Phenomenal!

Jai is the personal manservant to the old emperor Leonid. Once a great and ruthless leader, Leonid is now old and gray, and relies almost entirely on Jai to be his eyes and hands. Jai must serve Leonid and his family, as the third son of Rohan, a once great king of a nomadic kingdom who was conquered by Leonid. Separated from his culture, his brothers, and his birthright, Jai is nothing more than a glorified slave. When the Dansk, a neighboring kingdom, agree to join their daughter, in holy matrimony with Titus, Leonid's grandson, Jai's entire world shifts as new political players make themselves known and throw the entire geographic region back into a vicious war.

This book includes:
- dragons!! and other supernatural creatures
- geopolitical conflict with strong world-building
- a complex and well-developed magic system
- a fascinating mentor-mentee relationship between Jai and Leonid
- slow burn love story (not central to the main conflict
- Strong MC and an intelligent FMC
- TW: gore and violence

It took me a second to get into "Dragon Rider," but, listen, I ended up loving this story. Jai has such a powerful character arc where readers can see his growth from a child into a man. The author expertly defines Jai's "why" for each one of his decisions which allows us to understand how the protagonist evolves from someone who is almost cowardly, to a true hero worthy of his name and title. The magic system was so intriguing and well-developed that I was really able to visualize even the most complex of magic scenes. And it isn't just Jai who is well-developed, Frida, Erica, Rufus, Leonid, and even Hennebel are each given strong motivations no matter how minor of a character they may be.

All fantasy readers will enjoy this book and I can't wait to recommend it to my friends and family asap. I imagine fans of Eragorn, specifically, as well as "Wheel of Time," "The Hobbit," and even "Percy Jackson" will love "Dragon Rider."

I received this eBook as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Taran Matharu, and Avon and Harper Voyager for the opportunity to review this book. This review has been posted to GoodReads check out my profile https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/62314863

Imagine living your life on the brink of death at any moment.

I finished reading "Dragon Rider" by Taran Matharu, an ARC I received in advance from NetGalley. I want to thank Harper's Collins and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read it. While the e-novel is unedited and contains grammatical errors, I believe it has potential.

The best part about this story is the power system hands down. And I could see it. It felt as though the author spent so much time detailing the intricacies of the magic system and left some other parts of the novel in lesser regard. The power system is mixed in with the respiratory system. As a beast “soulbonds” with a human, a core develops inside the human. The core is a receptacle for storing and dispensing mana like lungs for oxygen/carbon dioxide. How does one bring in mana? BY BREATHING!! The author goes into such detail about the Core/Mana system that it’s evident it’s a central theme of the story.

Now hear me out, this story has room for improvement in its current format. I truly believe that. The exposition is paced well to capture the reader’s attention. The plot line is predictable but enjoyable nonetheless. There are dragons, gryphons, khiros, and more fantastic beasts. There’s enough action to keep my fighter folk interested.

HOWEVERR, I have some beef with the book.

How are you going to have a novel called dragon rider but there’s no dragon riding after the first few chapters? If you have beasts that bond with humans, give them speech capabilities. It allows for much more personality growth and relationship building. I believe the novel drug out too long towards the end. This novel could have ended around the 75% mark and the effect on me as a reader would have been the same.

I will be keeping an eye on this book when it releases in April, because it has potential. What’s left to see is if that potential is achieved.

I was lucky enough to win an e-ARC of DRAGON RIDER by Taran Matharu through a Shelf Awareness giveaway. Thank you for the early look, and have a safe and healthy holiday season!

Taran Matharu has done it again! Dragon rider was highly anticipated for me and this did not disappoint! I love anything to do with dragons and this book was fantastic!

I have loved Matharu's writing since I read his young adult fantasy novels. So when it came up that he was going to be doing an adult dragon fantasy. I was like YES PLEASE with Grabby Hands!! But sadly this one was a let down. It was so slow and full of politics that it didn't need. I wish he would have brought what made his YA books so good to this.

I was so excited to receive an ARC of this book because I have loved this author since his first book came out, but I can honestly that I was a little disappointed with this book. It was a struggle to find the motivation to read it. At times it felt like the story really just dragged on and I just had to push through to get past it. I do appreciate his world building, but in this case it felt like there was too much world building happening. I was sad during the massacre scene and the fact that after everything Jai loses his brothers too, I was hoping one would survive. Although I will say that I called the big plot twist about Frida from the beginning and I felt pretty proud of myself for figuring it out. I do love how the magic system works in this book and I appreciate how Rufus taught Jai how to use his new abilities and how adorable Winter was. Despite the fact that I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I was hoping I would, I did still enjoy reading it and can’t wait to see where the story takes us next.

WOW. This book was so good, I didn’t want to put it down. The writing is so clear that you can see everything perfectly. The characters are fully fleshed out and have their own separate stories and not just Plot Device #3. It is a little slow to start, but I have a feeling this series is only going to get better. I can’t wait!

