This book was freaking amazing! I love dragons so this book was just perfect to me! Highly recommend! 5 solid stars.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of Dragonspeak by Austin Valenzuela in exchange for an honest review. Dragons are one of my favorite things and I am always looking for good dragon books, movies, tv shows that are my style. This was an epic adventure that was very involved and detailed. If you like epic fantasy books, this is for you, but it was a bit hard for me to get into.

Dragonspeak is a story about three teens are who dedicated to succeed in their program. The big turning point in the school is sacrificing a dragon to gain it’s power. Isaac loves the dragons though, and he’s more interested in studying them rather than being powerful. We start out learning about the world and meeting our main characters. I was really engaged and loved what the author had created. Once the students realize the horrors that are behind their school, they embark on a mission to save the dragons from their awful fate. With such a strong premise, I was disappointed once I met the halfway mark. It took me days to finish this book, and every day I cared a little bit less about what was happening. I was so confused and had no idea what was going on. The ending was anticlimactic for me as well. I think this is a great story for young teens who are interested in the fantasy genre and dragons. I could definitely see some of my students enjoying this. Unfortunately, I just don’t think it was the right book for me.

Overall I give it a 2.5/5 stars - rounded to 3/5 for Goodreads.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a lot--at first you feel a bit out of your depth, because the world is so different to ours, and so is the world-order that precedes it. The very beginning is also disturbing, with the description of killing a small, helpless dragon. I'm not going to lie, I almost had to stop reading there, because the killing of innocent animals--even made up ones!--is very abhorrent to me.

Fortunately, the next scene has two new characters trying to figure out how to save the dragons from being sacrificed for their magic (or at least escape so they don't have to kill any dragons), which instantly had me on their side. From there on, it's a good fantasy/coming of age story, with three main characters who aren't just cliches.

There are some writing issues--at times it's not clear who the narrator is, and some of the descriptions are so involved that you lose the thread of what's happening.

But if you like dragons, the odds are that you'll like this book.

*Note: I received a free digital ARC of this book in exchange for a fair review. This did not affect my rating.

Dragonspeak: Isaac's Blessing in a charming tale of three students who reach the culmination of their school's training program and have to decide what to do next as they prepare to sacrifice a dragon - is this truly the way the world is supposed to be? Each student has to face their beliefs and understandings of the world around them as they search for a way forward.

Overall, the storyline is nicely developed and interesting - it maintains its pace and keeps you interested in what happens to the three. The characters feel slightly simple, which would suit Middle Grade readers perfectly.

Unfortunately, (from an English teacher perspective) the writing is not as polished as it should be. There are errors of spelling, character names, switching between person in the middle of the writing, unclear sections of speech and description, and some generally awkward sections. This was distracting and definitely 'broke' the magic of the novel. This is a shame, because otherwise, it is a delightful story.

This is a book about a young person named Jacob that lives in a society where dragons are not spiritually regarded as they used to be due to the emerging prominence of one that is known as the prophet. The world building is the most spectacular aspect of this story. The characters are engaging aspects of this fantasy epic as well. Rebecca in particular was interesting to me as she is a strong female character in a world of men. The writing is efficient and moves the story along but also possesses grace and deft movement. I requested this story as it is centered on humans relationship with dragon kind, a key interest in fantasy novels for me. I loved where this was going but was unable to finish the book in the allotted time. I look forward to purchasing it when it released. I highly recommend this to all high fantasy readers. Thank you for the opportunity.

Thanks Net Galley & Austin...

dragons!magic! a magic school! and a spooky forest! What a Great combo!

A world built on lies and as our main characters slowly discover this, each one must decide what they will do with this knowledge.

The action builds slowly and then moves pretty fast between different protagonists. My only qualm with this is for me the inability to connect to a character as our hero changes so often.

I found this to be good for folks attracted to Dragon fantasy. I expected young adult but there are so.e truly dark concepts with the sacrificing of baby Dragons.

This book developed from a short story from the authors past, and I agree with turning it into a book. I would like further stories in this world and see more development of character Jericho.

Recommended for all fantasy lovers

Isaac’s Blessing is the story of three students; Boyd, Isaac and Rebekah, who live in a place where dragons are sacrificed as their soul provides power. These students are heading towards a test to determine if they will become an apostle to the Lord Jericho. Each chapter is told from a different point of view and encapsulates how well-done and ever-changing these characters can be.

I wasn’t able to fully connect with the writing here. There was a lot that was hard to process and whilst it was incredibly detailed there were a lot of puzzling scenarios that felt clunky and consuming. We also jump between first and third person perspectives and this was not handled well at all. I felt that these inconsistencies should have been picked up on fairly early in the writing process and did not help the story that the author was trying to tell.

The story was great however the writing itself did not do this justice.

***contains some spoilers***

Three students, Boyd, Isaac, and Rebekah, live on an island where young dragons are sacrificed because their soul provides power to people. They are fast approaching a test that will determine if they become an apostle under Lord Jericho. Rebekah is a dedicated student and loyal to Jericho. She was blessed before her test and passes it with ease to become one of the most blessed there has ever been. Isaac loves dragons. He believes they serve a higher purpose and shouldn't be killed, and he wants to create change from inside the church. He is eager to do whatever he can to pass the test so he can do that, and while he passes it, he isn't blessed, and he doesn't understand why. Boyd is Isaac's best friend and also fond of dragons. He was among those blessed before the test but he refuses to take it and decides to run way instead.

Each chapter is told from a different point of view among Boyd, Isaac, Rebekah, and later, Jericho. The character development is well done, and I enjoyed seeing the different points of view. I found myself rooting for all three of them. I loved the world building, especially the scenes about the Dyra, spirits that live in the forest. You could tell the author loved this story, these characters, and took a lot of care in writing it.

There were some things that stood out to me that needed work. There were a lot of misspellings in the book. I noticed Rebekah was misspelled twice, and each time in a different way. An extra -s was added onto the end of words where it didn't belong. And more. While these misspellings weren't too annoying, they were enough to notice and take me out of the story.

Another thing I noticed is some parts were poorly written. For example, when I got to read from Jericho's point of view for the first time at 51%, it wasn't immediately clear who was speaking to him. I found myself stopping after every few paragraphs to process what I read and see if I could puzzle out what was going on. I decided to continue reading to see if it started to make sense, and it did, but it was clunky.

The book jumps back and forth from third person and first person quite a bit. I first noticed this happening around 45%, and it happened consistently throughout the remainder of the novel. There was even a sentence at 55% where it went from third person to first person in a single sentence! Along with this, italics are frequently used when people are thinking or when telepathy is being used, but this also isn't consistent. There were many times when italics weren't used at all, even after they were used in the previous paragraphs, and it caused some confusion before I figured out what was happening.

Around 61%, the description of the scenery became confusing. The author describes a firepit in the middle of the room, then says there is a stairwell in the center of the room. I was having a hard time picturing what it looked like, and eventually settled on putting the firepit further away from the center in my mind's eye. The description did not seem intentional.

If you're a Christian, you're going to notice a LOT of influence from Bible stories in this book. Isaac, his parents, Abraham and Sarah, and the sacrifice Abraham had to make towards the end of the book are all clearly inspired from the Bible. There were other religious elements as well, such as the description of Jericho's followers after they changed. They were supposed to be part draconic, but it was clear the author was inspired by the description of demons from popular media.

Overall, it was a great story. As I mentioned, the author clearly cared about it a great deal, and that showed in his writing. I really enjoyed reading it. Thank you for a great novel!