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dannilmp's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
While I think this is a decent expansion on the story of Six Crimson Cranes, this book may not have necessarily needed writing but I think offered a fitting conclusion to Raikaima's part of the story.
I found the determination that Shiori goes through to fufill her stepmother's wish touching and a level of growth and maturity in Shiori that I don't think you would see in most older teenagers. However, the new characters we were introduced to didn't hold my attention as much, the dragons seemed a little lackluster and I found I didn't really care for their politics or their ruling, or even their realm in general.
Putting these criticisms to one side, I found the ending of this book to be satisying if not a little bittersweet between Shiori and her love. It felt like a fitting use of mythology to inspire this ending, and I am very much looking forward to reading the prequel book following Raikaima's early life.
I found the determination that Shiori goes through to fufill her stepmother's wish touching and a level of growth and maturity in Shiori that I don't think you would see in most older teenagers. However, the new characters we were introduced to didn't hold my attention as much, the dragons seemed a little lackluster and I found I didn't really care for their politics or their ruling, or even their realm in general.
Putting these criticisms to one side, I found the ending of this book to be satisying if not a little bittersweet between Shiori and her love. It felt like a fitting use of mythology to inspire this ending, and I am very much looking forward to reading the prequel book following Raikaima's early life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and Grief
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
fragrant_stars's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I loved this book! Not a much as the first, but I still loved it nonetheless. I love that we got to learn more about Shiori's stepmother and her background. I already have Her Radiant Curse open on my kindle ready to be read.
I think my favourite thing was the relationship in this book. The romance between Shiori and Takkan was so beautiful- Such a breath of fresh air that there was no silly relationship drama between them! I wish we had more Seryu stuff, too. Romantic relations aside I love how all the characters interact with each other.
I think my favourite thing was the relationship in this book. The romance between Shiori and Takkan was so beautiful- Such a breath of fresh air that there was no silly relationship drama between them! I wish we had more Seryu stuff, too. Romantic relations aside I love how all the characters interact with each other.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Violence, Blood, and Grief
Moderate: Child abuse, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Pregnancy and War
wpapnik's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
This books jumps RIGHT into the action and wastes no time picking up where Six Crimson Cranes left off.
Firstly, I really enjoyed this book! It had great characters and relationships, a good plot, wonderful world building, and was over all a lovely read! Unfortunately, I feel like this book was a little rushed. While I found Six Crimson Cranes to occasionally be lacking extra detail, The Dragon's Promise overall rushed through the plot.
I really wish we got to see more of Seryu's story - I feel it was cut short after the action between him and his father. I also would have loved to see more of Elang and his character instead of having him only be there to give Shiori the Wraith's name.
The later half of the book went at brake-neck speed and I had a hard time keeping up with all the scene changes. Although that might speak more to my own reading habits and the books I've read recently.
Overall, I would still recommend this book to anyone who like fantasy! Especially if you are interested in getting into High Fantasy.
I really did love this duology and the characters will always have a special place in my heart!
Firstly, I really enjoyed this book! It had great characters and relationships, a good plot, wonderful world building, and was over all a lovely read! Unfortunately, I feel like this book was a little rushed. While I found Six Crimson Cranes to occasionally be lacking extra detail, The Dragon's Promise overall rushed through the plot.
The later half of the book went at brake-neck speed and I had a hard time keeping up with all the scene changes. Although that might speak more to my own reading habits and the books I've read recently.
Overall, I would still recommend this book to anyone who like fantasy! Especially if you are interested in getting into High Fantasy.
I really did love this duology and the characters will always have a special place in my heart!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Death, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Torture
lauramcc7's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent
itsnotalakeitsanocean's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Huge disclaimer that I came into this book not realising it was the second book in a duology (or should it be a trilogy considering one of the deceased characters in this book is getting a prequel apparently?) so unlike a lot of the other reviewers who viewed this as a sequel, my review is based on the book as a standalone.
This book... was a mess quite frankly. It felt more like a mishmash of ideas strung together than a coherently though out plot, causing some truly atrocious pacing. Sometimes it felt like the plot was geared to go in one direction but then it would gently shy away and go in another. As a result certain parts lingered on for much longer than they should have - causing me to skim a lot - and action scenes felt too fast paced.
And the title? The title only applies to about 10% of the actual book. A better title would be The Forgotten Realms, seeing how it was more about the spaces different inhabitants resided in outside of Kiata. As someone who picked it up expecting dragons to be a huge focus I am sorely disappointed. I'm sure Seiryu featured a lot more in the previous book so I'm willing to give some benefit of the doubt, but he feels like a wasted character in this book.
