Member Reviews
Hearts Forged in Dragon Fire was an interesting read. I feel like I didn't fully understand the point or enjoy it because I struggled to find myself interested in the story. The overall cozy-ish vibes were fine, but I wanted something more interesting to happen.
I wasn’t sure if I would like this story or not. YA and FF aren’t my usual type of ready. I was very pleasantly surprised. I requested for the dragons, and I wasn’t disappointed. This book was well written with a very fun unique plot. The characters were well developed. Overall, a very enjoyable read. Huge thanks to Entangled publishing and Netgalley for allowing to read and review this book.
I loved this cozy fantasy! If you love dragons, warm taverns, quirky characters, and found family, here’s your new read! The main character has the rare ability to speak to dragons (called a dragontongue), and sets out to help a town being ravaged by one. Lotte meets a variety of interesting characters along the way on her journey to help the town with their dragon problem, and even finds some romance for the first time ever! The dragons are super quirky, they eat precious metals and have varying personality traits. This is a great inclusive YA novel! I read it in 2 days, so if you’re looking for a nice easy fantasy read that’s fast paced, look no further!
I loved the concept behind the book but something was missing . It didn’t have that , I want to stay up all night reading effect . Overall it was a decent book , just not one of my favorites.
The book also had a non-binary character that was introduced , great idea but the implementation was honestly confusing at first . I had to keep rereading and then I was like Ooohhhh. Lol
I love a good dragon book , I think this one just missed certain elements to make it a great one .
Oh my gosh, this book was excellent! It had a unique queer romance that wasn't the sole focus, dragons with a twist, fascinating worldbuilding, complex family dynamics, and more. Erica Hollis nailed it! The dragons were so cool, and the side characters were a delight. Plus, the LGBTQ+ representation was spot-on. I couldn't put it down! If you're into YA Fantasy with morally grey characters and a lot of gayness, this is the book for you. And there's this great passage about disability. I devoured it in one day. Just fantastic!
Hearts Forged in Dragon Fire by Erica Hollis
This is one of the most enjoyable books I read in awhile. It's imaginative and amazing, great book! Love Love!
I just reviewed Hearts Forged in Dragon Fire by Erica Hollis. #HeartsForgedinDragonFire #NetGalley
[https://www.netgalley.com/member/book/285905/review]
En bref, j'ai beaucoup aimé le contexte et les personnages, je voulais avoir les réponses à mes questions et c'est ce que nous apporte le final. Entre temps, on a un soupçon de dragon, de secret, d'histoire de famille et de sentiments qui font que même si on ne s'ennuie pas vraiment, le rythme n'est pas toujours de la partie, du moins pour moi. Je m'attendais à un peu plus de la présence du dragon qui au final ne fait que réclamer toujours plus d'or et un objet que Lotte ne comprend pas... mais tout va finir par s'éclaircir et on peut enfin saisir les tenants et les aboutissants de l'intrigue. Le dénouement est vraiment chouette, un peu violent mais aussi qui nous donne le sourire et on les quitte d'une jolie manière.
A very different fantasy adventure and romance
Where a dragon is holding a town, not giving it a chance.
Instead it is demanding their gold and treasure
Can teen dragontongue, Lottie Meer, get its measure?
The town have sent to ask for her aid,
Agreeing a sum that she will be paid.
The dragon is cruel, even other dragons flee,
Can she save the town - read the book to see!
A cunning, narcissistic, despot dragon, so sly,
And Lottie who can't believably tell a lie....
With treasure and time running out
Can Lottie determine what this is all about?
With family dramas and secrets to uncover,
The dragon's mission and purpose to discover,
Along with F/F romance - if only they dare -
And some others who really don't care.
With the people's lives at stake, will she lose or win?
What an adventure for this teen heroine!
For my complementary copy, I say thank you,
As I share with you this, my honest review.
Erica Hollis brings us into a realm where magic seems to only exist in rare artifacts and dragons.
Lotte Meer, 16, is one of the few and very rare Dragontongue who spreak Draken, the language of the dragons. Lotte helps as a liason between humankind and dragonkind. But it’s a very dangerous job. When things don’t work, the “Dragontongue usually gets burned alive or torn to shreds”. Lotte gets asked to negotiate between a bad-tempered dragon and the town of Morwassen’s Pass or they’ll suffer a fiery death. Will Lotte be able to mediate this situation or will this town be burned to ashes?
