Put the word "dragon" in a book title and I'm automatically interested, I really am that easy. So of course, with a title as cool as 'Between Dragons and their Wrath', I was intrigued by Devin madson's new release. Sadly, the intrigue vanished rather quickly when I started reading.

I do think though that it's a perfect case of it's me, not the book.
The story is an interesting one, and the mystery that iit slowly builds up to is exciting. It's what made me not dnf, because I really did want to find out what was going on. But other than that there is just nothing happening. The plot is meandering and at times nonexistent, the world building choppy and all over the place and the characters are mostly vexing or painfully mediocre.
Most of all I simply didn't vibe with the author's writing style, and the choice to have multiple pov and write them all in first person can work I'm sure, but it simply didn't for me. I don't think the book is necessarily badly written, I simply just don't like the style.

The characters are okay but honestly barely interesting, and there is a surprising focus on romance that I wasn't expecting based on the book description. This, at times, reads more like romantasy and the world building and character writing suffered from it. All of the three main characters think way too much about sex and romance than they should in the situation they're in, and Nailii especially was absolutely unbearable to read. There is a sex scene in her chapters that is so gratuitous and nonsensical that it's borderline offensive, I felt as if the author was pulling my leg. The romances themselves also didn't really make me feel anything at all. The only couple that had any kind of chemistry were Ashadi and Mana, but that's mostly because there was an attempt at exploring a master-servant-relationship with all its dark and toxic sides (though honestly that didn't last long and turned into simple miscommunication after a while). There was absolutely no chemistry whatsoever between Tesha and Uvao, and Naili lost me in her first chapter with that weird oversexualizing of every woman that exists within like two miles of her.
The world also feels incredibly small due to decisions to connect basically all the important characters to each other in often unnecessary ways, and every time such a connection is revealed it feels like it was supposed to be some clever plot twist. It's not, it just made me feel like there are about ten people at most living in this world.

Basically, this series starter has some very cool ideas, it gets bonus points for its queer protagonists, but the rest of it just wasn't for me at all. Also there are barely any dragons in it, though admittedly the mystery surrounding them and the monsters inhabiting the harsh deserts of this world is the one thing that really shines. Ashadi's dragon is also the best character of the book and she's only in like, three chapters or so.
I do hope others will enjoy this book more, but I personally won't be continuing this series.

4.5 stars!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc of this book. My opinions are my own.

A few years back I read 'We Ride The Storm', the first book in the Reborn Empire series. I loved it, but somehow waited until this year to read the other three books. I'm so glad I did get to reading them, though, because Devin Madson has quickly become one of my favourite authors. To be able to read Between Dragons and Their Wrath in advance truly was a surprise! I'm always grateful to publishers when they approve my request to read an advanced reader copy, but when it's one of your most anticipated books of the year, that literally makes my day!

I quickly found myself enjoying Devin Madson's familiar writing style, meeting new characters in a whole new setting. There are three main characters, each with their own POV chapters. I loved the way those chapters all gave a little insight in different parts of the world, while you as a reader only slowly find out how all of it is connected.

This story just sucked me right in from the start. The characters are interesting, there's some nice intrigue to enjoy, secrets to be revealed... Not as many dragons as you might expect from the title, but I have a feeling they'll make a bigger appearance in the next book!

I'm very excited for this series, it just might become one of my all time favourites!

This book was just epic. I'm loving anything with dragons right now (thanks to house of the dragon).
I was really impressed with this one. I loved the writing style, and this book felt very unique to me.

I really enjoyed this book!

This is an Epic Fantasy with a complex plot and wide reaching Political intrigue. It is a first book in a series and as such the pacing does start off a little slow, but it does gradually pick up until you are fully invested in the story and its characters.

The characters, I feel, are what made this book so wonderful. There are Multiple POV,s which were easy to follow and interesting in their own right. The Characters are all likable, flawed and felt like well fleshed out people with their own complex issues. Tesha is the glass blower's apprentice, Naili is a laundress to and alchemist and Ashadi is a dragon Rider. There is also an abundance of LGBTQI rep here as well.

