Incredible!!!! Fell in love with this book! I hope there is more to this because I have a lot of questions about certain things. I definitely need more

2.5 stars

I fully requested this book because of the Fourth Wing and How to Train You Dragon comparisons and was let down.

My biggest problem with this one was 100% the characters. Though the side characters got the worst of it, I think they all lacked any of the depth needed to make me care for them. Like, by the time I got toward the big reveal and shit hit the fan, I realized I didn't really care what happened to anyone.

And because of that, the whole romance aspect of the story did absolutely nothing for me. I felt virtually no chemistry between Markus and Amira, and the build-up was nonexistent.

I do feel like this book had a lot of potential and, who knows, maybe the sequel will be better. And even if it's not, I will probably read it.

Dragon Den follows young Markus Fredrikson, who is nearing the end of his first year at Dragild - the school for dragon riders. After failing to break a dragon of his own, he is given a second chance with a dragon - Loki - who lost his ride. In return, he has to infiltrate a clan on behalf of his Commandant.

As the book description mentions, it is inspired back Fast & Furious, of which I am a fan. However, in some cases, I found that the book leaned a little too far into the F&F relation in areas that didn't translate well to reading. F&F is action-packed and extremely visual. Most people don't watch it for the plot, but for the loud sounds, visually action-packed scenes...and the sexy cast. Having dragon racing occur around a city, was exciting in parts, but felt a little too unrealistic in others. For how rare dragons were, it seemed that the city was far too adept at hiding and sneaking around with dragons.

The book was fast-paced, but being a fantasy book, I felt lost and rushed. There was a lot of background information that I felt was lacking and impacted my ability to follow along. I consistently felt like I missed something, and went back to check if I had. There was also a lack of character intros. Times when a character's name was mentioned, but with no context for the reader until much later.

The first spicy scene was far more detailed than the rest of the book. As a spicy reader, I found it well written, but there was no chemistry between Amira and Markus leading up to the event. It was implied that there should be, but the scenes laid out didn't show it. After their first date though, this smoothed out a lot and you should see that chemistry growing.

I did love Loki, and his telepathic dialogue reminded me of Fourth Wing. It's always interesting seeing that kind of relationship develop between dragon and rider.

The end felt just like the end of an F&F movie, fast and furious. It wrapped up quickly but set itself up for a second book.

All in all, this book lined up with the quality of F&F. It's quick and enjoyable, but isn't written to be an in-depth book. I recommend it to those who like F&F and Dragons.

Thank you NetGalley and Yggdrasil Press for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

2 Stars.

🐉 The vibes:
- dragons
- Undercover mission
- Fast and furious inspired

🐉 My thoughts:
When Markus is unable to “break” a dragon at his dragon riding academy, he is given one final opportunity to get his own dragon if he accepts an undercover mission to find who has been stealing obsidian. There’s dragons, death, and of course the secret ops mission.

There was little to no world building on this one. You’re thrown in to the dragon den (heehee) immediately and you have to learn quick. There’s a lot of names; a lot of backstory that I had to pick up on and assume. I felt like there was a lot of potential once we got to the plot line, but it was so rushed that I didn’t feel very invested in the characters or the plot.

There are heavy topics explored such as police brutality and racism but it is rushed through and I found myself confused on where these topics were introduced and was thrown right in the middle of it which unfortunately was the theme of the book. I was confused most of the book and had a hard time following the plot.

There’s a romance element but that also felt rushed for me.

It did feel like the Fourth Wing universe as far as the dragon school. And I think a lot of the elements were taken from Fourth Wing and implemented in this novel.

Overall- I really liked the idea of this book. A dragon rider academy with dragon racing akin to Fast and Furious sounds both fun and unique. I think I would have enjoyed this one more if the plot and characters were fully fleshed out and less rushed through. The ending is a bit of a cliff hanger and it appears there will be more books to come.

Release date: June 20, 2024.

