The Booktique

Talon (Talon #1) by Julie Kagawa 

Publisher : Harlequin teen

Publication date: October 28th 2014 

Long ago, dragons were hunted to near extinction by the Order of St. George, a legendary society of dragon slayers. Hiding in human form and growing their numbers in secret, the dragons of Talon have become strong and cunning, and they're positioned to take over the world with humans none the wiser.

Ember and Dante Hill are the only sister and brother known to dragonkind. Trained to infiltrate society, Ember wants to live the teen experience and enjoy a summer of freedom before taking her destined place in Talon. But destiny is a matter of perspective, and a rogue dragon will soon challenge everything Ember has been taught. As Ember struggles to accept her future, she and her brother are hunted by the Order of St. George.

Soldier Garret Xavier Sebastian has a mission to seek and destroy all dragons, and Talon's newest recruits in particular. But he cannot kill unless he is certain he has found his prey: and nothing is certain about Ember Hill. Faced with Ember's bravery, confidence and all-too-human desires, Garret begins to question everything that the Order has ingrained in him: and what he might be willing to give up to find the truth about dragons.

- Goodreads description

Oh, Lordy, Lord. Where to begin? What can I say Julie, you deeply disappointed me with  this book. Before going into this, I was like, this will for sure be a solid read because of course, it Julie freakin' Kagawa. I absolutely loved the Blood of Eden series and quite liked the iron fey series too. I assumed that it would probably fall into place snugly between the two but boy, was I wrong. 

One of the reasons I wanted to read this book was  because of its the ravishingly delectable  cover- I mean, just look at it-  but also because it held substantial promise in terms of plot however it fell disappointingly short. And by short, I mean like face planting before take off. There is really nothing to say about this book but that it was boring, held no interesting character development- they're freakin' dragons, for God's sakes- and it seemed to drag on and on and on and on for an infinite amount of time. 

I considered stopping when I reached about 1/4 of the way through however I really wanted to see if the book would get increasingly better as I read which it sadly didn't. Having said that, if the 2nd book were to be released, I might pick it up because its one of those series. The kind where you know it will be bad but you can't help but want to find out what happens, even though you have basically no interest in the characters themselves. Weird, I know, but I've learnt to roll with it. 

An unsatisfying start to a series which should only be read if all others options have been exhausted.

                                                                                     - Alana, xxx