The writing is exquisite. Grand as one would expect with a novel like this, without being too flowery or pretentious. Now, being a first book of a series it is important to note that though there will be plot points that may seem like plot holes, this is likely not the case as they will in all likelihood be resolved in later books. This is the nature of Epic Series and I would hate for anyone to not enjoy it at the end because of a misunderstanding.

Overall i loved this book and I suspect I will enjoy the following books even more as the story continues on.
Though the Dragons are few and far between, they are Glorious. This story is suitably impressive for a first book with its wide reaching Political intrigue and its Fantasy setting. I felt the romance subplot was well written and added to the story, rather than detract from everything that was taking place.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Fantasy, Politics and well crafters Characters. I can't wait for the next book.

Thank you to little brown books and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own and I am posting them voluntarily.

3.5 ⭐️

A book with dragons in the title sign me up.

Firstly I want to say that this book has epic world building, complex characters with different POVs and a forbidden romance which is a trope I know and love. At face value it’s got dragons, a unique magic system and steamy romance. I also love the writing style but for me the reason I was so interested in the book was from the mention of dragons in the title so I thought they’d be more prevalent throughout the book which is why, sadly, I didn’t feel like this was a 4 star read for me.

La verdad es que el nuevo libro de Devin Madson, Between Dragons and Their Breath me ha parecido entretenidísimo, divertido y con un punto picante que le viene bastante bien, pero adolece de un caso grave de comienzo de saga, por que los tres cliffhangers con los que termina la entrega son más escarpados que los acantilados de Dover.


En primer lugar me gustaría alabar la labor de los tres narradores del audiolibro, uno por cada punto de vista,a ya que se nota que Soneela Nankani, Lauren Fortgang y Ron Butler se han metido en el papel a fondo, en su representación de Tesha, Naili y Ash. La elección de la dirección del audiolibro ha estado muy acertada repartiendo los papeles, además me complace especialmente que haya variedad de voces para representar cada papel, creo que el hecho de que haya más de un narrador implicado lucha contra la monotonía del audio. También este conjunto de narradores ayuda con la extraña idea de la autora de utilizar múltiples puntos de vista, pero todos escritos en primera persona.

Como decía en el párrafo anterior, los protagonistas son tres, Tesha, Naili y Ash. Tesha es una sopladora de vidrio con inquietudes políticas que se acaba ofreciendo voluntaria para espiar al autoproclamado poder supremo de la cuenca en la que viven. Naili es una lavandera en la casa del Alquimista, donde se ve que hace ya tiempo que no pasa un inspector de riesgos laborales, ya que el tratamiento de las distintas sustancias del día a día la dota de “poderes” que serán de gran ayuda en el futuro desarrollo de la serie. Y Ash cabalga dragones defendiendo la cuenca del ataque constante de los monstruos del exterior.

Aunque en principio parecen historias muy separadas, lógicamente van confluyendo como afluentes de un río más caudaloso, la trilogía del Shattered Kingdom. Sin entrar mucho en la propia historia, Madson deja entrever una construcción de mundo bastante interesante, pero plagada de misterios que no verán su resolución en las 17 horas del audiolibro. Ése es mi principal problema con el libro, que no lo veo como una unidad completa e independiente en sí misma, si no como un prólogo alargado de lo que vendrá después.

Los personajes, tanto principales como secundarios, son muy atractivos y está muy bien llevado ese tono salaz de algunos capítulos. Es un placer ir descubriendo todo el trabajo de creación que ha habido detrás de la historia y me encanta el recurso de ir contando las noticias de cada día con los titulares más destacados de los periódicos, que no se imprimen habitualmente si no que se vocean por la calle para que la gran mayoría de la población, analfabeta, pueda tener acceso al contenido.

