Thank you to the author and NetGalley for this ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I loved the description of this book when it looked to be right up my alley and was so excited when I was approved for the E-ARC, but has ended up being a bust for me. I just can’t seem to get into the story so far and am struggling to follow along and enjoy. It’s a no for me, but maybe I’ll come back later and try again another time and hopefully it’ll work better for me then. Sad that I’m just not getting into this one.

You know how there are some books that enchant you from the very beginning? Well this is one of them. When I realised what I had in my hands I made myself read it slowly so that it wouldn't end too quickly. This is a story that works in so many different ways. There's magic and dragons yes but also it's a heist and at its heart its about families - your own and your found family. There are obvious themes of gender fluidity (you are never quite sure if Arcady is male or female) and it's also a passionate and unfulfilled love story between this human, looking to redeem his family name and restore his lost future and fortune through a daring heist and the unexpected twists and turns that the dragon trapped in human form, Everen, brings to him through the feelings they share in a magical bond, And Everen himself has his own secrets and his own people to save, at enormous and unexpected cost to him.
I loved this book and cannot wait for part 2 - how long must I wait?!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was my first eArc and while I was really excited to dive into it, it really didn't work for me.
I stopped reading this at 20% and that is far more than I actually thought I would be able to read.

The synopsis sounded very intriguing but the writing style unfortunately didn't work for me at all.
I was confused not only with the POV's but also with the way the story was being built up. While it can be a normal thing to be confused at a beginning of a fantasy book, this was different.
Up to the part until I read, the story, as well as any kind of information is all very hazy to me. I could not properly tell you what happened until now. Overall, I was just really confused while reading.

I feel like this is one of those books with a writing style that either is for you, or not at all.

The premise of the book was interesting enough but unfortunately, I did not finish the book. I read 40% of it, but found it too slow paced and, at the same time, I did not connect with the characters.

[ ] This is a story that is woven so beautiful that the description of her words captivate you with each paragraph.
- [ ] It is a dragon theme story,a prophecy’s .. the last male dragon of his kind..
- [ ] what an interesting world.. sometimes world can be repetitive.. not this one

- [ ] extremely intriguing magic , nicely thought out
- [ ] Great world with Lots of intrigue
- [ ] Fulfilling a prophecy meeting two great POV’s

- [ ] Gently woven piece of Fantasy

Includes: dragons, magic, slow slow burn (like sloth slow), enemies to lovers (kind of), end of the world!

Synopsis: long ago, humans betrayed dragons, stealing their magic and banishing them to a dying world. This story is about a human and dragon who were destined to be together.

This was an interesting story to follow. First you have the only male dragon that has literally the dragon world on his shoulders. Second, is a lone thief who steals from the dead. On this night, they become connected and what follows is one chaotic event after another.

So many unique ideas involved in this story. That they have magic that is connected to the stones in their chest, but not enough can cause them to starve and turn into monsters (my head conjured up zombies/vampires). And that this connection between Everen and Arcady can allow them to be injured in the same spot and feel each others pain. They also refer to each other as they/them unless the person specified they want to be he/she.

This story has multiple POV. I counted 5 but I was definitely lost at times throughout the story so there might be more (Everen, Arcady, Sonia, Cassia, and the last chapter).
.
There was just a lot of information that would confuse me at times and I didn’t really understand Arcadys’ reasoning for staying. But that was my opinion. All in all, a good fantasy read.

In a spell gone awry, Arcady finds himself bound to Everen--a dragon disguised as a human in a world full of those who banished them. Though they are used to being alone, Arcady finds use in Everen in their career as thief. But perhaps Everen has motives for staying by Arcady's side as well...

This book was such a unique take on a high fantasy world that stands apart from the rest. Often in fantasy, authors create worlds very similar to our own, and I was pleasantly surprised to see a unique world built with different rules. Gender in Dragonfall exists with looser rules, breaking away from the binary and general misogyny and toxic masculinity that often comes with gender roles. The book also normalized sign language as a common way of communicating.