I've never read Matharu before so I didn't know what to expect. This was a solid start to a new adult series and I will definitely be continuing.

This starts of a saga that promises to be epic in scope, it follows a young prince who escapes the empire who imprisoned him when he was wrong and along the way he find a dragon to bond with and a princess to protect.

The premise of this intrigued me but the execution was lacking and I was quite bored throughout this. It read as more YA than Adult.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

If you like magic, fantasy and dragons you will enjoy this book.

It is a bit subpar to Fourth Wing and the magic system is highly complex an difficult to understand, but the story is fantastic and it helped with my Fourth Wing / Iron Flame hangover.

The fantasy world is descriptive and complex. Once you get into it, it is addictive.

Recommend.

I have the Summoner series by Taran Matharu and they got me back into reading when I saw this book on the list I knew I had to read it!!!
This book did a wonderful job with world building. The twist and turns weren't to obvious which I like, I usually can quest how a book will end.
I like that the MC isn't a rich well train prince or anything, it feels more relatable.

I’ve loved Taran Matharu for years- I’m so glad for their branch of a more mature book! Great formula, great world building, amazing characters. I can’t wait to read more!

Gosh If you loved Fourth Wing or just Fantasy War books in general you will love this book.
It does start a bit slow but when the plot thickens and the twists start twisting, its SOOOOO GOOOD!!!!
Its a long one, so be ready for world building, relationship developments and drama!

No romance but maybe later in the series if I'm picking up on the vibe right????
The suspense and story felt so original and I couldn't put it down!

Cannot wait for the next book!

Fellow once "Eragorn" obsessed adults, gather around. This new sci-fi series is perfect for those of us who never quite grew out of our hyperspecific dragon obsession. "Dragon Rider" is epic, action-packed and full of plot heavy details. The worldbuilding is exquisite, just enough to get readers invested in the rest of the series. I love that this series uses the popular 90s and early 2000s chosen one/orphan trope, which makes me feel even more connected to my childhood spent reading about dragon adventures. As for the characters themselves, I was intrigued by Erica as soon as I read that she had a dowry of dragons - HOW AWESOME IS THAT?! The concept of soulbound warriors in this world is so fascinating and I can't wait to see it expanded upon in the sequels. The political drama, dragon lore, and complex characters guarantee that this series is the next big thing. Honestly, I'm over the "Fourth Wing' drama and I'd rather read these books instead.

I love a dragon fantasy, but the world building in this one was a little lacking. The pacing wasn't great - really slow at the start and rushed at the end. I also wasn't keen on any of the characters, unfortunately

Thank you to the publisher for providing a copy for review

I love a good dragon rider tale - this one sparked my imagination but the world building and character arcs could have been better.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This was just okay for me. Though it claimed to be adult fantasy, it reads much more YA and suffers for it. The premise was really exciting but just wasn’t delivered well enough to be a good book. The magic system was way over explained and yet not actually described in depth enough, like redundant but shallow descriptions only. I loved the idea of the animal bonding and relationship,

I really enjoyed this it kept me entertained and turning the pages as quickly as I could. I loved this!! I have to have book 2 soon. I loved it!!! This is the book you need when you want to curl up on the couch and not move all day.
I just reviewed Dragon Rider by Taran Matharu. #DragonRider #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL]

3.5 stars. I really liked the premise and the characters in this book. I thought all the characters were well-done. I liked how the author showed the complicated relationship between Jai and Leonid. I also loved all the animals that could be soul-bonded with, but especially Winter. The relationship between Jai and Winter was exactly how I imagine animal companion relationships. The twist was good and not one that I expected.

The book was a little slow, but it picked up towards the end. I was disappointed though that there was no real conclusion. It just kinda stopped and you have to wait to read the rest until the next book comes out.

One thing that I found a little redundant was all the soul breathing. Every time, the author went into great detail about it, which I felt was unnecessary. I think a description in the beginning and then only when he ascended would have been better.

Overall I enjoyed this book and I look forward to continuing the story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC. All opinions expressed within are my own.

Despite being an awesome idea, Dragon Rider fails to keep the reader engaged without falling onto fantasy tropes that leave your bored. It takes far too long to jumpstart the plot into the action, only for it to slow down again until the climax (only for a bland cliffhanger).

Also, none of the characters are particularly interesting nor do they feel of sound like fantasy characters. The magic system is also somehow underdeveloped yet over-explained? I found myself skimming through extensive descriptions of meditation and concentration to interact with the worlds majik with mana.

I will also add, this story doesn’t read as an adult fantasy. It reads very YA or even New Adult at best,

My one plus was the story maintaining the magical beasts as animals. They do not speak verbally, but express themselves through a physical/mental connection.

Despite my hopes, this didn’t deliver. I won’t be reading the rest, but it was still nice to visit the Dragon Rider fantasy genre I loved as a teen.