Rating: 3.5⭐️
This latest dragonrider book and series is more YA fantasy than dark romantasy and follows the predictable dragon trope of a young female character with unique abilities and hidden powers very well.
There’s a gathering of misfits young people, including a clique of antagonists, who hope to be chosen by the dragons as riders.
And there’s also another group of elite society members who don’t want to see their own heirs and potential dragonriders interfered with by lesser mongrels and misfits of society. And will do everything to deter them from being there.
Nothing new here, nicely laid out but the friend is a better more interesting character.
With pointed ears that easily give the reader an unsubtle hints to her heritage and connections to magic, Kanastya is the main character I come close to find annoying in her continuing naïveté for the majority of the story. Whether it’s her grandmother healer telling her to listen to her about the dangers of the village (hint she doesn’t), the visitor and his tiny dragon which she is enraptured by to the point of stupidity, or frankly the various scenarios that see her and the other people around her in shaky circumstances, her inability to really listen or understand the gravity of various situations makes one want to shake her.
Even when her knowledge is either helpful or pushes her towards a certain dangerous goal, she’s just not a credible person in her level of emotional reactions. Taken by soldiers? Ok. In a fortified house? Ok. It’s all too bland as opposed to the reactions of other characters.
Her grandmother, who we barely know, is a major player here. But we’re given very little information about her, or the situation that she or her granddaughter find themselves in.
This is a young adult fantasy series so perhaps I’m judging it too harshly. My expectations are more along the lines of an adult fantasy novel and characters that have a multi faceted personality and storyline to match.
Perhaps that will change going forward. I love dragons and dragonriders but please dont give me magical twits and dragons. That’s what I’m asking. I believe the series is complete.
Dragon Riders of Vorden (4 book series)
Black Dragon Rising #1
Red Dragon Ascended #2
White Dragon Reborn #3
Blue Dragon Returns #4
Cover design: Adrijana Cernic (Adriatica Creations)
Buy link
Book 1 of 4: Dragon Riders of Vorden
Blurb
Outcast. Healer. The girl they shunned may be the kingdom’s best hope.
Kanastya has always been an outcast. With her pointed ears and slight build, she stands out as different.
Orphaned young and raised by her grandmother on the edge of the swamp. Kanastya lives quietly on the fringes healing wounds, gathering herbs… and guarding a deadly secret. She knows ancient dragon lore, and in the four kingdoms, knowledge like hers could mean death.
For generations, the Sundered lands have known peace, but now war is brewing. Rogue dragons have returned and are attacking the four kingdoms with relentless fury. Desperate for survival, the kings of Vorden seek to raise new dragons by any means necessary.
When Kanastya is torn from her home and thrust into a world of nobles, dragon riders and shifting alliances, she finds herself among strangers who see her as a threat or a tool.
As danger mounts Kanastya must decide whether to remain the outcast they expect—or become something far more powerful than anyone is prepared for.
Pink Tea Books
Publication date
August 1, 2025
Language
English
Print length
404 pages
Book 1 of 4
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 