OMG! This book was such an unexpected, fun read.

First of all, Hark is now on my list of book boyfriends. He's absolutely delicious (and a perfect mix of vicious, yet soft)

Arla is the Kings Assassin; she's snarky and ruthless and detached. I adore her.

She despises the Ambassador from the neighbouring kingdom, so when they're sent off together on a mission you know it's going to be a good time. The banter and dynamic between them definitely made me chuckle.

The old religion talks of Gods and Dragons that have gone to sleep. I won't spoil what happens, but you definitely get to see this play out (and I can't wait to see it continue in book 2)

The writing was excellent, and the side characters weren't lacking.

Go read this book.

I think Dragonhart has so much potential to be a great series. Some positive things that stood out to me were the dialogue and witty banter between the two romantic interests. I think the FMC could use some more fleshing out in terms of being a round character. She felt flat to me because she just seemed angry about EVERYTHING. I needed to see more vulnerability to make her more likable. The magic also felt a little underwhelming because it wasn't fully weaved into the whole story. It almost felt like it was saved for the end and I would have appreciated it to be fully incorporated throughout.

Thank you for the ARC.

Thank you to Harper Collins UK and NetGalley for the opportunity with the advanced copy. I was very excited for this book, however overall it fell a little flat for me.

I struggled to get into this story as the backstory felt like other story lines I had read before. It was tough for me to connect with the FMC and I found her infuriating at times. I did enjoy the romance and the MMC more, as those aspects progressed - I found it easier for me to continue.

The world building felt choppy for me at times and again made me think of other fantasy books I have read before. I will likely still recommend this book to readers that I know enjoy dragons and the tropes involved.

I had high hopes for this one, but unfortunately it missed the mark for me. I simply couldn’t vibe at all with the FMC and found myself more focused on how juvenile it felt. I think the author shows a lot of promise, but it just wasn’t for me this time.

I find myself unable to write a long review without it spiralling into a whinge about the things that frustrated me and made me unable to connect with the whole story, and I simply don’t have the desire to write a negative review on both a book and author that I do believe show promise.

Thank you to NetGalley for gifting me this eARC. My review is wholly my own opinion.

This was a really great read. It was a slow burn with little spice. I loved the interactions of the main characters. I could see Arla roll her eyes more than once at Hark. All in all it was a great read.

The first half of the book i think is more fantasy than romance, and the last half of the book the opposite. I think that’s why I feel like when they get together, it feels like it was mostly physical attraction as i feel like it’s one sided? But i enjoy the story more and more as the story goes on. I love the found family aspect. The banter between the main characters i feel like was good but it does feel like arla really hate hark so how can she change her mind in just a short amount of time? But other than that i feel like this is a good book! I would recommend if you enjoyed fear the flames or the serpent and the wings of night.

I've been thinking about how to review this book for almost a week. I wanted to see if my feelings would change, but I still believe it feels a lot like a remake of Throne of Glass. The characters and story seemed familiar and forgettable, and I often confused this book with other fantasy stories. There wasn't anything new or exciting about it. I found it hard to connect with Celaena the first time, and reading this version didn't change my mind. I'm giving it a decent rating mainly because the pace was good and it was a better read than something written by a sixteen-year-old.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC.

This unfortunately fell flat for me. The pacing threw me off the whole time…it was either giving me whiplash or going nowhere.

I’ve read too many books lately with a troubled girl turned assassin for the king who is a secret softy. It read very Throne of Glass/A Broken Blade but it wasn’t original enough to connect to it.

The romance also felt very disingenuous, forced, and rushed.

It just wasn’t for me.

I had high hopes for this book, a strong FMC, enemies to lovers, found family and dragons, it sounded absolutely perfect for me.
Unfortunately whilst there is so much potential in this book it felt to me that everything was kept very surface level. More depth was needed for the storyline, for the enemies to lovers and the found family for those points to really hit home and have an impact on the reader. Because nothing was really explored deeply it was impossible to find a connection with the characters.
It felt like parts of lots of different books had been added together into this book but not joined together in any kind of cohesive way.
It makes me sad as the book has the bones of a really great story, but it needed to be fleshed out, deepened and its such a shame that didn’t happen.
I really did enjoy the premise of this book, but I feel like it needed more work.