As does Gen. Gen feels like his role was almost cut entirely from the plot save for him and Shiori escaping the dragon palace, and that cutting him out completely meant Shiori wouldn't be able to escape.
Speaking of Shiori, I have mixed feelings on her. On a subjective note, I'm not a fan of her personality. Subjectively, I think her personality could have worked IF there were more consequences to her actions. So many times she gets off with the narrative equivalent of a slap on the wrist and things go her way far too easily. Not entirely - especially towards the end - but there's no tension when you just know everything is going to go her way and the only other consequences happen to other characters. Who are just kind of there. Even her fiancé doesn't give a damn that shehad some very mild romantic tension with a dragon and called off and ran away from their wedding AGAIN.
This is especially true in the ending where Shiori manages to cheat her way out of death thanks to her having the Moon Goddess' favour. Arguably I might be missing some context from the first book, but I physically scowled and rolled my eyes at this literal deus ex machina. Doubly so that we don't get to see what happens in the Moon Kingdom/Realm/Whatever. Because goddess forbid our heroine have any consequences to her actions.
This book... was a mess quite frankly. It felt more like a mishmash of ideas strung together than a coherently though out plot, causing some truly atrocious pacing. Sometimes it felt like the plot was geared to go in one direction but then it would gently shy away and go in another. As a result certain parts lingered on for much longer than they should have - causing me to skim a lot - and action scenes felt too fast paced.
And the title? The title only applies to about 10% of the actual book. A better title would be The Forgotten Realms, seeing how it was more about the spaces different inhabitants resided in outside of Kiata. As someone who picked it up expecting dragons to be a huge focus I am sorely disappointed. I'm sure Seiryu featured a lot more in the previous book so I'm willing to give some benefit of the doubt, but he feels like a wasted character in this book.
As does Gen. Gen feels like his role was almost cut entirely from the plot save for him and Shiori escaping the dragon palace, and that cutting him out completely meant Shiori wouldn't be able to escape.
Speaking of Shiori, I have mixed feelings on her. On a subjective note, I'm not a fan of her personality. Subjectively, I think her personality could have worked IF there were more consequences to her actions. So many times she gets off with the narrative equivalent of a slap on the wrist and things go her way far too easily. Not entirely - especially towards the end - but there's no tension when you just know everything is going to go her way and the only other consequences happen to other characters. Who are just kind of there. Even her fiancé doesn't give a damn that she
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death of parent and Pregnancy
bohemianhermit04's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death, Blood, and Pregnancy
notapenguin's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Grief
Moderate: Death and Fire/Fire injury
broccoli_j's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
A good ending for this duology.
The character development was intentional and well paced, the worldbuilding was consistent and the relationships emotional and well planed.
I absolutely loved this book!
The character development was intentional and well paced, the worldbuilding was consistent and the relationships emotional and well planed.
I absolutely loved this book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: War
Minor: Pregnancy
aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.75
Liked the first book much more than this one. Really wish dragons were more involved especially Seryu and his cousin since the book is called the dragon's promise. I loved reading about Raikama's past and I will be reading the book about her that will be releasing because I need to know more about her. Honestly, Raikama was still the most interesting character and the one I really wanted to learn more about. There were def parts that felt unnecessary and I skimmed certain sections because of it. The big fight with Bandur also felt quite rushed compared to everything leading up to it that felt dragged out so I agree with some other reviews that the pacing was off throughout.
I didn't care for how throwaway the half dragons felt. They were some of the more interesting characters but weren't developed.
And spicy opinion, I didn't care for takkan. I don't remember how I felt about him in the 1st book but in this one, I didn't care for him at all. I loved why he was chosen as the betrothed but his character was boring for me in this one. I don't think I cared about the romance much at all in this. I would've preferred more focus on the "action" parts of the book-would've preferred more time in the dragon realm, would've preferred more expansion on Shiori's magic, would've preferred more Raikama backstory, etc.
Not a bad sequel, still enjoyed a lot of elements of it, but I would've been satisfied with the first book and a book solely about Raikama. Maybe even a novella solely about the dragon realm.
I didn't care for how throwaway the half dragons felt. They were some of the more interesting characters but weren't developed.
And spicy opinion, I didn't care for takkan. I don't remember how I felt about him in the 1st book but in this one, I didn't care for him at all. I loved why he was chosen as the betrothed but his character was boring for me in this one. I don't think I cared about the romance much at all in this. I would've preferred more focus on the "action" parts of the book-would've preferred more time in the dragon realm, would've preferred more expansion on Shiori's magic, would've preferred more Raikama backstory, etc.
Not a bad sequel, still enjoyed a lot of elements of it, but I would've been satisfied with the first book and a book solely about Raikama. Maybe even a novella solely about the dragon realm.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
pixellatxd's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and War