Ughhhhhhhhh!!! I can’t believe it’s finished. Six Crimson Cranes was my number 1 book of 2021 and this has been my most anticipated read of the year. I love the world that Elizabeth Lim has built. It’s so beautifully vivid and based on a lesser known fairytale (to me at least) by the Brothers Grimm called The Six Swans.

The Dragon’s Promise picks up with Shiori being escorted by Seryu to meet his grandfather, the King of Dragons. She has promised to deliver the broken pearl to him… what they don’t realize is that in her wording, she never promised to give him the pearl at all. As you can imagine, this creates a political nightmare and she ends up in the dungeon where she’s meets someone who may have a familiar face to those who have read Spin the Dawn.

In this epic ending to what I consider a PERFECT duology, we have a journey to save the world, a demon hell bent on taking the dragon pearl and defeating Shiori in the process, and another story with my book boyfriend, Takkan. We also lose characters, so expect to cry… I did.

I loved the first in this duology so I was so excited to get my hands on this one! The Dragons Promise is incredibly fast paced with lots of action. Almost too much in one book. There were multiple times I thought that I had reached the end only to be introduced to another problem, another villain that Shiori must face. If you loved Six Crimson Cranes I'd still recommend reading this one as it still has lots of things to like.

I absolutely loved this book! It had a little bit of everything you want in a YA fantasy - magic, little bit of romance, and a beautiful setting. Takkan was adorable and I love him and Shiori together. The food descriptions were so good I could almost taste and smell the food. The ending was so beautiful, I cried.
The side characters were great, and I thought the book did a wonderful job at showcasing Shiori’s relationships with her family.
The only gripes I have is 1) I wish we had spent more time with Seryu and the dragon’s palace and 2) the big bad was a little cartoonish. It took me out of the story a little bit but only a couple of times!
Overall, I thought this was the perfect conclusion to this duology and a perfect YA fantasy!

The Dragon's Promise jump right in where the previous book, Six Crimson Cranes left off, so the story starts off running and never lets up. Shiori is visiting the dragon's kingdom (though not for as long the title might have one think, or as long as I would have liked) where she makes some new friends, enemies and learns a little more about how she will save her family and her own kingdom.
This book moved along FAST... it could have made a very good trilogy (and as someone who often finds that second book in trilogies a lot of filler, that's saying something). There was a lot happening here, and while it was very well written, at times it did feel a bit rushed.
Overall, a very satisfying conclusion to the duology!

TLDR:

The Dragon’s Promise is the sequel to Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim. She is also know for writing The Blood of Stars duology (Spin the Dawn).

Notable elements:

- Star-Crossed Lovers
- Ancient Magic
- Animal Companion

What I liked:

- Kingdom of Dragons — I loved the exploration of the Dragon Realm! It hardly made an appearance in Six Crimson Cranes, so it was exciting to finally delve deeper into its mystery and intrigue.
- Honorific Dynamics — It was interesting to see the dynamics of honorifics in both the Kingdom of Dragons and Kiata. Values of Royalty, Age, and Bloodline intersect and entangle to create a complicated and layered web of relationships.
- Fate vs. Free Will — A fierce battle rages inside Shiori, constant warring between what is expected of her and what she decides for herself. Her sound judgement allows both to coexist in an effortless tango, where she can call on whichever is most appropriate depending on her circumstance.

Reminds me of:

- Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor
- Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amelie Wen Zhao

Content warnings:

Violence, Blood, Death

Final thoughts:

This was the perfect ending to the Six Crimson Cranes duology! The Dragon’s Promise undoubtedly lives up to the excitement and love I hold for the first book.

I loved Six Crimson Cranes so I knew I would enjoy this book. I enjoy Elizabeth Kim’s writing so much. Her attention to detail in her world building makes it feel like you are a part of the book. The plot line was so well planned and I loved the love triangle she created. Definitely recommend this book!

