Talon by Julie Kagawa | Audiobook Review

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MY THOUGHTS

Don’t want to read the whole review?  Click to jump to the Review At a Glance.

First off, I just want to say that I love how awesome the cover is! Does anyone agree?  Well, it seems that this is the only highlight of the book.  The last book I read with shapeshifting dragons was Vanish by Sophie Jordan and that turned into a DNF for me, no matter how much I loved Firelight, the first book in the series.  Why am I mentioning this?  It is because Talon is similar to this dragon story.

What is this story about?

This is about two twin dragons (technically they aren’t because they hatched from different eggs?) Ember and Dante Hill who are summering in a beachside town in California and undergoing training before they will be placed in their future occupation under Talon.  Talon is like the mob dragon mob who has control of all the shapeshifting dragons.  The dragons are hunted by the Order of St. George (we still don’t know why there is much hate between these two groups) and they take no prisoners.  Ember meets Garrett, who was sent by the Order to find out who the sleeper dragon is.  Ember also meets Riley, a rogue dragon.  So yes, there IS a love-triangle here.

Tell us about the characters!

You should note that the book is in three different POVs – Ember, Garret and Riley.  I think this aspect made for very interesting reading.

In this case, the two main characters Ember and Garrett were very well fleshed out.  Riley’s POV wasn’t as prominent as the other two so I felt that I didn’t get to know him as much.

I have no issues with the two guys: Garrett and Riley.  I thought their POVs were written very well.  Ember was another problem.  She came off as a spoiled, whiney brat.  I wanted to press the fwd button when she was doing her inner monologues or when she was just being a brat to her brother Dante.  Her saving grace would be that despite her brattiness, it was very clear that she loved her brother.  In this case, I loved their banter and sibling interactions.

Love Triangle?

We are subtly introduced to a love triangle (which I smelled a mile away).  Now, you know how much I hate love triangles and thankfully, I did not see any man vs man fights trying to get the upper hand on the girl.  Whew! It did make the love triangle a little bit more palatable to me.

Teen assassins.  Say what?

I’m a little on the fence about this.  How can there be TEEN ASSASINS in the modern world?  I may be naive, but I just feel that exposing these kids to all that violence is just wrong!  For dystopia books, I feel like I am okay with it because ti IS the end of the world, after all.  But this is a YA PNR romance, so…

What about the narrators?

The narrators were perfect!  I loved that there were three different narrators reading each POV.  It certainly helped in distinguishing between the two boys.

Recommendations.

Overall, the plot is good.  It’s not as great as The Immortal Rules (that title, though), but it hooked me.  I will be reading the next books in the series because Kagawa really left quite a few strings hanging.

If you like shape shifting dragons with teen assassins and  teen angsty relationships, this is the book for you.

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