Review: Talon - Julie Kagawa

Talon by Julie Kagawa

Rating {★★★☆☆}

This is not what I was expecting. I read the Iron Fey series by Kagawa and her writing completely captivated me from start to finish. I mean, I had a solid dislike of the main character and yet I read every book in the series just to get more of that fantastic world building and to be introduced to the completely unique characters that evoked emotional responses from me at every turn. I didn't necessarily like all of these characters (Meghan, I'm looking at you) but they definitely made me feel something.

In this book we have Ember, a hatchling dragon who I really liked as a main character - sassy, rebellious, impatient, headstrong and caring. We have Garret who was technically a polar opposite to Ember being a St. George soldier and we have Riley, an older but not mature dragon who is on the run from both organisations - Talon and St George. He's a Rogue, and the more that Ember hears from him, the closer she is to becoming a rouge as well.

So here's the thing, dragons are awesome, right? I thought that just by having dragons this book/series would automatically be perfect for me but there was just nothing outstanding here. The world building was just Okay... To be honest it's not what I expected of Kagawa. The character development was fine, but again, not what I expected of Kagawa. The writing was what saved this; Kagawa has a way of painting her stories in a fashion that is so compelling and so readable. Everything from the descriptions, to the alternating POV's to the dialogue was just so well written that it made me believe in the entire plot and circumstances and interactions.

The romance aspect wasn't a true love triangle for me but I believe that this develops further in the next book. It's not something that I look forward to because I actually liked the way that the romance developed in this book. It was slow and tentative and sweet. And for the record I'm Team Garret, but my ships often sink, so I'm not holding on to too much hope here!

I'm not sure if it was the high expectations of Kagawa, or the dazzling brilliance that should be dragons, but this book fell short for me.

I've read some mixed reviews of Rogue but I'm still excited to start it. Call me a glutton for punishment, but I hate leaving things unfinished and there is still so much promise in this series. The action scene towards the end of the book was brilliantly written and extremely Kagawa-esque and I believe that there's a lot more of that in the next book. I do often find that the first book in a really great series is a slow starter for me, laying the groundwork for amazing developments, so who knows? I'll be picking up Rogue within the next week so stay tuned for more updates!

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