5 ⭐
0 🌶️

Wow! What a ride! Dragons! Super evil bad guys! A hero you can grow and empathize with as you move through the book. The slow reveal of a strong female. Both main characters are young, so I imagine we will be with them as they grow and come into their powers. The world-building in the book was magnificent; I was shown, not told, about the world and the magic. It's a character-filled world of politics, manipulations, and violence. These are violent people, and what our hero and heroine suffer at the hands of our villains can sometimes be hard to take. Do not let it dissuade you from reading this book. This is a blast to read! The author maintains tension and the belief that our hero will make it out. Oh! And did I mention dragons? Just wait; you will love the dragon in this one. Not to mention how characters are bonded to their beasts and how the magic works. The cliffhanger is not a killer, but I can say that no matter what, I would be clamoring for the next book. I cannot wait for this hero to come fully into his power and get vengeance for all he was forced to see and endure in Dragon Rider. I cannot recommend this book highly enough! FIVE STARS....SIX IF THEY WOULD LET ME.

Thank you, NetGalley and HarperCollins, for the ARC. These opinions are my own.

Jai is the younger brother in a hostage situation. He and his two brothers were raised by a Ruler who was their father's enemy. Different people have different traditions and beliefs. Some command Gryphons, others Dragons. This is a good promise for the series.
In the beginning, Jai is in a position without power, like a slave, being humiliated by the evil villains until he comes across a dragon egg.
I understand that the darkness and violence + foul language made the publisher rank it as an adult novel but at the same time, it's a coming-of-age story and predictable in many situations.
If the reader is new to fantasy, then the reader will enjoy this story.
I recommend this series to young fantasy readers who want to leave middle grade behind and start reading something that is not a portal fantasy.

Thank you, Publisher and Netgalley for this e-Arc.

Dragon Rider is an excellent fantasy filled with political intrigue, glorious worldbuilding, a soul bonded magic system, and of course, dragons!

Jai is the youngest son of a fallen leader. The Sabines have conquered many of the other kingdoms on the continent, including Jai's homeland, and he and his brothers were given to the royal family as political hostages to ensure their kingdom's cooperation and to quell any threat of rebellion. Jai has served the former emperor to the best of his ability, becoming somewhat of a companion and learning as much as he can. But when the Dansk legion arrives with their dragons to ensure a peace deal with the Dansk princess betrothed to the Sabine Prince Titus, the former emperor asks Jai to keep a close watch on all parties. After a successful coup attempt, and the Sabines and Dansk officially at war, along with Jai's own tribe, Jai must escape the palace and make his way to the steppes to find his people. But when he comes across a dragon egg, everything Jai every knew about soul bonds changes, and Jai find himself with some new travel companions also fleeing the city. Can Jai harness his new abilities quickly so he can seek revenge for all that he has lost? Or will the Sabine forces catch up with them first?

I absolutely loved this unique and thrilling fantasy! I came for the dragons, but stayed for the amazing fantasy world and engaging writing. This was truly an exciting read. While the initial worldbuilding may seem slow, this is the first book in a series and we have a lot to learn about the world and the political organization, as we also learn about Jai and the other characters. The second half of the book is a whirlwind, as Jai accidentally bonds with a dragon hatchling he names Winter, and meets with the Dansk princess's handmaiden Frida while fleeing the city. Their relationship was well done, and I also really enjoyed seeing Winter the dragon and her interactions with Jai and Frida. The end was absolutely explosive and had me on the edge of my seat! This is definitely an adult book, as some of the themes are for more mature audiences and more graphic than one might expect in a YA book. Though I think an upper YA reader would be OK with this as well.

I really enjoyed this fantasy book so much, and I am excited for the sequel! Thank you so much to NetGalley and to Avon and Harper Voyager for the electronic advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

I loved this book! I feel like this is for people who live that classic underdog, dragon rider, fighting against an empire story (if you loved Eragon, you will love this). I thought the world building was great and I can't wait to see where the author takes us next.

Many years ago Jai's father, the King of the Steppefolk, was executed for rebelling against the Sabine Emperor. Now Jai lives as a royal hostage. The Emperor's son has recently been betrothed to the heir of the Dansk people, who hold the secret of soulbonding with dragons, but not everyone is happy with foreigners in court, be they Steppefolk or Dansk. Who can Jai trust, and who plots betrayal? What must he do to gain his freedom and get his revenge?

This book was fine. It didn't wow me, but it was fine.

Dragons! Who doesn't love dragons, am I right? It's marketed as an adult fantasy series but it feels more like YA, and the characters actions definitely feel like teenagers. The pacing was very slow for the first half, and then raced ahead in the second half without a space to breathe.

