The Dragon's Promise
ELIZABETH LIM
(Book 2 in the Six Crimson Cranes duology)
(NOTE: this is the UK cover of the book)
Synopsis:
A journey to the kingdom of dragons, a star-crossed love, and a cursed pearl with the power to mend the world or break it...
Princess Shiori made a deathbed promise to return the dragon's pearl to its rightful owner, but keeping that promise is more dangerous than she ever imagined.
She must journey to the kingdom of dragons, navigate political intrigue among humans and dragons alike, fend off thieves who covet the pearl for themselves and will go to any lengths to get it, all while cultivating the appearance of a perfect princess to dissuade those who would see her burned at the stake for the magic that runs in her blood.
The pearl itself is no ordinary cargo; it thrums with malevolent power, jumping to Shiori's aid one minute, and betraying her the next—threatening to shatter her family and sever the thread of fate that binds her to her true love, Takkan. It will take every ounce of strength Shiori can muster to defend the life and the love she's fought so hard to win.
Content:
Language: Not present
Violence: Descriptions of wounds, mentions of murder, demon attacks (both past and present), an assassination attempt via poisoning, violence and fighting using both magic and weaponry (swords, arrows), destructive fires, an attempt to burn one of the characters alive, and other similar instances. The details are not graphic and the violence is relatively limited.
Sex: Three or so brief kisses, a married character is revealed to be pregnant, mentions of wanting children and wanting to be pregnant from the FMC, there are some slight and vague allusions to sex
LGBTQ: One of the FMC's brothers offers to marry a king's nephew. I think there might have been one other brief instance of LGBTQ representation, but it was too brief for me to remember.
My Review:
PROS:
- The cover is so beautiful!
- Takkan and Seryu are the best characters. They had the most personality and were the only characters we knew enough about to be likeable.
- The writing is simple, but pleasant and immersive. - The dragon realm was interesting and well-described. I think it would have been cool to have spent more time there—and also make the events that occurred in the realm more relevant to the whole book (yes, I know it set up some major plot points, but those could have easily been incorporated somewhere else).
CONS:
- The pacing was uneven and clunky. I think this duology could have been one book with a bit of maneuvering.
- Shiori is annoying and she doesn't have a lot of personality. We're told she's mischievous and always getting into trouble, but really she's just spoiled and never has to deal with any real consequences.
- The ending felt like it came out of nowhere. I also tend to dislike this kind of happy/not really ending.
- All her brothers have the same personality. They each get around five lines of dialogue too.
- The first half of the book feels so unnecessary. It didn't contribute much to the story except to make it longer.
- I was kind of confused for the whole thing. Maybe it's because I read book 1 a few months back, but I didn't understand how everything worked with the bloodsake or the magic system. The rules for the demons were all over the place.