Rating: 3 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novella
Lando Garr is still recovering from the nearly fatal injuries he received while saving the prince, and his betrothed, Kallen. But when the palace is attacked, and with Kallen fighting, Lando has no choice but to get up and do something. In the aftermath, the king is near death, the traitor has reappeared, and Lando is barely surviving.
But Bobik, Kallen’s symbiont, knows the egg they found is ready to hatch and Dobik chooses to bond with Lando. Dobik is a warrior dragon, and he can only bond with a warrior. With the king in stasis, Kallen is in charge of the kingdom. But Lando and Kallen, along with their dragon symbionts, know that in order to save the galaxy, they must save the eggs of other dragon symbionts. And in the process, they find out just how deep the treachery goes.
This is the second book in the Rise of the Symbionts series and each book leads directly into the next, so they definitely have to be read in order. I was looking forward to the next installment of the series, but I have to admit, this story left me wanting.
The good thing here is that the story progressed. We got to see more about the dragon race, where they came from, how they came to be, and things moved forward on the whole. Each scene leads somewhere and toward the answer to the big questions the story presents. I continue to like the connection between the MCs. Lando and Kallen have had a relationship of one sort or another since they were children, and their affection and love is clear throughout the story. I liked the consistency with them, together and apart.
While there is definitely a progression in the metaplot, there are more questions than answers in this book. That in and of itself isn’t a bad thing; it’s how a series keeps readers interested. But I expected more from the story. The characters are still intriguing, and the overarching plot definitely has potential. But it falls short in execution. The writing is choppy and without transition between emotions and scene. It felt like the characters were jumping from one thing to the next without nearly enough explanation.
The world, while interesting, fails to have enough information to really understand what is going on. Basically, I had to take everything as fact, and just accept it without understanding why or how. So this part really didn’t work for me that well. Even having the basics from the first book didn’t help. There wasn’t enough information in the first story either, and I was expecting and hoping for things to be fleshed out here. That wasn’t the case and it left me feeling unengaged. I had a hard time getting through. Not to mention, the pacing was uneven and stilted at times, which left the reading experience difficult. And I didn’t care for the random scenes from secondary characters’ POVs, though I know this is a personal preference.
So overall, I found this book a little lacking. I wanted more information that I just didn’t get, and I still felt like I was not quite sure what was going on. Not necessarily with the salient details, but with the story as a whole. While the book is decent, it left something to be desired.