También me gusta el tono algo reivindicativo, de lucha obrera de clases, que se deja entrever en algunos capítulos. El colonialismo de aprovechar los recursos de los demás, el imperialismo de creerse superior solo por haber nacido en un sitio determinado… la corriente política subyacente a la trama es bastante importante y estoy segura de que estas intrigas seguirán a la orden del día en las siguientes entregas, que espero impaciente.

I have to admit that I've got mixed feelings about this book. The premise was great, nice segments of world building, even if you struggle to get your head around politics, and the three main characters are different enough that they're each endearing in their own ways.

Tesh has a nice plot-line that deals with a lot of the politics and class struggles present in this world, with a little morality struggle thrown in. Naili gets thrown from frying pan to fryer faster than you or she can keep up with, and Ash ends up with a massive mystery (crash)landing in his lap. The only downside is the leaping from one viewpoint to another just as things get interesting for one person, you're thrown into following someone else.

It has a lot of promise, and while i'm aware its the first book of a series, I just feel like a little more could have been addressed before the rather abrupt ending.

When I first came across this book it sounded right up my alley - dragons, alchemy and politics? Sign me up! - but I left this book disappointed and wanting something more. The best way I can describe how I felt reading this was that I was told rather than shown. There are such wonderful and interesting concepts in this book yet none of them feel properly explained and developed. The titular dragons appear only a few times, and despite being told their scales are made of glass - an incredible concept - we are never once given a description of what they look like. Glass is an ongoing theme in this book, with scaleglass frequently being the cited as the strongest material in this universe, and one of the main characters starting the story as a glass making apprentice. Despite this, we still learn very little about the role glass plays in this universe.

I also felt this book tried to do too much and therefore fell short. The three main characters split the story up too much, and overall I didn’t feel like I learned anything about them, their personalities never really developed despite being written in first person. I also felt that the romance was forced and out of place for all three characters, with certain scenes feeling completely out of place and ruining the flow of the story. None of the characters are particularly likeable or hate able - they just seem to exist.

As well as an overall feeling of just being told what was happening to these characters, the book has a habit of “fading to black” during scenes that are important to the plot. Odd choices were made in terms of which information was withheld throughout the story, and I found many of the plot points were resolved for too quickly and easily, with very little suspense built.

I think the overall world the author has built was really intriguing, and I wish they had spent more time world building, rather than diving straight into the plot which I found predictable and rushed.

Thank you to NetGalley and LittleBrownBookGroup_UK for sending me this to review.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. This is epic fantasy written in multiple POV's. I did enjoy the very different perspectives and experiences that each character gave, and they all felt like realistic people. A couple of minor gripes would be that they are several elements that I would have liked to be explored/discussed further and is that the ending did not feel much like one, it kinda just stopped. Regardless, I am looking forward to the next instalment and I would recommend this to those that like epic fantasy with lots of political drama and dragons.

Between Dragons and Their Wrath is the first book in a new series. Despite dragons being in the title and being present in initial chapters they are soon just mentioned and left, so don’t expect them too much. The dragons are absolutely amazing when featured, they are fearsome and interact well with the humans. There is use of wit and I enjoyed the dialogue throughout the whole book as well as just with the dragons. The book is well written and immersive, the world is fantastic with alchemists, social discord, dragons, monsters and seas of sand. The only thing I would say is that the book felt like a middle book where you have that set up for something bigger coming. The plot is good, there are plenty of moving parts and the main characters are distinct and interesting. I’m definitely intrigued to see more and get some answers. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

I wanted to like this more than I did. It had a lot of potential but felt short. I didn't mash with the writing or the plot.

4.5 stars rounded down.

I really enjoyed this! The characters are great, likeable and fun to follow. The dialogue is sharp and witty, and the writing in general is very good. The world, though fairly small, felt real and was well set up without too much exposition. The plot set up the political intrigue and mysteries well enough for me to really want to know the answers.

