Talon by Julie Kagawa

Title: Talon (Talon #1)

Author: Julie Kagawa

Genre: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal

Published: October 2014

My Rating: 4/5

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.

I was so excited when Julie Kagawa announced she would be releasing this book, because I really love The Iron Fey series! :D And this new book would be about dragons!!!... I freaking love dragons and mythical creatures and all that.

I even participated in a contest she held for this before it was released. I didn't win but OMG SHE MADE A COMMENT ABOUT MY DRAWING ON TWITTER AND RETWEETED IT. LOOK, LOOK:

I actually made a post about the contest, you can go read it here.

Sadly, I just read this book very recently (even though I was really waiting for it), because of my ridiculously big TBR pile, and university has also been very tough this past year, I haven't read as many books as I would've liked to.

I must admit that Julie's writing seemed very different from her previous work, it was just as good, but I think it shows us that she's a very versatile author, and that's not something you find every day.

But now that I told you all this, let's just get to the story.

Ember and Dante are twins. But they're no ordinary twins, since they're both actually dragons, who are infiltrated in the human society to learn more about them and their traditions and behavior. I know it sounds like they're some kind of spies, but, in reality, all dragons must go through this as part of their education. No biggie. All dragons belong to Talon, kind of the global dragon organization. But there are still some dragons who are not part of Talon anymore, since they exchanged that for their freedom and not having to follow every single one of their rules. These dragons are called rogues. And they're followed by Talon.

Having a twin in the dragon world is kind of a big deal... because it never happens. A dragon usually lays one egg at a time, but Ember and Dante are an exception, thus being very special.

Ember is adorable. She's bubbly, a little shy and can't stay still for even one second. Dante is the complete opposite: he's charming, very serious and likes to play by the rules. They're always there for each other and share all of their secrets.

They already know a lot about the human world, since that's what they're taught in class before they're sent there. They can't mess up, if they break just one simple rule, they're sent back to Talon. Or that's what they make them believe.

We also have Garret in this story, he's a member of the Order of St. George, an organization with just one goal in mind: kill all dragons. And Garret is incredibly good at that, just at seventeen, he's got a lot of blood on his hands and a really good reputation among his colleagues.

So what happens when Ember and Garret cross paths?

Dun dun duuuuunnn...

There's also Riley, a rogue Ember meets. Because, seriously guys, a Julie Kagawa book without a love triangle?

I love that this book is told from so many different POVs! You get to see what's going on in Garret's mind and also Riley's. And that's great, that way we know how they really feel about Ember.

And, when I read books about dragons, it's usually not about dragons who can transform themselves into humans, so that was a nice change. You know, I've always wanted a dragon, but not exactly be one myself hmm...

And it's so tough for dragons and mythical creatures nowadays, what with the technology we have and all that. Poor guys can't even fly or anything without Google freaking Maps being there. It just gets worse from now on.

Look at me making this a serious conversation.

So that was it for the non-spoilery section! :)

Can't . Girl . Get . A . Break?! Poor Ember has just these three months to herself, nothing more, and they just come and tell her she has to get up really early to do all kinds of stunts while Dante just sits and reads with his trainer. I thought they were being so unfair. But we obviously know it's because they're going to be doing different things with their lives when they get back to Talon... She's going to be a freaking viper. A viper!! Of all things! Those Talon people are really stupid, they clearly didn't study her well. Ember doesn't kill others.

Although I think it's great that the best viper Talon has is a woman, and that they still assign their female dragons to these jobs, according to St. George the females are more important, because they're the ones laying eggs and all, so it was weird to see them go off to fight and risk getting killed. But what does St. George know, huh? What do those guys know? They're sexist, that's what they are. What's that about not having female soldiers, because they have other jobs to attend to?

And I was a little bit confused at first, since Riley didn't get that close to Ember. But then he does and I was there all "Hey there love triangle, I've been waiting for you!"

Well, not really.

As I've already said before, I usually don't like love triangles. But this time... this time, people... I do not care, because I do not care who Ember ends up with, since I like them both!

Now that's a first for me. What makes me feel so frustrated about love triangles is that the girl usually ends up with the guy I don't like -_-... And that sucks. But I really like Garret and Riley. I think I liked Garret way more in the first half of the book, but then we get to know Riley a lot better, so I ended up liking him a bit more in the end. She'll probably hook up with Garret when this all ends, but Riley's awesome. And hilarious. He's all "' Tis my instincts, girl. Can't deny it. Better than that stupid thing humans call love. There's a lot of attraction going on here!"

And it's also adorable how he cares about all these hatchlings. Poor Nettle's story was awful, I guess that'd be the dragon equivalent of being sent to a brothel as a slave, but been forced to have babies on top of that...

Ever thought of what happens if one female dragon gets pregnant while she's in her human form? Can she transform herself into a dragon and still be pregnant later? Can a dragon lay an egg and a human hatch out of it??

Back to our topic. I definitely want to see more of Ember and Riley in the future, we already had Garret, now give us some Riley.

And I must say that I'm really, really sad that Dante turned out like that. I liked him a lot in the beginning of the book. But now he turns his back on his twin sister and almost gets her killed! Ugh I knew it, Ember, I knew you should have left stupid Dante behind! He's a traitor and a liar, he was obviously not going to become a rogue for you!!

Apparently Dante is part of something important, we'll have to see what that is all about!


So have you read this book? What did you think of it?

Thank you for reading! Bye-Bye! ♥