You know that feeling that you get when immersed in a reaaaaaallllly good book? Like you are at one with the main character(s)? Feeling everything they feel? Having your heart race when s/he has to face a great foe or escape some stressful situation? Yeah.........I'm not getting that with this series.

Personally, I found the flow of the book to be once again slow and unexciting, despite the fact that it was composed of mostly "action" scenes - unlike the first book which had no action at all. During the fight/escape scenes, when I should have been at the edge of my seat (these are DRAGONS fighting after all!!), most of the time I found myself either skipping ahead or glancing at the clock every few minutes feeling as if I had been reading for hours, when in reality, it was only a few mins. At this point the only thing keeping me going is my OCD at leaving things half finished and my desire to figure out why in the world Ember Hill is so important (and whether or not it coincides with my theory).

Ceritanya aga klasik dan ceroboh sih, tpi plot twist banget. Seruuuu

This series is about as YA trope-y as a book can get. With that said… dragons! And I’m listening to it through my library so I have no money sunk into it. It’s worth the read at that cost! I’m not saying it’s a bad story, just a bit predictable and angsty.

Real rating: 3.5 stars

I hate giving bad reviews to my favourite author, but this book took me months to finish. I actually forgot I was reading it for like two months until I resumed. That tells you a lot.
I felt it dragged and the many POVs annoyed me, especially the ones from Cobalt and his 12 years ago story. I would've preferred it as a bonus content or wide book, or all together.
The love triangle and the fact Ember doesn't even know which one she really likes and is torn between the two just makes me angry. I can value a love triangle when it's for the main pairing to act on their feelings or for the male lead to fee jealous and test the intensity of his feelings… I hate it when by the second book you still don't know which one shell choose and prefer everyone dies just to stop the annoying subplot. The book would be better without the romance and just the mafia behind both organisations.
I didn't hate the book but I didn't love it and the fact I didn't love a book Jukie broke breaks my heart because I love the air she breathes. I felt it was slower than Talon, and that book also disappointed me.
I hope Soldier is worth the wait and leaves me with a sweet taste instead of this bitterness in my tongue.

I'll go cry on my bed now.

The pace picks up in the second installment of Talon. I love Riley/Cobalt's character, and obviously there was a lot of his back story in this one. I'm not a huge fan of love triangles, but this is also a book written for teens. I do enjoy a good dragon fight though.

Continuing on with Soldier.

I'm pretty sure I said I wasn't going to keep reading these books, but here we are.

I think what I struggle with here is that the characters are ... well annoying. And it boils down to them not quite being relatable enough and me just wanting to roll my eyes at them through the entire book.

Any ways.... Here we are back with Ember and Riley as they decide to try and save the life of Garrett, a soldier of the Order of St. George. Sworn Enemy to dragons. But Ember knows Garrett and can't stand to have his blood on her hands. So she and Riley set out to save him. But doing so only beings trouble on their backs as they have to avoid not just St. George but also Talon agents and fight out a way to keep young hatchlings safe from the manipulations of Talon.

Oh and Dante, Ember's twin brother is there. He thinks his sister is brainwashed by Riley and will do anything to get her back to Talon. Which is a another bit of the story I am annoyed about too--his development felt forced in this book, granted we have scant chapters with him but they just didn't feel right.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was exciting! I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed the first one. I really liked that Ember developed as a character, even with her stubbornness and fiery disposition. I really enjoyed getting to know more about Riley's character and his past as well as a bit more development in the relationships between the characters. I still love the premise of dragons shape shifting into human forms and it is described so perfectly in this series. There was basically non-stop action the whole way through, but it in no way took away from the story and development. The villains are the kind you really love to hate and the heroes are believable. I truly enjoy Julie Kagawa's creativity and imagination and really love immersing myself in this world. I'm absolutely looking forward to the third book.

My quick take on book 2:

I liked this book a whole lot, but not quite as much as the first book. Most of the reason for this is because the focus of the book is on Riley. I don't hate him, but he's my least favorite character. I could definitely do without the love triangle---I was never really convinced of the connection between Riley and Ember, and this book didn't win me over to his side. We also get chapters with Riley's backstory, and I'll be honest, I didn't really care about the backstory all that much. I felt like we already knew everything we needed to know and those backstory chapters just took us out of the momentum of the main plot.

Having said all that, I'm still a big fan of this series, and I enjoyed the book overall. I've been listening to the audiobooks of these, and I think the narrators are all great for their characters.

It was slow to start and very love triangley. Also the characters said the same thing over and over and over and over. It got a bit tedious. Also it was pretty predictable. The overall plot is alright. But the unknown plot elements are also really predictable. Also Ember makes such bad decisions, like horror movie decisions. It's super infuriating.