Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.
With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die
My Review: I love Violet. She is so smart and will do so well being a scribe just like her dad. However, I'm not a fan of her mom throwing all that out the window and forcing Violet to do something she doesn't want. She is a General 24/7 with no love or kindness in sight for her kids.
So, Violet goes off to try and get her own dragon. The struggle to get there is something. Barely started and she already has people wanting to end her and claiming they'll do it themselves even. The bright spot in all this? Dain. He is so sweet, and you will love him off the bat. He notices Violet and quickly gets her somewhere out of sight to help her and he cares for her and also wishes she was in Scribe. But even he knows how the general is.
I will say that the first few chapters are kind of annoying to get through. It's a lot of repeating. We get it, people want Violet dead and revenge. Okay, Violet shouldn't be trying to ride, she should be a scribe as planned and be safe. It's a lot of repeats that I could have done without.
HOWEVER, once you are past that and get to the bonding with dragons' part....it sets the course right there, has you bonded to that book until the very last word. It's simply where it takes off for me and I knew I was about to read something worthwhile. Violet bonds not to just any dragon and gains an extra Suprise on top of that. Oh, want a fun twist? Violet and Xaden now have the pleasure of being tied together but not in the way you think. Yeah, wait until you read how that unfolds.
The best part? Seeing just how much the dragons love Violet and how strong the bond seems even though it's just the beginning. That moment of her dragon waking her up was instantly a game changer. From that moment, this story became everything, and I couldn't stop reading.
I'm used to Rebecca's more romance heavy books, but she takes to writing high fantasy like it's second nature. This was so well done that I'm so glad to call her an all-time favorite author of mine.