Thank you so much to Kris’s Dean, Yggdrasil Press, and NetGalley for the gifted copy.

*note- posted on Instagram (in stories 4/18/24 and saved permanently in my Story Reviews highlights), goodreads, Storygraph, and barnes and noble. Links provided. Will be posted on Amazon after release date when Amazon allows me to.

Thank you to NetGalley and Yggdrasil Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

There were lots of aspects of this novel I really loved. The Urban Fantasy aspect is a welcome change of pace and a refreshing take on dragon world-building. The underground dragon racing/fighting ring is fascinating, and I wish we got a more in-depth look at it!

It's great to see some blatantly POC main characters in fantasy - Dean does not hide behind vague skin colour descriptions and proudly displays the Obi families heritage which I love. I do feel that we could have been given a richer understanding of their culture though. I also appreciate the author's attempts at exploring racism, but it feels rushed and could be more fleshed out.

The characters fall really flat for me. We get very little opportunity to get to know any of them other than Markus. We don't get a glimpse of what drives them, their flaws or strengths. We don't get to see much of their relationships with eachother. All we get is what pertains to the main plot, which is a shame, because the backstory of Tobias's team lends itself so well to an ACOTAR Rhys/Cassian/Azriel relationship between the boys.

Even the Romantic relationship between the two main characters is a bit uninteresting. It feels forced, there's very little build or tension and it feels like they go from flirting to the "been together for a few years" attitude instantly. The spice is okay. There's multiple kissing scenes and a fade to black scene, along with one properly spicy scene. It's not very drawn out, and not too explicit or dirty.

The dragons, however, are awesome. Loki is the star of the book. He made me laugh a lot, and I absolutely adored the new take on dragon/rider relationships. Dragons are affectionate, freely accept pets and hugs from both their riders and other people, and they sleep in stables. It's really different to anything else I've read!

Overall, the whole book feels rushed. We're thrown straight into action, there's very little world-building or explanation of the politics of the world. The characters lack depth. The description promises something similar to Fourth Wing, but it's nowhere near that level for me. I enjoyed the read, but I think it should have been considerably longer so that the author could slow down the plot and weave in some more world-building and character development. The ending suggests there will be a sequel, and I enjoyed the book enough to read a second if there is one. I just hope it's a bit deeper than the first installment.


Overall rating ⭐ - 3/5
Spiciness 🌶️ - 2/5

I love books about dragons and I was very excited about this one.
It's about young dragon rider who fails to get his dragon by breaking but due to important government investigation he got one nonetheless. He is given a task to infiltrate the recent disappearance of valuable resources. While still carrying on his normal school duties.
I wanted to love this book but at the end there was too many things that didn't work for me.
Best part of the plot are of course dragons. I have no complaints here - loved the dragon races, Loki and his relationship with Markus. Whole idea of placing fantastic creatures in none fantasy world - brilliant.
Rest was sadly not as good. Plot was chaotic and confusing, like why 1st year student was involved in government investigation?! Zero explanation is given why. And that's not the only issue with plot unfortunately. On the top of that there was romance - and I wish it wouldn't because it was embarrassing and flat. I felt like am reading a 14 years old boy recollection of his first encounter with sex. And it didn't match up with constant assurance how much he cared abou the girl.
Overall, it was ok read, just not as good as I hoped.

I requested this book because I like fantasy books with dragons.
There's not a lot of world building.
I liked the story and the characters, i think the story could be further developed. However, I spent a good time reading it.

I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This felt like grown up Eragon, but shortened. This book is less than 200 pages, so that’s usually a strike for me. It’s hard to develop a world and characters in less than 200 pages. Thankfully, this one is speculative fiction, so the world we’re reading about is fairly normal to us. Basically in the future, but with dragons. The story was fleshed out pretty decently and the plot line was interesting. This author was a bit repetitive with some phrases, and for someone who reads quickly it gets a little tedious reading the same phrase multiple times. The characters were thought out pretty well considering the length of the book. There’s a couple of spots I wish we had more exposition of characters, but for a quick and fun read, it works. The writing was a bit simplistic, not a lot of frills or ornamentation in the language, which is again, fine for a short story. Obviously the plot is king in these sort of books, and the plot was definitely interesting enough to keep you into it.

