Dragon Bones

Disappointing. This book is terribly simplistic and poorly written in terms of sentence and paragraph construction. I'm never taking a recommendation again.

Executive Summary: A fun political fantasy.

Audio book: Joe Manganiello is a fine reader, though nothing special. He neither adds nor detracts from the story at all.

Full Review
This is my first novel by Patricia Briggs. The name was familiar to me, but I wouldn't have been able to have named you any books or series by her.

I couldn't tell you if this is her usual style of book, but if it is, I'll definitely be interested in reading more. This doesn't seem to be as popular as some of her other series though. I found this a quick and enjoyable listen.

It's a play on the chosen one trope, but there is more of a focus on politics. Our protagonist has been playing stupid for years in an effort to reduce the chances his father finds him a threat and killing him.

Unfortunately for him, this means that his father also doesn't trust him to take over after he's gone and names his uncle to rule in his place, at least until his 21st birthday. So of course our hero sets out to make a name for himself and show his uncle that he's not really the fool he's been pretending all these years.

And of course he gets swept up into events bigger than himself and must rise to the occasion or see his friends, family and home suffer.

In a worlds where dragons are long extinct and magic is dwindling, this is more political than fantastical overall, but there is certainly enough in there to make it more than a historical fantasy.

This is book one of a duology, but I feel like it came to a pretty good stopping point where I don't feel I need to rush out right away to read the second book, or (given it's shorter length) like it was simply one book that was split in half.

Overall, I found this a fun and lighter book and I'm looking forward to listening to the conclusion soon.

So... I really don't know how I feel about this book.

Over half the book was me thinking how much I did not want to read this book, but then I enjoyed the ending???

Let's talk about the problems I had first:
The world-building was really lacking. I wanted to know the history and how the magic system worked.
I was a little bored reading this, but I think it is because I would be confused or not drawn in – yes, that is what it is. I wasn't hooked or dedicated to the book, but I wanted to be.

I really doesn't help this book that I was extremely distracted by the movies my fiance was watching and the continuous cramps I'm living through this week. Because of this, I knew I had to read the book to the end and gave it an extra .5 star making a full 3 stars. There is a lot of good nuggets to this book and here are some I liked:
This book is seriously character-driven. I do like this, but I need some balance with the world-building. That being said, the characters really are cool. There are a few I forgot about (the cousins) or I thought changed completely, but others that I could never forget about such as Ciarra, Ward, Oleg, and Pansy (hehehe).
Ward. Ward is awesome. I love how throughout the book he doesn't know who he is, but in the end he figures it out and has to come to terms with being who he is. I thought this was great to read. Also, he is slow-talking–a very different trait given to a MC.
Female representation. There are DIFFERENT types of females– there are strong fighters (Stala and Thalia [?]), there are...is... well that one girl (I don't want to give anything away), and Ciarra who I feel is emotionally strong.

There is not too much action in this book, but the action and strategy that happens is interesting.

If you like high-fantasy and adventure books, then I think you should check this one out. I will be reading the sequel... eventually haha.

Don't forget.... Hurog means Dragon ;)