shallow. While the first-person perspective promises a deep dive into his thoughts, his leaps in logic sometimes left me wanting. This could be an interesting exploration of unspoken male thought processes, but it needs more grounding.

The "friends/enemies-to-lovers" trope takes a surprising backseat here. Markus's upfront romantic interest in the female lead is an unexpected change, though the story unfolds predictably without major plot twists.

Overall, Dragon Den kept me engaged enough to consider the sequel. Here's hoping for richer character development and a more intricate plot in the next installment!

the concept of this book was so intriguing, if it was longer it would be such an amazing book with all the depth that could be written about the setting, the plot, the characters etc, but it all felt so rushed, the amount the setting could be expanded on compared to the minimum of about 3 lines on it, the world sounded like it was going to be such a unique and well thought out one, but there wasn’t much too it which I was upset about! the characters had a slight intrigue to them, but it fell so flat, especially the male main character, it was such a miss not making this dual pov, the male main character was annoying at times, very self centred and just was not a character I could connect too, again, if it was longer the development and depth that could’ve been added to him could of made him such an interesting character! I feel like with a fantasy book with this amount of calibre, it being this short is such a downfall to it, this could’ve easily been a big series with the right amount of planning, long books and a lot of books in it! the female character, amira from the shirt snippets of her, was so much more intriguing, I really wish it was told from her pov, she just seemed to have so much more about her! I miss LOKI, he was written off way to fast for my liking, I was not a fan of how it ended:( However, overall if you enjoy short fantasy novellas you may like this, the concept was really good and intriguing, it’s such a shame that I just couldn’t connect with any of it unfortunately

3.0|| First I want to thank Netgally for my copy of this book.
I originally requested this book because I missed Fourth wing. Overall, I think that if you already have background knowledge about the book, you will most likely enjoy it. On the other hand, if you are new to fantasy and wanting to read about dragons, I am not sure I would recommend it. The reason for this is because there is little to no world building. I was aware that the book was fast passed and shorter than your normal fantasy read, but I still think there should have been a little time spent on lore. I am not sure if there is going to be a second book but hopefully there will be more information on the world.
If you are looking for an easy read that you don't have to think about then this would be the book for you.

There's not much I feel worse about than rating an arc I'm sent low, but sometimes it's necessary.

When the description for this book said it takes inspiration from Fourth Wing and How to Train Your Dragon, I didn't think it quite literally meant the author sat and picked the parts she thought were best from each and threw them into this book without changing them much. To the point that Markus - our main character - almost exclusively calls his dragon "bud", the exact same nickname Hiccup uses for Toothless in HTTYD. It sounds like such a little thing but it would have taken literally nothing to have changed it to something else?

I wasn't a major fan of the "breaking a dragon" concept. It sounded as though riders at the dragon college forged collars that that they would wear and try to put a matching one on a wild dragon. That overrides the natural instincts of the dragon, forcing them to bend to the will of the rider. I can see why the author wanted the dragon bonding to be different to Fourth Wing - since not much else was - but part of what made the connections with the dragons so special in FW was the fact the dragons were willing.

I knew the story has lost it's way when the dragon races and Markus's attempt at winning Tobias over reminded me of Fast and Furious. I couldn't take it seriously after that. And I don't even make that comparison lightly. It copies the scene where Brian races Dom down to the dialogue.

Dom (The Fast and the Furious 2001): Ask any racer. Any real racer. It don't matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning is winning.

Tobias (Dragon Den 2014): Ask any racer. Any real racer. It doesn't matter if it's an inch or a hundred dragon-lengths. Winning is winning.

On top of all of that, the world-building in this book is next to non-existent. We have no idea where the dragons came from, how a recruit makes it into one of the dragon colleges, how they figured out how the collars were made and how they worked - how they figured out that a bond could be forced to begin with. It felt as though we were dropped into chapter 10 of the story. I missed the beginning where the setting was established and the background given.

Same with the characters. There was little to no development with any of them. I couldn't connect to Markus. I didn't feel anything for the forced romance between him and Amira. I wasn't even too bothered about his relationship with Loki. It was all just extremely surface level.

Again - I know this is a debut and I hate to shit on anyone's work, but this feels like a rough draft that isn't ready to be published yet. There is a lot of fleshing out that needs to be done, both with the world building and the characters we're meant to be rooting for, and I also think it needs to lean less on it's inspirations and more on what makes the book different from those. I couldn't see past everything it had cherry picked from other books (and films).

"It was really amazing, feeling his energy. It was like were unstoppable. Unbreakable. Completely free."

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

This book is exactly as the description says. I got all the Fast & the Furious, How To Train Your Dragon and Fourth Wing vibes. It was a fun read, indeed very fast paced. It felt more like watching a movie rather then reading a book.
It also would have romance. And yes there is spice and a romance subplot but because it is very fast paced there isnt really a great chemistry between the characters.
I wish there was a little bit more character- and world building.

The tropes:
- Secret undercover mission
- Dragon college
- Dragon races
- Urban fantasy
- Open door spice
- Rivals little sister
- Romance subplot

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 3 stars

Thank you NetGalley, Kriss Dean and Yggdrasil Press, for the arc in exchange for an honest review.


Markus wants to be a dragon rider but his dreams are all but crushed when he fails his attempts at breaking any dragon. He is unexpectedly given a broken Graytail in exchange for going undercover to infiltrate a gang suspected of hijacking deliveries of obsidian. It’s his chance to prove himself as a rider and make his dreams a reality.

This is another book that takes off from page one, and it was a fast paced easy read. I finished it in a few hours. It was really obvious to me the inspiration take from fourth wing but the way it blended into the fast and furious type story made it stand out.

Things I loved
▪️ dragons- cheeky each in their own way
▪️military college
▪️ dragon races- who wouldn’t love it.
▪️Tobias- I like the attitude.
▪️ pacing
▪️Ren- let’s be real here I was thrown for a loop with this character, but in the best way possible. I LOVED the respect shown and the feelings his character brought out in Markus.
▪️they don’t die if their dragons do and vice versa. I didn’t have to hold my breath or feel sad for dragons we only saw a blip of, just because I was attached to their character. This was a very distinct and nice difference from the fourth wing inspiration. Nicely done too!
▪️Carina- she seems like a girls girl! Would’ve loved more of her character.

Things I think need improvement
▪️romance- it felt rushed I could see a lot of the fast and furious inspiration where the romance was involved, but it needed more development.
▪️ character development was lacking- Markus muddled through so much. It briefly mentions his school work is improved but we are told more than experiencing. And after his failures as breaking a dragon how did he get good at riding the broken one? Need a bit more background here. Amira went from the girl he was crushing on to lover real quick without much depth to her character. I really would’ve loved to see more and maybe understand why the connection. Not just that Markus wanted to sleep with her. He likes her for a reason, but what is it? Last curiosity it mentioned legacy, but it seemed like most our characters were legacy riders who wasn’t?
▪️ I would’ve loved more put into the actually classes. Markus was absent for class more than he attended.
▪️world building-it’s the PNW post many world wars with dragons that’s all we get to know.

Over all it was a well done debut book! Interesting plot with good pacing. I give it 2.5/5 stars, only because it needed a little more depth!