May Sage

'Read a chapter before you go to sleep' I said, 'You will be able to sleep' I said... 2.30 am and I finished the damn book in one go.... yeah... ah well, who needs sleep anyway right?

As a magic-less daughter in a prominent family of mages Xandrie is seen as little more as their maid. She refuses to let this define who she is however and trains with the sword instead, in secret, in the forest, with her trusted companion Claws. That all changes when the dragon shifter Elza saves her from certain death and with whom she develops a deep and trusting friendship. Through a series of events she ends up being saved yet again by a dragon, this time by Rhey... their king. An instant connection flares to life and now Xandrie finds herself facing off against other female dragons for the title of Queen and the handsome King himself.

I liked this book a lot, it is well written and a light and smooth read.
For those not afraid to start a new series because of open endings etc. this book can be read as a standalone. The ending of course opens up the setting for the next in the series, but there is no cliff-hanger and Xandrie's story seems to be concluded (for now).
I will definitely read the rest of the series!… (mere)

The novelty of getting to know a new world was already used up by the end of the first book.
My attachment to the MCs of the first book didn't carry over much as this has different povs.
The only thing that might have kept me interested was the political intrigue.
There was quite a bit of hinting at larger and more complex political scheming without a clear cut good and bad but; first, it became obvious that the book expends almost all focus on the pnr and second, it very much seems like this complex political landscape was largely a false promise.
We have very clear good vs evil vibes coming off the plot so far and I am just not interested.

The same flaws that I already pointed out in my review to book one apply still. No improvement on that. If anything, it got slightly worse afaict.

There just isn't anything particularly interesting to me in this world.
I dropped it in chapter 9. Roughly 20% in I guess.… (mere)