Let me preface this by saying that I like to go into a lot of the books I read almost completely blind - I base what I like to read off of the cover art and the title. So going into Dragon Rider, I wasn't 100% sure what to expect except there would be some dragon riding.

There wasn't very much dragon riding in this book. (Ha-Ha)

On a more serious note, the world building for this book is attempted to be spread throughout which helps easing into the world, but the first 1/3 of the book was a little difficult to get through. I never considered not continuing to read as I know with high fantasy, sometimes theres a lot of dense world building and back stories to build before you can get to the nice juicy bits. Once you hit roughly 30-35% into the book, it starts to take off. It wasn't anything that blew my mind and made me super excited to read but it still held my attention and I wanted to know what would happen next and where our characters would go and what they would do.

Dragon Rider follows Jai, a royal Steppeman who has been taken hostage by the enemy along with his brothers. They are raised in the Sabine court as - basically - servants. Chaos ensues when the prince of the Sabine is set to marry the princess of the dragon riders - the Dansk. Jai finds himself in a precarious situation in which he must escape with the Dansk princess's handmaiden. A dragon hatching is stolen (rightfully obtained, if you ask me) somewhere along the way, and Jai and Frida are hunted by the Sabine.

Dragon Rider was a good read, but not one I would recommend to everyone. While I have my reservations about the book, I am excited to see where Jai and Frida end up in the next book!

I wish there was a little more romance but fourth wing lovers would definitely enjoy Dragon rider! The short chapters also helped with the pacing of the story!

This book was great! It had everything that I was looking for in the time that I read it. Great world building and character development was on point! I would recommend this book and look forward to the next one!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with this e-ARC! I do my reviews on my social media platforms. I am currently working on getting through my reviews so stay tuned! Leaving a rating as a placeholder for me and to not effect the books rating in order to post this. Thanks again!

I received a digital ARC from the publisher via Netgalley, though all thoughts are my own.

This book has an interesting storyline, and I couldn't resist since I knew there would be at least one Dragon in the story. What I was expecting was some of the twists, nor just how intense it would be at times, but I think it added more intrigue to the story.

I loved the mythology mentioned particularly the mythical creatures like the Dragons, Griffins, and Phoenixes. The last two were mentioned, but they haven't appeared in this storyline so far.

I adore Winter the Dragon, who is equal parts stubborn, brave, and for sure, someone you want on your side.

I also adore Navi, who is such a brave and loyal companion.

I'm really curious to hopefully learn more about Jai's heritage and his bond with Winter.

I'm looking forward to continuing this series, and I'm excited to see if more mythical creatures appear, plus more adventures with Winter!

Trigger warnings: death of people, death of animals, murder, poisoning, disease, forced servitude, war, kidnapping, torture, regicide

I was a bit disappointed with this one...

First what I liked. The writing flows well enough. It's not flowery, what I think helps a lot in the first book in a fantasy series. The worldbuilding is well done; I really got a feel for the different cultures in the world and how the world works. I really liked the idea of bonding with the magical creature and everything realted to that: how it works, what happens to the human, and the communication and link between the human and the creature.

Unfortunately, that was it.

There were a couple of "plot twists" that were just so obvious. The first one, the reader knows it's going to happen and it takes so long for the "betrayal" to happen. I think the second one that comes by the end of the book related to one of the friends of the main character was especially clear since the beginning. And how it was set up, it was to be a big moment for the reader as well. But I just felt that I was just waiting for the main character to catch up. And the pacing is so wonky: in some parts is just so slow (and I like slow books) and in others it was so fast.

There are things that just don't make sense but are just too spoiler-y to talk about (a certain hidden army for example, and the placid reaction to the warning of a potential betrayal and so many other instances). But they have to happen for the book to move along. But it doesn't make sense. If to further the story, the book needs a bunch of coincidences and bad decision making from the characters to work, the story is just not well plotted in my opinion.

The characters aside from Jai are just there to boost his journey. We have the characters that we know when introduced are gonna die (the nice, extremely supportive ones), the "unlikely" mentor, and the love interest. That character is the most disappointing to me; supposedly she has some agency but we never see it. Her beauty is ALWAYS talked about, even after a really traumatic event. But we really don't know anything else about her: just that she is beautiful and a good fighter (and we don't even see her fighting that much, maybe once?!).

By the end, this book was so meh, and with such a cool magic system, that is a huge let down.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and publisher for the ARC.

I really loved this book. This reminded me of Eragon but much darker. I love Winter so much and the bond between characters, the banter between Jai and Frida is great. Overall amazing book.