The beginning was fairly slow with a lot of world building and info dumping, but the payout was so worth it. I quickly found myself rooting for the characters, and I loved how the plot and each characters' backstory and motivations were revealed slowly over time, adding so much mystery and intrigue. The ending had me wrapped up throughout the night (when I should have definitely been sleeping), and left me wanting more.

I was given this as an arc from DAW publishers. It is available May 2,2023 to buy.

First off the premise is interesting but the execution falls very flat. The pacing of the book is incredibly slow then bam! Action then goes back to a snail’s pace. There are 3 POVs and in one POV the language is so odd it takes you right out of the story. It is told in this weird mash up of first and second person while the other main characters are in first person. And it is so odd and something I have never read before that it literally takes me out of the story and I cannot get back into it. I really wanted to like the story but the constant flipping of pov language and the pacing stole my enjoyment. I would honestly say that perhaps changing the Male POV language would greatly help getting people back into the story.

The humans stole their magic. Banished them to a world that was dying. Forced them where they didn’t belong. Centuries later the dragons are seen as gods by the human descendants. Worshipped. Little do the humans know, these dragons don’t forget … or forgive.

I’m a sucker for a good fantasy series and that is exactly what this is! If you enjoy fantasy worlds, and dragons especially, do yourself a favor and get this book ASAP! I am itching for the next book in the series to be released so I can see where this story takes us.

Love, love, love fantasy books that don't stick to gender rules !
The MC is clearly genderqueer, and the way the topic is discussed is really good : we don't have to know if by our standards, they would have been assigned male or female at birth !!

The worldbuidling is well done and feels really new

Actual rating 4.5/5*

Arcady was such a fascinating protagonist for a dragon romance. When the story opens, dragons are a myth to them so they don't realise what they've set in motion when they attempt the ritual to change their identity and avenge their grandfather. On top of that, previous experiences have made them both complex and shy towards others. They are reluctant to make themselves vulnerable so they compartmentalise emotions and even memories within themselves. Despite having chapters in their POV, we discover them and aspects of themselves at the same time as Everen.

Everen was also a fascinating character, though not because of his personality. That is inspired by often seen dark brooding types with the added aspect that he despises humans for what they did to him and his fellow dragons. This makes being bonded to a human a particularly painful experience as he has to learn to hide this disgust at first, before realising Arcadi may not actually be all that bad. But what makes him standout was his utter lack of knowledge about everything human. In his humanoid form, he is forced to learn how to behave in a society so as not to attract attention and his chapters offer a unique perspective into our world on things we take for granted. Lam describes him having a sweet bread roll as a singular experience, or his frustrations with learning slang and societal hierarchies.

As for secondary characters, Lam makes an effort to breathe life into them as well. When Arcadi contemplates planning the heist, we get hints of her past life with a crew of thieves--one they held very close to heart. While the found family trope is a favourite of mine, seeing characters interact in a scenario where this found family has fallen apart was new to me, and extremely refreshing. I was also happily surprised by the ending to that story, given that it didn't go the way I thought it would.

Onto the worldbuilding, Dragonfall offers a world that is both new and familiar. It's one with multiple dimensions separated by a veil that grows thinner on certain days of the year and monsters live within the veil itself, ready to attack whichever dimension they can. In this first book we only get to know two of the dimensions: the human one which is a thriving geo-political mess and the dragon one which is one large island slowly being choked by a volcano.

Because of their exile centuries ago, the current humans consider dragons mythical beings and recognise five of them as gods so Everen causes some commotion before he learns enough to fit in and pass as human. Lam does a wonderful job of building up this human world through Everen's eyes, while we learn about the dragon world and their customs through his memories. Then Arcadi comes in to fill in the gaps with details and history. I was absolutely sucked into the world of Dragonfall and the revelations about it in the second half of the book not only left me wanting to know more, but set the stage for a much grander plot with our two main characters at the center.

Plot-wise, Lam sets the scene with Everen's and Arcadi's decisions to reclaim their fate, linking them across a devastating storm before winding down to introduce the heist part of the book. There is a solid third of the book that's dedicated to plotting the heist and training Everen to pull it off, while glimpses of the wider plot are presented through Everen's memories, his communications with his sister and Sorin's POV chapters. Lam even goes as far as to include what I can oonly describe as a training montage, which I greatly enjoyed because it's during this time that Everen and Arcadi's feelings for each other change and develop.

