Fourth Wing

I was hoping this series would be similar to Samantha Shannon's Priory of the Orange Tree. I was recommended this series by several friends, since it had battles and dragons that were written more akin to gods and less like pets. Which is something I appreciate in narratives. This was admittedly my own fault. As all of these friends are serial Romance readers.

That being said, this isn't a bad book! I thoroughly enjoyed the romance building and pay offs... But my GOD was this a thirsty book. The amount of objectifying of the masculine characters done by the feminine characters could bridge the gender pay gap. I felt like I needed to walk around with a spray bottle and blast all of the characters in the face with it every other chapter.

The world building seems to take second seat to the romance, which isn't unexpected given it's true genre. Not many battle strategies/cultural lore are backed up by solid reason... But I didn't lose interest at any point in the book. I love how the dragons and their relationships with riders are written. And I'm interested to learn more about the spoiler side of the world. So I will probably pick up the next book in the series at some point. Now that I'm fully aware this series is closer to erotica than it is high fantasy!

Another book that I enjoyed more than I thought I would! We follow Violet SorrengaiI when she joins the Basgiath War College to become a dragonrider in the kingdom of Navarre. All she wanted was to become a scribe, but her mother, who is a war General, forces her to join the Dragonriders Quadrant, instead of the Scribe Quadrant. Just to keep family tradition (her older siblings were also dragonriders). I feel bad about the ruthlessness nature of this military school (there are zero concerns with safety and well-being of the cadets) but I got past that. Cadets die if they make mistakes or fail the crazy challenges and test assigned to them. They are prepared to bond with a dragon and become a rider. The bond is strong, rider and dragons can telepathically communicate. And if you're a rider and your dragon dies, you die! I'm loving the mental banter-dialogues between the riders and the dragons. The romance is a slow burn well developed enemies-to-lovers. It's over the top and I loved it! I definitely want to check out the second book in the series.