Dragonfall (Dragon Scales #1)
L.R. Lam
The first in an epic fantasy trilogy from Sunday Times bestselling author L.R. Lam Long ago, humans betrayed dragons, stealing their magic and banishing them to a dying world. Centuries later, their descendants worship dragons as gods. But the 'gods' remember, and they do not forgive. Thief Arcady scrapes a living on the streets of Vatra. Desperate, Arcady steals a powerful artifact from the bones of the Plaguebringer, the most hated person in Lumet history. Only Arcady knows the artifact's magic holds the key to a new life among the nobles at court and a chance for revenge. The spell connects to Everen, the last male dragon foretold to save his kind, dragging him through the Veil. Disguised as a human, Everen soon learns that to regain his true power and form and fulfil his destiny, he only needs to convince one little thief to trust him enough to bond completely–body, mind, and soul–and then kill them. Yet the closer the two become, the greater the risk both their worlds will shatter.
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0 0Dragonfall follows three main pov characters, Arcady, Everen and Sorin.
Whilst trying to cast a spell to steal a powerful artefact that will give Them more power, Arcady accidentally bonds Themself to Everen, who unknown to Them is a dragon.
Everen is the only male dragon for hundreds of years and has to navigate the human world that he knows very little about, amongst the humans he hates.
Sorin is a religious fanatic serving Magnes, killing and spying for him whilst under a vow of silence.
There is a heist, slow burn enemies-to-lovers-enemies romance that gets a little tense as they can’t touch each other. There’s betrayal, friendship, found family between Arcady and Kelwyn.
The book was very slow to start and info-dumpy to start, and I personally feel it could have started at least a chapter or two later than it did. There were three narrative styles, first person, second person and third person. Once I got into the flow of it I actually enjoyed switching between them and thought the second person was done really well.
There were elements of this book that I really enjoyed . The dragon bond was explored in an interesting way, especially with the dragons being able to take a human-esq shape.
Themes of gender were explored, however I feel that they could have been explored a little deeper in the nature of show don’t tell, having the concept as casual representation (which is the direction I thought it was going). In a small country where gender isn’t assumed and there is a specific sign language used for each gender (so every one goes by they/them unless asked) it would have been interesting to explore this deeper, how has fashion evolved because of this? Why are there specific gendered clothing if no one really discusses gender and those expectations don’t exist? How does this effect politics in the world? If Arcady has lived in this world where gender doesn’t matter since birth did they really need to have a discussion about what non binary meant? It felt like the author not trusting the reader with the concept.
Thank you NetGalley, Harper Collins and the author for the arc copy for review.
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