A review by gdonahue
The Flames of Albiyon by Jean Menzies

4.0

Well, I flew through this book, barely stopping since the preorder arrived the other day. I really enjoyed this story. This is a fantasy debut novel about dragons, politics, and found family with nice helpings of romance (sometimes pretty steamy) and mystery/intrigue. If you like character driven fantasy that isn’t grim dark and is set in cozy academic locations, then this story is a real treat. The sapphic romance is very sweet and pretty spicy, and the dragons are a very interesting component of the story. I enjoyed the inclusion of dragon lore from the world, and found the feeling of this book to be super positive and hopeful, while also realistic about actual issues in the society of Albiyon. This book does read like a (very strong) debut, and there were some writing mechanics that I struggled with a bit in the story. In particular there was some telling instead of showing that sometimes took me out of the moment, and the big bad was a bit obviously bad. But to be honest, bad people in real life are also often obviously bad, but are protected by their money and power, which I think was one of the points of this story. Overall, I am super happy that I preordered this book, and now I cannot wait for book two in this series.