I like the soulbonding idea, but I will say the magic system felt a lot like that in Will Wight's Cradle series, with growing your core, etc. It feels almost like a direct copy rather than inspired by. I also understood the character motivations for our good guys, but the villains seemed to be bad just for the sake of it. I didn't see any motivations for them at all; what is their purpose? Even bad guys do things for a reason.

There are only four named women I noticed in this story, and they're all either helpless, die for the character, need him to save them, or are one dimensionally evil with no motivation as to why. I don't expect every female character to be a badass, because that's not realistic. But you have a lot of men who have their own agency, and zero women who do (except the one evil woman, but that means she's a strong woman, right? What more personality does she need than evil?) and that kinda sticks out a bit.

I don't mean to be entirely negative. I was really into the world building, the politics, Dansk/Sabine/Steppefolk relations, and the idea of Soulbonding with different animal types, etc. All of that has some real potential and kept my interest. But I found the characters to be bland and the plot fairly predictable, part of what made it feel more like YA than adult fantasy.

If you like YA, orphan revenge stories, and dragons, I think this is worth checking out. But if you're looking for a more adult fantasy with nuanced characters, morally gray areas, etc this may not be for you.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Voyager for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

For those of us who never outgrew our love for Eragon.
A New Adult fantasy that is a bit slower-paced adventure, setting up for more books in the series. And do not confuse slow-paced with boring!! I literally gasped out audibly at LEAST four times with some of the reveals. Now, if you are looking for a book to lessen your dragon obsession, this will not do it and I have a feeling it will just make it worse…because it did that for me. There were a handful of bits that felt a bit redundant (the fact he nearly died numerous times and how it felt nearly identical each time) but other than that, it was an excellent read.
But more than that, it is a story of determination, conflict, fear, character development, honor, love (not in a romantic way), duty, and so much more. An orphan boy who is taken as a hostage as a young boy and after a decade in service, finds himself on the run and suddenly the holder of a priceless dragon egg. He must overcome his fears in order to survive and to return to his homeland to take his place… as King.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. I had a really fun time with this book I liked the main character a lot and I of course love winter. I liked how the author went about explaining the magic system in this book. I will say though I did see the big reveal coming and guessed from the beginning of the book.I have read his other books and really liked those ones so reading this makes me want to reread them. I can’t wait for to read the next one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyaget for this earc

This book wasn’t bad. It was just very, very long and it didn’t need to be. It could have used a little more world building and character relationships if the author wanted it to be this long.

It was very easy to put it down because nothing was happening. It was a little hard to follow the geography as well.

From writing point of view, I think it would made more sense to split the book into “parts” that way it would feel like every part was a little book and it wouldn’t feel this dragged out.

What I did like? Dragons. And magic. And dragons. I wanted more of that. And of course all the secret and not so secret royalty. It could have been so fun.

Dragon Rider
by Taran Matharu
The Soulbound Saga #1
Epic Fantasy
NetGalley eARC
Pub Date: Apr. 23, 2024
Avon and Harper Voyager
Ages: 16+

After his father died in the rebellion against the Sabine Court, Jai, along with his brothers, are now hostages. For years he's served as the caretaker of the elderly ex-emperor who killed his father, while his brothers serve the old man's grandson, who is to marry the Princess of the Dansk Kingdom, and she brings with her a dragon and the knowledge to soulbond with it.

Adding soulbond dragons with their legion of soulbond griffins would give the Sabines the power to rule over everyone.

But conspirators send the court into chaos, and Jai knows the truth and escapes with a dragon hatchling no one knows about. Crossing paths with the Princess's handmaiden, she and Jai make their way to the border where their two lands meet, but the lie of their 'betrayal' travels fast.


Not a whole lot of violence in this, but of what there is, it's dark. Not graphic, but if you have a good imagination... This first book has a lot of politics, and there are a lot of characters/tribes whom the Sabine rulers invaded, destroyed, or accepted their surrender without a fight, but sadly it felt as if all that information wasn't given slowly enough, so they jumbled up together, and there wasn't a lot of time to 'relate' to one before another was introduced. I'm still not sure how many other 'tribes' there are other than the three that this book is centered around, but I know there is at least one, maybe two more.

I did like the story, and it mostly moved along at a quick pace. I'm not sure how old Jai is, I think he is supposed to be in his late teens, but a lot of the time he seemed more like a fourteen/fifteen-year-old. His 'soul-searching' did slow the story down a lot and it got boring because most of it was repetitive of his last 'search'. I get why he needed to do it, but it was the same thing over and over again, with the same outcome.