I tried really hard to get into this, but it reads more like it was written for 12 year olds because that’s about how mature the main character is. I can’t read the name Hark and take it seriously (I read “listen!”). He has no personality. Plus this was almost a rip off of Throne of Glass.

Here we've got two enemies from rival (and once warring) kingdoms with a dollop of forced proximity, a dash of only one bed, and a drop of who did this to you?! I sailed through this book which was an interesting adventure that took us across a foreign kingdom full of danger and politics. Arla's a King's assassin, full of rage but loyal to her people. Hark is an ambassador with surprising skills - one of them being the ability to rile up Arla. While I love a revenge plot, Arla's character was a little too angry at times, and it was hard to see her in the role of assassin which requires more skill and self control than unaliving people. The story itself was intriguing and the politics complex, it also threw in some real curve balls (some I saw coming and others I didn't) and we get to know Arla much better throughout. We also occasionally get Hark's perspective, which spiced things up a little bit and allowed us to see more of what was going on, but not much - there was still a whole lot of mystery! There weren't any side characters I was particularly fond of, they weren't developed very much beyond the necessary, though Arla's horse was probably my favourite. I also couldn't entirely get behind the way Arla and Hark's relationship was written as it developed which made this story overall a little hit and miss for me but I'll keep an eye out for how the author's writing develops in future!

I received a free copy of this book. All views are my own.

I had high hopes for this book but it just didn’t work at all for me. Arla is introduced as the King’s Assassin, superior in any way. But it’s made abundantly clear that she isn’t as mighty and powerful as she still thinks she is. Which leads to a bit of an awkward read as I just couldn’t find myself rooting for her. She gets incredibly annoying by how distrusting and rude she is to everyone, and her dialogue with Hark might be the most annoying of all.

I found myself not caring about the book as it kept dragging on. It definitely has potential and I can see why people do enjoy it, but the characters and dialogue made it a rough read for me.

It pains me to rate this so low, but I do feel like I must be honest. In a sea of similar-sounding Romantasy novels, DRAGONHART does not do anything different than what's already out there. Off the bat, the protagonist felt very young, and as this is not a YA novel, I found her childish behavior (at times) very difficult to like. The worldbuilding felt fairly typical Romantasy, but this was an element I rather enjoyed as the novel itself was very easy to get through. Told in dual POV, the male lead was someone I found a bit more interesting, though the majority of the book is told from the FMC's perspective. I think I would have preferred a better balance there.

All in all, I've chosen to rate this two stars because I did really enjoy the concept, and the writing was accessible if a bit too simplistic. But almost every other aspect fell flat for me. Do I think this book will find its niche? Absolutely. But as there are literally hundreds of better-written fantasy romances out there in the market, I cannot recommend this one for seasoned readers of the genre.

Thank you for the ARC!

Anytime there are dragons automatically adding to my tbr. I was very hopefully for this read. I did like it but it was not an all time favorite. Dragonhart very much gave me Throne of Glass vibes which I loved but then I was like wait no no I couldn’t see myself in the characters shoes and that’s ultimately why I gave it such a low rating. I did find the FMC to be a little too much whiny and felt the romance was fast paced in my opinion. The world building was good just wish the characters were more relatable. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the book.

Super grateful for the opportunity to read this book!

Dragons are always a blast, enemies to lovers, secret hidden magic, warring kingdoms, and so much more!

I had fun, but couldn’t relate to the characters like I was hoping for! The motivation for decisions the characters were making wasn’t as strong as I would’ve liked. The characters did have growth and had a good journey along the way.

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up to 4 ⭐️
This book had me hooked for the first 40%. I couldn’t stop reading. I loved the storyline with mystery, a bad ass FMC, magic and dragons that we still don’t know if they exist or just an old wife’s tale.
Unfortunately at this point I started to get annoyed at the repetitiveness of ”she is the king’s assassin” ”as the kings assassin she..” it felt like it was written one every page about how she was the kings assassin. I could see past this most of the time and also how immature the FMC was. She’s only 18 so of course she’ll be immature. Totally on brand. But then at the end she made some really weird decisions that didn’t line up with that she actually was such a badass assassin. And the sidekick she picked up was supposed to be ”old and wise” but agreed that it was a good decision… then there was one last thing at the very very end that also felt so weird. That I can’t say anything about without spoil it.
I know that all of this sounds very negative and yes it was but I still loved the storyline. If it had just been worked over a bit more this could have been a 4.5-5 stars!

