DNFing. I just can’t continue. The world building is clunky and overly detailed. Like ridiculously detailed. Too much detail. And still so confusing.

This was like a 4.75 for me? I loved it so much more than I even expected I would! I mean, I love dragons so I had a feeling it would be great, but I was honestly not expecting it to really impact me the way it did. I LOVED Arcady and Everen. The side characters were interesting as well. One thing that kept me from giving this 5 stars was that I was bored with Sorin's chapters in the middle? There were definitely times when I just wanted to skip her POV and go back to the main story. Her story fits into this one and it all ties together, and I actually loved her POVs in the beginning, but those middle ones dragged on just a bit. Otherwise, I was really captivated in this story pretty much from start to finish. I thought the pacing was great and the events leading up to the finale were amazing!

I thought this book was written very interestingly? I can tell a lot of readers won't like the way it's written, but I think it is such a cool method of storytelling. The different POVs in different styles took some getting used to, but it was a refreshing way to tell this story and I think it added insight to the characters. The way everything was done was really smart to me, so I commend L.R. Lam for writing it like this, as it's so cool. This book is meant to be a series, and I'm so thankful for that. I truly can't wait to read the rest and I'll be anxiously awaiting book 2!

OMG Dragons! This was truly a favorite read of 2023. After a serious slump of just DNF after DNF, diving into Lam's world of magic and dragons, lies and fate, love and betrayal was such a breath of fresh air I nearly cried. And to think the story is just starting?! I am desperate for the 2nd installment already. Really, I can't say enough good about this story. The world building was solid without being overly complicated, the characters were well-rounded with clear signs that we will learn even more about them as the story continues, and the pacing was spot on to keep you hooked. Think level 2 or 3 fantasy if Eragon is level 1. The lore alone is a dream to unravel and the twists, though not entirely a surprise, are just an amazing feature of the setup of this world. For being a book 1, this is by no means simply an intro; it's action packed to the brim and ends with a cliffhanger that leaves you wanting more without being angry, IYKWIM.

**Thank you NetGalley and DAW for the eARC**

While I loved the plot of this story, I found that the writing style wasn't quite for me and prevented me from diving head first into this story. However, a fantasy book with dragons is hard to be bad, so it was of course enjoyable. I would recommend perhaps getting a sample of this book and looking at the first few chapters just to see if the writing style meshes with you or not.

I don't know if it's because I had very high expectations or not, but this book fell flat for me. What irked me the most was how the main characters all felt the same for me (which is weird because one of them is supposed to be a dragon). They didn't have anything setting them apart from each other and I struggled between the first, second and third POV because they either blended into each other, or the contrast in writing was too different.

I also feel like the book suffers from not knowing what to focus on because the intention of the story is really good but execution on world building, tension, characterisation and plot felt dull and overdone for me, which made me stop caring about 16 chapters in (and nothing had happened by then either).

Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC.

An enjoyable story of shapeshifting dragons and taking what you think are owed by the world. I loved the dilemma about who is the bad guy: humans or dragons. What made this discussion more exciting was that we still have a knowledge of history missing, so who knows where the story might lead.

However, my main problem was the writing. I could get past some of more clunky sentences, however, there was entirely WAY TOO MUCH "They"s. I loved the idea of queernorm society, however with the lack of descriptions of the world and it's society, just using excessive amount of They pronounce just did not cut it for me. I needed more.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this novel. All opinions are, as always, my own.

I wanted to read this book mainly because of the cover. I am not familiar with the author and I usually don’t read fantasy, but I’ve been getting into more fantasy books lately. But the cover is awesome! It really pulled me in, so I had to read this one. The story itself was different from what I usually read. If you are more into character than the world or ideas then this is your book. I'm more into ideas, so I struggled. But the characters are good. The second thing I struggled with is that the whole book is in the first person, but of two characters. I found it difficult to keep it straight and kind of tedious to always be reading in first person. Finally is that the book moves along rather slow. It isn’t a fast-paced action story, but a slowly building character story. Dragonfly is very good at what it is. But if that is not what you like then it is not enjoyable. I think there are those who will love this book. I struggled with it. BuI can’t say it is bad, because it isn’t.

