(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
This is another book I have some mixed feelings about. I really loved the front cover and the blurb of the book sounded really intriguing. And the first part of the book really drew me in. I liked reading about the life in the village and the two main female characters at the beginning of the book really caught my interest. Even Shalima was interesting at first… despite the fact that the book kept switching between third and first person, which I do find quite difficult to get into.
I did find Shalima an interesting character… but I didn’t especially like her. When she first appeared, I felt like the character had a lot of potential to grow and mature. The problem was that that growth wasn’t actually shown. Soon after the marriage between Shamina and the Golden Dragon, I found myself disconnected from her as a character.
The whole concept of the different types of dragon was a really interesting one, but one I would have liked to see explored in the course of the story, rather than just have an info-dump about the different types. (When I got to meet some of the different types of dragon, I found them really interesting and I would have liked to see more of the individual dragons from he different species).
The other big issue I had with this book was the romance. The thing is… I love romance. I’m a true romantic at heart. But only if that romance is realistic.
When I say realistic, I don’t mean without any paranormal/fantasy elements. I mean a relationship that is shown growing and developing through the course of the book (or film, etc.) That didn’t actually happen here. The romance between Shalima and Dragan seemed really shallow and I felt that a lot of potential development in the romance was neglected to move the basic plot forward.
The action in this book was fairly interesting, but I did struggle somewhat to believe in the romance. The ending didn’t really tug on my heartstrings in the way it should have done.
I’m not sure if I’d read the next book. I’d have to judge that depending on how intriguing I found the plot.
Ink of Blood 