Great for fantasy fans and crime show fans. A modern fantasy that is highly recommended. I can’t wait for more by this author!

I loved the premise and the idea of the book, but I couldn't finish it. I wasn't able to connect with the characters and the world didn't feel immersive to me. I would have loved more information at the beginning about how they end up in that kind of world and the dynamics, more descriptions to feel part of it before starting the action.
There were points that took me out of the book. The fast paced way for the main character to get a second opportunity having a dragon after being said multiple times that it wasn't possible was one of those. I just can't see a commander saying "the following is confidential" and just throw the important information without more... more to it, it didn't feel real to me and made it more difficult to connect with the story. Lastly, which completely made me stop reading was that I found Markus POV just uncomfortable to read, the way he lusted after EVERY woman he saw and the comments about it in the middle of his internal thoughts... I just couldn't. I didn't like him or like his internal thoughts and it affected everything for me.
As I said, I loved the premise and I know that there are going to be people who love it, it's just not for me.
Thank you for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is Fast & Furious but with Dragons, and if instead of a cop its a student at a Dragon Riders military academy.

Its has a balance of light and heavy, with a story not dissimilar from F&F. That said, it was a delight and i thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. I loved the characters, the World building and especially the dragons.

Wouldn't mind a second book.

Thank you NetGalley and Yggdrasil Press for the ARC! The premise of the book was interesting but not well developed. The writing was overly simplistic making it feel like a YA book which it is not. The college and dragon system were poorly developed as well as the most all the characters unfortunately. Loki was the only good character in my opinion from the whole book.

Thank you for the ARC! It was definitely fast passed as it was said, the plot was a little predictable but it was overall all a fun read!

Dragon Den is blurbed as Fast and the Furious with dragons. While this story has dragon elements, the plot resembles FF1.

There is a lot of potential in this world, but it was off-putting to know what would happen next.

If this fits your vibe check, then you'll enjoy the high intensity of the dragon races!

This was an interesting read. I wasn't expecting fast and the furious meets dragons in an urban fantasy setting. This was fast paced and had a lot of action. I felt like the side characters were not as well rounded as I would personally like and they all sort of blended together.

Unfortunately I did not enjoy this book as much as I hoped to. I thought that the more modern setting especially in the PNW was a nice touch. The concept of the dragon dens being in the volcanos and it being geographically correct was one of the biggest selling points for me. The story feel short with all of the similarities to Fourth Wing. I would have enjoyed a little bit more originality especially when it came to the dragon riders school, the uniforms, and also the main character fighting against rouges. I liked the diversity in the characters that was a nice touch. Overall, the setting was a plus but it lacked originality.

Am a huge fan of anything with dragons in it and was pretty excited to read this. I think this book is fine for someone who wants a very basic fantasy book with dragons thrown in but anyone who is familiar with the genre or is a fan of dragons may crave more. I fell into the latter camp. As someone who read Fourth Wing, I do not mind simple world building or storyline, but this felt more like fanfic.

Okay, let me start this by saying that this had a lot of potential. The synopsis is good and it immediately called my attention. I really liked the first few chapters too because, even if we were basically just thrown into action and things were confusing, I figured they would explain in more detail further into the book.

Nope.

So many things stay confusing and the pace is so fast that many of the problems don’t require more than half a paragraph to get solved. Here I was stressing over how they would get out of a difficult situation because, surely they are going to get caught and everything is going to go to shit.

Nope. It was that easy.

And all this basically comes down to the fact that it’s Markis, our protagonist, the one doing the entire monologue. That guy is a stupid idiot with all the letters. He lacks personality, hobbies, dreams, backstory, friends… a spine… Even within the story (not in the action descriptions) he fails to do his one job which is to inform his superior about anything.

Instead, he spends his time drooling over Amira’s body and what he’d do to get her and what he’d do once he got her (which I skimmed over because it was a bit terrible. I know. ME. SKIMMING OVER SEX SCENES. What is this?)

And speaking of Amira, the racism towards her (or the talk of it) just felt like a plot point that was there to… pretend to cause drama? Nothing really happens and nothing is actually talked about in depth, so it just felt like it was written to tick some kind of checkmark.

In one of the instances, Tobias (Amira’s brother) starts antagonizing Markus for not getting his sister out of a situation where she could have been hurt for being Black. The situation: Markus’ friend dropped a thousand meters out of the fucking sky and is now sprawled in the floor, bent at unnatural angles and blood coming out of every pore of her body. The police are coming to check what happened and Amira is just standing there.

