I absolutely love Elizabeth Lim's soft, whimsical world and her living, breathing characters. Six Crimson Cranes was unlike anything I'd read before, and I was so excited to get my hands on Dragon's Promise. Unfortunately I think after loving the first book SO much, my expectations were too high.

As happy as I was to be back in this world, I found Dragon's Promise a lot slower and therefore harder to stay engaged in. I think if Six Crimson Cranes had been longer, the plot could have been wrapped up in one hefty book.

Having said that, I love Shiori and Takkan so much - they're well worth staying invested in the series. Add to that an exciting and satisfying ending, and this is still a book I would recommend to fantasy lovers, if only so they can also experience the wonder of Six Crimson Cranes.

I really liked this book, it’s definitely more of a sprawling story with all sorts of little fairytale references throughout the book instead of the main plot covering a fairytale retelling.
I liked it for this bc the little references were fun and it felt like you really went on a journey with Shiori.
That said this wasn’t how I expected this book to go so I was a little surprised at first. But I cannot stress this enough I loved the ending of this, caught me off guard and I think it suits the themes so well.
I also think and *spoilers for the first book if you haven’t read it*, this story shines so much in the relationship between Shiori and her stepmother. The book really delves into it more and it’s just so endearing how the stepmother wasn’t used as a one dimensional villain character.
This is an easy, heartfelt read and I recommend. 😊

The Dragon’s Promise picks up right where Six Crimson Cranes ends. Shiori must head into the kingdom of dragons to return the dragon’s pearl to its rightful owner. Unfortunately, doing so is not as straightforward as she originally thought.

Shiori discovers a new world in this book and meets some new characters. Her journey turns on its side when it becomes intertwined with the fate of magic in her own kingdom. And not just the fate of magic, but the fate of demons. The first section of the book was spent in the dragon kingdom, and this felt very magical. As much as I love Seryu, I preferred Shiori with Takkan. I am happy to report there was no love triangle!

For those wanting a whole book set in the dragon kingdom, that is not what you’re going to get. Shiori’s journey takes her back to her brothers and Takkan, where they come up with a plan to save their own kingdom. I liked the continuing theme of Shiori and Raikama, and when you get to find out a bit more about her past and how she came to be Shiori’s stepmother.

I loved the continuing development of Shiori and Takkan’s relationship and would continue to read more books just for them!

I loved Six Crimson Cranes but this was one I didn't enjoy as much. I just felt this was a little lacking and disjointed.

There is a possibility that I might have left it too long between reading Six Crimson Crans and The Dragons Promise but I am willing to give it another go.

It took me a while to get to this, and even longer to try and process my thoughts and emotions! I absolutely loved Six Crimson Cranes, and I think my expectations were just a teesy bit higher than I should've had them at. It was still a good conclusion to the duology and wrapped most things up well, but I don't know, I think it was just missing a tiny spark for me! I think there was just a lot of things happening in this one, that probably could've been fleshed out a bit more had this series been a trilogy rather than a duology.

Such a beautiful story, loved this just as much if not more than the first one. The characters just keep getting better and better

Beautiful book. I was at first drawn in by the cover but after reading the book I realised its so much more than that! Highly recommend and I have gifted this book to others that will enjoy!

DNF Review - Crimson Cranes was really good, I liked that the story was connected to the swan tale and I could see where it was going, and Takkan is a great love interest for Shiori. The sequel though... it didn't feel connected to anything, and I started to get frustrated with the way the plot seemed to meander around, trying to fill up the (nearly 500!) pages before the conclusion. This should have been a standalone.

I was disappointed in this after Six Crimson Cranes, it at times felt disconnected from the over-arching plot and it felt like plot points were added to flesh out a second book instead of having a beautifully written standalone in the first novel.

3.5 stars

I may have left too much time between this one and the first, and same again from the first duology with this one. But I think I remembered enough. This one had the sweetest relationship between Takkan and Shiori, and we get a lot more of how Bandur became trapped in the Forgotten Isles from the first duology. I was shocked at how little a part Seryu played.

I didn't feel as though this book was as strong as the one before it. The major appeal of this title was the dragon aspect and how will that develop further with the world's acceptance of magic. But then the dragons just disappear and you find yourself 30% of the way through the book watching teenage mood swings

Six Crimson Cranes is one of my favourite fantasy books, and I was so excited for the release of its sequel. However, The Dragon's Promise was incredibly underwhelming. The plot felt disjointed, the pacing was inconsistent, and every chapter ended with some plot twist sentence / a sentence about the main character falling. This took me out of the story and, as a result, I found it hard to finish.

