Review – Marked by Dragon’s Blood (Return of the Dragonborn, Book 1) by N.M. Howell (2/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 298 pages
Publisher: Dungeon Media Corp.
Release Date: January 19, 2017
ASIN: B01N9TCPQX
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Return of the Dragonborn series
Source: Bought for Kindle
Rating: 2/5 stars

“Andie Rogers is no stranger to death and secrecy.

After watching her dragonborn mother get taken away at a young age, she has had to learn to use her sorcery inherited from her father to disguise all trace of her own dragon’s blood magic. Now, no longer a child, Andie must attend the University, center of all power and government in Arvall City, to learn to wield her magic and become a fully-fledged sorcerer.

But Andie has another goal in mind.

Dreams of her tormented ancestors calling out to her have haunted her since she was a child, and Andie knows she must answer their call and discover the truth before her people’s history is lost forever.

The only problem? She must do so in the magical capital of her world, surrounded by powerful sorcerers determined to uphold the lie at all cost. Sorcerers who have sworn an oath to destroy her kind.

If they discover that she carries the blood of the dragonborn, death will be swift and her people will never get a chance at redemption.

Will Andie risk everything to shatter the lies that the world has been fed for so long? Will she set her people free?”

This book is the first book in the Return of the Dragonborn series. I have to admit I was drawn in by the beautiful cover and interesting premise to this story. I ended up being really disappointed in this. It’s a quick read, but the story isn’t very cohesive and doesn’t flow well at all. Dialogue between characters is also forced sounding and awkward.

Andie is starting magic school to learn to control her magic, during this she will need to hide the fact that she is one of the Dragonborn who are thought to be extinct. Andie hopes to find the secrets about the Dragonborn at school.

This book has a neat world and an interesting premise. However it is very poorly written. The story jerks from place to place and the dialogue and language don’t flow well at all. There are a lot of things that are brought up in the story (a mysterious language for one) and then dropped never to be dealt with again in this book.

Technically this is just a poorly written book, there are even places where the wrong words are used for things. At many points I had to go back and re-read to try and figure out how we were suddenly in a different place…usually we were just jumped there with no explanation. Very frustrating read.

Overall not recommended. This book has a neat world and premise, but is just very poorly written. I definitely will not be reading any more by this author.