Hey Jared,

This is the first, and perhaps last, “Galley” that I’ve done. For those of you who don’t know what that is; a galley is a pre-published version of a book provided for the purpose of obtaining feedback and reviews. They’re not yet the polished masterpieces they later become. So reviewing them is tricky, and I don’t know if I’m going to do any more.

Title: Dragons of Wild
Series: Upon Dragon’s Breath Trilogy; Book 1
Author: Ava Richardson
Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Young Adult
ROTS Setting: UU, Medieval, Dragons, Higher Magic (sort of)
Synopsis: The once peaceful kingdom of Torvald has been ravaged by evil magic, forcing Riders to forget their dragons and their noble beasts to flee to the wilds. Now, anyone who dares to speak of dragons is deemed insane and put to death.
Recommendation: I do not recommend this book.

A copy of this book was provided free of charge via NetGalley for the purpose of obtaining feedback and a review.

This may seem a bit rough to not recommend a book based on an unfinished version. First I’d like to point out that I’ve been able to look over the published version thanks to Lisa’s Kindle Unlimited. While I didn’t reread the entire thing I was able to confirm most of my main issues with the book in the published version.

The prologue is perhaps the most confusing aspect of the book. The events in it take place, at least, a generation before the events of the rest of the book. Something close to 40 years by my estimate. It is by far the best writing in the book and would have made a pretty good short story. So the author clearly knows their stuff. Sadly the rest of the book is a huge step down.

The two main characters are Saffron and Bower. Neither are particularly unique or engaging. Saffron has been raised by dragons on some tropical islands. She possesses a magic that is deemed dangerous due to her lack of control so she’s sent out to learn about her family in hopes that they can teach her to control it. Bower is the last of a once great house of a once great city. He’s a do-good-er without any skills or abilities except for an illicit knowledge of the past…..but even that is all but useless. Their both pretty flat since their actions often go against their established personalities.

The world setting is very underwhelming. There were only a few hints of something more, but that’s it. The dragons are OP……Ya, I love dragons but they are so OP it kind of makes me wonder why they need humans…..or even want to interact with them at all. Which is a bit of an issue since most of the premise is based on human/dragon interaction.

As for the plot it was mediocre. Halfway through and nothing had happened. Lots of repeating itself. The more I read the more I thought that his book should have been an entire trilogy. Everything felt rushed, but nothing was actually happening. There wasn’t enough time or effort showing why the antagonist was so bad and mostly just the characters straight up stating it.

I haven’t even mentioned the inconsistencies. For example, it’s expressly stated that she is given money, but a couple of chapters later she laments that she doesn’t have any and has no use for it. And yes, that still made it into the published version.

Overall the book felt very rough and clumsy, even taking into account it’s pre-published state.

Robert

Links

• Ava Richardson’s Official Website