This had such great potential to me. I absolutely loved SCC, it was one of my all time favorite reads last year. Also, nowhere in the description did SCC mention dragons, so that whole plotline had my super hyped. So, considering the ending for SCC, and this book's description, I was beyond excited to read this. However, it took me a long time to do so because as you get further and further into the story, it began to slow down and (I really hate to say this, because I just love Elizabeth Lim) it became... boring. Things do pick back up again, and it was a decent ending, but it just felt like pushing a boulder uphill trying to get through a big chunk of the middle of this book. Will I continue to jump at the chance to read EL's books in the future? Absolutely. But I was a tad disappointed that this sequel was not my favorite book of this year like its predecessor was...

Huge thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

We are back in the Kingdom of Kiata and we are again following our heroine Princess Shiroi as she tries to save the world from the demons threatening to take over her kingdom. This story starts in the depths of the sea as she embarks on an adventure to return a Dragon Pearl to its previous residence and the story goes from there.

I like this one. This story was fast paced and action packed. I loved spending time with the main characters Takkan, Shiroi, her six mischievous brothers and her equally fiery paper bird. I love the character Seryu and was disappointed that he was only featured for a little in the beginning. We enter into his world underwater but then are quickly taken elsewhere. I would've like to see more of that world instead of being thrust into a world we are already familiar with. However, this is just my personal opinion. The story is still well written. The world is lush and immersive. The writing is well done and I love all the cinammon roll characters. Again, I love the healthy relationship and dynamic between Takkan and Kiori. This is a great example for young people.

Overall, I gave this four stars. I would reommend this reading book if you love reading fantasy. For me, I think this will be my last dive into this world now that I've finished this duology and The Spin the Dawn Duology.

The Dragon's Promise is the sequel to Elizabeth Lim's Six Crimson Cranes. Although she has completed her mission to get out from under her stepmother's curse and restore her brothers, Shiori's journeys are not yet complete. She must now return the dragon pearl to it's owner. This journey leads Shiori down to the Realm of the Dragons and then mountain that contains the demons. Lim has once again done an amazing job of weaving in Chinese mythology into her story and really bringing it to life. This was one of my most anticipated books of the year, but I don't think it kept up the excitement I got from Six Crimson Cranes. I felt like Lim wanted to put in too much and it ended up making the story too long and winding. Overall it was good, but fell short of the first book in the duology.

This is a different genre that I usually read however I did enjoy it. I loved the first book in the duology (six crimson cranes) and it has a beautiful story :))

Six Crimson Cranes is one of the best books that I've read last year. I won't lie I have very high expectations for the sequel.. The narration of this book is just as beautiful as in the first book. There are too many wonderful quotes that I want to hang on my wall.. Elizabeth Lim could craft such magical and exquisite sentences without feeling heavy and complicated.

✨𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒘𝒏. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕.

✨𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒆.

✨ 𝑫𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒓𝒚 … 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒆?

Shiori's adventures made me hooked on the story, but the relationship between the character is what I'm rooting for. There are so many heartwarming moments. It portrayed many faces of love. The love between family, between mothers & daughters, between friends, and also between lovers.

This was one of my most anticipated sequels of the year and I was not disappointed. It’s a perfect follow up to Six Crimson Cranes.

The Dragon's Promise was one of my most anticipated reads after reading Elizabeth Lim's Six Crimson Cranes. The world she builds in fascinating and I loved this sequel. It is a bit slower pace than the first book but overall, I enjoyed the conclusion of Shiori's journey.

This is one of my most anticipated reads for this year and it wasn’t that bad but I still preferred the first book over this one. The first half of the book was really enjoyable and thrilling especially when Shiori was still in Ailong with Kiki, Seryu and the dragons. Gen was a great character as well. I kinda missed him in the latter part of the book.