I did hate how it ended in a major cliffhanger, which did lower my excitement for the next book.

A low...

4 Stars

This book was amazing from start to finish. There were no lulls. There's always something going on. Poor Jai can't catch a break. Taran wrote such amazing characters where you truly felt for them. You wanted them to win so badly! I felt the world building was so easy to understand. The sense of found family was great. I truly loved where the book left off because it left it wide open and there's so much to be resolved. I cannot wait for the next book and to see where it goes!
Don't go into this thinking you're getting Fourth Wing because others are comparing them. They are completely different.

DNF at 39% (CH40)

I read Taran Matharu's first YA series ages ago, and I loved it! I was excited to read this one, especially with the promise of dragons.

Unfortunately, this book was very decidedly not for me. The thing I am most frustrated about though is that I was intrigued by the plot and the world that was set up in this first 39% of the book. The thing that really did not work for me is the authorial voice/tone. I think that sometimes there can be a particularly gross and crass tone to high fantasy, especially those written by male authors. I feel like for the most part, this was much more prevalent in the older works in the genre, but it is still something I come across here and there and it makes me cringe. This book has that. At first there were unnecessarily crass descriptions thrown in here and there that were completely unnecessary, oftentimes about characters' genitals. It wasn't even crass humor, it was just unnecessary lewd descriptions that just seemed thrown in to make it feel more "adult." Then we got more into the action that would set up the story, and it was extremely graphic in a way that didn't add to the story, but just felt over the top. But even through all that, I was going to push through because I was intrigued by the story and wanted to see where it went. But then there was an unnecessarily graphic on-page depiction of the MC killing a tiger with a broken tree branch, and I was done.

I think that the character is also set up to this point to be incredibly naive due to his life circumstances, which is fine, but he was also being set up to make deeply idiotic decisions, and if the only thing that was going to carry me forward was going to be a baby dragon and the plot, I had a feeling that this would end up being a book I disliked more for having finished it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Voyager for an eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon/Harper Voyager for giving me an eARC of this title in exchange for an honest review!

DNF 24% of the way through. I have… some thoughts about this book. Before I get to that though— this book is being marketed as “good for fans of ‘Fourth Wing,’” or, in some cases, “the new ‘Fourth Wing,’” but I haven’t read FW so I cannot speak to the validity of these statements— however, I really really doubt it.

Anyway, onto an actual review, of the quarter of the book I read anyway. The summary of the book itself tells you about how Jai (the protagonist) steals a dragon egg and runs away from his life as a political prisoner. You know what hadn’t even come close to happening in the portion of the book I read? That. That’s right, the inciting action of the novel had not yet occurred and I was a quarter of the way through. This is simply poor writing and shows the lack of even basic understanding of how to structure a novel.

So, what *did* happen in that first 24%? So much dick and ball talk— and I mean SO MUCH. (Hopefully this review doesn’t get me banned from GR for language lol.) I swear it felt like every other page there was some mention of someone’s unmentionables— it was exhausting. It’s been awhile since I’ve been subjected to “Men Writing Fantasy”— but this book was a prime example. (To be clear, plenty of men write fantasy really well, but there’s a specific group that really cannot seem to focus on anything except writing about men’s… anatomy— and women’s. This is what I mean by “Men Writing Fantasy.”)

Anyway, don’t waste your time with this book. If you’re looking for the next “Fourth Wing,” keep looking.

Gonna be verrrrrry honest about this but I dnf'd not even like 10 pages in. I think it has to do more with my headspace than anything else so I'll try again after it's published!

(only gave a star because i had to)

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I will not be finishing. DNF. I just cannot connect with anything going on. I’m only rating and reviewing to not hurt my feedback ratio.

i was very much intrigued with wanting to read this book because of the word dragon. A lot of books have been popping up lately with them in it and I definitely love reading about them, even if they are not always the star of the show. This would be the case for this book.

The book is told from one point-of-view and it comes from Jai. He is an orphan captive who works for the royal family who killed his father in battle. This made for an interesting backstory and does add to the overall plot. He also has two brothers who are in service to the royals as well. I do enjoy a good sibling bond and was disappointed that it didn’t turn out the way I would have liked. Since the reader is told more about the sibling bond than it actually being shown besides one scene I just didn’t feel anything towards the situation that arises with them. I felt this way for a lot of the plot twists actually. One I saw coming from the beginning. Jai does care about those close to him and dislikes seeing all of the death caused by war and will try to do anything to stop it even if it means risking his own life.

