Annie and Lee are light skinned secondary characters are diverse, and race is a nonissue in this world.įull of drama, emotional turmoil, and high stakes. The world is well fleshed out and believable. Choices are complex, and the consequences for all could be deadly. What keeps them invested, however, are the complex relationships between many cast members.

From the beginning, this book pulls readers in with political intrigue and action. Everyone will have to make a choice: Restore the old regime, support the First Protector and the new caste system he created, or look for a new way, no matter what the cost. However, not only is Lee competing against Annie, but rumors are circulating that some of the royal family have survived and have dragons of their own. Their dragons are finally mature enough for them to compete for Firstrider, a position of power that can give Lee back a small part of what his family lost. Nine years later, a new generation of dragonriders is emerging, children selected and trained on merit, not bloodlines. For too long the dragonriders held all the power while their people starved and lived in fear. What happens to the world after the dust from a revolution has settled?įriends Annie and Lee were children from very different circles when Atreus killed Lee’s father, dragonlord Leon Stormscourge, ending the uprising on the bloodiest day in Callipolis’ history. Questions of trust, trauma, loyalty, and territory, for readers who enjoy lie-infused romance. Kazi and Jase seem white by default a few characters are noted as brown-skinned. However, Pearson’s plotting is solid, and the last section picks up steam, ending on a cryptic cliffhanger that begs the sequel to hurry. The action and reveals have strong content but little punch, and the romance is overwritten (“I was dancing with fire and hoping not to get burned”). Kazi and Jase’s meet-cute is a meet-slam (her knife at his throat), and, of course, while chained together by kidnappers and deceiving each other incessantly, they fall in love. There are ongoing, possibly rogue, threats to their home, city, and trade arena. Tor’s Watch is politically unrecognized by the other kingdoms, and although the Ballengers refuse to demarcate their borders, they’re fiercely territorial. The war criminal may be hiding at Tor’s Watch, where the ancient Ballenger Dynasty is newly led by 19-year-old Jase Ballenger. One soldier is 17-year-old Kazi, formerly “an invisible street rat” of Venda, who honed her consummate thieving skills after her mother was kidnapped into (probable) sex slavery. Six years after the war described in The Beauty of Darkness (2016), the queen of Venda sends three top soldiers to hunt down a war criminal. An elite soldier and the head of an unacknowledged dynasty fall in love while telling each other lie after lie.

The dance of the thieves