C-

Shatter the Sky

Unmet expectations are killer. I wanted a kickass bisexual heroine tearing down the corrupt empire and stealing a dragon to rescue her kidnapped girlfriend. What I got was a slow-paced fantasy novel with an additional love interest that I desperately tried to will out of existence.

By “slow-paced,” I mean boring. There is a chunk in the middle where I didn’t understand why the plot wasn’t moving. The entire premise is that the rescue mission must happen RIGHT NOW OR ELSE. Yet when the heroine Maren settles into her new normal inside the fortress, the book just… pauses. That urgency goes away. Suddenly she’s there to learn skills and make friends. Which is fine, but then that urgency magically returns toward the end of the book. So what, the entire middle of the book is in some kind of freeze frame? I don’t know, but I didn’t like it.

My biggest problem with Shatter the Sky has to do with my loathing for emotional cheating, even if the current relationship is terrible (this is not the case here). Maren is bi, and I appreciate that the book shows her attraction to both her girlfriend and the mysterious boy she meets later (who is far more present in the book than Maren’s girlfriend). But I just really hate emotional cheating of any kind, and I couldn’t understand why Maren swooned over this new guy so easily when she was still in a relationship. At several times, I wanted to shake Maren and demand that she focus on the rescue mission! That’s the entire reason why you’re at the fortress, damnit.

I don’t dislike everything about this book. I’m a sucker for anything dragons (thank you, Dragon Tales on PBS), I love the diverse fantasy setting, and my interest significantly picked up in the last quarter of the book. But while I acknowledge that some parts of the story intrigued me, I spent most of my time bored or annoyed. That’s not any kind of endorsement for a positive reading experience.

– Aarya

A determined young woman sets out to rescue her kidnapped girlfriend by stealing a dragon from the corrupt emperor in this stunning fantasy debut that’s perfect for fans of Margaret Rogerson, Rae Carson, and Rachel Hartman.

Raised among the ruins of a conquered mountain nation, Maren dreams only of sharing a quiet life with her girlfriend Kaia—until the day Kaia is abducted by the Aurati, prophetic agents of the emperor, and forced to join their ranks. Desperate to save her, Maren hatches a plan to steal one of the emperor’s coveted dragons and storm the Aurati stronghold.

If Maren is to have any hope of succeeding, she must become an apprentice to the Aromatory—the emperor’s mysterious dragon trainer. But Maren is unprepared for the dangerous secrets she uncovers: rumors of a lost prince, a brewing rebellion, and a prophecy that threatens to shatter the empire itself. Not to mention the strange dreams she’s been having about a beast deep underground…

With time running out, can Maren survive long enough to rescue Kaia from impending death? Or could it be that Maren is destined for something greater than she could have ever imagined?