Firebolt | Review

Magic and Dragons, what more could you want?

We start this adventure with an intriguing premise -- a teenager discovers that dragons are real and is suddenly thrust into a world of magic, mystery, and self-discovery.

Now I haven't read a lot of teen fantasy books centered on Dragons for a while. The last one was the Jennifer Scales series and that did not end well for me. In fact, I still have some seriously effed up leftover emotional baggage from those books. So as you can imagine, I was seriously excited to give this book a try.

AUTHOR:	Adrienne Woods	START::	April 06 2017
FORMAT:	Ebook | NetGalley	FINISH:	April 12 2017
RATING:	🤗 🤗 🤗	SERIES:	Dragonia, Book One

What I liked about the book is that it wasted no time getting right into the story. Immediately, we meet our heroine Elena who happens to be an average, run of the mill, quite whiny, and too clumsy teenager who excels at riddles... and who is constantly on the move with her Dad. It seems that they were always running away from "something" and she was getting tired of it. On one nightly run, she found out what exactly all of it was about --- they were running away from DRAGONS!

Suddenly Elena finds herself an orphan (her mom having left when she was little) and wakes up to a whole new world. She is thrust into the Paegeia equivalent of Hogwarts School to learn all about magic, dragons and dragon riders called Dragonia. Turns out, she is actually one of them! At the Academy, Elena meets a colorful bunch of characters ranging from humans like herself studying to be riders and the other students who can actually shift into dragons depending on power and breed. The characters in the book were relatively realistic and likable enough, worrying about things like boys, outfits and excelling at classes. 

Though the world Elena enters is not so different from our own, the author was able to create an interesting blend medieval fantasy intermixed with modern urban fantasy. I sensed hints of similarities to Harry Potter, Eragon, Dragonheart, and Lord of the Rings to name a few but it did not detract from the storytelling at all. The world of Paegeia is slowly built up and while it got confusing for me at first, the development of the history and its people start to unfold in a detailed manner as the story progresses. 

The one thing I hope not to see in future stories is Elena's favorite phrase "for the love of blueberries..." as frequent repetitions got really old, really fast. In fact, towards the end of the book, I was left with such a healthy dislike for the tiny blue fruit.

It was an intriguing world and the Dragonian society was well thought out and unique. I enjoyed reading about the different variations of dragons, their personality types, powers and capabilities. I would have wanted to see Elena mature as the story progresses but perhaps since it is the first of many in a series that still continues, it was done on purpose to show her growth and development. There was also a hint of a love triangle blooming which I hope gets fully explored in the succeeding books as well. 

Admittedly there were certain times when I found myself struggling to get into the groove of the book. As much as I loved the premise, there was just something that was not making me connect to the story at all. Nevertheless, and for the love of blueberries, I persisted. 

I rate this book :

which means that while I liked it enough to finish it, I would not shell out money to buy a physical copy of the book for my library. I would recommend it to my friends though who are looking for a light, fluffy fantasy read.

Do let me know Dear Readers your thoughts on this book. Would you read it? If you saw it at the bookstore, would you be tempted to buy it just because of the gorgeous cover? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Until the next! 

XOXO,

● I received a free copy of the Ebook from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion ●