Blazewrath Games

"3.5 stars for me, but I think if I’d read this in middle school I’d have LOVED it. A very fun and heartfelt story about dragons, magic, family, chosen family, and heritage."

"This had such a unique premise that I couldn’t help but read it. I loved the idea of sports tournaments with dragons, and it was well developed, albeit a bit hard to understand. The teams had a lot of great representation, including POC and lgbtq+ characters. However, I do wish we got more development on this representation, such as how it shaped the characters. But most of them were really multi-sided and developed, especially the unlikable at first characters. But it feels like at some points there were too much characters- it was hard to keep track of most of them. But there’s also no romance, which is refreshing.There was also a good helping of plot twists and excitement in the storyline, even if it focused a bit more on the villain than the actual dragon sports. And the real-world references were also fun- I loved the Law and Order obsession. This was an enjoyable read overall despite some flaws, but I’m unsure if I will read the sequel."

"Let me start by saying I really wanted to like (possibly also love) this book. I’m from Puerto Rico myself, so being able to finally have some sort of representation in novels besides a casual mention here or there or as a “luxurious” vacation spot (which we aren’t, we are a colony that’s a glorified tax haven in the USA for corporations and the rich).<br/>That being said, the book had an interesting plot and ideas, however some of the more twisty and intriguing plot lines boiled down to “this mystery you would have never guessed because you don’t know how the rules of magic in this world are much less how they work because it was never discussed or explained” therefore you can write and get away with any (Deus Ex Machina) plot device. When things would get too rough or too imposible we would get super convenient resolutions which would rob you of the moment and the tension this conflict was supposed to be causing. It would suspend my disbelief because it would just be too easy a squeeze out of these problems. I felt that there was too easily a resolution at times and that kind of defeats the purpose of there being a conflict in the first place. in other words, nothing would really be lost in the end. And when we did lose something (won’t say what because spoilers) it still felt... like whatever. There was no attachment to that loss. We didn’t really get to connect or care about it very much before it was affected. (Sorry for keeping it so vague, maybe I’ll write a spoiler review).<br/><br/>I also have an issue with the magic system in this world... there is magic but it’s not explained at all! It’s just *there*. There are no rules to explain what can or can’t be done with this magic. We have a ranking system at least but the explanations as to what the three ranks can accomplish or not is also just as vague. There’s the Regulars (this book’s version of Muggles), Copper Wands (lowest rank), Silver Wands (Mid tier) and finally we have the Gold Wands (top tier). Gold Wands are extremely rare and seem to have ridiculous and almost godlike powers with seemingly no downside or regulation as to, again, what they can or cannot do! It’s very vaguely explained or touched upon because magic Both is and isn’t really an issue in this novel. It is an issue because clearly the author loves Harry Potter and wanted to homage it in a way but to add it into a sports-type competitive novel it honestly didn’t need to be there... this is a story about dragons, sports and following your dreams. But it’s also a defeat evil lord Voldemort, sorry, “The Sire” a dragon trapped in human form, which we also don’t know why he decided to be evil in the first place! The book just seems to establish he was always evil I guess. No reason, he just *is*. I don’t really understand what this novel was trying to be. At first it’s about competing to represent your country, the next it was about taking down Voldemort. Okay I guess...<br/><br/>As for the characters, I very much enjoyed everyone except Victoria and Lana. These two characters seemed waaaaay more immature than the rest of the characters just because of that petty girl-drama they had going on. There doesn’t always need to be girl on girl drama in every female protagonist novel just to add conflict with other characters... it’s a tired trope and here it was just grating.<br/><br/>All in all, this book suffers from an identity crisis (ironically enough) and I desperately wanted to like it. However, I would be doing a disservice in rating it 5/5 if I didn’t feel like it needed more polishing and more of a single direction. Like I said, you are either your own thing, or you *try* to be your own thing only to meld into a very subpar Harry Potter fanfic with dragons (or an emphasis in Quidditch, the HP sport equivalent)."