I admire all of her brothers’ dedication and support for her until the very end no matter how dangerous it may be for all of them. And of course, Takkan as well. It was also heartwarming that she got to know more about her late stepmother upon her journey of upholding her final wish. However, it felt like the story was dragging on in the latter part which made me less excited in finishing it. But, the ending was absolutely beautiful! It was bittersweet, not one that I expected but I loved it nonetheless.

This duology is a must read ;)

I am so sad that this one didn’t work for me! I kept trying to get into it for a while and struggled. From the start, the adventure started rapidly and it was one thing after another for the first 30%- you didn’t have time to catch your breath and figure out what was happening. After the plot changes locations/settings, I feel like the pacing completely changed and it almost felt sluggish at times. Overall, I just think that it was convoluted and confusing the majority of the time- compared to the first book that was consistently paced and had 1 long adventure plot. Meanwhile, at times, this sequel felt like 3 different books jammed together. I thought the underwater world of the dragons’ was really cool and had so much potential for an entire book plot, but that wasn’t the case.

Another issue I felt while reading was the characters and their choices at times. I’m glad we got to see all the characters from book 1, but I was getting fed up after a while. I did enjoy the romance though and thought it was very cute! Maybe it’s that I didn’t fully understand what was happening and why choices needed to be made as they were- It felt like Book 1 was very orderly and had a concrete limitation of magical abilities and this one seemed to have no limitations on what was possible, which is great, but it didn’t feel explained to the reader thoroughly so it felt like anyone could do anything and it was all of a sudden a thing.

I’m bummed I didn’t enjoy it and wish I just left this series as a standalone in my mind. I hope others enjoy it more than I did, just don’t go in expecting a whole plot around the Dragons!

Thank you to Random House Children’s and Netgalley for giving me a copy in exchange for my honest review!

thank you PRH International for sending me an EARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

4.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

OKAY THIS WAS SO GOOD AND BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND ROMANTIC AND MAGICAL AHHH!! this book is the sequel to six crimson cranes, and wow did it deliverrrr!! i think i may have even liked it more than the first one but omg both were literally incredible!!

this is such a magical and lyrical duology, full of myths and legends and love. the romance in this one had me squealing omg, I LOVE TAKKAN WITH MY ENTIRE HEART!! i do gotta admit the first 20% ish wasn’t my fave, but wow did it have me gasping and at the edge of my seat. never did i know what was gonna happen next and that made this book even better somehow.

i wish there would have been more of the brothers in this one tho, and more of them all together but i get why we didn’t get that.

also, THE WAY THIS BOOK CONNECTS TO SPIN THE DAWN??? IMMACULATE AH IT HAD ME CONSTANTLY SCREAMING BC I JUST LOVED THAT DETAIL SO MUCH AND MADE THIS BOOK EVEN MORE SPECIAL SINCE IT’S LIKE A ‘prequel’ TO SPIN THE DAWN AND YOU GET YOUNG EDAN AS WELL UGH THIS WAS EVERYTHING!!

honestly idk what to say except this book is literally pure magic from the way it’s written to the story itself. everyone please read the elizabeth lim universe YOU WONT REGRET IT OMG !!!

I'm pretty certain that there won't be an Elizabeth Lim novel that I don't love - the storytelling is absolutely magical and whimsical and so easy to fall in love with. The characters go on adventures that allow them to grow and their journey is always so delightful!

This is the brilliant sequel to Six Crimson Cranes. The story follows the main character as she goes to realm of the dragons to try to save her kingdom and her family. The story was thrilling, and beautifully written. I could not put it down.

*eARC provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I hate to say this, but maybe Elizabeth Lim should stick to writing standalones. I felt this way about Unravel the Dusk too, and The Dragon's Promise just proves that point. She manages to wrap up the main plot in book one, which leaves book two to a completely new and mostly unrelated plot. A pointless plot.

I was excited to see more of Seryu, but he is only in the first ten or so chapters.

I did enjoy seeing Gen/Eden, even though he was just a side character.

I purchased this book for my high school library. My students have enjoyed it. and it has circulated well.