I love that we’re getting more books featuring dragons!
This is a great beginning for a new fantasy series, it keeps you hooked and leaves you with wanting to know what will happen next. I can't wait to read more of this trilogy

Dragons? Immediately count me in! This was a great story and I’m so excited to get a physical copy. A bit confusing but once I started highlighting on my kindle and really paying attention I figured it out. If you catch yourself feeling confused stick it out you won’t regret it!

I received a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
I was so excited about the concept of this book: dragons, queer characters, mystery, magic. It did not disappoint!
I haven’t read very many dragon magic books (they’re kind of hard to find tbh), but I really felt like the way L. R. Lam created the magic system and the worlds of Loc and Vere Celene was very unique. I loved that there was no real “explanation” for why the queer characters were queer; they just were, it is just apart of them. I wouldn’t say this qualifies as a romance (or even having a romance subplot) there’s just a little sprinkle of attraction and desire.
The anticipation of whether or not their big heist was going to be pulled off, if Arcady and Everen could figure out the forbidden magic that held them together, and if either of their big secrets were going to be discovered captivated me from the very beginning. Not to mention a plot twist I didn’t see coming AND a cliffhanger!
L. R. Lam wrote an amazing story. Not only can I not wait to get my hands on a physical copy, but also for whenever book 2 comes out!

I really loved the concept of this book. The idea of dragons as gods and coming back to reclaim their magic sounded captivating and wonderful. Unfortunately I could not connect with the writing style and characters. I found myself constantly skimming trying to get through the book and felt the overt descriptions really bogged down the story.

I think this book can work and does work for other people but the writing style and lack of connection to characters and plot made reading this a chore.

This is a solid book, once you can get through the opening chapters that for some reason didn't engage me - I DNFed this book twice before I gave it a third try and finally managed to read it all the way through. I think Everen was the character I was having trouble connecting with as the book kicks off with his angsting over a prophecy then being sucked through a portal into another world. By contrast, Arcady's storyline kicks off with a daring theft intended to help them claim a place in a society that has rejected them and their family, in a well-motivated quest to avenge their family as well as prosper in an unforgiving world.

Once Everen and Arcady meet up, the plot really starts to move, with a distrustful partnership, malfunctioning magic, enemies on their trail, complicated past relationships, Everen's family lying to him left and right, and above all a heist to plan. By the end, I definitely was ready for book 2!

This book was not quite what I hoped for unfortunately. I was excited about this with all the hype and the fact that it has dragons in it, but this book simply wasn't for me. This isn't my kind of book. I had a hard time with some of the way the POVs of the characters switched during the story and was lost as to which character was talking some of the time. I also felt like they were trying to break the fourth wall during part of the story and it felt weird and I didn't like it. Whether they meant to break/try to break the fourth wall on purpose or not I don't know, but in this kind of story it didn't work the way they were doing it/trying to do it.
I'm sure that a lot of others will like and enjoy this story and follow the series simply because it has dragons in it. I personally expected something different because it had dragons in it. I know this will be something a lot of others like and that there are a lot who do like it already. I simply wasn't the audience for this and it's not for me.
Thanks to NetGalley and DAW books for letting me have a chance to read and review this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read. However, this book wasn’t it for me. I could not get invested and did not enjoy the romance.

thank you to netgalley, the author and publisher for this arc!

3 stars.

before starting this review, i will say that i did not finish this book. i tried starting it three times, and for whatever reason, it just wouldn't work for me. and it's not because of the writing – the writing was beautiful, from what i've read (hence the three stars) – but i just couldn't get myself to pick this up again. sometimes that just happens and i'm so sad about it. :(

i do hope to give this another shot in the future because i really do not like leaving reviews when i haven't finished the book, but i feel obligated to. should i ever get back to it, i do intend to edit this review.

Dragonfall is a queer epic fantasy with Dragons, who were once revered as gods, were banished and now Everen, the first male-born dragon on years walks among men on a quest to free his people.

The author it tells their story in a way that feels very much as if it was a rubber band that they’re slowly pulling taught until finally feel the tension snaps the band. LR Lam has a whole new world to build from the ground up and they take advantage of the freedom they have in doing so, gently unravelling each aspect of the world.