I only have one criticism, which is that it felt like most of the book was in the set-up phase and the story didn't properly take off until the very end. This would have been much more of a problem if the writing hadn't been as good, but fortunately it was, so I am still looking forward to the sequel.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

'Between dragons and their wrath' is the first book in a trilogy (I think?), setting the scenes for the rest of the series. It is more heavily leaning on the political fantasy side of things, which I did not expect (my bad), following three distant but interconnected point of view, told in a first person narrative. I am not, I must say, a big fan of that combo. Multiple POVs are fun to me when they are more directly interconnected, first person POV are complicated and mainly political plot are quickly annoying to me.

That being said, Madson manages to tell this story well. There is a lot of details, interesting world building, intriguing plot full of mystery and old secrets. She tackles a lot surrounding imperialism, loss of culture and traditions, domination and so on, and does it well.

The characters are rather interesting, with thei own voices, though there are a lot of similarities too. I had a bit of a struggle with the hard mind set of one of the character but she evolved a bit, and has enough awareness to be cautious after a while. Ashadi's pov was the one I loved most, because of his relationship with Mana, a dragon and his overall personnality. The two other pov's deal a lot more directly with politics, so it might be a factor for my difficulty with them.

Besides the main characters, I must say there are quite a lot of interesting secondary characters, some of them I would have liked to see more, to know more about them and their goal. There are a fair share of hints, it works really well.

The book is a tad long, especially after a while, once the first discovery is done. Having three POVs help to keep things moving, in various ways, and trying to piece things together is fun. There is a lot and yet not that much things happening, it's a peculiar feeling. The ending was a bit abrupt, left hanging there.

Lastly, I would have liked more dragons, even though they are at the center of the story and intrigue, they have not that much space on page.

Between Dragons and Their Wrath is the first book in a new series by Devin Madson. Tesha is a glassblower’s apprentice and ends up becoming a bride in the Reacher’s court to sabotage him. Naili is a laundress who is sleekly gaining abilities that are making people take notice of her. Ashadi is a dragon rider who protects the basin from the monsters of the sands beyond.

This had some interesting concepts such as colonialism and power but overall I struggled with this book. I haven’t had the best luck with fantasy new releases this year and I just struggled to get into this. The characters were all distinguished from each other and it was easy to follow who was who but overall I just didn’t love it.

TL;DR:
Positives: dragons, politics, good characters, very gay
Negatives: The first chapter is a little hard to get into

OH BOY okay wow.

So, as is the theme for my reviews of ARCs so far, I won't be giving any spoilers even under spoiler warnings. I'll try to take you on the journey I went through reading this book.

I won't lie, it starts off slow. I got half way through the first chapter and I didn't like the writing, I didn't feel connected to the story, and I was concerned I'd have to read the entirety of a book I really didn't like. I'm already a much bigger fan of third person than I am first person, and so I was not looking forward to the rest of this.

BUT then chapter two started. I still wasn't wholly convinced, but the writing itself seemed to improve exponentially, and I found myself a little more hooked than I was before, but still a little apprehensive.

Then the third chapter came along and all bets were off. I LOVED this book. I expected this to be maybe a 3 star at best, but the more I read, the more I wanted to know.

It's got dragons, secrets, politics, spies. Everything I really love in a novel. I do also have to appreciate the sheer amount of queerness in this book. Often authors will include one, maybe two side characters as "token gays", but this book was SO queer it made my little gay heart sing. I loved the worldbuilding in the end too, despite a shakey start.

I do also really appreciate the fact that the main characters were all competent, but not "chosen ones". Their skills were realistic, they weren't prone to very obvious bad decisions, and they felt like real people instead of 2D cutouts.

What made this a 4 star read instead of 5 for me is the ending. I won't give anything away, but it wasn't my favourite way to end a story. I understand why it was done, and realistically I don't think it could've been done any other way with the enormity of the story being told, but it's still not my personal preference. That being said, I will absolutely be reading the next one and however many more come out after that. It's well worth a read. I had a lot of fun with it, there were some really cool concepts explored, and it's really gay. All positives in my opinion.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me an ARC for this book!