I just couldn’t get into this. Felt like a mashup of fast & furious and how to train your dragon, with absolutely no world building or character development.

Struggled with the speed of this book. I love dragons, but not a fan of how similar it was to other dragon books. Overall not for me.

Was really looking forward to this and as it turns out it was another that really needed some tight editing.

The similarities with the bits it was likened to were at times a bit too close for liking.

I generally thought there was going to a bit more excitement but it just seemed to trundle along at a bit of a snail pace.

Fast and Furious meets Fourth Wing in this action packed dragon rider academy. Rival gangs, enemies to friends, “underground” dragon races and a young man who has to infiltrate it all if he wants to keep the dragon that is his prize for the information gained. Enemies become friends and corruption goes all the way to the top. This was a quick read and I enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, this book disappointed me. I just didn’t like and therefore couldn’t connect with the main character which is, I think, quite an important part of a story. The setting and plot also didn’t interest me that much and they fell flat as the world building was so weak.

Thank you to Netgalley and Yggdrasil Press for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This world building is seriously lacking in this book. The MMC was not very likeable. The overall writing style fell very flat for me. I was looking forward to exploring the concept, but just could not find much to like about it.

I just couldn’t with this one. Kept feeling like I have already read or watched this. Didn’t connect with MC. Felt like I was reading Fast & Furious with dragons.

I apologize but this was really bad. I have listed some of my options/questions below. I wanted to note more of them but it was getting too much.


Why was Markus offered this in the first place? He failed. Why is he getting special treatment and so easily? Shouldn’t this task go to someone who is more qualified?

The description of the women all within the first 10% were so icky. Talking about Katie and “her low cut dress reminds me of exactly how much fun she is”

All you have to do is wear a matching collar to the dragon and you’re bonded with it?

Why do women dragon riders have to name their dragons after animals but men name them after gods?

This reads like ai generated fan fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t particularly favor fantasy books set in the real world, so this wasn’t necessarily my bag from the jump, but it could be interesting for those who do.

This was fine. There were moments where the writing was flowing well and the story was getting interesting, and then the rest was a very *thirsty* boy and sentences under 7 words. The chapters felt unnecessarily long and could’ve been broken into at least two chapters each.

The pacing is off and moves too fast with implied weight of the events taking place without the context to give them the weight they want. Feels superficial, not believable.

The emotional depth of the dragons is deeper and more believable than the humans. Markus is a whiny man boy who has an overinflated ego with nothing to back it up. And he’s SO a thirsty for Amira, but with no history or real emotional development backing it up.

First of all I want to thank NetGalley, Yggdrasil Press and of course Kriss Dean for allowing me to read the ARC of "Dragon Den" in exchange for an honest review.

I was intrigued when I read the inspiration for the book was The Fast and the Furious and How to train a dragon, adding sprinkles of Fourth Wing and it is Dragon Den.

The book did neither lift me up, nor did it let me down, the inspiration was clearly given a lot of hommage throughout the story, for the better and the worse. Truth be told, there is a lot of potential that got wasted, unfortunately.

What I liked about the book was indeed how fast paced it was.
However, I did lack some depth for the characters, I had not really get any chance to connect with them as much as I would have wanted to.

It was by no means a bad read, it just also was not a read that did blow me off my seat and I do truly find this sad because Kriss Dean seems to have so much talent as an author.

When I saw this described as Fourth Wing combined with Fast and Furious I wasn't expecting to to be so inspired that it felt like a rip off of both. I also heard that How to Train your Dragon was an inspiration, it showed as well in the same way.
Set in the Pacific Northwest, a dragon college, which we barely spend time learning about, except the cafeteria. A Male lead character who is so two dimensional it hurt to be in his brain for so long. He was so dumb, so horny, and so incredibly unromantic, I just kept wanting to put the book down.

As someone from the Pacific Northwest, I was so excited to see my city on the map for this book, and completely let down to be reading each city as if the author just googled the cities and monuments and copy and pasted.
The plot was simple, so simple, and probably the strongest element of the book. I knew where the whole thing was going the entire time and was grinding my teeth at the absolutely brainless main character, who also happened to be the pov character.

I was holding onto a 2 star review hoping things would get better in the last 3rd and then the spice hit and was so lack luster and juvenile I put it down again.

I don't know who this book is for. It read more like a kids book, but then they would curse and talk about sex so... maybe cut those things and market it to a younger audience?

To start, thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher Yggdrasil Press for the opportunity to read Dragon Den.
This was such an exciting read that I genuinely did not want to put this book down until I had finished it. Romance, dragons, amazing infiltration skills, a fast-paced high stakes plot, and illegal dragon drag racing. what more does an urban fantasy need? I was promised a book perfect for adult fans of how to train your dragon, and that's exactly what I read. However, I do wish there was more to this book. The ending left a lot to be desired, and overall, it felt as though it was missing something. Regardless, it was an enjoyable read.

I love dragons and I loved Fast and the Furious, but when I read in the description that it was FandF with dragons, I did not realize that I would be reading the plot of FandF with dragons. The story line is the same as the famed movie, and the characters are carbon copies of all the characters with slight alterations like names and ethnicity.

The writing is done well. I had no trouble getting into the book from a writing aspect, but it bothered me from the getgo that it was not an original story.