It took me a little while to get around to this one. I absolutely adored Six Crimson Cranes as well as Lim's Spin the Dawn Duology so I expected amazing things from The Dragons Promise and I was not disappointed. Like all of her other books, Lim has a gorgeous writing style that paints such a vivid and beautiful world in my mind. The characters are amazing and fun and the story keeps me guessing as it takes its twists and turns before reaching its final conclusion. I was happy with the way the story ended and it didn't leave me with any burning questions. I loved the book but I would find it difficult to explain why it didn't give me that "perfect book feeling" the way that I felt with Six Crimson Cranes and Spin the Dawn. Nonetheless, if you are a fan of the author and you liked her other books you will definitely like this one.

The perfect follow up to Six Crimson Cranes - it was so good! I was immediately reimersed back into the world and did not want to put it down.

Headlines:
Separations and reunions
Star-crossed connection
Paper enchantments

I'm somewhat conflicted over this sequel to Six Crimson Cranes. I really enjoyed book one, the plot, the characters and just the magical elements of this world are mostly enchanting. Book two brought separation for some characters and I just didn't enjoy the dragon world, not did I enjoy the demon storyline.

What I do love about this book is Shiori, Takken, Kiki and the brothers. Those elements kept me invested and reading on. I really appreciated the reflections Shiori had about her step mother and the connection I saw with her father. Sense of family is strong in this book.

I wanted the kind of tempo I felt in book one and while this was a rather pacey read, it was ultimately satisfying and it did tug on my heartstrings later on. So overall, I do think this is a duology worth reading but it does suffer from second book syndrome in my humble opinion.

Thank you to Hodderscape for the review copy.

I felt a little like this book was underwhelming compared to Six Crimson Cranes. I had originally thought this feeling was because I was in a small reading slump, but after thinking about it, I realised that it was actually because none of the things I expected from the book happened. Sure, it was still an adventurous fun read, but after having Six Crimson Cranes ferment in my brain for a year, there were just some things I wished would be addressed in book 2.

The love triangle between Shiori, Seryu and Takkan was one of them. I really enjoyed the romance in book 1, but in this book, I just could not enjoy it with the completely miniscule love triangle. Love triangles are a hit or miss for me usually, but I never thought there would be a book where I would actually want more of it.

I think in terms of emotions too, where Six Crimson Cranes was a roller-coaster of emotions, The Dragon's Promise is a constant feeling of frustration. I felt that this book had so much loss and frustration from the characters, I just wanted the book to end so that they could rest.

All in all, it's still a good read, but I just had bigger expectations.

After enjoying book one I had high hopes for this. Sadly this just didn't work for me.
I found myself struggling to care for the plot. The characters felt like they weren't being developed as the story progressed.
Overall all the things I liked about book one seemed to be lacking here.

Colby Mills once felt destined for a musical career, but tragedy grounded his dreams. Now the dust has settled, he spontaneously takes a gig playing at a bar in Florida, seeking a rare break from his duties at home.

The anticipated sequel for Six Crimson Cranes, and for me it was enjoyable but wasn't as heart pounding as book one was, so I was slightly disappointed.

The Dragon's Promise follows straight after the ending of Six Crimson Cranes, and after Princess Shiori has broken the curse, she and her brothers were under. Then problem is things still aren't at peace and what's even better we get to meet the Dragon's and travel to their world under the sea.

I honestly really enjoy Elizabeth Lim's writing style and found this book so easy to read. I loved being back with Shiori, Takkan and Seryu. The characters are one of the reasons why I really enjoyed book one and I was routing for them to defeat evil that seemed to appear on several fronts.

So, let's talk plot. It wasn't the best plot that I have read, and it was a slight let down from book one, but I still enjoyed the fact that we got to go and see the Dragon's and we saw more of Seryu. I will say that the Dragons are mean, and I was not expecting that, but it did add another layer of intrigue to the book and had me questioning at times what was happening. The evil that appeared in book one reared its ghastly head and at times I found it quite comical, but you know good prevails.

I did like the style of writing like I said Lim creates a wonderful world that is so easy to navigate. Her characters are well written, and I enjoyed the banter between them. I like that Shiori was still growing as a character and that it wasn't just a one-off thing in book one. I would have liked to see more of the brothers in this book as felt that they were so crucial to Shiori as a character, but they weren't as prominent which I understand but I would have liked to have seen more of them.

Overall, it was an enjoyable second book and the mysteries that were left unanswered in book one was answered in book two.

I really loved Six Crimson Cranes, so maybe my expectations were too high for this book. It was nice to be with our beloved characters again. But it feels different, and a bit repetitve. As I said, maybe I was expecting too much after Six Crimson Cranes (one of my favorite read of 2021). Characters that I liked in Six Crimson Crane I started to like less (or even dislike) here. I like the universe and the writing is still very good!