All in all; not my favorite, but you have to consider my favorite is epic fantasy. For what it is, this is good! 3⭐️

This story is full with action, violence and tension. I'm grateful the author has put the trigger warnings in the first pages so I knew what I was going to encounter.

I have to admit that the author's pen was amazing because it grabbed me from the begging to the end (I read it in two days!)
I felt adrenaline at every second, with every word. Every few pages I had to stop to catch my breath. It was really fast paced and I liked that it was straight to the point.
I enjoyed the characters and I found Markus really funny and relatable.
The romance was really cute and I have to say the spicy scenes were good as well.
My favourite parts were the ones with action where I could see the raw world where the story is set in and I'm absolutely sure I want to keep reading the author to see where everything goes.
I think it's a great start and I'm very excited to see more of Markus and Amira's adventures.

Oh goodness, I'm not quite sure where to start here. The concept was interesting, although it sounded like dragon F&F fanfiction, I thought that maybe it might be more. I, unfortunately, was not shown more. This belongs on AO3, or at least a heavy amount of fleshing out and worldbuilding to make it feel more like a real novel. It reads quickly, partially due to the lack of detailing and partially due to the entire thing being basically dialogue. It's advertised for fans of Fourth Wing, and I'm sure that's probably the right group to advertise it with, looking for romance with a smattering of fantasy, rather than a fantasy that has romance in it. I thought it was unique that the main character was a guy, that's pretty rare in romantasy these days.

Upon reading the synopsis I was excited to find a world of dragons and dragon riders. I loved Fourth Wing so was excited by the promise of a fast paced book with a similar premise.

Overall, I liked the story and where the plot was going. I just found the execution a little lacking. The prose is simple and lacking variance of description or developed writing. I usually like young adult but this felt too simple for me.

I would've loved more character development and I really feel this would have been best done with more developed dialogue rather than being told everything. I don't particularly feel like a went on a journey with the characters.

This has a lot of potential, I feel it just needs a good polish with some reworking of dialogue and overall development. I am so grateful to have the opportunity of reviewing this ARC and interested to see what the author does next.

Love dragons, love the way the author navigated thr world and world building of this. Will keep and eye on them for sure

This was a gifted ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was marketed as being fourth wing and fast and furious mixed together. Honestly, it was hard for me to finish. The sentence structures were repetitive and the dialogue was very cringey. It told all and showed very little. It also skipped from scene to scene without much transition. It overall read like a first draft.

There were some good concepts to this book. For example, having a MMC in a Romantasy was a different take.

This book had me immediately at "inspired by The Fast and The Furious". And if you are like me and can nearly quote the entire first movie from memory, then I highly recommend this book. My favourite parts were the almost word-by-word quotes from the first movie. Whenever I came across another, I would mentally schedule my next re-watch of the movie (and series...).

Overall, the book could have benefitted from more world- and character-building. We are dropped into this story in much the same place as the movie, but in the movie, we already inherently know the world since it is not a fantasy. In this book, we get a few snippets of history and fantasy explanations through the academic aspects, but I would have loved to see more. As for the characters, I'd have liked to know more about them as individuals and dove more into their histories and motivations.

The writing is quite simple and doesn't carry much in the way of flowery descriptions or prose. While this did work for me, it may not work for others. I would have appreciated a bit more description of the world around us to set the scenes, but the writing as-is did lend itself to a quick read.

Second to the movie quote references, my favourite part was the relationships with the dragons. I love the mind-speak aspect because it always lets us understand the dragon as a character as opposed to a simple creature.

