The part I think I enjoyed about this book the most was the mystery behind the murder of Jiara's sister and how that intertwined with the political narrative of Jiara's new home. The tension-building and how the stakes grow as Scila's ghost becomes angrier and Jiara besoms more desperate are so well-done, and Jiara's growing panic are shared by the reader, as it feels real .

I also cannot convey how much appreciation I had watching Jiara's struggle with a new language and how that inhibited on her relationship with her new home and her new husband. Having dyslexia, even though it's actually not explicitly named also does have an effect on her life and on the story.

I think that Jiara's arc throughout the story is honestly just okay, it's wrapped up nicely, and I liked the ending, but Jiara as a character honestly felt super simple? I love the representation and multitude of characters throughout the story, but a lot of them felt super shallow, which sucks because the world-building and plot are so rich. If you asked me to describe any of these characters, I feel like, aside from the villain, who for allegedly being smart, is incredibly bad at hiding their plans, can be described with nice, brave, and that's kind of it. I could not differentiate between any of the characters if asked, except maybe Jiara's guard, Freyad, who I thought had the potential to be really interesting, and I wished we had gotten some of her story, besides just being a support for Jiara.

The worst offender of being a pretty flat character was Raffar, he's there, he respects Jiara, and he's nice. But he's so boring, and the realtionship between him and Jiara felt pretty forced. However, I want to praise one scene of intimacy, as it's pretty tasteful, and I appreciated the emphasis on consent and waiting till it would be informed consent. The language barrier and how he and Jiara overcame it was probably the only interesting part about their relationship, and once she learns to speak it, it's pretty dry.

However, I still rate this book pretty highly because it contains an incredibly rich world and it is a super interesting mystery to follow. I couldn't put it down, it's pretty well written as well, and the pacing compliments the story really well. The inclusion of a dyslexic character and her actually struggling with a language and cultural barrier was super appreciated, as there are so many stories where a character has an arranged marriage and doesn't have to overcome any language or cultural barriers, which is... really unrealistic. I'd recommend this book for anyone looking for a standalone that's rich in world-building or a fantasy paranormal mystery.

Review on Goodreads up 2-12-21
Review on Personal Blog & Instagram - 2-13-21
Bookstagram Review: https://www.instagram.com/p/CLPb0p1A11R/?igshid=13nx45yimph4q

I devoured the whole book in a day! I recommend it! 👍🏼

Princess Scilla, elder sister of Princess Jiara, has been murdered, doomed to existence as an earthwalker whilst her murder remains unsolved.

Scilla had been preparing to become the wife of Raffar, King of The Farnskagers. An alliance is needed between Farnskag and Azzaria and Scilla’s death has not changed that. King Raffar suggests Jiara should take her place as his bride, but Jiara can’t speak their language and, more than that, has difficult reading her own ....

I really enjoyed this book! I didn’t know what to expect from the synopsis, but I was not disappointed!
I loved that there was no preamble - As soon as the book began, we were straight into the action. When I first began, I thought this would mean there would be little world-building, but writing this with hindsight, I can almost picture the different countries with their different customs and languages!
I also really enjoyed the element of sisterhood. Jiara loved her sister fiercely, but not unrealistically. There was a little jealousy, there was guilt ... All of which made their relationship very relatable.

Jiara’s dyslexia was such an important component of this book. It gave her obstacles to overcome, but did not stop her. I thought the author’s note at the end giving information sources was also brilliant.

If i had any complaints, it would be that certain elements were not described to their full potential. For example, I’m still not entirely sure what the elephant birds look like (They are such fantastic creatures! A better description would of satisfied my imagination!) and there was little description of the character’s physical and personal attributes. I can’t picture Jiara in my mind!

Having said this, it was fantastic to have a romance in which the female protagonist does not rely on the male to save her! I shalln’t say more, as I wouldn’t want to inadvertently give spoilers, but I really liked Raffar’s persona, having read too many ‘enemies to lovers’ troupes recently!

Thank you to North Star Editions/Flux for a copy of the ARC.

A Dragonbird in the Fern by Laura Rueckert. #ADragonbirdintheFern #NetGalley #NorthStartEditions #Flux

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of A Dragonbird in the Fern in exchange for an honest review.

