Book Review: Talon by Julie Kagawa

Talon by Julie Kagawa

Genre: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy

Series: Talon #1

Publisher: Harlequin Teen (October 2014)

Author:  juliekagawa.com

To be honest, I don’t even know how this book ended up in my pile. I suspect it was an Audible Daily Deal or maybe it was Tiara being generous with her Audible gifts, because otherwise, I don’t go out of my way to pick up YA love triangle books.

Unless that love triangle involves shapeshifting dragons….

Ember and her brother Dante are 16 year old twins–that is, brood mates–sent by Talon to assimilate into human culture. As with all dragons, their human form is beautiful and they have been trained to blend in with other beautiful people. Of course. But the more Ember gets into the joys of beach life with hot boys and surfing, the less she enjoys the restrictions imposed by Talon. And the mysterious rogue dragon that Ember is instantly attracted to certainly doesn’t help dissuade her questioning.

But there’s another problem: St. George–the soldiers who are trained to root out and destroy all dragons. But when Garrett is ordered to infiltrate the beach in order to find the sleeper female, he not only falls for Ember, but discovers that dragons aren’t the cold, calculating monsters he was raised to believe them to be.

DRAMA!!!

Other than the fantastical twist of shapeshifting dragons in human form, this is a fairly typical YA novel with beautiful teens on the beach discovering their passions for rebellion and romance. The issues of misconceptions over dragonkind and the dragonslayers is constantly hammered in thanks to the juxtaposition of both Garrett and Ember’s points of view as the story progresses.

But there wasn’t nearly enough dragon going on. Perhaps that will come in later books, but even when Ember did get to get her dragon on, it felt superficial, with the focus heavily placed on her human self, which seemed to be less of a skin than an second personality. When romance comes into play, there is constant talk of her dragon’s instinctive reaction, but her human side always seemed to dominate. I would have liked to see a lot more conflict.

Overall, an entertaining read, but not necessarily a story I’ll continue with.

For another perspective, check out Mogsy’s review here.