Scorched and gnawed skirts are a small price to pay to be surrounded by baby dragons. And Qureshi knows exactly how to write the most adorable dragons. It’s such a shame that this strength is so entwined with its flaws. One that I do think it manages to mitigate. However there really is no escaping that despite how often it tells you that the Sterlings are one of the most esteemed Drakkon families, a family with dragon carers and even stables, Aiden neglected his baby for months. 

It’s unsurprising that he has to be prompted to apologise to his dragon. It’s unsurprising that he was more sorry his behaviour upset Saphira than his dragon. One of the elements that I did enjoy most was the domesticity of Aiden and Saphira’s arrangement. And I will say that Qureshi does come to paint a wonderful portrait of the three of them as a family. However I can’t help but feel that if Sparky had been a dog rather than a fantastical creature that Aiden would rank closer to characters who kick dogs than swoonworthy romance heroes. 

The prose is heavy on exposition. Not in itself necessarily bad though I’d rather experience the world than have it told to me. It ultimately feels like a pop-up book. The shallowest gesture at a world. The arc of the romance ultimately is prized over its reality. Aiden’s job, for instance. It’s important in that it sets him apart from his family but suddenly it all but disappears from the narrative and he spends every day at the cafe. And ‘in a world where dragons flew through the air, nothing was too far out of reach’ was so frustrating. It’s not special. That’s an everyday occurence. 

I don’t like to quote so much at once but in this instance it’s demonstrative -‘With a start, Aiden realized he was home, standing in front of his door. Sometimes he got so deep in his own head, he forgot about everything else around him. Usually he enjoyed the winding road that led up to his cottage, taking in the sight of all the leaves returning to the trees, the buds that would soon bloom. But he hadn’t noticed any of them today, he was so lost in thought‘. 

The first sentence comes after pages of the world building and yet again re-explaining the circumstances in which Sparky came into his care. We know he’s walking somewhere because the chapter tells us as much when it starts, itself immediately following him leaving Saphira. The second sentence is just a repetition of what we, the readers, have read and know to have happened. The third fully does not matter and only belabours the point. The fourth yet again is just a repetition of what we, the readers, have read and know to have happened. The only thing in this paragraph that matters is that he’s arrived at his house. 

I’m genuinely so sorry that Qureshi didn’t get an editor because I can’t fathom how this happened otherwise. There needed to be someone who said trust your readers. We can remember what you told us the chapter before. We can remember what you told us the chapter before that. It isn’t only the repetition, however. It often says the same thing in the same way and isn’t paced well. Saphira’s relationship with her mother is clearly set up but is forgotten for a large swathe of the book only to be thrown back in in quick succession just before it becomes relevant again. The paragraph was the worst example of this but I’m surprised that this book wasn’t at least a dozen pages shorter. 

I do appreciate that Aiden didn’t keep secrets from Saphira for long. The last thing this book needed was something else to drag it out. As partners, they tend to work really well and it was lovely to see them interact that way. Even if he leaves her helplessly in the dark at times. I’m so glad that Qureshi didn’t feel the need to throw in a third act break up for the sake of convention. What she did include was genuinely very sweet and worked perfectly. 

Thanks to Netgalley and Avon for this review copy. I leave this review voluntarily.