I’d like to give a shout out to the publisher, Harper Voyager, who sent an advanced reader copy of this week’s read, Dragon Rider by Taran Matharu, in exchange for an unbiased review.
Jai is a young hostage of the Roman Empire… Oops, I mean, Sabine Empire. His father led a war against this ever expanding juggernaut, but lost and was executed. Jai now finds himself the personal hospice nurse to the retired emperor that personally murdered his dad. But hey, he’s only got like a few more years till he’s old enough to return home and live a long happy life. Just as long as nothing crazy happens, like a coup.
So a coup happens, and Jai is forced to flee for his life. In the process of bravely running away he accidentally bonds with a dragon and meets up with a totally-not-a-viking named Frida. Together they travel across the empire seeking safety and to give Jai a chance to figure out what his new dragon friend can do.
I absolutely loved the first third of this book. Jai has this interestingly weird complicated relationship with the retired emperor. Like, Jai hates him for all the evil that he did while emperor (i.e., lots of slavery and murder), but also he’s the closest thing Jai has to a dad. So there’s these whiplash moments where Jai thinks “I want you dead” immediately followed by “Senpai noticed me!”
Just exploring these daddy issues was fascinating. Also seeing Jai trying to fit into the Sabine Empire. The world building is Roman history with SPQR filed off, but it gets the job done. Jai has depth in his character as he dances around the court intrigue, trying to hold onto his culture even though he barely remembers it, and also fit in so that his life will be easier.
Then Matharu takes this beautifully tragic and intriguing plot line and forces it into a Dragonball Z shaped hole. That’s the original sin of progression and cultivation, you got to explain in massive detail the magic system. So suddenly, just as things are getting interesting the entire story drags to a halt while Jai takes lessons on how to breathe.
Then, just when you think the story will just end with another meditation lesson the book has the absolute audacity to get good again. Suddenly it becomes a prison break narrative with a compelling escape plan and interesting new characters. The ending leaves it on a great cliffhanger and I know, just know in my core, I’m going to read the next one.
Do I recommend Dragon Rider? If you love progression/cultivation fantasy, then yes. You’ll love this as much as an otaku loves to argue over if Luffy could take Goku in a fight. If you’re interested in dipping your toes in the subgenre, then also yes. This is a competently done example of progression and cultivation fantasy. Plus, it has some real fun moments. Overall, I enjoyed reading it despite some flaws.

Despite my personal feelings, I think this is a great book for YA readers to transition to more adult fantasy.

I was expecting something more adult, but this read like YA to me. I loved the first third because it set up an epic setting, pulling race and politics into play with nations either feuding or creating alliances. And I'll always be down for a BIPOC protagonist entrenched in white society.

But after that, it was very hero's journey/Chosen One trope where readers are stuck with the MMC. It wasn't really engaging for me, sad to say.

It also felt like the author pulled so many ideas from other fantasy series, so it felt like a Frankenstein's monster of fantasy tropes. ***SPOILER ALERT*** We have a Red Wedding situation. Soulgems sound a lot like soul gems from Skyrim. I'm sure there are others, but I tuned out halfway through. ***END SPOILER ALERT***

I agree with other reviewers who say that the secondary characters weren't given enough attention, so it was hard for me to care about them. The love interest is a badass, but the author never let her come into her own. It felt like her character was just there to cater to the MMC's goals and feelings.

The book itself was also unnecessarily long. Some scenes could've been tightened up for a more intense read. I found myself struggling to continue and finish.

I doubt that I'll continue with this series.

Thank you to Harper Voyager and NetGalley for this arc.

This book was released late April and I do recommend picking it up if you appreciate the following: game of thrones, Eragon, the bear scene in the revenant, and MMORPG games. We’ve got dragons, dire wolves, magic, battle scenes and more. Some aspects that I thought were really interesting was something called being “soulbound” which means binding one’s soul to a totem which is a creature. It can be anything from a gryphon, dire wolf, dragon and more. The creature you are bound to directly effects your strength, skills, and mana abilities. You can communicate with this creature as well and the dragon featured in this book is so much like a dog I love it. I also liked the use of tinctures, pills, and potions that can boost certain abilities. Also, the fact they need to regen their mana (its giving the need to meditate like in everquest, if you know you know). What I didn’t care for was the excessive talk about genitals and farts. I also did see some of the twists coming but there was also one I didn’t. I definitely am interested in reading the next book because I can’t live with that cliffhanger.

I received an arc copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for a review. While this wasn't a perfect book, I got to the end and immediately checked for a release date for the sequel. I loved this read even through some of the grittier and more gruesome aspects of war and a cruel and conquering empire. This was not a warm and fuzzy story, but rather a story of survival and growth.

Jai was a lovable main character and Winter was impossible to hate. I'm glad this story isn't glossing over the logistics of a growing dragon making it part of what the characters have to consider while planning their course. I also enjoyed what felt like a realistic response from Jai over his revelations about Frida. While this was by no means surprising to us as readers, for him, Frida's reveal near the end of the book was shocking but he was able to acknowledge that it wasn't personal. I find that, too often in books where characters don't share the whole truth with each other, the character who was left in the dark has a reaction that is far too personal and feels unreasonable. Jai was able to acknowledge that, while he didn't like that Frida lied to him, it made sense for her to do so.

Overall I really liked this book, it made me feel nostalgic for when I was in elementary school and was waiting for the next Eragon books to release. I will definitely continue the series and think this is a book I am likely to revisit and reread in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for proving me an arc in exchange for my honest review!

