I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a fascinating book!

We follow Anequs as she discovers a wild dragon egg near her village in Masquapaug. When the dragon is born and bonds with her Anequs is thrown into the world of the Anglish. Forced to register her dragon and attend school to learn how to handle its power Aneques is seen as unworthy and uncivilized by her peers and teachers. She navigates this new world and the newfound power from her dragon while trying to stay true to herself and her culture.

It's a beautiful book that blends history and fantasy. While Blackgoose uses "Anglish" terms and largely European names this book touches on the history of most colonized Indigenous peoples. We see Anequs forced to leave home to attend school, her family further divided by Anglish expectations, and she deals with threats and social politics throughout her first year of school.

This is an interesting book that blends together regency-type plots, alternative history, fantasy, and so much more. It's a unique and compelling book that has me excited to read the next.

Anequs has always expected to inherit her home from her mother and stay on their tribe’s island, farming and fishing. Until she finds a dragon’s egg and the hatchling bonds with her. While this is normally a reason for celebration among her people, now that they’ve been incorporated under Anglish rule, she is forced to bend to their traditions. This means attending an academy to see if she’s worthy of keeping her dragon. Despite the difference in culture, beliefs, schooling, and even physical looks, Anequs strives to do whatever she must to keep her dragon safe as well as her people.

The setting of this work was unique and incredibly well done. It was set in a pseudo-1800s alternate reality that had steampunk elements. The culture of Anequs’ people was well written and incorporated wonderfully throughout the book and her character, and I loved the connection between their traditional dances and knowledge. I also enjoyed that the author utilized the characters telling stories throughout the work but gave a dedicated chapter to each story – this was an excellent way to set this up, as well as a perfect way to incorporate worldbuilding/lore, though there were still some instances of info-dumping throughout the work.

While this work was fascinating because of the fantasy elements and its setting, the author also incorporated discussions of much heavier topics in a way that added to the plot and wasn’t heavy handed. Probably the most prominent theme was colonization and its imbalances/injustices. I enjoyed that the author incorporated the 19th century views of race and colonization into the characters – even Anglish characters that meant well still held some of these views. I enjoyed Anequs as a protagonist and I loved the secondary characters, as well as how the author explored sexuality, accepted social norms, and mental health through the lens of two different cultures. This juxtaposition was excellently done.

There were only a few things I didn’t prefer about this book. One was the in-depth discussions of their class discussions at school. I appreciate the work the author put into them, but learning fantasy algebra has never been something I’m interested in. It did add to the work, and it’s likely this element won’t be present in the next work, so it was just a minor complaint for me. The second thing was that the antagonists of the work were barely present (specifically a student who caused problems at the beginning for Anequs), which made the tension related to those subplots nonexistent. There were plenty of other things that caused tension going on though, so again, this is a relatively minor complaint (more of a comment than complaint).

Honestly, I can’t recommend this book enough! Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for allowing me to read and review this work, which is expected to be published on May 9th, 2023.

This was such a beautiful book. The writing style reminded me of Naomi Novik's in Uprooted and Spinning Silver. It takes an honest look at colonization and the suppression of cultures in a way that reminded me of RF Kuang. All the while, it weaves a beautiful story about an Indigenous girl, Anequs, and her dragon, who are taken from their homeland in order to train at a special school for dragon and their caretakers. She constantly pushes back against the societal norms that the school tries to impress upon her. In the end, she must decide who she wants to be, and who will she let shape her into the woman she'll be for the rest of her life.

The only thing I would say is this book could have been shorter. The pacing dragged because of all the information I was trying to absorb while reading. While I did enjoy the thorough look at Anequs' culture and heritage, I think there could have been a more cohesive way to weave it into the plot, instead of the info-dumps throughout the book.

I read an ARC of To Shape Dragon's Breath on NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity.

I adored this book. It transported me to when I first began to read for myself and found the love of reading on my own and fell in love with the story in front of me. When I not only fell in love with the story but wanted to be the character, to be the heroine going against what everyone was saying, and to find my own power and voice in those that would stand against me.

But once again, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's talk about what the book is about.
This is a young adult story about a girl and her dragon.

