Caragh Reviews // Talon by Julie Kagawa

Published - 28th October 2014
Publisher - Harlequin/MIRA
Format - Kindle
Synopsis - Long ago, dragons were hunted to near extinction by the Order of St. George, a legendary society of dragon slayers. Hiding in human form and growing their numbers in secret, the dragons of Talon have become strong and cunning, and they're positioned to take over the world with humans none the wiser. Ember and Dante Hill are the only sister and brother known to dragonkind. Trained to infiltrate society, Ember wants to live the teen experience and enjoy a summer of freedom before taking her destined place in Talon. But destiny is a matter of perspective, and a rogue dragon will soon challenge everything Ember has been taught. As Ember struggles to accept her future, she and her brother are hunted by the Order of St. George. Soldier Garret Xavier Sebastian has a mission to seek and destroy all dragons, and Talon's newest recruits in particular. But he cannot kill unless he is certain he has found his prey: and nothing is certain about Ember Hill. Faced with Ember's bravery, confidence and all-too-human desires, Garret begins to question everything that the Order has ingrained in him: and what he might be willing to give up to find the truth about dragons.

Talon was an incredible surprise and a bit of a whirlwind! I didn't really know much about it and i'm one of the few people left who haven't read anything by Kagawa before. Right from chapter one you are thrown in the deep end. Dragons! Enemies! Secrets! Missions! I mean come on, who isn't dragged into a book that is primarily about dragons!

I'll admit, it was a little weird to wrap my head around agiant, scaly dragon kind of morphing into a little frail 16 year old girl but you know what? The logistics don't really matter and I didn't spend too much time thinking about it as the pace of the book had me reading at lightning speed.

For me, Talon had the perfect balance between your typical crush story (hello, love triangle!) and a whole lot of excitement and adventure. Ember was really likeable and relatable which is super important to me. I think the only character that I didn't really connect with was Dante and considering how that goes i'm not totally surprised by it.

What spurred me on whilst reading Talon was the relationship between Talon (the organisation) and St George. I wanted to know where this war came from and why it mattered more than anything else (more on this in my review of Rogue, later!). The book was so fraught with tension over this and honestly, I was kind of stressed out just thinking about the possibilities. The end of the book was so explosive that it left me reeling. What was going to happen? Were any of them safe now? What is Dante thinking? There were so many questions that there was never a single doubt in my mind that the very next book I would read was the sequel, Rogue. Review coming soon......