Dragonfall

This is one of those books where I have to conclude I am not the target audience. I can appreciate it is well written, with some clever writers tricks in terms of tensing and language use. But for me, I am not a big romance person and there was too much of that in this. Enemies to lovers is one of my least favourite tropes out there and it basically forms the centerpiece of this story.

We follow the stories of a dragon and a thief. The dragons have all been banished to an alternate realm, but during a magical convocation the thief calls one across from their realm to this one. The shapeshifting dragon trope is also used here (another one I am not especially fond of - let dragons be dragons!) so the dragon blends into society. The main plot follows a heist involving the dragon and the thief along with attempts for the dragons to return to this world. These are all aspects I enjoyed, but for such a character driven story I have to engage with the characters and I struggled here, and I always find these romance heavy things kind of cringey.

There is some clever use of language around gender here, which I do appreciate. The thief is never specified as to which gender they actually are, and there are multiple allusions to gender fluidity in the story. This was well done and in a way that did not feel forced or shoe horned in.

Ultimately, I can appreciate this was well written, but it played with tropes that I am not particularly fond of which ultimately detracted from my overall enjoyment. YMMV.