Dragon Rider by Taran Matharu

 

Jai has spent his life forced to serve the cruel empire that killed his family and now rules his people.

To grow ever more powerful, the emperor’s young son is betrothed to Princess Erica of the Dansk Kingdom. An unconquerable realm, where ancient beasts roam. The princess brings with her a priceless gift: dragons. Only Dansk Royalty can bond with these magical beasts to draw on their power and strength. Until now.

When the betrothal goes wrong, a bloody coup leads to chaos at court. Finally, Jai has a chance to escape. He flees with a fierce Dansk warrior, Frida, but not before stealing a dragon egg.

To vanquish the empire, he must do the impossible: bond with a dragon. Only then he can seize his destiny, and seek his revenge …

Dragons are storming the bookshelves more so since the hype of Fourth Wing, but my first love of Dragon novels came from the Eragon series so I have a soft spot for fantasy novels that host a dragon or two so as soon as I saw the cover for Dragon Rider by Taran Matharu a fizzle of excitement began and I wasted no time in getting started.

But I am going to start with a word of warning if you are expecting a storyline heavy on Dragons that has the modern excitement that Forth Wing gave then thick again, the best way of explaining this book is more if Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones had a book baby then this is more on the right path!

The author definitely has a skill for character building as each of the characters were so well developed and easy to distinguish between which can often be an issue in Fantasy books with such a vast number of characters with obscure names but by the end of the book our main character Jai feels like a character, we have really formed a bond with. This definitely felt like a first book in a series, it felt like it was setting the tone and building our relationship with the characters for what I am hoping to be an action filled second book with a lot more of the connection between Jai and Winter because this was something seriously lacking in this book but I am hoping this is because Winter is so young and that as she matures there becomes a dialogue between them.

This book for me was a 3.5/4 star read but had the ability to have been a 5-star read but personally for me I found the book had a strong start with an introduction to key characters and an insight into the history behind how Jai finds himself an aid to the emperor as well as the various politics between the different regions. But the middle part of the book fell short for me and incredibly drawn out with the constant repetition and focus on the core and mana, I get that this is an important part of being a Soulbound and this certainly empathised this but it got too repetitive and actually made me want to skim read a little which is not something I do in books. It just felt like the storyline had lost its way and was stuck in a dark hole with nothing much happening for 100 or so pages. Luckily it picked back up for a promising ending so my intrigue was piqued again and now I would definitely pick up the next book.

Available to Buy HERE