Thank you to the publisher and author for the ability to read this book. Look. I picked up this book because, hello—dragons in the tiele. That’s an easy hook. You slap a dragon on the cover and I’m already halfway sold. But once I got in? It lost me :(

Let’s start with the pacing. I don’t know what kind of storytelling cardio this book thought I was trained for, but it was either crawling through sand or racing a bullet train—no in-between.

The main character? I liked her! She had the kind of snarky, stubborn energy I vibe with. But I wanted to see her grow, not just be told she did. Her arc felt like it plateaued halfway through the book, and by the end, I wasn’t sure if she had really changed or if we were just supposed to clap because she survived. Surviving is great, but that’s the floor, not the ceiling.

Then there’s the spice. And look—I’m not against spice. I appreciate spice. But when it’s done right. This? This felt like the author was like, “Oh no, it’s been 100 pages, better throw in a steamy scene or the readers will riot.” It wasn’t organic, didn’t really add to the emotional stakes, and honestly, it pulled me out of the story more than it pulled me into it.

Worldbuilding? Solid conceptually. I mean—again—dragons. And the politics and magic system had potential. But so much of it was told instead of shown. I wanted more texture, more immersion, less exposition. There were moments of brilliance, don’t get me wrong, but they were buried under a lot of “let me explain this lore real quick” energy.

Also—and maybe this is just me—but I could not figure out if this book was meant to be a standalone or the first in a series. The ending was like, “Here’s a little closure, and also 10 loose threads that we may or may not address, who knows?” It didn’t feel like a satisfying conclusion OR a proper cliffhanger. It felt like the author stopped writing because they hit their word count and said, “Good enough!”

Now, was it all bad? No. Again: dragons. The banter had its moments. There were scenes that made me smile, characters I genuinely liked, and plot points that could have been amazing with a little more breathing room. I don’t regret reading it. But would I recommend it without a long disclaimer? Mmmm... probably not.

Final verdict? Mid. Not “throw it out the window” bad, but definitely not living rent-free in my head either. If you love dragons enough to forgive pacing issues, thin character arcs, and awkward spice, go for it. If you’re here for tight plotting and emotionally satisfying payoffs... might want to keep browsing.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for the advance reader copy.

The book is based in a world where dragons may have existed and so did magic. There’s an assassin who gets sent on a mission with an advisor from another kingdom and they go on a journey.

For the first maybe 60-70% of the book I don’t think I cared about what the main characters were doing.
I decided to not DNF because I held out hope for the ending and then was unfortunately disappointed.
The romance felt rushed and forced and so did the ending,

I so badly wanted to love Dragonhart, I really did. It gave me TOG vibes and I ADORE TOG, but this just didn't work for me. For one, Aria is incredibly unlikeable. She's childish, whiny, and way too big for her britches. Meanwhile, Hark was... fine. He's plain mashed potatoes when you asked for loaded, ya know? Still delicious but could be better lol. & the chemistry between them was eh.

I wanted to love this book more than I did because the skeleton is there, I just wish there was MORE. The world-building was fine, but all of the happenings felt so immediate from one side of the spectrum to the other. The FMC abhorred the MMC, but then within the span of a dozen pages, they’re falling into bed together with almost no buildup and very little tension. Same goes for her feelings toward magic and dragons. She believed so vehemently that magic and dragons did not exist, but never truly went searching for them.

The novel was written as a dual-POV book, but it was so heavily skewed to Arla’s POV that it made it difficult to truly understand Hark’s mind and his working for things. For an assassin, Arla surely does not pay attention to the things that most people ignore because she gets caught severely lacking in multiple scenes of the book.

While this is a good debut novel, I wish there would’ve been more flushed out scenes to give us more meat to the story. I think we’re missing about 40-50 pages worth of depth.

Thank you Abbie Eaton for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review.