Once we get passed that, the pacing picks up and several subplots converge towards the final, heart pounding climax that involves all of our protagonists. I really enjoyed all parts of Arcadi and Everen's relationship and shenanigans, how they grow from grudging allies to actually liking each other and even more, set in a backdrop the training, then the stress of the heist and beyond.

Even Lam's writing stood out in Dragonfall. As I mentioned before, I loved the way Everen discovers the human world, especially before he finally tracks Arcadi down because that's when he learns how to blend in on a surface level. Once with Arcadi, he never stops remarking on human quirks or traditions, and their training together takes on an aspect beyond a traditional learning experience. Lam's pacing was also excellent, they balance the action well with the training, so that doesn't get boring while the gradual building of tension made the ending stand out.

Additionally, Lam begins the book as a recollection so it's told in 1st, 2nd and 3rd person POV depending on the character and situations. This made me feeling far more connected to the story, making it unfold almost in real time as I was reading it. I'm not usually a huge 2nd person POV fan, but Lam does it exceedingly well.

My one issue with the book was the other POV chapters we'd occasionally get. I couldn't relate to Sorin for the longest time, I simply didn't find her character interesting so her POV chapters in the middle of the book were somewhat boring to me, though I did come to appreciate her character in the final act of the book.

Finally, L.R. Lam has created an interesting society in Dragonfall were gender roles are much more fluid though there are still some expectations here and there. While the dragons' island maintains certain preconceptions when it comes to genders, the country Arcadi lives in has the least. As a result, Arcadi is non-binary and goes by any pronouns, while Everen has a moment of reflection before settling on he/him. As the other countries in the human world are less accepting of fluid gender identities, there are moments of reflection on gender by Arcadi both to themselves and to Everen, and I liked how it was ultimately commentary on real life perception of gender roles and gender identity.

Dragonfall by L.R. Lam is a phenomenal, swoon worthy beginning to a series that I cannot wait to read more of. Lam's loveable and complex characters paired with a plot that sucked me in from the first chapter and a swoon worthy romance that had me on the edge of my seat make this a fantastic book despite its few flaws.

I wanted to enjoy this one but I found the plot, story, and characterizations hard to follow and not really resonate the best for me at times.

I would like thank Hodder & Stoughton for providing me with an ARC.

This book had a lot going for it. It has queer main characters, dragons, and the cover is beautiful. However, I struggled with this book at points. I think it needed some aspects tightened up. The magic and world felt very unclear to me. The world building just felt to be lacking overall and was very vague on how things worked. I couldn't connect with the writing style and the different perspectives of the main characters felt too similar to each other. I really wanted to love this book, but I just couldn't get into it.

I've been reading more fantasy lately so when I saw this stunning cover and learned that it was about dragons and magic, I was ready to jump right in! From the start, like most fantasy, you are trying to find your bearings. A lot of names, places, and beings are thrown at you. I adjusted to this fairly quickly(a few chapters at most) The main characters in this book are Arcady, a human with magic who accidentally brings Everen, a dragon, into their world. Everen is the only male dragon left from his world and he's destined to take back the world that was stolen by the humans. A little later we are introduced to Soren, who works for Magnes, and a bit of a mystery surrounds them both. Just know that Soren does Magnes bidding but he has his own hidden agenda!
The plot is solid. Arcady and Everen work together to save both their worlds while not truly divulging their pasts. Unbeknownst to Arcady is that Everen is a dragon(he's in his human-ish form for a lot of the book.) It gets a little dicey and then BOOM the last few chapters are action, action, action...and a big surprise!
My only issues; pacing of the story, it took awhile to get to the BIG event and then it happens so quickly and the book is done(although it leaves off on a suspenseful note!) Also, I don't mind a gender fluid character but it was distracting to have certain They/Them/Their capitalized. It drew my attention away from the actual sentence.
Overall this was a fun read that I would recommend to fellow fantasy lovers. I look forward to the second book!