Thank you to NetGalley and Yggdrasil Press for a digital advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Rating: 3 / 5

Thank you to the Kriss Dean, Yggdrasil Press and Netgalley for the Arc in exchange for an honest review.

Summary
While the premise and concept of the book have potential, the novel as a whole needed more world building and fleshing out of its main characters. Some characters, including main characters, needed more depth and reason for their actions. The story felt very very fast paced, honestly more so than was necessary for plot development I would have been happy to see even 100 more pages to allow for the world and character development. Highlights were the mechanics of the dragons and dragon "breaking". I struggle with the concept of dragons in "modern" day, but feel that it could be a good mix if more time was taken in writing.

Concept and World Building
I want to start by saying I LOVE the premise of this book. Going into the novel, both the description of Fast and Furious mixed with Fourth Wing, I was pumped. There are some very cool ideas and aspects here, but I do feel some of them needed to be fleshed out more. Highlights were the concept of "breaking" the dragon with the obsidian collars and the communication link between the dragons.

I personally struggled with picturing the locations and some of the world building aspects. We are dropped into the end of Markus's first year, and I think we could have benefited from some world building happening up front. The story is fast paced enough that I felt like I could never catch up.

Romance Plot Line
While there were some very cute and steamy moments between our MC and his romantic interest, I do wish there had been some more build up. The pair are very reminiscent of insta-love, rather than a slower build up to the romance.

Characters
As normal, my favorite character is by far the dragon. That being said, I feel that many of the characters need more in depth development and overall fell flat.


Spice Level: 2/5
Plot Concept: 4/5
Plot Development: 2.5/5
Character Concepts: 4/5
Character Development: 2/5
World-Building: 2/5
Writing Style: 2.5/5

This had a lot of potential. I wish the author took a bit more time writing it and included more depth to the world so we, as readers, can visualize what it looks like. I also wish there was more background. This book gave me the same feeling as walking into a movie that’s halfway done.

I love anything with dragons so got very excited to read this but I struggled with it past the first couple chapters. It started off interesting and I love a good urban fantasy that mixes in the real world but then it just kind of fell flat for me and was super rushed. Still a fun read as anything with dragons is!

I really enjoyed this book. It was so unique mixing real world with dragons. And the racing scenes gave me anxiety! (In a good way). I fell in love with Loki and have so many questions about Amira and Tobias’s mother. There is so much more to this story and I really hope this becomes a series!

Thank you NetGalley and Yggdrasil press for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Dragon Den immediately caught my interest with the Cover and Synopsis. Dragons x Fast and the Furious? Perfect for fans of Fourth Wing? Sign me up.
This is a Futuristic Urban Fantasy setup in the Pacific Northwest. Which I also enjoyed, being from Oregon.

The first fews chapters of the book was great, but then got a little too fast paced. We start off with Markus and the other students at school, having to collar a dragon or be kicked out. From there, everything is thrown at you page after page. I feel if we would have slowed down a bit, it would have be better.

I liked the Fast and Furious references at the beginning, but then came to realize it 100% follows the storyline of the first movie. There were too many almost direct quotes from the movie. That made the book a little predictable to me.

The ending took a small turn and I enjoyed that, but also felt like it was rushed and slightly unbelievably easy for one event that happens.

The writing is easy to read, but sometimes too easy. I wanted more depth with the characters. More complexity. I never fully connected to anyone. I did enjoy the Dragon Dialogue with Loki. Will I read the 2nd book? Maybe. 3.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I usually try and give a book the benefit of the doubt if it doesn't immediately command my attention, but I honestly could not for the life of me engage with this story. The tagline perked my interest so much so that I may have gotten too high of expectations. I mean, Fast & Furious meets Fourth Wing, count me in! But, I guess I couldn't rectify how dragons could fit in with the modern world, and I didn't feel like it was integrated well in this book either.

I'm grateful to have been given an advanced copy of this book, however, I couldn't make it through to the end because of how disconnected I felt from the setting, the plot, and the characters.