The protagonist is from a tribe that has been colonized and pushed where they are "allowed" to live and carry on with their own culture as long as they continue to pay taxes to the Anglish. They no longer have any dragons after the "great" sickness, and because of that, most of their traditions around them have faded from memory. So, when Anequs sees a dragon and goes to leave tabaco at the temple at the top of the mountain whether it was real or a vision, she finds a dragon egg. They remember enough about tradition to have everyone in the village visit the egg that stays in the village center until it opens and chooses Anequs as its person.

When her brother finds out what has happened, he signs her up for an Anglish dragon rider school. At first, the elders are hesitant to send such an important person away, but after her dragon releases its breath, it becomes clear they have lost the knowledge of the dances that used to allow them to control their dragon's breath. Dragon breath can be more dangerous than just fire, often it can break things down to their most basic elements making toxic fumes that can instantly kill people and the environment around it. Because of this, it's decided to send her to school.

Here is where Anequs comes in contact with people whose beliefs very much go against hers, and where her stubborn, proud, and outspoken personality starts shining through all through the book in a way that is perfectly balanced. It doesn't come across as annoying, and just her asserting herself, and also her explaining herself. I like how you can see some parts where she is refusing to learn certain things like the ridiculous Anglish society rules, and there are legitimate reasons for her not to learn them, and really, she shouldn't have to, but also, it's a fact that in order to continue to undermine them to the best of her ability, it's best to "know her enemy".

There's also wonderful representation here, and it rides a great line between intrusive and cute. Though I felt the romance between her and the servant girl more than here and the other dragoneer.

Really, I would have loved reading this along with my Tamora Pierce books, and it makes me feel like a young adult reading this book, and I'm looking forward to the next book in this series and where her adventure goes from here, because the world is rich, the characters fit perfectly inside it, and I loved this book.

This book was really good. I am going to be recommending it to friends, and I'm glad that it is the first of a series. The idea of combining fantasy with Native Americans and early U.S. history was really neat. The characterization was very well done, and I loved seeing the variety of ways people reacted to Anequs's presence at the dragon school. The ways that Anequs changes over the course of the book are also well done. She gained a better sense of when it was worth speaking up stridently and when to follow social rules, and when she wanted to be polite, she was able to speak to Anglish high society in a way they would find appropriate. She found aspects of the culture that she liked (the technology, some dancing, and novels) while remaining staunchly opposed to Anglish aggression against her people, the social stratification of their society, and boiled cabbage.
The main flaw of this book was the amount of time the author spent world-building, which was not only tedious but seemed unnecessarily complicated given that the society was basically the same as the United States 200 years ago. It felt like a lot of words to explain that water is made of hydrogen and oxygen, but with new words for the elements

Anequs is perfectly content to live with her people on their island, too inconsequential for the Anglish to harass. Then a dragon, the first seen locally in generations, leaves an egg for her. To properly care for little Kasaqua, Anequs must attend dragoneering school among “civilized” folk. She's smart enough to master the official curriculum, but too headstrong to accept the concomitant social indoctrination. Whether she's steamrolling conventions or uplifting her community of outcasts, Anequs is resolute and empathetic. Blackgoose meticulously maps out the ripple effects of dragons on human civilization.

I really enjoyed this book for a lot of reasons, the first of which being there just simply aren't enough books about dragons! Anequs is a really dynamic main character, she is steadfast in her beliefs and always does what she thinks is right even when others are trying to force her into a box or to act a certain way. At first, the worldbuilding in this book was a bit difficult, as it draws so much influence and imitates so much of our own world that I found myself kind of translating what the concepts in the book are into their real-world counterparts. However, once I settled myself into the vocabulary of the world, I was fully swept away in it. This book is not only full of important commentary on colonization's effect on indigenous communities and the ways that colonial empires oppress not only other cultures but also stifle their own people, but it's also full of love and science and magic and excellent story writing. I'm excited for this one to hit shelves, I can see it being popular with fans of Percy Jackson, Legendborn, and Black Sun.

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath not only works as engaging science fiction, but conveys a powerful message through the mirror of literary work. This creates a sense of two levels of appreciation — for both the story and its implications. One of the best science fiction works I’ve read recently.

To Shape A Dragon’s Breath is a Sci-Fi/Fantasy book and the First book of Nampeshiweisit series. I like that there are traditions threaded throughout the story
The writing style is different which takes a minute to get used to and I wish it had definitions for some of the words such as Nampeshiweisit and how to pronounce the characters names. I like the parallels between the boarding school experience in History and the dragon school. The book starts off slow and takes some time to get into but the lesson in the end about deciding which version of history you believe or which version is your truth. Also, based on the names, it sounds like the island is off Iceland, Sweden or a nordic country. I would give it 3/5 stars. I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to explore native culture, history and traditions through the lens of science fiction.