Identify the Trout!

Everen is a dragon. Dragons live in a dying world. Hundreds of years ago they lived in a green, growing world in partnership with humans. But the humans betrayed the dragons and exiled them to this dying world. That, at least, is the story as dragons tell it. Humans have a different story.

Everen falls into the human world, where he finds he is magically bonded to Arcady, a thief in the city of Vatra. Everen's sister Cassia tells him he can use this magical bond to allow dragons to escape their dying world

<blockquote>--Yes, she said, as she faded from view. Make your little human love you. Do what you must. And then kill it. Her gaze was unblinking. Bring us home, Everen. Give us our world.</blockquote>

This immediately reminded me of something I read long ago in /Glory Road/ by Robert Heinlein,

<blockquote>You tickle trout by gaining their confidence, and then abusing it.</blockquote>

(Trout tickling is a way to catch trout with ones bare hands.) So, it transpires that Cassia has sent Everen on a fishing expedition. He is to catch the human world by gaining Arcady's confidence, then betraying them. Dragons view humans as treacherous vermin, so it is plausible that Everen and Cassia would have no more compunction about betraying a human than Heinlein's hero Oscar had about betraying a trout. By the way, what I've told you so far is in the publisher's blurb, so no spoilers yet.

But then I thought, "I know how stories like this go. Will Everen go through with it, or will he have sympathy for Arcady and decide he can't betray them? In fact, who is the more adept at treachery: Everen the isolated dragon prince, or Arcady, the thief of the corrupt city of Vatra?" The question answers itself. Perhaps Everen, not Arcady, is the trout. And then I thought further, "LR Lam didn't fall off the apple cart yesterday. Surely they know their readers will see these plot twists coming. Perhaps they are trying to trick me into expecting the obvious plot. In fact, this is advertised as the first book of a trilogy, so we need something unexpected. Am I the trout?"

Now, to be clear, these were just my thoughts as I began to read. I am not telling you that the things I just hinted at happen. I am not telling you that they don't happen. I am telling you only that /Dragonfall/ is a book about treachery. Treachery and magic and dragons and perhaps friendship and love, but definitely treachery.

/Dragonfall/ has the now familiar structure of a multiple first-person point-of-view novel. Each chapter is told by a single character. There are three main points of view: Everen, Arcady, and Soren. I have not mentioned Soren before. Arcady and Soren have twisty minds, and I enjoyed their points of view a lot. Everen was a little less fun, but I expect him to become more interesting in the next books.

I certainly look forward to the future books and intend to read them.

Thanks to NetGalley and DAW for an advance reader copy of /Dragonfall/. This review expresses my honest opinions. To be released 2-May-2023.

This one was sooo fun! I loved the inclusion of dragons, they’re always amazing and so fun to read about

Within the first few pages, I fell to a wonderfully built world. The story held so much intrigue and was relatively fresh compared to other fantasies I have read. In this world, you have dragons revered as Gods. Nevertheless, it was pretty exciting, and I devoured the book in two days.

Dragonfall begins with Everen’s POV, the last male dragon, on a quest to fulfill a prophecy that he doesn’t truly understand. His voice drew me in. The predatory nature of it, alongside the thirst for knowledge, made me smile quite a bit. I especially appreciated the switches from first, to second, to third. It nailed his age and how he perceives everything around him.

When Arcady comes in, a quite humourous petty thief, you’re introduced to the world in a different light. Almost simplistic in nature. Here politics and magic are talked about in a very childlike manner, making all the information easy to digest and pair with the “mighty and learning” viewpoint of Everen. Which I enjoyed thoroughly.

The magic system was incredible, and I haven’t read anything similar. So I look forward to the next installment to see how it pans out within this fantastical world. I didn’t struggle with the PoV switches; they felt natural and wholistic within the characters’ mannerisms and distinct voices. Which were incredibly rich and well thought out. Everen’s and Aracady’s relationship evolved naturally, and I think the way Everen’s voice was written allowed it to flow really well, in my opinion.
I think for anyone who loves dragons and complex magical systems with astonishing world-building, Dragonfall will be a fantastic journey for any fantasy lover. .