There are a lot of characters playing roles in helping move the plot along and I thought they were fine, but some don’t last long in the book and so its hard to actual feel anything towards them. I am not really sure I understand the villain well. He seemed to just go full throttle on his plan without the reader even understanding why.

When it came to the dragons I was disappointed. They are very minor in the beginning of this series and if something has dragon in the title, especially followed by rider, I expected that. I am sure it will happen in book two, but it really threw off my expectations. What we got when it came to the dragons was fine, it kind of reminded me of Eragon in some ways. I do think that the book focuses more on politics which is fine because I liked reading about it.

The pacing was a miss for me. I struggled to get through the first 35% of the book. I kept putting it down to read something else and dreaded picking it back up to finish. The rest of the book moved a bit quicker, but there were still lulls and I think shortening the book would have made it easier on me to get through.

Overall, this was decent. I did struggle with it but as the book went on it got a bit better. I would potentially try the sequel, but I will wait to see.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I had really high hopes for this one after hearing all about it on booktok months ago. I was soo excited to get accepted for an eARC!

I did really enjoy this. It started off quite slow and felt more slower paced until the very end. Which is okay because there was definitely some world building to pick up on. The intricacy of the magic system was really cool and I enjoyed all the detail. The main characters were all likable, for the most part - Jai, Frida, and Rufus - though I wish Frida would have opened up more earlier on because she seemed to keep to herself mostly, which I assume is because of the secret she kept. The ending was great (epilogue) and was truly what I hoped would happen but the end of the last chapter had me worried it was going to go in a different direction.

Some things that would have made this a 5⭐️ read - more dragon action! Jai is soulbound to Winter but I feel like Winter did not have a big part in this book until the end as she was always hiding and staying out of sight. Additionally, the title is a bit misleading as Winter still has not grown large enough to be ridden by the end of this book. I would have liked Jai to at least be able to ride her by the end of the book.

I am definitely going to be continuing this series and cannot wait to see where this adventure takes Jai and Frida - and hopefully Rufus too!

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Voyager for approving my request for an early copy!

OF COURSE I have to put in a request the moment I discover any dragon read.

Dragon rider did not disappoint. A good portion of the book is world building and since this is going to be a trilogy it only makes sense. But within the world building we learn about our main characters and some concepts unique to this book. One of my favorite developments is the concept of the soul bond. Fans of Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy might appreciate the soul bond element in Dragon Rider. And fans of Fourth Wing’s Andarna will simply adore Winter!
Can’t wait for the next book!
And if you haven’t checked out the cover of the UK copy - go do it now! It may be one of the most beautiful dragon covers I’ve seen.

Jai has been a political prisoner in servitude for most of his life! Ever since his father's rebellion failed, he and his brothers were taken to the Sabine Court to keep their home country in line.. Now with his brothers serving the heir to the empire, and Jai as the ex-emperor's servant they live in stasis until they reach the age of twenty…

When the heir is engaged to the northern princess, she brings with her dragons! Only the royals of Dansk (northern kingdom) know the secret to soulbounding and with this alliance peace will be restored to the land.

However, insurrection and backstabbing erupts, and the Sabine Court is overthrown! Jai then escapes with a dragon egg and the Dansk handmaiden. Together they must make their way safely across dangerous territories before breaking off to get back to their respective homes. Jai must learn to breathe, wield and understand magic that connects to his very soul.. If he is successful, he can evade the enemy and seek his revenge! Will he be able to succeed? Dragon Rider takes you on an emotional journey of Jai’s quest!

Taran Matharu does an awesome job with pacing in this book! He perfectly reflected how Jai’s world turned upside down so suddenly and his quiet, deeply unhappy, life overnight became action filled as he toed the line of survival and ruin.

The magic system in the story was very interesting, yet complex for me to understand at first.. However, Matharu did a great job teaching us about it as Jai learnt it and I thought the references to the past were just nicely linked!

Overall, the book was joy for to read! Very different from the other dragon stories I’ve read so far and I can’t wait for the next installment in the series!

Thank you NetGalley and HarperVoyager for providing an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review!

What an amazing fantasy debut! This story has it all, court politics, poising, betrayal, brutal fight scenes, mystery, and, of course, dragons! This was a wonderfully written sweeping epic tale and I can't wait for the next book in this series!

I absolutely loved this one! I'm already itching for the next and waiting on my special edition copy to come in. I figured I would enjoy this book but had no clue how much. The character development is amazing. Some of the twists are totally unexpected and I was in tears by 20% of the way through. I loved loved loved it.