I don't have a lot to say about this book. For the most part, I just felt okay about it, and that may be just because I was comparing it to Fourth Wing, which I realize isn't exactly fair, but I loved that book and read it at a time when I really needed something like that.

I think what really put me off in this book was the pacing. I've said it before and I'll say it again: if the pacing isn't there or I feel like we've gotten nowhere despite having advanced in page count, it will immediately make me lower the star rating I give a book if I don't just DNF it. I obviously didn't DNF here, but there were times that I considered it.


Other than that, I really have nothing else to say. It was a book, I read it, and that was that.

This was super fast paced. I couldn’t stop reading. It was so fun. I loved the magic system. Overall great solid fantasy.


Thanks NetGalley for the Arc

I had not read that kind of fantasy book in a while and it was such a nice surprise.
Although I thought it took quite a while for the story itself to start and the rhythm was sometimes unbalanced, I have genuinely loved seeing those characters grow and fight for what they believe in. They’re struggled to embrace their responsibility, to take the measure of what is expected of them versus what they want to do, how to balance necessity and what is right made them well fleshed-out and interesting. Although Jai might have been a bit clueless on a certain plot twist that everyone else including the readers saw coming from the very start.
Jai’s relationship with winter was hands down the best thing about this book. The link between soulbound beings was incredible to read about and sometimes absolutely heartbreaking.
Although it ends on a small cliffhanger, it’s not one so terrible that I resented it. I can’t wait to read the next book nonetheless.

"Dragon Rider" by Taran Matharu takes you on a journey filled with dragons, politics, and magic. While the story starts off slow, it gradually picks up momentum, immersing readers in a world of intricate political intrigue and the bond between a young protagonist named Jai and his dragon, Winter.

The book shines in its detailed exploration of the magic system, from soul bonding with dragons to wielding mana. However, some might find the initial pacing sluggish, with a heavier focus on politics than dragon action. Yet, as the plot unfolds, the bond between Jai and Winter, alongside the dynamic characters like Frida, adds depth to the narrative.

Despite its slow start, "Dragon Rider" offers a captivating blend of fantasy elements and political intrigue, making it a solid read for those willing to invest in its worldbuilding and character development.

Thank you to Harper Voyager, Taran Matharu, and NetGalley for my ARC and finished copies of this book. As always, all opinions are my own!

I think I’d actually give this story 4.5 stars, but overall I really enjoyed it! I loved the premise and how things played out, but no matter how much GOT prepared me for a red wedding type of situation, I don’t think I will ever not want to throw up in scenes like that.

I loved Jai. He’s a wild child and kind of an idiot and that’s the best combination because we get to see him grow up before our very eyes. He learns so many things and grows in so many ways, and I am really excited to see what he gets up to in book two now that everything has started.

I am also hoping we see more of the Dansk princess, fantastical beasts, and the war in book two.

I definitely recommend this book if you love fantasy, dragons, GOT, Eragon, and/or Gladiator. The chapters are SO short, the story never stops moving, and you’ll have a great time.

Dragon Rider is your classic dragon fantasy and to be honest, I enjoyed it! Sometimes those just work and this one did. Taran Matharu is known for a his other fantasy series already so I went into this one knowing we have an author who knew what he's doing in terms of cool fantasy worlds. We follow a boy who was a prisoner of war and now serves the King but through some events, is able to escape and begin the journey to his homeland. This is book 1 in a series so that’s very exciting, I do like me some coming of age and traveling quests type stories so no surprise, it was great!

I’m so sad to dnf this one at about 60% - it was so interesting at the beginning, but now I’m honestly just bored. This felt like reading a ya book - the main characters are like 17, but for some reason this was considered adult fantasy.

Regardless, thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-arc!

This book was such a great fantasy read, with dragons, magic, politics and sacrifice.

I’m Dragon Rider, we follow the sad story of Jai who is your unlucky underdog, son of a king who lost the war and now taken as a servant to the kingdom that prevailed. After many many years of doing as he’s told and keeping his head down, he finally has a chance to escape.

The timeline was one of my favorite parts of this book, it was very realistic and didn’t feel rushed at all. The pacing matched the character development without it becoming unbelievable.

The only thing I didn’t like about the book is the fact that the female protagonist was made out to be a very strong woman who could fend for herself and take care of those who are in need of her protection. But as I read the story, I realized it was more of a “just believe me I’m strong but I won’t show you” kind of situation. Turning into this damsel in distress rather than the warrior she seemed to be.

Dragon rider is a fun ride with lots of ups and downs, if you like to root for the underdog and follow the system of magic in a way that you haven’t seen before; Dragon Rider is for you! I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be continuing this series!

I went into this book right after reading Fourth Wing, and any expectations of this being similar due to the current "dragon rage" went right out of the window. There was a lot of build up, world creation and character building. It had excellent development even with the plot feeling familiar. I truly appreciated the flaws in the characters, it made it so much more relatable. I look forward to the second in the series!