Big thanks to the author and publisher for providing an advance copy!

I requested this ARC because I'm a fan of John Wiswell and this has his signature caring style all over it. There were a lot of things I really loved: the unabashed queerness of the characters, the varied disability rep, the incredibly sweet romantic subplot, and the entire concept of the three-headed dragon where three distinct personalities share a body and are both separate and one are all so fantastic. The overall plot was sort of background decoration and that's fine because it wasn't the point. The characters are the point. There's a huge focus on recovering from injury and trauma that was perhaps a bit too cozy and feel-good for my personal taste, but I can see how it would speak to an audience who wants that comforting perspective.

However, I will say that in a lot of ways, this feels like a children's book (obviously minus all the boinking). The tone, the writing style, the way the dragon spells everything out for the reader, honestly if you took out the dragon rider's frequent sexual escapades and removed the curse words and references to genitals, the actual story itself feels like a middle grade fantasy novel. You've got the injured dragon, the runaway girl trying to prove herself, the mean girl thwarting her, the love interest whose attention she can't seem to get (and I did really love Olek), a simple defeat-the-bad-guys plot … I ended up feeling like it was just lacking that extra punch we got from the monster in Wiswell's first book or the crazy Hera-Hercules dynamic from the second one.

But — some people might totally go for the quieter, simpler route this novel takes. The writing is delightful and story is well-paced and easy to read, so if it looks like your cup of tea, it's definitely worth the read.