Alveria Dragon Akademy Book 1 by Ava Richardson
Published on:  October 31, 2018

“In Alveria, humans and dragons have existed side by side for centuries, but old tensions have grown and the kingdom is now divided…”

In The Dragon Tamer, Kaelan discovers she has a dragon heritage which allows her to enter the Alveria Akademy – a school for humans and dragons to learn their skills and be paired together. Kaelan is a peasant and this opportunity is one she must take for herself and her mother who is ill and needs a dragon’s special healing to make her well again. Kaelan travels a great distance to the school and as she draws closer circumstances bring her and Prince Lasaro together, where he very quickly determines that she must be his tamer.

One of the main conversations I had with myself as I read this book was how old the characters ‘really’ are vs what my perception of them was. Although the book places the main characters in the 16/17 year old range, I often felt that they were younger. Younger in that conversations and feelings they had sounded more like 11-13 yrs old. The characters were often impetuous in both what they said and what they did. An example is when Prince Lasaro decided that Kaelan is his tamer – no discussion, or thinking about it over night. He made his decision and it was done. This led me to a full discussion in that perhaps most authors write 16/17yr olds more mature than their intended age and instead maybe this author is writing the characters more accurately. In the end, I was torn, but still believe their conversations and actions make them sound more like they are 11-13.

I found the world-building was just ok. In the story, you do learn of a neighboring country, but through-out the story when you would hear of it you didn’t really get a good understanding of what the political or cultural tension was. You just knew there were issues. There also wasn’t too much background on the main antagonists and what they may be up to or the reasons behind their evil deeds. I also found the characters a little flat, especially the supporting cast, like other dragons/tamers. Prince Lasaro has siblings, but you don’t get more than a “they’re are just not right for the throne” informational sentences. I did like the 2 main characters and thought they complimented each other well, but if they are 16/17 I would expect more in depth conversations about life and whatnot.

All in all, if you go into it with the mindset that the book is geared more toward middle age students and not YA then you might find this a rather enjoyable read. However, I was just a bit confused on how I should view the characters and what emotional depth I should expect from them.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book, through Reading Deals, and I gave an honest review.