This is a delightful coming-of-age story of a young woman who finds magic and refuses to give up her people for the sake of power and privilege.

Anequs' live changes forever when she is chosen by a dragon to be Nampeshiweisit and restore the lost dragons' magic to her people. Unfortunately, the colonizing Anglish have different ideas about how dragons should be trained and controlled. Anequs must attend an Anglish boarding school and submit to Anglish oversight or her dragon will be killed. Even as Anequs learns to navigate Anglish society and makes new friends, she also stays faithful to her culture and heritage, refusing to bend herself completely into an Anglish mold despite the pressure exerted by the Anglish or Anglish-raised people around her. And as she learns about Anglish methods of magic, she also comes to new understandings of the knowledge of her people.

To Shape a Dragon's Breath is a fabulous book and ought to be on everyone's must-read list for 2023.

This would be a VERY good 300 page book but there is no reason for it to be this long, all it does is drag out otherwise good sequences.

A young Indigenous woman enters a colonizer-run dragon academy—and quickly finds herself at odds with the “approved” way of doing things—in the first book of this brilliant new fantasy series.

To Shape A Dragon’s Breath is a fantastic debut from a voice I’m excited to have in SFF. We follow a young indigenous girl Anequs who is required to go to a colonizer school after she bonds with a dragon. This is really a slice of life story. There’s not much of a plot besides Anequs trying her best to deal with the society she’s forced into and trying to hold onto her culture, but I was never bored. The characters were strong enough to make this story work.

The best part of this book is definitely Anequs. She’s a wonderful protagonist with a strong voice and I really like the way Blackgoose wrote her perspective. She’s unapologetically herself - unapologetically indigenous, queer, and polyamorous. I really loved watching her standing up to the preconceived notions of the society she’s forced into while staying true to her culture and its ideals. Also, it’s really refreshing to have a teenage main character with a family that’s not only alive, but supportive and an important part of the story.

We also get a great cast of side characters. Anequs has a vibrant group of friends, and when some of those friendships develop into romances, it feels natural and earned. The found family elements of the book are really well done and watching the relationships develop was one of my favorite parts of the book.

My only real issue with the book was the worldbuilding. This is technically secondary world fantasy, but it’s really just a thin coat of paint on our world. The colonizer culture is a mix of British and Norse with a bit of German thrown in, and all the places mentioned have pretty clear real-world equivalents. This isn’t necessarily an issue, but I would have preferred the book either just be set in our world, or really lean into the secondary world fantasy and take some more risks in its worldbuilding. I also really wanted to learn more about dragons. They’re more of a background element, and I think a bit more about the world and the dragons would have elevated this book for me.

Reviews to be posted 4/30/2023

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me to access an eARC of this title.

I am happy so say, I really enjoyed this book. It defied my expectations in several ways. I expected the main conflict to culminate in battles and displays of the dragons' powers. Instead, the main friction was mostly political, and focused heavily on human rights and colonialism. I really enjoyed that this was a fantasy book that took a different storytelling path.

I also did not expect the breadth of character representation (and it felt like honest representation and not surface level). There is indigenous representation, LGBTQIA+ representation, polyamourous representation, neurodivergent representation, among others I'm forgetting to list). I loved the supporting characters (Theod and Sander especially). And I really enjoyed any scenes with Anequs' brother and his friends.

I do think it was a slow start. There are a lot of new words to learn, including some necessary words to describe things that this fantasy world has that ours does not. But it also felt like the author swapped out some English words arbitrarily to make things feel less like the real world. And that just made things more difficult to understand. I thought I needed a dictionary by the second chapter.

The author also goes into great deal describing the lessons and content that Anequs is learning. Personally, I could have done with less details in those scenes.

I am looking forward to what is next!

This was an incredible read that tread new, interesting ground and went unexpected places. I loved it - absolutely blown away! The indigenous main character in a dragon fantasy story confronting colonialism was unlike anything I've read before and ran against fantasy cliches left and right. I loved reading about her tribe and their reaction to her dragon, along with the dangerous political machinations of the colonizers that their attention brought.