In Dragonfall, we meet the last male dragon, Everen. He is prophesied to save his kind after they were banished centuries ago. Meanwhile, humans have harnessed the magic they stole from dragons, have forgotten all about their betrayal and instead started worshipping them as gods. Enter genderfluid thief Arcady who hasn’t been dealt the kindest card in life and is hellbent on taking back what’s been stolen from them. When they accidentally magically bond and Everen is dragged into the human world, the path seems clear: find a way to break the bond, as far as Arcady knows. Get the human to trust him and then kill them, as far as Everen is concerned. Growing close is not a part of any those plans, but it sure complicates them.

It’s been a minute since I last read any High Fantasy, I hadn’t realised how much I missed it. What drew me in immediately with this one: it’s really, really funny.

Things properly hit off once Arcady and Everen meet - I’ve been saying this before but I genuinely don’t care about the plot as long as the characters work for me, and work they do. There’s a romance subplot and watching them get to know and trust each other while holding back their respective secrets (and knowing there’s tragedy ahead since Everen is supposed to kill Arcady!) has been such a delightful experience. Turns out I do enjoy romance after all.

Apart from that, the book‘s just exciting. Conflicted relationships (many of them), a heist, world-threatening events - it’s „Merry Crisis!“ in a literal sense. Dragonfall had me at the edge of my seat by the end of it, with a touch of heartbreak and exciting revelations along the way.

And I haven’t even started on the smaller details I loved! At least that part of Dragonfall‘s world is queernorm with gender being something you yourself figure out over time and no one else. A sign language has established itself as a sort of lingua franca and is frequently used in the book. A magic system with an interesting price to pay for humans. Commentary about rich people doing infuriating rich people things is just the icing on the cake.

So yeah. I loved this one and already can’t wait for book 2!

Dragonfall by L.R. Lam is out May 2nd, 2023.

4.5 Stars

Everen is apart of the group of dragons that had been outcasted into a perilous world that is bound to extinguish them all. Due to a spell, he is thrust through the veil into the land his family once knew as home. He finds himself half bonded to a measly human, Arcady, an outcast and a thief. Dragons hate humans for what they did, what they stole. He must earn Arcady’s trust and complete the bond, than end them so that his family can come through the veil back home.

Right from the beginning I was sucked into this story! The writing style is phenomenal.

World building and lots of new words I had to adjust to. Multiple POV, one being a dragon.
The city they are in is very gender fluid and accepting.

My only complaint was not understanding the words or meanings at the beginning of the book. I was really confused. I’m not sure if the physical copy has/ will have these meanings to reference to as that would have made it easier.

So when I read chapter 46, I realized some clues that where in the book that I overlooked !!! Than chapter 47 revealed it. OMG. What a twist !!! I also can’t believe I looked over these hints, usually I’m good at catching them.

Dragonfall by L. R. Lam

Pros: interesting characters, great worldbuilding, non-binary protagonist

Cons:

Arcady Eremia wants to clear their family’s name, so they need money and a new last name. Their spell was only supposed to change their name seal, not pull someone into their world. Certainly not someone magically bonded to them.

Everen Emberclaw’s been given a chance to fulfill a prophecy to save dragonkind from their dying world. But to do it he must properly bond with Arcady and then kill them.

This is a story about trust between two broken people that involves a fun heist towards the end of the book.

The worldbuilding was excellent. The human world has a fair amount of variety, with several kingdoms that have different customs, and a religion centered on the worship of dragons.

Arcady is non-binary and the world has a nifty way of dealing with pronouns, using honourifics until you learn the correct forms of address.

There are light romance elements with a fun will they/won’t they aspect.

Arcady’s gruff and a bit unlikeable at first, but really grows on you as time goes on. I loved Everen completely, especially watching him learn about the human world and trying to fit in.

Giving dragons feathers was kind of unique, and I loved that they have a smaller -preterit- forms.

This is the first of a series so while it ties up some loose ends it’s only part of a larger story.