1st Light - Dawn Reads and Reviews

Threshing Day by Rebecca Yarros My rating: 4 of 5 stars I did not realize how badly I needed to return to Basgiath until thirteen different Threshing Days reminded me exactly why I love this world. Threshing Day revisits one of the most important moments in a rider’s life through multiple familiar perspectives, giving us the chance to experience the day cadets enter the Vale and either bond with a dragon or fail trying. Rather than centering one character, the novella moves among thirteen different cadets and dragon pairings, revealing pieces of the relationships, fears, motivations, loyalties, and grief that eventually shape the characters we know from the main series. I loved this. Some chapters are funny (Ridoc & Aotrom), some are heartbreaking (Sloane & Thoirt), and several quietly add new meaning to moments or relationships from Fourth Wing , Iron Flame, and Onyx Storm. Ridoc’s perspective was exactly as entertaining as I expected, while...

The Time of My Afterlife by Lucy Mitchell My rating: 4 of 5 stars Florence and Clark have been irritating each other since they were six, so when a freak accident leaves them stranded together in the afterlife, neither is thrilled with the arrangement. That premise had me intrigued from the start. I loved the idea of having the main characters wake up in the afterlife with the person they've disliked since childhood. They are then given a chance to return to their lives, but only if they can figure out what they are supposed to change. With very little guidance, they begin looking outward, helping friends, neighbors, and people carrying grief of their own while slowly realizing they may have misunderstood each other for years. I really enjoyed the mix of enemies-to-lovers, magical realism, and second-chance themes. Florence and Clark’s bickering gives the story plenty of humor. I especially loved watching their assumptions about each other gradua...

Burn of the Everflame by Penn Cole My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is the book I've been waiting for, the book I've been yearning for, and it did NOT disappoint. After four books of war, prophecies, impossible choices, and two main characters that I can't get enough of, Burn of the Everflame finally brings everything crashing together. This book picks up where the previous book left off. Emarion is at war on multiple fronts. The Descended face annihilation; rebellion is spreading; the Crowns are forced into alliances that once seemed impossible; and Diem and Luther are caught at the center of a conflict where personal love and the fate of an entire world have become inseparable. What worked best for me was the scale. This feels like a finale. The politics expand, the magic deepens, familiar characters finally step into roles the series has been preparing them for, and the multiple perspectives give the conflict a much broader emotional reach...

Trust Fall by Lynn Painter My rating: 4 of 5 stars View all my reviews

Murmuration by T.J. Klune My rating: 4 of 5 stars View all my reviews

The Magical Cheese Emporium by Sarah Beth Durst My rating: 5 of 5 stars View all my reviews