Like, I completely get that Amira could have suffered discrimination, but this mf’s friend is literally dead and I don’t think Amira is the first thing on his mind right now. Cut him some slack.


Other things that didn't make much sense in no particular order that I won't go into detail about bacause I'm already dissapointed enough about the book:

- The dragons are on a "special diet" where they only have one sheep a day. I'm sure one or two mroe wouldn't hurt, but Markus constantly gives Loki two or three every single day?

- The dragons are only awake one day of the year and then go to sleep in a volcano. All of them? To one volcano? To sleep for a year?

- Loki's past only getting mentioned in the very end even tho it should be an important part, not only of his life, but the plot?

- The very little protection they place on the obsidian trucks after having already been hijacked plenty of times

- I hope I just didn't get this right, but: they get sent to random posts after graduation. I don't mean as in the place, that doesn't really matter, but the job they will be doing. Theo likes research and hopes to be put somewhere where he can do it? Do you mean to tell me that some random brute built for only fighting could get assigned one of those places even though they are not made for it?

- Mamba being completely chill with this absolute nobody on his stall after having killed many other people who, I'm sure, were way better than him.

And one last thing: the ending was a bit obvious. The last few chapters in general.

Despite all of this, I liked the potential of the story (maybe something could be done about that??) and I’m totally biased because I love dragons, so.. Also, the cover is really pretty.

This book was a ride. I don't know what just hit me, but I'm pretty sure it was dragons and Taylor Swift references?

On a more serious note, I appreciated the underlying themes of consent and agency (of both humans and dragons) coupled with modern-day racism. No spoilers, but in that regard, I really liked the ending for Markus and Loki. The character diversity reflected within the text did not feel like tokenism, which is a breath of fresh air, though some of our characters did feel surface-level.

Regarding the "for fans of Fourth Wing" note, the similarities I found were a "contemporary Romance" writing style, First-person Present POV, and a dragon miliary academy with new-adult romance and a little spice. But loving Fourth Wing doesn't guarantee you'll love this one---in large part due to the sparse worldbuilding details and shorter length that define urban fantasy as a genre. So set expectations for your library patrons accordingly. While I didn't actually compare the two, I'm pretty sure chapter 1 of this book was over before Violet was even across the parapet... ;-)

Thank you to NetGalley and Yggdrasil Press for the ARC.

1) Only fast and furious movie I've seen is Fast X, my experience reading this book felt similar. fast-paced, but the character relationships were poorly developed. The book opens with a punchy first scene, but it could have used some building up of character relationships before the time crunch.
The action scenes were decent, but the book just didn't gel together.

Love the cover, and since reading the book I enjoy the multiple meanings of the title “ Dragon Den” . This book is getting 4 stars from me because it was fun, fast paced, and had some interesting characters. I do wish it was more in depth at times but the story did take place in Washington and in the book dragons have always existed. The spice score is a 3 /5, character rating is 5/5, and the storyline gets a 5/5. My favorite part was the ending, the pace somehow picked up more. Also getting to hear a certain dragon talk was… eye opening. I can not wait for the next book !

3.5. I enjoyed this book. The themes are certainly heavily borrowed and I'm seeing negative reviews because of that. I thought it was a good read regardless. It's a fast paced easy to read story. Full of action and dragon banter.

The book is the story of Marcus, a student at a dragon rider school set in modern day Seattle. In this school the students "break" the dragons by collaring them in a sneak attack. Marcus fails in his initial attempt to collar the biggest baddest dragon and with that failure, he is supposed to be kicked out of school. He is sent on a secret spy mission by the commander of the school. He obtains the dragon of a former student who had fallen trying to carry out this same spy mission. The book follows Marcus and the dragon Loki as they infiltrate what seems to be the popular group.

The dragon, Loki, is great. I enjoyed his inner monologue banter with Marcus. I enjoyed the dragon racing and underground, illegal activities they get into. I liked the fast pacing and action-packed story.