Markus is Brian O'Connor
Tobias IS Dom Toreto
Amira/Mia is can you guess? Mia Toreto
Carina is Letty
Jonas is Dom's right hand Vince.

Small spoiler
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There are even semis being robbed, and the main character has to get in with Tobias and is love with Amira. It's literally the plot of FandF and I'm quite disappointed. If you replace the cars with dragons in Fast and Furious, then you get Dragon Den.

Also, there is blatant stealing from the movie itself with rather known lines from the action flick being used in this book.

The only thing that saved the book was the dragons. Loki is the bestest boy and makes me so happy. For the first few chapters I was always on the verge of tears because I felt his pain.

I feel with a more original story I personally would have enjoyed the book a bit more.

So, I'm giving this book 3 stars. 2 for the dragons and 1 for the decent writing that made it easy to read. Thank you for accepting me for this ARC.

I requested this book because of the comparisons to Fourth Wing, Fast and Furious, and How to Train Your Dragon, but unfortunately, it is not for me.

Sadly, I couldn't fully connect with the main characters, and I think that was the beginning of my disappointment. This book has a lot of potential, and I hope that with some editing, the second one will be better.

I feel terrible giving this rating, especially for a debut novel, but I have to be honest and I'm sorry about it.

However, I always say that just because it didn't work for me doesn't mean it won't for you. Everyone has different tastes, and I appreciate that.

i adored this, it got me out of the most stressful reading slump!

i think this book helped me to realise that you put a dragon in a book and it just does it for me. i found this to be really fast-paced which worked for me. i do think the world-building was a little lacking, but overall i had a really good time with this.

thank you so much to netgalley, the publisher and the author for the arc 🫶🏻

This book took entire scenes from the movie it is based off of, it is not a rewrite or a retelling, it just exchanges dragons for cars, changed most of the names, but even then.

I DNF'd this book after the blatant disregard of inherent racism in society by the MMC. Between the scene theft and the stereotyping, it was too much.

The FMCs brother points out the very real risk to the FMC as a Black woman in America, and the policy brutality, and the MMC refers to it as being "stupid."

This had so much potential as a retelling, it is a niche that is yet to be provided for us millenials. But this book missed the mark ENTIRELY.

This book was a ride. I don't know what just hit me, but I'm pretty sure it was dragons and Taylor Swift references?

On a more serious note, I appreciated the underlying themes of consent and agency (of both humans and dragons) coupled with modern-day racism. No spoilers, but in that regard, I really liked the ending for Markus and Loki. The character diversity reflected within the text did not feel like tokenism, which is a breath of fresh air, though some of our characters did feel surface-level.

Regarding the "for fans of Fourth Wing" note, the similarities I found were a "contemporary Romance" writing style, First-person Present POV, and a dragon miliary academy with new-adult romance and a little spice. But loving Fourth Wing doesn't guarantee you'll love this one---in large part due to the sparse worldbuilding details and shorter length that define urban fantasy as a genre. So set expectations for your library patrons accordingly. While I didn't actually compare the two, I'm pretty sure chapter 1 of this book was over before Violet was even across the parapet... ;-)

Thank you to NetGalley and Yggdrasil Press for the ARC.

First, thank you net galley and publishers for this ARC of Dragons Den. This one was hard to read. I loved the cover art and the description but the story just didn’t hit the mark. There was no real world building or character descriptions. I couldn’t figure out how the dragons were bonded or how the characters are in the school. It just felt like I was thrown into the middle of the book and missed something. The description of the story states it as a fast paced story but it is almost too fast paced.

It honestly breaks my heart to give such a low rating to an ARC about dragons, specially because I do love a great dragon story, but honestly the dragons were the only interesting part in this book. This was sold to me as Fast and Furious meets How to Train your dragon, so I was immediately excited, but I didn’t expect that the author just picked some concepts from both and put together a book without caring much for world building or character growth or, even, the overall plot. Honestly, the main character exclusively calls his dragon “Bud” (just like Hiccup calls Toothless) and the riders use boost in dragon racing.

I was not a fan of the concept of “breaking” dragons and completely remove their free will. Or the dragon college that some kids apparently go to in order to get to try to break a dragon? And then they get sent on missions and ride dragons in the middle of cities? That really doesn’t sound safe at all.

Plot holes aside, this book had a good premise, but it feels like it could use a lot more editing and beta reading. There is no character growth, at all. The book starts with the main character being unlikable and ends in the exact same way. He kept raving on about how he wanted to keep the dragon, but I didn’t even feel like he deserved it at all: Loki was amazing from day 1, but I felt like Markus never really appreciated him, as it gets evident in the end when he gets his goal: To break the dragon he wished for from the beginning. But why him of all people? I’m missing a reason for this.

It is disheartening to give such a low rating to a debut novel, however, in this particular case, it feels necessary.

Thank you so much to Yggdrasil Press and NetGallery for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book to read and review. All thoughts are my own.

When I requested this book; I really loved the thought of it and the plot but after reading it I just feel like it should’ve been more.

There should have been more wording building. There should have been more plot and character building. There should have been more background information. I think the book was way too short.

Also I feel like bits and pieces of Fourth Wing and HTTYD were just pulled from their stories and thrown into this one.

I think this book could’ve been great with more editing and more information and maybe more unique qualities.

With that being said, it was enjoyable but I just know it could be better.

Thanks for the advance copy!

3 stars!