I read a lot of YA fantasy (as in about 200 last year alone) which means I've seen the "princess has a to live up to her duty and enter an arranged marriage with a royal from an enemy kingdom" thing done over and over again so when I say A Dragonbird in the Fern is a unique take on the concept, I mean it's a unique take on the concept.

I loved that language barriers are addressed and have a pretty big impact on the plot. It sounds like such a small detail, but I've read so many "sudden arranged political marriage" books and it's always really bothered me that there are next to know language or culture barrier issues and this one handles that issue and uses it to bolster the plot. Our MC, Jiara is also heavily implied to have some form of dyslexia so there are even more communication barriers she has to overcome.

I also really loved the way death is handled here. Part of the reason our MC enters the arranged marriage is because her older sister, Scilla, was originally supposed to be the one to get married before her murder. In Jiara's kingdom, the murdered can not pass on until their murderer is found and brought to justice and until then, they become more and more violent towards those closer to them so Jiara not only has to navigate a new kingdom, culture, husband, and language, but also has to race against the clock to find her sister's killer.

Also! Fantasy stand alone that doesn't feel rushed! We love to see it.

Free Netgalley book for review! I actually really enjoyed this book. I loved the storyline, it was some clever worldbuilding. I liked Raffa and Ji together, they were cute. Pria is adorable. J’s family is great. The politic bits were fun.

I didn’t like that for so much of the book the main character had nothing to do. (This is the problem when you make your mc a queen.). She can’t really go anywhere and she’s stuck trying to learn the language (with a learning disability to boot!) and her world is very small. That world expands later on in the book once she gets more agency and she gets awesome, but the slow pace is something to keep in mind.

I almost wish our MC had been, say, one of the Queen’s guards instead? And the focus had been much more on solving the mystery than romantic interludes with the king and language learning and figuring out who her new people actually are? That was still kind of cool but it did take over the plot and if her sister’s ghost hadn’t been there to encourage J to move it along she probably would have had a baby before the villain reveals themselves.

Speaking of which, the villain in this is pretty darn stupid for supposedly being smart. I mean really. 😭🙄 but again, the romance trumps the mystery here so the villain isn’t too hard to spot.

That being said I still had a great time reading this book and I loved the paranormal and fantasy elements (minus the very very end bit but that’s pretty minor overall.). Probably teens will enjoy this book even more especially if they like a bit of romance with their fantasy.

Unfortunately, this story just never took off for me. The idea of murder victims coming back from the dead as vengeful ghosts is one thing; for those ghosts to be able to actually murder people in turn is a bit of a problem. This is evidently not a well-known phenomenon outside of the kingdom of Azzaria, but I find that very hard to believe given that this is A) a common occurrence among the general populace and B) Azzaria is a busy, prosperous port hub, meaning international traffic would be higher there than anywhere else. How could this be a secret from the wider world? If one ghost is going to pick off each of its family members until their murder is solved, then Jiara and her family should have always been living in fear that one of them could be assassinated at any given moment. What an easy way to get rid of a rival royal family! Yet, it seems like Scilla’s murder is a first. How is that possible?

The world-building is a big issue. Some things—foods, clothing, and religious rituals—are done passably well. Other things, such as social rules and norms, are completely under-developed. This might not be an issue had they not been touched on. But they are, and I had so many questions: how does the class system work, if a duke’s son can marry a bodyguard without fall-out from crossing class lines? Why would political alliances through marriage even be a thing, if Jiara and her siblings are allowed to refuse and marry where they want? How would a royal hereditary title pass to the children of a same-sex couple?

As much as I appreciate the representation of a queer-normative society, the fact that all it takes is a few quick law changes to make everything acceptable and OK feels empty. I just have even more questions: are there rules for who you can and can’t adopt into the royal family? If they only thought to make same-sex marriage legal for Jiara’s brother, does that mean her parents hadn’t cared about it before? Is there opposition to it now? Furthermore, the fact that nothing is actually done with the few instances of queer representation comes across to me as tokenism.

