Dragon Cursed by Elise Kova – Book Review

Book Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ ⭐

Series: The Dragon Cursed Duology (Book 1)

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy Romance

Spice: Mild

Summary:

In the city of Vingard, citizens live in fear of being killed in a dragon attack. Isola, a teenage girl on the cusp of becoming a full citizen, knows this fear intimately; she miraculously survived a dragon attack when she was younger. As a result of surviving her encounter, she is labeled “Valor Reborn”, a second coming of the city’s venerated founder, and thrust under the brutal tutelage of Vicar Darius.

Isola has always feared she isn’t actually Valor Reborn, and her survival during the dragon attack was a sign she is dragon-cursed, a condition where a human under duress transforms into a dragon. She’s tried to hide her fears and doubts, even from those closest to her, but she will soon be put to the test in the Tribunal, a weeks-long gauntlet of trials to ensure none of the potential citizens are dragon-cursed.

She is prepared to do anything she can to survive and avoid putting herself in a position to transform. Including rely on the Vicar’s son, Lucan, who she’s never trusted. But as she learns more about him, something makes her think he might be the only person who can understand her. Isola, Lucan, and Isola’s best friend, Saipha, will need to rely on each other to make it through the brutal Tribunal alive. But a recent invention has confirmed that at least one of the supplicants is dragon-cursed, so could it be Isola?

Reaction:

Dragon Cursed is an exciting, fast-paced coming-of-age story set in a dangerous world with dragons, magic, and a corrupt government. It took me a minute to get into, but it was ultimately a great read that had surprising twists, misdirection, and social commentary. The ending really hooked me, and I’ll be looking forward to what happens in the next book.

The story starts by dropping the reader right into the action, kicking the main plotline off at the same time as introducing the characters and setting. I think this strategy worked well to immerse the reader in the world, but I struggled to connect to the characters since their history was only lightly touched on. As the story continued, the stakes kept getting higher for Isola to make it through the Tribunal and there are a lot of surprises and misdirection in the plot that really kept me guessing until the end, and I loved that.

I thought the magic system was interesting, and it connected with the overall world-building nicely. The idea of Ether, Etherlight, and Ethershade fed into the theory of how dragons existed, why their city is isolated, their history and culture, and ultimately the Mercy Knights and how Vingard's society functions. I was really interested in the different types of dragons and how they each had different powers, and I would be eager to dive deeper into that.

From a character perspective, I didn’t fully connect with them. Isola, as the FMC and narrator, was obviously the character I should have known the most about, but when I was trying to recall her personality traits, I could really only recall that she was self-sacrificing and clever. She does display significant character growth, but I wish we had gotten more insight into her past, then maybe she would have felt more fleshed out. And with the MMC, Lucan, he was so vague and mysterious about telling his backstory, that it just played into Isola’s thoughts that he wasn’t trustworthy, preventing me from connecting with his character.

Because I wasn’t vibing with the characters, the romance in the story was hit or miss for me. At times I thought it might be manipulation or awe instead of an actual attraction and other times I was really drawn in by Isola and Lucan’s exchanges. But Isola’s thoughts on their relationship towards the end of the book were really grounded for a fantasy romance book, and I appreciated that.

This book does touch on some adult themes such as corruption in society, control through fear, and loss of innocence, but that’s part of what made this book meaningful for me, especially as I wasn’t connecting as much to the characters. It tells the story of a society that puts its’ young adults through brutal trials not to keep them safe as they claim, but to show them that they have no power to change their reality, and that definitely draws parallels to our society. But Isola’s experiences also display themes of personal growth and self-discovery in the face of adversity and ultimately tell a tale of perseverance.

I think this book would be great for those who enjoy reading about a girl finding her power through adversity, high stakes trials, and of course dragons! Ultimately, I think this was definitely worth the read, and I’m eager to read more in the next book in the Duology.

Thanks to Entangled Publishing for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.