This was such a good book. The advanced dystopian world of dragons was amazing. A few of my students have enjoyed this book, but it is lengthy which is typical for fantasy novels.

thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this title.

That was really beautiful. I loved this just as much as the first one! Seriously beautiful writing and lovely characters. Definitely slower paced than "action packed"!

Dragons that are reasonable and quite fond of math? I am here for it. This delightful story continues to roll along with the charm of a Douglas Adams tangent. While it is not quite appropriate for my library, it proved a delightful read for my 10 year old niece.

Seraphina was an excellent novel that captured my attention and imagination, so I couldn't wait to read the sequel, but unfortunately I was a bit disappointed. The book was slow moving and had unfamiliar characters that were a bit disappointing and hard for me to connect with as a reader. While it had some lovely language and pieces reminded me of the first novel I loved so much, it paled in comparison and was hard to get into and stay invested in.

When I got the ARC of this a few years back, I was so excited. I had loved the mystery and the world and the character of Seraphina, and was excited to dive back in. But I couldn’t get invested in this new story; which takes the character away from the other characters we have grown to know and love and puts her in a journey to find her fellow half dragons. I’m glad I revisited this book; make no mistake, the first half had a lot of draggy moments and too many characters, but it absolutely makes up for it in the second half. The villain is the worst kind; who manipulates those around you and you really just cringe. The twists and intrigues just keep coming at the end. It explores so many themes in such an interesting way, I just wish it didn’t take so long to get there. The absence of a few half dragons would have cut down on this book and helped speed things along. I still like this and still recommend it; it is absolutely worth it to keep going.

I was excited for this, but it wasn't quite as good as I was anticipating. For one thing, this book is super long, and for a long time nothing really seems to be happening. All the traveling makes it feel like Hartman just wanted to do more worldbuilding, but it means there are a lot of pieces of storyline that just get dropped. There's so much political stuff and all this talk about the war and all the different countries that I kept getting mixed up, but in the end the whole war got basically deus ex machina-ed away. The characters were the best part, but there were too many half-dragons and I kept losing track of the more minor characters.

Just when you think nothing new can be done with dragons, Rachel Hartman entered the YA landscape with "Seraphina," offering a fresh take on the fabled fantasy creatures. In her world, dragons are attempting to live peacefully among humans in the form of "saars" - dragons who have taken human skin. They can't quite disguise themselves, as dragons abhor human emotion. They stand for logic and fact and distrust something as intangible as feelings. Seraphina was an outcast and misfit in the first book, but really comes into her own in this one, gaining confidence and embracing her powers.

With "Shadow Scale," Seraphina's world opens up considerably. Hartman did a fantastic job of building on her fantastic world from the first book in the duology and deepened every aspect of the novel in wonderful ways

Rachel Hartman is one of my favorite authors, and I will always read anything with her name on it. I had the pleasure of meeting her at Dragon*Con a few years back, and cannot wait to see what she does next.

A great follow up to Seraphina. The world continues to be rich and imaginative, and I loved the plot.

I love how Shadow Scale explored the greater scope of the world established in book 1. I loved the new characters a locations and once again swept away by Hartman's writing.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children's/Random House Books for Young Readers for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

Not a bad book, but not a good fit for me at this time. It was a SLOG. If I wasn't stuck at an Urgent Care facility all morning, I probably still wouldn't have finished it. And by "finish", I mean read about 200 pages, then skipped to the end.

I think I just don't gel well with this author's writing style. Nothing against it, it just isn't to my personal taste. I am sure it will work for many other readers, it just didn't for me. I did try the first book and just couldn't get into it. The prologue to this book was a recap of the first one, so I didn't feel like I missed anything from that one.

I also tried to read her other book about the sister Tess. Couldn't get into that one either. It's the writing style, nothing bad about the plot or characters or the world-building. It just didn't resonate with me or pull me into the story. Again, that's just me. Nothing against the book and I won't hesitate to suggest it to customers at my store. Just not my cup. 2, don't know what I was expecting, but this wasn't it, stars.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to read this novel, as I could never get into the first novel of the series. It was way too slow for me, so I couldn't even give this one a chance.

Continuing Seraphina's story where the first book ended the reader is taken on a quest to find the residents of Seraphina's mind garden. These residents may be the key to the dragon civil war that is threatening to destroy the kingdom. But finding these far-flung individuals is more difficult than imagined. And time is against Seraphine on two fronts as an unknown threat has made its presence known.

Family and friendship are in danger in this sequel that brings this new world more fully into the light. It is interesting watching Seraphina grow in both her understanding of herself and her skills. Fans of fantasy will enjoy this book that is written with the YA audience in mind. Prepare to enter a world that is peopled with humans, dragons, and half-dragons.

Loved the first book, this one stands up perfectly.

Did not finish. Unfortunately, I struggled with this one and could not get into it. I will not be reviewing this book as I did not finish. Thank you for the opportunity.

I never had a chance to review this before it expired. I'm sorry! I did buy both books to read, though, and hope to do so soon!

i loved this sequel to Seraphina! dragons galore, and the ending was perfect. loved it!

Downloaded this when I agreed to do the paperback blog tour for Seraphina, but could not finish Seraphina.