Thank you to Netgalley and One More Chapter for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. This post may contain spoilers.
Dragonhart (pub date: 18 April 2025) follows the King’s deadly assassin Arla Reinhart who is charged with discovering why the kingdom’s shipments are going missing and threatens the prosperity of the kingdoms. She is forced to work with the arrogant ambassador of the kingdom that killed her parents, Hark Strappen. Their growing animosity reaches boiling point when they are forced in close proximity on this mission of the utmost importance. Many believe Arla’s kingdom houses powerful but sleeping dragons under the castle, but Arla doesn’t believe a word of the rumours or in magic at all. On their mission they discover something bloodcurdling and must work together all while battling their growing attraction to one another.
Dragonhart is a slow burn fantasy full of political intrigue, magic and rebellion. Join Arla and Hark exploring royal palaces, fighting in taverns and making a discovery that will shatter all they thought were true.
Review
Dragonhart has all the elements I adore – a slow burn romance, dragons, forced proximity and found family with political intrigue.
Arla is an interesting character with her dedication to King Hadalyn as his personal assassin. She is ruthless and holds a grudge for the horrors that Strappen’s kingdom did to her parents. She is violent and impulsive that compliments Hark’s calm and calculated approach. Right from the start the tension between these two character is palpable and sets the scene for what is to come. The concept hooked me from the start and I enjoyed the back and forth dialogue between Arla and Hark and how they knew exactly what to say to irritate each other.
I did feel the story took a little too long to get moving and scenes appeared to end abruptly or with a time jump making the pacing a little off. That being said I enjoyed the multi pov and the short chapters and the writing was easy to read. From the 75% to the end of the story, the pace picked up a lot and I was hooked to finish reading. When the dragons were introduced I didn’t feel a big connection between Arla and the dragons, especially as she spent the majority of the book adamant that dragons didn’t exist. I’m still a little confused as to why she is the last dragonhart but I hope this will be explained in further detail in the rest of the series. I enjoyed the depiction of the dragons and I’m intrigued how their relationship will develop and entwine with Arla’s character and her role within the story.
As much as I liked Arla and Hark’s animosity, I thought the romance element came out of nowhere and didn’t lead to anything until the very end. The chemistry was off and didn’t have enough time to build in terms of Arla’s sudden change of heart towards him. I could understand Hark’s growing affection and that made more sense. I liked his character and how his true identity and the reasons for some of his actions throughout the book are explained and threaded the make an unexpected plot twist.
Overall, the ending was exceptional in terms of setting up the series for future books and I liked the concept with magic system and the political element of corruption and greed of rulers. I did think the plot might need tightening in places to help keep the momentum and build on the slow burn aspect of the romance, but it was lighthearted read. Dragonhart is a fun dragon inspired book that touches a lot on class and power.
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