We also have a second main character, Arcady, who is a nonbinary thief struggling with a magic disability that Arcady has to hide because the disease essentially makes someone possessing it a pariah. It reminds me a lot of the way Hansen’s Disease was seen in the 60s. Sign Language is also used very freely in the book and is just another way of communicating.

This book feels very unique in many ways. The book presents a concept of gender reminiscent of Neon Yang’s The Black Tides of Heaven where people are born genderless until they choose or choose not to be assigned a gender.

I will admit I struggled getting into the writing as Everen would narrate his portion as if directly speaking to Arcady and I’m not a huge fan of second person. However, I did come to realize later on that it added a lot on making the book even more queer, since it allowed to Everen refer to Arcady without assigning a specific gender, even pushing it beyond using gender neutral pronouns. I’m pretty sure that Arcady wasn’t even assigned the gender-neutral pronouns “they/them” throughout the book, only referred to as “you” by Everen, or directly by name. Which was honestly very interesting.

Dragonfall is very much a first book in an epic series. We have definitely only scratched the surface of what could be and I’m incredibly excited to see what else Lam has to offer. There are so many secrets and layers upon layers in the relationship between each very complex character that future books are sure to be even more brilliant.

Thank you to Netgalley, DAW Publishing, and the author for gifting me the eARC for this book. I cant wait to read the rest of the series!

"𝐴𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑢𝑛 𝑘𝑒𝑝𝑡 𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑘𝑦, 𝐼 𝑘𝑛𝑒𝑤: 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝐼 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑜 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛."

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read dragonfall early! Unfortunately, when I started the book I was completely oversaturated with fantasy romance, so I couldn't really enjoy this book as much as I would've liked. BUT(!) don't let this deter you: This book is a gem that I'm sure will conquer the fanatsy romance community in a storm.

We follow along the journey of the humanoid-turned dragon Everen and human Arcady who's paths cross in a flurry of fate. I won't say much about the plot (read the blurb) , only that it's well-executed and entertaining despite its predictability. Both characters are interesting, and I loved to see how Everen learns the human world step-by-step thanks to Arcady. One of the thinks I truly admired and celebrated was the worldbuiliding (especially in lue of how gender identity works), and the queer representation. I went into this book knowing NOTHING and was positively surprised to find such great rep.

Overall, a great "enemies"-to-lovers forced-proximity book with forbidden love for everyone that wants a dragon(-shifter) romance with an entertaining plot and intense, dragon-centered world-building.

Thank you NetGalley and publishers for approving this copy for an honest review. This novel starts out with our main character wanting to clear their grandfather’s name. Enter a dragon and his plot to reclaim a world that was taken from the dragons and you have an enemies to lovers with a human dragon twist. If you like a slow burn, slow moving plot with a heist in the works, this book is for you. This story wasn’t quite for me because the way the book was written the pacing was so slow once I understood what all the characters wanted. I did enjoy the found family aspect. 3/5 🥭

This was a really anticipated release for me for 2023 but unfortunately the magic system isn’t clear cut enough for me - I really struggled to keep up with this one and had difficulty picturing what was going on. Maybe I’ll revisit in the future when a sequel is announced but for now, it’s not a new favourite.

Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨(3.75/5)
I really enjoyed the story. Although I also recently finished Fourth Wing, the stories are nothing alike except that they both have dragons.

I feel like Dragonfall is a little closer to a mix of the fold and Grisha powers from Shadow and Bone with the heist elements of Six of Crows (both from Leigh Bardugo).

It’s set in a kingdom where gender is fluid. You never assume someone’s gender until they introduce it to you.

Dragons have been banished to a different world beyond the veil. Their world is in danger therefore they need to cross the veil to return to their natural world. A human accidentally connects themselves to the only male dragon and drags him through the veil.

The lower rating for me was the fact that when they addressed someone as “they”, it was capitalized. Therefore I kept pausing in the reading flow to make sure I didn’t miss something since it kept making me stop mid-sentence which made it a lot harder to read. Also the magic system, mythology, and history was a little confusing.

It’s part of a series therefore we are left with lots of questions. However, I liked the story enough to want to continue.

Honestly, if it wasn’t for the strange capitalizations of pronouns, I probably would have liked it better. I 💯 support someone’s choice of pronouns, but they are not titles or names and therefore, do not need to be capitalized.