A review by rinku
Drachenherz by Julie Kagawa

adventurous tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

Rogue is the second book in the Talon series but sadly couldn’t convince me as much as the first book. The annoying love triangle becomes more of a focus here, and not many things relevant for the overarching plot are happening. 

Garett has saved Ember and because of this, the Order wants to execute him. At the same time, Ember has learned the truth about Talon and his now fleeing from them, together with Riley and other rogues. When we look at the bigger picture, the plot is honestly barely progressing. The Riley chapters annoyed me the most in this regard because they barely add anything to the story. At other points, the story is just too predictable. It was so obvious that
it was a trap at the end, and that Mist would not let Ember go
. I’m also always annoyed when there are ex machina serums, like the truth serum in this case. Besides this, the writing was okay; especially at the beginning, there was so much telling, and I also noticed too many adverbs. But there are other moments that are so much better written, like Garett’s thoughts
before his supposed death
or the action scenes that are just fun to read. I furthermore always like the Mojave and Vegas as settings since playing <i>New Vegas</i>. 

I also think that the four POV’s are often just a bit too much but at least, all their emotions are written quite well. It’s also annoying how we have barely any female characters besides Ember. Of course, we also get a love triangle which already got on my nerves in this book because the dynamic between Garret and Rile is really annoying. Both think that they need to “protect” Ember which even leads to
Riley hitting Garret because he kissed her
, and Dante is patronizing towards her as well. Riley in general really started to annoy me, and the age gap between Ember and him is kinda sus. 

I liked Rogue not as much as I liked the first book in the series, Talon. Nevertheless, I had fun with it, even though the characters can be quite annoying at times. 
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