Review: Dragonsworn by Marty Mayberry

DRAGONSWORN

Crystal Wing Academy, Book Two

by Marty Mayberry

Hummingbird Press

YA Fantasy

280 pages

COMING...

NOVEMBER 20th, 2019!!!

I survived Orientation at Crystal Wing Academy--barely--and now it's time to learn how to control my power.

After destroying a power-sucking slake before he killed my friends, I'm feeling stronger and more confident than ever.

Donovan and I are together, I'm pulling in more threads than before, and I have new abilities I'm excited to master... So, I might be flunking Magical Creatures & How to Tame Them. Not everything comes easy, right?

When I stumble over a dead girl--one of eight Outlings at the Academy--and she's marked with an O and a #7, it's clear someone's copycatting the Outling murders that took place one-hundred years ago.

With the clock ticking down and more Outlings turning up dead, I'll soon be next. Last time, every Outling at the Academy was murdered.

But the killer is about to learn this Outling wizard won't go down without a fight.

An exciting new world for Potter fans, filled with magic, suspense, a badass heroine, and flirty romance.

Dragonsworn is the second book in the young adult Crystal Wing Academy series.

MY TIDBITS

Fast-paced and full of quirky, fantastical creatures, this is a fun read with enough action and intrigue to keep those pages turning until the end.

This is the second book in the series. I did have the pleasure of reading the first one and recommend starting out at the beginning, since the tale does build from book to book. But the author gives enough information that it isn't impossible to start with book two.

Fleur survived her first adventures at the Crystal Wing Academy, a magical school in Maryland which humans are unaware exists. She is one of the shunned Outlings—those who come from the outside world and weren't born of those possessing magic. While it appears that things have gotten better, the death of one of the other rare Outlings raises concerns that someone is trying to wipe them out. Again. After all, it's not the first time it's happened at the academy. With her own powers still a mystery, Fleur realizes she's the only one taking the deaths seriously and plans to investigate. But there might be more to it than anyone suspects...not to mention that Fleur's own heart suddenly stands on the line as well.

These books hold the fantastical, and somewhat humorous details, which remind of the Harry Potter world, but drop in the full drama of cliques and high school life, girl power and a bit of romance too. Fleur is everything to be expected—has a difficult past, an outcast, a fighter, kind, determined, and has a heart of gold. She makes mistakes, tons of them, and has to stumble quite a bit before she reaches her goals...and often these don't turn out the way she planned. It makes her strong but definitely not too much so, and leaves tons of room for character growth. The plot is quick paced and dominates the tale as the intrigue weaves thicker and thicker.

There is romance, but this is more like a pixie dust coating on the darker magical adventure. It's completely appropriate for even younger YA audiences and works more on friendship than anything else.

The mystery is well laid out for most of the book and promises a few huge surprises still to come in the rest of the series. The last chapters did drop clues a little quick, which made it come across slightly more rushed than the rest of the book, but it wasn't even to ruin the story. There's a cliff-hanger ending (something to love or hate), but it definitely keeps the fingers itching to see what will happen next.

All in all, this is an easy and fun adventure to sink into without too much fault and simply enjoy the magical ride.