These books both had dragons, and I need to crank out reviews before the deadline, so let’s go!
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
This is the sequel to the incredibly popular Fourth Wing. Fourth Wing was definitely not a perfect book, and I understand a lot of the hate, but I enjoyed the Hell out of it. The sequel picks up immediately after the cliffhanger ending from the first book, and wasn’t it refreshing to only have to wait six months for this? People who were complaining about the six-month wait have obviously never read GRRM. Anyway, back to the book, which I can’t describe without completely ruining book one, so I’m going to talk about some of the background stuff. Violet still has her bond with two dragons, Tairn and Andarna. They are the absolute best part of these books to me. The romance is good, the action is thrilling, but I love the damn grumpy dragons rambling in her head. I may have bought a tumbler with some of the Fourth Wing dragons on it that says “Char first, ask questions later”. I love dragons, OK!
This book was not as good as the first. I think it suffers from second-book syndrome. This is projected to be a five-book series, and I’m definitely along for the ride. Get it? Because they are dragon riders? Look, they can’t all be winners. 4 Stars.
Consort of Fire by Kit Rocha
*Disclaimer* I am a close friend of both of the ladies who wrote this book, and my copy was gifted to me.
This book is a difficult one to summarize, not because it was bad, but because there was SO much world building. Basically, you have Gods who live among the mortals because they were once mortal themselves. Then you have the mortals who either worship or revile them. The main character of this story is The Dragon. Every one hundred years, the mortals must send him a royal consort. They form a bond which further ties The Dragon to the land and ensures the loyalty of the people. However, this time the mortals are sneaky little bastards and want The Dragon dead. Instead of a royal princess, they send a bastard orphan, Sachielle, who is trained in seduction and her handmaiden/lover, Zanya, who is an assassin. If Zanya doesn’t kill The Dragon within the alloted time, Sachielle will not only die, her soul will be destroyed forever.
There was a lot of fantasy and intrigue, but there was also a hefty amount of spice. Lots of good smut. Enough that the authors refer to this as “The Horny Dragon Book”. I enjoyed the Hell out of it and will be recommending it to everyone as much as I possibly can! 5 Stars