There are a few negatives for me that lower my rating. There is NO backstory or world building. I enjoyed the short length of this book, I thought it fit the fast-paced story really well, but a chapter of world building would have made a big difference. The story takes place in modern day Washington and Oregon. The dragons are racing around Seattle. It's a fun idea, I liked it, but I want to know how and why. Modern day world with dragons requires a bit of explanation.
There's not much in the way of character development either. The story starts in the middle and just keeps going. Not any backstory on MMC. Not much backstory on the supposed love interest, Amira. I got the impression that MMC really only saw Amira as a sex object. The spicy scenes didn't have much chemistry and unnecessary.
One last thing because I love dragons so much. I didn't love the idea of breaking a dragon. Personal preference. I just don't like when dragons are made weak and dog-like. A dragon-human relationship should be more than just throwing a collar around its neck & BOOM instant bond.

I read this book quickly and did enjoy it. I'd recommend for a fun, light dragon fantasy. Not to be taken too seriously.

Thank you to NetGalley and Yggdrasil Press for the ARC of Dragon Den in exchange for an honest review.

I so badly wanted to like this. It's a debut author writing about a dragon school. This book had so much potential and a lot of good ideas. Unfortunately, the execution fell short in several areas.

First, I felt like the book had STRONG gender differences in a distinctly icky way. The main character was extremely unlikeable. In the first 20 pages, I counted four times that the MC is checking out a girl in an objectifying way while he's literally in the middle of a life threatening situation. He's disrespectful. He says he never studies, doesn't know where the library even is, and yet he wants the biggest, baddest dragon with seemingly no characteristics that makes him qualified. On the other hand, he is "dating" the best student (first in her class). Besides saving him a few times and being his personal cheerleader, she doesn't seem to take on other character traits besides her vanilla lotion, her figure, and her group chat (eye roll). She doesn't participate in the races but goes to cheer him on. As a female, she is also apparently the only one that cares about dragon consent...She is written in purely to further his character and it doesn't even do much. Markus is supposed to be some good guy because he brings her snacks every once in a while. He literally spends the whole book objectifying her (and other women), acting like she can't handle things (when she is significantly more qualified than him), and literally tells her at one point that he got some "girly shit" for her. The brother and the boyfriend both treat her like an object. There are a lot of casual sex jokes that don't sit right and were honestly distasteful. Also, the girls name their dragons after animals? like tigers and bears. But the guys get to name their dragons after gods like Poseidon and Loki and Derkomai. Again, rolling my eyes...

Second, the blend of real world and fantasy is done in a pretty jarring way. He would be talking about taking a bus to Portland while he's flying on a dragon or talking about riding your dragon to a brewery to get a beer. There are, apparently, real world cops and motorcycle/dragon gangs. There is police brutality mentioned as a plot point but it is not explored in any meaningful way. It feels like it was done just to the readers knew that Amira was black. It felt weird that racism was mentioned twice in the book for a couple of sentences and then dropped. It would have been a very valid idea to incorporate if it was followed through on. Another time, it's just sort of randomly dropped into a conversation that one of the characters is gay. It felt like the author just wanted to make sure they were incorporating queer and POC characters without paying any real attention to the characters or the issues they could face as a result.

Third, the world building was nonexistent. The way they describe the connection between dragons and riders is bland and weird (they connect their neurons so they're on the same wavelength??) The author hinted at some really cool elements that were never explored, like dragons coming from volcanos. But, the only way it's shown is Amira casually dropping facts (which felt like a bland attempt at giving information about the world without any work).

Fourth, it was so so so predictable. I knew the minute they introduced Mamba that Markus would finally get the black dragon he originally wanted. Again, this man did not in any way deserve this dragon.

Fifth, the dialogue was childish. Here's an example.

So you're Markus. We've heard all about you our group chat. Only good things, I hope. Don't worry, we only talk about great...big...things. She wiggles her eyebrows. Like seriously, wtf is this?

Also, there were some random characters thrown in at the end for absolutely no reason. They were Amira's friends from her group chat?? They come in for one scene to meet Markus, they make a couple crude jokes, and then leave.

Overall, I think this is a book that would have benefitted from another 200 pages. If given time to explore the lore of the world and incorporate some more character growth (and better relationship building), it would have gone up at least a star. I'm sorry to the author and I hate rating a debut low, but, I was really disappointed. 2 stars..

This book had such a fun modern fantasy approach with dragons, while still incorporating the fantasy of dragons existing. I'm a sucker for a dragon war college, and this book definitely satisfied that itch. I hope the author continues this story in future books, can't wait! I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5, because the character development felt a tad rushed.

First, thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, I stopped reading this title at 12% in. There was simply too much I did not enjoy about how the first couple chapters laid the story out to be optimistic it would improve enough for me to enjoy it by the end. Here are my reasons why I DNFed:

Pacing and Immersion:
It felt as if the author sacrificed immersion and promises & pay-offs in favor of rapid-fire pacing. Sentences were often clipped/short and devoid of detail or build-up to connect with the main character and their motivations. The first chapter was the epitome of being told what happens vs. showing what happens. Although it was highly action-driven and lots of cool stuff happened, the pacing didn’t allow for any of the coolness of any of it to actually BE cool. The writing quickly desensitized the reader to what was cool or impressive for the character or setting or stakes and what was just a regular day. We are not really given any moments of introspection to feel what the character was feeling beyond a few “my stomach dropped”. There was ample opportunity to build intrigue and suspense and none of them were taken.

Plot and Character Development:
The plot and characters are way too underdeveloped in the beginning to effectively draw in and immerse the reader. I think more time allowing us to feel the character's nerves and more of a challenge in finding and breaking a dragon would make us feel more connected to him falling short of his aspirations and the disappointment we’re supposed to feel. Part of what made How to Train Your Dragon (one of the comps in the story description) so great was because we understood Hiccup and his motives and also saw how much work he put into getting Toothless to trust him. We got to witness the things he was willing to do to keep him a secret despite the clout it would have earned him. We got to root for Hiccup through his attempts to connect with Toothless. We ultimately are made to feel like the success Hiccup had with Toothless was well earned. None of that takes place with Markus and his dragon and I just feel like he was shown some unjustified act of favoritism by the Commander.

Characterization of Markus (the main character):
Beyond the weak plot, the main character and narrator, Markus, is not an appealing protagonist. The author's depiction of him as a smug, womanizing bad boy lacks nuance and doesn't render him a likable or compelling protagonist. Markus's inner thoughts reveal an unlikable jock/player persona that feels more like an adolescent fantasy than a realistic characterization. We know he wants to catch a Black dragon because they're the most badass, but we don't get a sense of whether he's doing that to prove himself in some regard or because perhaps he's trying to impress his crush, or if he's literally just arrogant. We don't know, because the stakes are laid out so flimsily. We know failing is bad because he'll get kicked out of school, but all we really know is that he's wanted to be a dragon rider for a long time.Then he fails, and gets NO CONSEQUENCES. Just a stern look and an immediate unearned second chance (when it was written multiple times that no second chances were possible). It was SO flimsy. And to top it off, his inner thoughts about the female characters further assert his character as a pretty intolerable tool (from a female perspective at least). We don’t get a sense of Markus’s emotional baseline to accept or reject his perceptions of the characters around him. None of it is very believable and reads like the author is projecting his idea of what a badass playboy with ladies flocking to him because of his washboard abs would be like. It’s not written as a character I care to learn more about and I wasn't given any implications of what his character development might look like.

Overall Feel:
Ultimately, the beginning of the story reads to me more like an initial draft than a well-developed final story ready for publication. It takes too long for the reader to get invested in the characters to effectively motivate the readers to continue reading (or in my case, not at all). This was such a disappointing start to the story from the expectations I had that I knew that I wasn’t connected enough to the character to want to continue reading, so I DNFed.

I acknowledge that my feedback might be harsh compared to some other reviews. While I understand that writing is a personal and subjective experience, I believe it's important to provide honest and constructive feedback to help authors improve their craft. I appreciate the effort that went into creating this story and hope that my feedback can be helpful in some way.

An absolute masterpiece! I couldn’t put this book down it as so addictive!! I can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy

While this story was entertaining, I couldn’t believe how much of the plot was literally copied almost bit by bit from the original Fast and Furious movie. The scene in the cafeteria was identical to the scene in the restaurant. The racing scene when the guard shows up is ripped right from the scene where Brian saves Dom and ends up in Chinatown. I found it extremely irritating how much of this plot was stolen.

This book is The Fast and The Furious but with Dragons 🐉

Dragon Den was very fun and I hope there is a book 2! It definitely followed the storyline of the first Fast and Furious movie. I was very entertained and read it in one sitting! I wish it was longer though with more world building and backgrounds on the characters.

I would totally recommend for a fun quick read is dragons is your thing!