Talon
Julie Kagawa
Harlequin Teen
Lots of: Spoilers
I may have had a five month break while reading this book for reasons there weren't to do with the quality of the book, so my memory of this may be a little spotty.
I'm an avid hater of multiple POVs in books, especially multiple 1st person POVs. However, I'll give this book a pass for the multiple POVs because it sort of helps establish what's going on, sometimes to the point of unnecessary detail and slight repetition. Also, the POVs (par the epilogue) are Ember (our main character and just meh person) and her two predictable (clearly one was set up better than the other) love interests.
I didn't hate Ember as a character. She was basically just nearly every other YA female protagonist but she can turn into a dragon. One of her main flaws was her fiery temper. I'm hilarious. At least she wasn't clumsy. Did she repeatedly do ridiculous things that put her and other people in danger? Yes. But most female protagonists do that anyway so is that a criticism of the book or the YA genre?
She's also not the brightest. Like, how did it never occur to her that Talon's Vipers killed people? They would have a scary name for a reason.
How did she not realise that her brother was going to betray her when he agreed to go with her almost instantly? How? He showed loyalty to Talon throughout the book, he wouldn't suddenly turn against them even for his sister. I predicted that twist as soon as I read that she was going to try to convince him.
Did she have a case of inst-love? Like one and a half.
Ember and Garret's relationship had some sort of build from "they're hot" to "OMG they're the love of my life". It was quick but at least there was some attempt of building up their relationship. Whereas her and Riley's relationship was some weird lust thing. Like their dragons (that are described as a second person to them???? More on that later) wanted to bone each other but Ember liked Garret but also kinda wanted Riley and what the fuck is going in?
Why did Ember describe her dragon form as if it was another person? That was weird and confusing. Is it meant to represent how she's becoming more human or something? Because Riley said something about how he couldn't be in love with Ember because that was a human emotion, ya know and nothing to do with the fact she's a teenager and he's described as "decades older than her". Which just makes his interest in her creepy as shit. And I know they're dragons so the age gap is different or whatever because they live for a long time.
But then again, she describes her dragon as a second person to her from the beginning of the book when she wasn't human, but does that just mean she was pretty human all along, or is it just trying to say that humans and dragons aren't that different, or am I just reading too much into something that doesn't matter?
There were also no consequences to any of Ember's actions until the end of the book and even then she was completely framed as being in the right. She broke so many rules and put herself and others in situations where they should have been seriously hurt or killed. The only actual consequences were other people being slightly injured. Like, did she need to see Garret at the end before meeting Riley? Realistically: no. She could have just called him or texted him but no. She wanted to snog him one final time or something. But because of her sending Dante to meet Riley alone, he had chance to call Talon and put both Ember and Riley in the shit. Does Ember admit that Lilith coming after them was her fault? No. But she doesn't really have time to, soo, eh.
What were the redeemable qualities of this book? I guess the two female friends Ember had were nice, even if they weren't in most of the book and I forgot their names.
This book is part one of a series and I think I'm unlikely to read the rest of this series. If there was a film of this book ever made (unlikely) I'd maybe watch that. Maybe.
I gave this book 2 out of 5 stars. This rates it as "it was okay" on Goodreads.
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