I thoroughly enjoyed Hearts Forged in Dragon Fire. Lotte’s and Maryse’s family backstories feel only too familiar. Wish there were less heroes forged through traumas and tragedies.
Thank you to Net Galley and Entangled Publishing for reading the ARC!
this was the soft YA fantasy I needed! Lotte and Maryse were two very tenacious characters but I have a real soft spot for Danil and Scy <3 looking forward to Erica's next adventure!
Lotte has a rare ability. She’s a dragontongue and can communicate with dragons. She uses her ability to be a kind of liaison between the dragons and humans, hopefully keeping a peaceful existence between the two. Her latest job, however, proves to be unlike any other she’s had, and it’s much more dangerous.
Talk about dysfunctional families. This book has a couple of the most difficult I’ve seen lately. There’s jealousy, parents not really wanting to be parents, secrets that change the lives of everyone around them, and very strained relationships. But, there is also love, loyalty, and strong bonds.
There is a dragon that is basically holding an entire town hostage, bleeding the townspeople dry of all their wealth It has a cruel temper and a secret that no one will believe. There are so many life lessons in this part of the story. Like how being greedy, power-hungry, and completely self-obsessed affects the world around you and how all those things will eventually consume you.
Maryse agrees to help Lotte when they find out that the dragon is holding Lotte’s estranged mother prisoner in the castle. Their new friendship starts to become something more. But when secrets are revealed, you wonder if anyone is going to get a happily-ever-after.
When the story goes where you know it’s heading, even though it’s the only way this could go, it’s heartbreaking. I love the ending, though, because it leaves a bright new beginning in its wake.
The characters are well-written. The LGBTQ+ relationships are a natural part of the story (as they should be) and not just thrown in because it’s popular. You will love Lotte and Maryse’s journey, both their individual journeys and their journey together. And, there are characters that you will hate. I like the old world aspect to the fantasy as well. The world the author created feels like someplace we should be able to find on a map somewhere.
Hearts Forged in Dragon Fire is just a really good story. I highly recommend it to fans of YA fantasy, LGBTQ+ fantasy romance, found family, family drama, high fantasy, sapphic romance, and dragons.
In this beautifully built world, Lotte is one of the few Dragontongues, and even in her young age, she carries a lot of responsibility. Dealing with dragons is not easy and this time, it’s harder than usual.
The adventure of a lifetime turns dangerous and even deadly while Lotte tries to mediate with a thief of a dragon, while dealing with an array of emotions that would hinder any adult. From teen sapphic love to a line up of terrible parents, new friendships and old trauma.
This story has it all, while fantasy and dragons go hand in hand with the emotional drama of crappy family and new family, of lies and betrayals, and gory dragon chow.
The pace is slow but steady, giving us time to fall inlove with many characters and absolutely despise others. The “twist” is foreshadowed and not much of a surprise, but it does hinder the story, in fact, it gives the reader time to understand what surrounds it and explain actions and emotions.
This story was a ride, sometimes thrilling, sometimes scary, sometimes sad, but in the end it all falls together.
And I’ll be sitting pretty awaiting a Scyler novella or even just a bonus chapters because they won my heart from the very start and i want so much more!
I am thankful to Entangled and NetGalley for the ARC provided and the hours of fun. This review is my own, my thought and emotions, thankfully with no dragon injuries!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own The characters were amazing the plot was perfect. It was a fun adventure filled with dragons and and a little bit of romance. I really enjoy books that are filled with fantasy, and adventure. I give this book 5 ⭐️ Thanks again for the ARC
I just can’t get enough of books with dragons.
This was a fun sapphic fantasy story that I devoured in 2 days. There’s a lot of twists and turns (somewhat predictable but it was enjoyable regardless)
This has many gasp worthy moments and the writing is easy to digest.
I found the first 30% a little clunky and didn’t hook me right away but after that it really picked up.
Thank you Entangled Teen for the ARC ♥️
(This book was cute, but not a favorite. The premise is that Lotte, a girl who can speak with dragons, is tasked with trying to meditate between a local city and this enormous dragon who has been scaring the city into bringing him money and treasure.
My pros:
- cute sapphics
- background queer and nonbinary rep
- interesting take on dragons that I haven't seen before
- exploration into family dynamics and toxic relationships
All of those things were great. But when it came to execution, I found the book pretty transparent. The main plot twist I predicted from like 20%, in addition to another plot point later in the book. Nothing much happened in the book, either - it was really slow moving, almost like delaying the actual plot so that it would reach novel-length. It was a lot more about character development, which I did enjoy, but books can do both, y'know?
