How many dystopian YA novels have you read where the scrappy rebels our protagonist is allied with just have the basic policy “we won’t throw you in a fiery hellpit filled with ravenous snakes like these current bastards”? Going up against the dragonborn court and a foreign princess, he faces a test of loyalty that sets his head against his heart.

listening to an audiobook about the Battle for Britain, imagining dogfights as I drove, the beginnings of a story taking shape. Who’s to say that the new regime won’t become like the old, when those in power forget their promises? the only downside about her was that she guessed at lee’s actual identity a little too early in my opinion, and it took away some of the surprise that i was hoping for. Annie and Lee were just children when a brutal revolution changed their world, giving everyone–even the lowborn–a chance to test into the governing class of dragonriders.

There is such a huge focus on government corruption and its ability to make anything seem alright with the right words.

But--and this is a heavy 'but,' somber and realizing--it all comes down to I, the reader, understands where they all come from. For Annie and Lee (and, indeed, all of the other characters, but particularly the young ones), there are no easy choices, and no perfect answers, only striving to be better than what came before. You can see the flaws of the society they inhabit, and you can see the flaws of the former regime that their current society came from, so you see where everyone stands in the grand scheme of ideologies. Having spent much of my time wedding planning over the past 8 months, the following is what I knew: it's fantasy, said to be a mix of Rachel Hartman's Seraphina and Pierce Brown's Red Rising, and Munda was inspired by the Aeneid and the Republic. Annie’s lowborn family was executed by dragonfire, while Lee’s aristocratic family was murdered by revolutionaries.

They are also a symbol of the state; a point of pride and military might, one that is supposed to evoke stirring feelings of being safe and cared for by one’s government. regardless, annie was easier to root for because her motivations were clear cut and her backstory actually made me hate lee a little. I also felt the story could have flowed better between the characters sometimes along with needing to dig deeper into action.

But the rest, Hermione Granger (I suppose that was Annie, but I don't really see it), Game of Thrones. Someone charismatic can be in charge, and I will be the shadowy advisor who comes up with practical ways to achieve their lofty idealistic goals. our mains lee sur power and antigone sur aela both so layered in both their own orphaned backstories yet led to them being in the same orphanage together, the events entangles their bond and loyalty to one another.Alright folks, if you - like me - belong to the group of I-will-read-anything-with-dragons readers, then you are in for a treat. The relationships between the characters are sometimes messy and complicated, but you can really feel their connections, even when they disagree with each other. some of the lines were even cliche like “he had dark hair, gray eyes, and high cheekbones” and of course, the overly used “i let out the breath i didn't realize i’d been holding. You get the sense that Atreus must once have felt the way Griff does now: angry and tired, and desperate to find any way to free his loved ones from the dragonlords’ yoke. That was a real pleasure to read--she avoids the easy but overused LED lights in eyes for emotional conveyance (his eyes gleamed/smoldered/flashed/shot flames, fire, ice, and daggers, blah de blah).