Everything in this world is just too easy and simplistic; it’s empty. There are no external forces working against Jiara and nothing to give the story depth or meaningful conflict. There is no tension in this book, not even between Jiara and Raffar; her dyslexia often feels like an after-thought. Aside from the one character who (spoiler alert!) turns out to be the murderer, Jiara gets along with everyone in her husband's court and they trust her almost immediately because of a pretty hax magical favoritism. Jiara could have been the saving grace, but she’s a bland and predictable narrator; the first person POV was definitely not the right choice for this story.

It’s entirely likely that a younger YA audience won’t be asking these questions and will be satisfied with the repetitive instances of Jiara getting sweaty hands and suffering a heart problem whenever Raffar is around. It’s not a terrible book, I think the writing itself shows promise. But the story is surprisingly dull because the ideas just aren't fully thought-out. Honestly, I don’t even know who I would recommend this book to.

The book has a lot of promise but falls short. For a book so bent on advancing lgbt and trans acceptance it was weird the main character was ruled by misplaced mansplaining and outdated dating practices.
The Magic in the world isn’t properly explored or explained, but suddenly this girl is gifted with 4 survivals at death? With no real cost to anyone around her it makes it feel forced and fake.

The royals making new laws because they loved their children also felt like an easy plot device instead of working to tell a great story.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I thought the plotline was very interesting. Every time I felt like I knew where the story was going the author threw in a surprise. I love fantasy books so this book was right up my alley.

This book was fun to read and I couldn’t put it down. I didn’t know it’s a standalone but it seems like it is though there’s still much to explore in the world Rueckert created. I can easily imagine another story told from a different character’s pov.

After her sister was murdered, princess Jiara decides to do anything to catch her killer. Because you see, ghosts who don’t get a closure, walk earth and haunt their loved ones until they do what’s necessary for their souls to rest. In this case, it’s catching Scilla’s killer. Except Scilla was engaged to the king, Raffar, of a foreign land and spent her life preparing for that role. Now Jiara is forced to fill her role and marry the king who speaks a language she doesn’t understand. But you see, the evidence leads to an assassin from the country she’s destined to be their queen.
What follows is Jiara trying to solve the murder of her sister while trying to learn a new language, be a queen for her new people, and uncovering hidden schemes along the way.

Also, ghosts here are really vengeful, it’s not just some superstitions.

The characters were easy to like. The book is old from Jiara’s point of view, first-person. What I liked the most that this book features a dyslexic character. They didn’t know what’s dyslexia in her days and Jiara knew she wasn’t stupid. Yet, no matter how hard she tried, she never could study or read like her sister. Another interesting aspect was the language barrier. I have only read a couple of books where the language was a real barrier between love interests from different countries.

The book was also fast-paced and entertaining. The world-building was developed well enough for such a book and the author can easily write a sequel but maybe about someone from a different country. The story is pretty much wrapped for our characters here.

Now to the cons, while the secondary characters were okay, Raffar had as much personality as a leaf. He wasn’t, he was nice if anything. But not being able to communicate with Jiara worked against them. I saw the chemistry at first but I quickly lost interest in him. His perspective wasn’t needed but maybe he would’ve had more character development? He was overly simplistic. Again, language worked against them here. Also I wish Jiara had some hobby because she wasn’t developed much herself either. What did she spend her days doing at the palace in her homeland? Sure, she loved nature but she was also meh.

Another thing I didn’t particularly like is that this book featured something I don’t like. I don’t think it counts as a spoiler but I’ll refrain to mention it until the book is out. Let’s say it played an important part in this book and had some significance. It wasn’t used as a mere plot device but had its meaning and role in the story. Which is very rare. Still, I’m no fan especially since it happened more than once.

Briefly said, I recommend this book if you’re looking for a light YA fantasy read without intending to make new commitments to any series. The story is fun but nothing extraordinary. It can be easily read in one sitting. I found it overly simplistic sometimes (especially the events leading towards the end) and not very surprising. The plot was predictable but I wish the characters were better developed.

What a wonderful story! A DRAGONBIRD IN THE FERN is a story about a young girl who has a learning disability that prevents her from learning languages. Why is that important? She is to live in a foreign language, afraid of not being able to communicate. Jiara learns that her sister's assassin is from that very lang?!

Laura's characterizations were well written. I felt for Jiara. Her struggles. Fears. Anger. Frustration. Jiara's full emotional register was well thought out. The plot and action held my attention the entire time.