I did expect a different sort of primary conflict - some sort of typical dragon battle vs purely focused on "nackie vs Anglish" politics and prejudice, but it was perfect. I like how this book kept subverting my expectations of what these types of stories are. The characters were rich and interesting, including LGBTQ and neurodiverse representation. As a dark academia lover, the dragoneering academy setting was fantastic as well. I can't wait for the next installment of this series. Five stars!

Moniqull Blackgoose's new book To Tame a Dragon's Breath is a fascinating examination of the inherent clashing of cultures during colonization. Within To Tame A Dragon's Breath, North America and Europe were conquered and colonized by the Norse. This effects numerous word choices, making the setting feel foreign and mythical to many readers. Erelore is studied in school rather than history. Al-jabr rather than algebra. The story circles around Anequs, an indigenous girl, and her struggles to learn and make sense of the "civilized" world. The world of the conquerors. Many stories are told throughout the chapters of how different cultures see their own history interacting with dragons. Personal, I had difficulty placing where in North America the story was set, until halfway through the book, when a few chance names clicked. (For those interested, I believe the island that the story opens on is off the coast of Cape Cod, in New England.) I found the tale entertaining and engrossing, once I found my sense of place. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys fiction that explores culture analysis. This book was supplied to me for free by NetGalley, in exchange for my fair and unbiased review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to access an ARC of this title.

This book surprised me. For the first quarter or so of the book, the story seemed very familiar, especially to fans of fantasy. There is a young protagonist, she is chosen by a dragon, and then she must attend a magical school. By the time our protagonist was sitting in her first (lengthy!) lessons at the school, I felt confident that I knew how the book would go and I wasn't super enthused about finishing it. After looking up some reviews, I decided to press on and I couldn't be more happy that I did.

The compelling factor of this book lies in how the protagonist, an indigenous young woman, handles adversity while maintaining a concrete belief in her upbringing. Anequs faces racism and xenophobia in the society where she receives her education. Throughout it all, she explains her beliefs and why they make sense to her. She doesn't suffer fools and always stays true to herself and her culture. I love that this book was written from the point of view of an indigenous person- it made the story more compelling and I found Anequs' society to be very supportive and loving of each other. All in all, I would definitely recommend this book and look forward to the next installment.

Wonderfully unique new dragon fantasy set through the eyes of an indigenous protagonist/community. Many of the situations uncomfortably mirror our own society’s mistakes and transgressions in an illuminating manner. The story takes place during the first year of dragon school, which, I hope means we have more books to come in this entertaining new world!

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC of this book available to me.

This book (intended as the first in a series) is about a young woman who discovers a (rare) dragon's egg, and ends up bonded to the newly hatched dragon. This causes her to have to attend a school for training her in dragon related skills. We get a harsh (but not necessarily unrealistic) look at colonialism, racism, gender discrimination, society snobs, bullies, culture clashes, and more.

There were a few places where the descriptions of one or another aspect of culture or of the magic system bogged down the actual plot progression a bit too much. And while this book is definitely targeted at a YA audience, its world-building makes it interesting for older (though not necessarily more mature) audiences.

Definitely looking forward to the next book in this series.

I had never heard of this author before but was intrigued by both the cover art and the unique book title. I was like "What does it mean to shape a dragon's breath? Let's find out!" I am SO GLAD I read this story because it was really, really good.

In "To Shape A Dragon's Breath", we follow Anequs and her dragon, Kasaqua. Anque is a young indigenous woman who travels from her island of Masquapaug to attend an Anglish school for "dragoneering". After arriving at her new school, Anequs is unfortunately left dealing with various hardships (racism/bullying/xenophobia) from her peers, her professors, and the Anglish community as a whole. Heart-breaking.

I rated this story as 4.5/5 stars. I fell in love with the (good) characters. As the story continues we (the reader) learn very quickly that luckily, Anequs is highly adaptable, intelligent, stubborn, and completely ignorant of Anglish customs and social practices. As you can guess, this more often than not has Anequs getting into trouble without her even realizing it. I really enjoyed Anequs' character arc as she learns to engage with those around her in a way that neither compromises who she is nor conflicts with what she stands for.

I also REALLY appreciated the representation (LGBTQ+/indigenous/polyamorous/women/neurodivergent people). The portrayals were extremely well done and thoughtfully considered.

I'm excited to see where any sequels will go with this story. This will absolutely be bought in hard-copy version as soon as it is available. Terrific story!