3.75 stars
❛You… Why are you worrying about me, Lotte?” Her words sound so unsure, so genuinely confused, that it breaks my heart a little. “Because somebody should,” I reply.❜
the writing is so polished and immaculate that it was refreshing to be immersed in a well described and graphically outlined world building after the last books that I’ve read. plus, teen fantasy is not what i can refer to as "my confort zone" therefore, it was reinvigorating, as well, to tiptoe outside-a little- from it.
“Pride and bravery kill more than weapons.”
the plot line oscillates between family drama and a dragon conflict -that was terrorizing the citizens of a small town-. our main character, Lotte, is one of the rare mortals —Dragontongue- that can communicate with dragons and speak fluently their language -Draken-. she is hired by the town to try and negotiate with Ker’Kachin by trying to find a compromise before the dragon commits more damages to the town and its population. the fight becomes more personal to Lotte when the dite dragon takes her mother as an hostage.
"You…you mean a lot to me. You’re far from perfect, but so am I, and I think we’re both better now than we were when we met."
the storytelling holds a beautifully written, soft love story; two teenagers who try to navigate between their undeniable pull and attraction for one another and the responsibilities that sixteen year old girls shouldn’t have to deal with. their own family dramas consist on young girls trying to find solutions to adult’s problems because of an atrocious lack of parenting and adulting. I love both girls. Lotte is a tenacious, brave girl and such an aspiring female lead. Maryse makes some irrational and questionable decisions throughout the book but the more we dive into the story the more we understand that she is influenced and manipulated by some malicious side characters. at the end, she and Lotte form a beautiful bond that starts as friends to bloom into something more, something that survived hell to flourished into a lovely story.
“Don’t worry,” I say. “You’re more than worth the trouble.”
the plot twist is pretty simple to deduce from what the plot line and some characters throw as indices. frankly, it doesn’t tarnish the course of the story and events in any ways. on the contrary, it makes you comprehend and dissect in a better angle Maryse’s character.
Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Teen for the free eARC. This is my honest opinion.
I loved the premise of this book and the characters were interesting, the fact that Lotte is a dragon speaker is lovely. I loved the different dragons that Lotte came across. The mystery and dealing with the dragon that has taken the city hostage at times seemed to be a little ham-fisted, but there were still twists and turns that I enjoyed working out.
I loved the representation of the differing sexualities and gender identities in the book and the fact that the society was open and accepting of it. This is a very young adult book, with no discussions about anything more than kissing, making this great for younger teens. And romance is kind of a side plot line, not one of the main ones. There is a lot of discussions regarding families - both good, bad, and everything in between, which plays a much larger role in the main plot lines of the story.
4 out of 5 stars, recommended for younger teens who want talking dragons.
This sapphic YA fantasy follows a young Dragontongue named Lotte Meer as she travels from her small town to the big city where a dragon is acting very strangely. As she speaks to the dragon hording the city's wealth and other smaller dragons she speaks to along the way, she finds both a mystery to uncover and another young woman with family issues that she befriends.
Lotte and Maryse both struggle with parental abandonment and family issues, which is one of the similarities that pull them towards each other. The unraveling of the strangeness of the dragon's behavior and the raveling of the girls' affections keep pace with each other throughout the story. I enjoyed the side characters as much as the main characters, especially Scy and Anneke. And of course, there are dragons!
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my review copy.
Dragons and difficult families!
Dragontongue Lotte Meer didn’t like talking with dragons but it was the way she supported her grandmother after her dad died and her mother left for Morwassen's Pass never to heard from again. She had been hired by Morwassen's Pass to find out why the dragon was keeping the town hostage by forcing them to give him tribute and to find a magical item.
But nothing is as it seems in Morwassen's Pass unless she gets help from Maryse Basvaan especially when she finds out that the dragon has her estranged mother hostage in the derelict castle. But nothing is as seems in Morwassen's Pass!
Hearts Forged in Dragon Fire is light on the romance but heavy on the difficult family relationships.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from the author and NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This was rough. I feel like the whole time I was reading this I was reading it on wattpad. And don't get me wrong I've read great stuff on there but this was not that. I feel disappointed because I heard dragons and immediately requested it. Unfortunately the author tells us more than they show us anything, and I felt like the main character was trying so hard to be a pick me girl and I can't stand that kind of writing in this day and age. I want relatable characters not ones that make me want to roll my eyes.