Jessica Cluess
House of Dragons (House of Dragons #1) by Jessica Cluess
Released: May 12, 2020
Pages: 448
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Overall: 3.5/5
Plot: 3/5
Characters: 2/5
Setting & World-building: 5/5
Emotional Investment: 4/5
"Beauty was an accident, like birth. Only ability was earned."
So I've never read or watched Game of Thrones but I'm going to guess this was the embodiment of that show.
Quick Summary: When the Emperor died the five royal houses of Etrusia attend the call that will establish who the new emperor/emperoress. The contestants will have to go through four trials and usually the oldest of each family is told to come to the call. But this year five outcasts are told to answer the call. Emilia, the younger sibling with a dark secret she must protect at all costs. Lucien is a soldier who has made a vow to never lift a sword again. Vespir, the dragon trainer who will try her hardest to win for her lover. Ajax, the youngest member of the crew who has spent his life thieving and being a runt. And Hyperia was the one born to rule and will kill everyone to get what is hers.
Okay, so I've been wanting to read this book for a very long time. Now it wasn't awful but I also wanted a little more. The scenery and descriptions of the Etrusia were beautiful. And I always have loved the concept of having like five royal houses or just houses dividing up the land. I also loved the dragons. All of them were so beautiful and I like the bond one can have with a dragon. I think Vespir and her dragon, Karina, have the most beautiful bond in the world. Like that is built and requires so much work. What I also really enjoyed were all the plot twists. Like they were spaced out well enough that whenever I started to get a little bored, a banger of a situation would happen and I would scream.
Now I hated Hyperia. She started off the entire thing by killing her baby sister for getting the call and then spent the rest of the book being sad over it and having a wicked sense of morality. She was just rude and I don't look up to people who bring people with less money down. When Vespir was giving her long speech about how the poor stay poorer and she responded with what you going to do about it? I was so mad. er privilege is disgusting and makes her a vile human. Also for all her talk about believing in honor, she took away another person to get it and that is pathetic. Also, she couldn't even raise her dragon right so he turned into a blood-thirsty murderer, like her. Like calls to like, right.
Sadly, I can't latch onto any of the characters because they were all just not relatable. got Emilia a little bit but otherwise, she was kind of also rude. I hated Ajax because he was way too young and naive and didn't bring anything to the group. He actually caused more problems and that pissed me off. I liked Vespir but she was also wallowing in her self-pity for the entirety of the book. And Lucien was just too plain and had the same self-righteous personality and it was boring.
So I recommend everyone to read it and I will read the second one because I need closure. Hehe :)
Quotes
"Oh, I know how to kill. I just forget how to smile while killing."
"He did not know that a girl's anger was her greatest weapon when handled with authority."
"Gods dream of empires, but devils build them."