The Sky On Fire by Jenn Lyons
Publication Date: July 9, 2024
Summary from Goodreads:
Anahrod lives only for survival, preferring to thrive in the jungles of the Deep with the titan drake she keeps by her side. When an adventuring party saves her from capture by the local warlord, Sicaryon, she is eager to return to her solitary life, but this is no ordinary rescue. Anahrod’s past has caught up with her. And these cunning misfits intend to spirit her away to the cloud cities, where they need her help to steal from a dragon’s hoard.
There’s only one in the cloud cities, dragons rule, and the hoard in question belongs to the current regent, Neveranimas―and she wants Anahrod dead.
Enjoy this page-turning adventure with conniving dragons, high-stakes intrigue, a daring heist, and a little bit of heat.
Confession:
I want to start by saying how much I just love this cover! I think it is my favorite of the year so far. I just love how the dragon is integrated into the landscape of the mountains and mimics the red mountains and buildings below. Plus all of the dragons flying in the sky, and the graphic continues onto the spine and back and just makes it such an interesting cover to look at. It also really gives you a sense of how the dragons control the world that you are about to enter in this book.
I will admit that I really struggled with this book for about the first half of it. I think some of it was my mood, but some of it had to do with the plot. It just sort of meandered all over the place for the first half and that kind of drove me a bit nutty. I just really wanted them to get to the heist and get things moving along. But even though I thought about not finishing this book, I am so glad I did persevere and push through to the really good part. It takes a while, but once it started to come together it really takes off and becomes the exciting story that I was expecting.
Anahrod is the main character who tells most of the story. Some of the other characters chime in from time to time, but she has the most page time. I liked Anahrod, she is strong and quick witted as well as very smart. She keeps finding herself in difficult situations, but also manages to get herself out of them quickly. She also has a great sense of humor. Anahrod can communicate with and control animals, all animals, including dragons. Which makes her enemies as well as dangerous friends.
I really enjoyed the rest of the crew that come together for the heist. I especially liked Claw, she is one tough kid, but with a heart of gold that you don’t see often. I also liked Ris and Sicaryon, both of whom capture Anahrod’s heart. But I really loved and adored Gwydinion, the youngest member of the group. He really wants to become a dragon rider. He also has some talents that needed to be kept hidden from the dragons. We get several chapters from him towards the end, that I just loved and I hope that he gets his own book someday.
The dragons and the worldbuilding was well done for the most part. I loved the Skyland culture and how everyone wore rings to denote their jobs, sexual preferences, and other things about themselves. What a really cool concept. The dragons were well done as well. I really liked how they had integrated with the humans, but for the most part used them as slaves to keep themselves sane. There were a few things that weren’t well explained, but they were mostly minor.
The plot does meander quite a bit, and does so somewhat slowly, for the first half or so of the book. But if you can push through all of that than you are in for a really good time. But don’t skip the first half either as many of the things that happened and kind of annoyed me at the time become very important by the end of the story.
If perhaps a bit too long, this was still a really cool heist story that involves magic, dragons and a crew that you will find yourself rooting for. If you enjoy dragon stories than this is one you might want to add to your list.
Confessions of a Serial Reader 