Hannah Walker - Booker's Song

Rillian Mascini is one of the most knowledgeable mages in the world. Spending his days and sometimes nights with his nose in a book has taught him magic and histories that few care to remember. He has a passion for dragons that pulls him to learn all he can about them, including their language. He is one of the last people left alive who can speak to the magnificent beasts. 

Conwyn D'Aver is squad leader of the Dragon Riders. He will do whatever it takes to protect the dragons and people he has given his oath to serve. Nothing is more important, and when Neela, his personal dragon, is attacked, Conwyn is out for blood. He vows to find the threat and defeat it. When an old spell book is found that gives a person the power to control all dragons, Conwyn will do anything he can to keep it from getting into the wrong hands, even if that means teaming up with the bookish Rillian to find a way to overcome the evil enemies who seek to gain the power. 

Together with the dragons, the two men must find a way to protect everything they both love, but while doing so, they risk losing their own hearts to each other. As their enemies seek to destroy them, they learn that sometimes it takes love and trust to defeat the things we fear the most.

Comment: I was recommended this book a few years ago and the idea of fantasy, and dragons and romance was enough to convince me to give it a try. After all these years, it was finally time to get to it.

In this story we meet Rillian, he is a sort of sorcerer who has the task of translating documents and doing mostly administrative-like tasks but his true passion is dragons and he is one of the very few people in the world who can talk to them. He is lucky to live in a country where dragons are useful and he gets to see them everyday even though they work with their handlers in defense and travel missions.

Rillian loves the dragons from a distance but Conway D'Aver is the leader of a dragon squad and he wants nothing more than to protect the dragons and see to their well being, considering how much they help. He and Rillian often don't see eye to eye in how to do their respective work but for those around them that is all just a way to hide their attraction, which neither believes will need to be dealt with, until the day Rillian helps to heal one of the dragons... from then on, the dragons start caring for Rillian and how can Conway not do the same?

I could understand from the beginning why the person who recommended the book to me felt like I might like it. There are several elements here which I liked and that I feel were good points to develop a fascinating fantasy romance, especially the dragons and the scenes with and about them. Somehow these animals and those who wanted the best for them were very interesting and the lore or background were intriguing.

I also liked Rillian as a character, he is a nerd and likes books and learning things and besides his mage powers he is also a translator and speaks with dragons. For me, this is enough to make him fascinating but he was also a genuinely good person and dedicated to what he felt was his job and his interests, so I ended up liking him.

Conway wasn't as obviously likable to me, though. He has all the traits of a good leader and people around him respect him, even the dragons liked him but I feel he wasn't as developed as Rillian in terms of personality, he wasn't as easy to read nor to appreciate, even though he defended the dragons and acted as was proper if one is the leader of a military squad, sort of.

The romance was definitely a let down. It was superficial and very juvenile in my opinion, although these are adult characters. That a man with knowledge and self awareness and drive as Conway would be so clueless about his motivation to tease Rillian and really be dumbfounded about it when others pointed it out... I mean... so silly....

Rillian wasn't as pushy, as self confident but I could more easily accept his personality in this. Still, they finally decide to get together as a fake pair but, of course, we know they really like one another. What could be a sweet romance or a slow progress of feelings which had been building up for a while turns instead into a ridiculous game of "do I want him?" and "can I love him if he feels this faked?" between fight and chase scenes and everything started to be convoluted.

Then, to top it off even worse, their intimate scenes felt unbalanced to me, without the supposed chemistry they should be feeling, and then they had to defend the dragons and had to see them going into battle against dragons from another country and many other plot stuff which started to be extremely cheesy and juvenile too... the same way I'd write silly stuff in my teenager years about what a romance would be... I mean, it felt as if the author was losing track of what mattered here.

I would say, perhaps, this is a matter of enjoying the elements for what they are and what they can mean to one's preferences. But as for the elements working out together in a seamless ensemble I don't know... I felt the author might have had many good ideas and wanted to use as many as possible and in the end some things just didn't seem to matter as much or maybe they weren't as engaging as they could be.

There are other books after this one... I don't yet know if I will be interested in reading them since the writing style of this was didn't seem fully consistent throughout, but, who knows...

Grade: 5/10