Dragon Unleashed (The Fallen Empire, #2)

by Grace Draven

A dragon shapeshifter and a healer with power over the earth fight a corrupt empire in this thrilling and deeply emotional romantic fantasy from the USA Today bestselling author of Radiance.

Magic is outlawed in the Krael Empire and punishable by death. Born with the gift of earth magic, the free trader Halani keeps her dangerous secret closely guarded. When her uncle buys a mysterious artifact, a piece of bone belonging to a long-dead draga, Halani knows it's far more than what it seems.

Dragas haven't been seen for more than a century, and most believe them extinct. They're wrong. Dragas still walk among the denizens of the Empire, disguised as humans. Malachus is a draga living on borrowed time. The magic that has protected him will soon turn on him--unless he finds a key part of his heritage. He has tracked it to a group of free traders, among them a grave-robbing earth witch who fascinates him as much as she frustrates him with her many secrets.

Unbeknownst to both, the Empire's twisted empress searches for a draga of her own, to capture and kill as a trophy. As Malachus the hunter becomes the hunted, Halani must risk herself and all she loves to save him from the Empire's machinations and his own lethal birthright.

• ISBN10: 0451489772
• ISBN13: 9780451489777
• Publish Date: 9 June 2020
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Ace Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 416
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780451489777

Reviews

[stacey_is_sassy]

I got there in the end...

After absolutely LOVING Phoenix Unbound, I was so excited to move onto Dragon Unleashed.

Holy Shamoly, that was a wee bit of a hard slog. Instead of watching my progression dreading it coming to an end, I was rolling my eyes in frustration with how many hours I had left till the end.

After meeting Halani in Phoenix Unbound, I was looking forward to getting to know her better. It just felt that there wasn't much more than what I already knew. Sure, we got to find out why Asil (Halani's mother) is the way she is, but even that felt skimmed over. I never really felt like I understood Halani's magic either, and I wasn't excited when she used it. I wanted to know how her earth magic made her such an accomplished healer. I hated that her abilities were used for greedy reasons, and that the people in her caravan took advantage of her kindness.

While I liked Malachas, again, I felt like we didn't get to know him that well. He was even a bit self-righteous, which I found unappealing. I normally love dragon stories too.

In the first instalment of the Fallen Empire series, I was on the edge of my seat for most of it. The characters were in peril, the storyline moved in an effortless way, and I was desperate to see good overcome evil. This second instalment dragged on and I felt that we only skimmed the surface with the character development. I just expected a wee bit more.

While both stories followed a similar plot progression, I wasn't as invested to see the Dragon Unleashed or the Empire Fall. There were parts of the stories that I enjoyed, but by the halfway point, I was just pushing myself to get it finished.

I'm still a fan of Grace Draven and while this story wasn't a complete winner, I will definitely come back for more of her stories in the future.

[kimbacaffeinate]

We are back in the Krael empire where magic is outlawed. Halani, born with the gift of earth magic, is a free trader in her uncle’s caravan. Her Uncle buys a piece of bone belonging to a dead draga, but Halani senses it is more. Most of the world believes the dragas are gone from this world, but they live among them disguised as human.

Meanwhile, Malachus is living on borrowed time. The magic that’s protecting him will soon turn on him. He must find a key part of his heritage. He has tracked it to a group of free traders with an earth witch, who fascinates him.

I loved the city, the trade market and the way of life of Halani’s people. The story was slow-moving but slowly pulled me in. We learn another party is searching for the draga bone and that the Empress wants a draga of her own.

I enjoyed how Draven tied all the threads together as we moved closer to the heart of the Krael empire. The suspense built and the storyline pulled me in, particularly during the second half.

I liked Halani and adored her mother. Both have suffered hardships. We get to know key characters within the caravan and her harsh, conniving uncle.

When Malachus in injured, it is Halani who heals him. The romance was for me more subdued than the first book. While I enjoy a good romantic thread, it isn’t necessary for me and the world, supernatural aspects, and plot soon had me hooked. I fear that for some the slow burn will have them losing interest before it flames.

The second half is faster-paced as the romance develops and the dangerous villains make their moves. While I loathed the Empress, the Cat’s Paw surprised me. I still wasn’t happy with him, but understood. And the Uncle..bah. Don’t get me started!

While this didn’t hook me quite as deeply as the first novel, one thing is clear, Draven has created a vivid world. The world-building, magic, myths and magical items were impressive and unique. Magical elements and an item used by the cat’s paw were clever.

The climactic scenes as Halani and Malachus faced danger had me biting my nails, and Draven delivered an epilogue of sorts to wrap up their story.

Katharine Lee McEwan once again narrated and she brought distinct voices to the characters, in particular Halani and Malachus strengthening their points of view. Her tone and pacing enhanced the story and holding me captive even during the slower unfolding in the first half. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Reviewer

[EBookObsessed]

We need more draga in the world. Dragon Unleashed has great characters and world building. I am looking forward to more.

I decided I needed a quick re-read of Phoenix Unbound before starting Dragon Unleashed. I am glad that I did because I enjoyed it more with the second read. It also ended exactly were Book 2 begins in the market so the story felt more complete reading them back to back like that.

Dragon Unleashed features Halani, a healer with earth magic, who is a member of the free traders who unknowingly had helped Azarian and Gilene in their escape from the Empire and who had healed Gilene.

While at the market, Halani’s uncle was offered an artifact that was definitely dangerous. Halani could feel the magic pulsing off of it. She warned her uncle not to purchase it since it would bring them nothing but danger or else why would two strangers try to pawn something to valuable off so cheap. Of course, being a man in love with profit, he doesn’t listen and purchasing it brings all kinds of danger down on their heads just like Halani predicted.

Halani almost trips over three bodies in the meadow, including the two men who sold them the artifact, only to find the man with three large arrows in his body was still alive. Halani recognized him as the man who was so kind to her mother earlier in the day. Halani’s mother had an accident as a child and now acts very childlike making their mother/daughter bond a reversed role. While Halani doesn’t hold much hope of saving him, she can’t reward this man’s kindness by walking away and leaving him to die. But this it the second time that Halani has brought an unknown stranger into their keep and her uncle threatens to throw her out if she doesn’t get rid of the man who is definitely a danger to them.

Halani convinces her uncle to leave ahead of the rest of the caravan to go to the city and sell his artifact. This gives Halani a little more time to heal Malachus and get him on his feet before she needs to send him on his way.

What Halani doesn’t know is that she really has brought something dangerous into their caravans. Malachus is a draga hunting for his mother-bond so he can finally change forms. Yes, the mother-bond which Halani’s uncle has just left with to sell in the underground magic market in the city.

Malachus has never known human kindness like he has been offered from Halani and her mother, Asil. He has only known human greed, selfishness and hate. Just the fact that she decided to heal him rather than rob him is something amazing to him, and the longer he is with Halani, the more he wishes he could stay just a little longer but the draga inside is desperate to come out and he is so close to finding the mother-bond. He can feel it calling to him. But when he finds out that Halani had what he was seeking and sold if off, will he ever be able to forgive her?

I enjoyed this story of Malachus and Halani and sweet Asil, because her mother is an important bond between them. In fact, all of the free traders were very welcoming to Malachus, except the uncle, which Malachus finds surprising since he is decades older than he looks and has had decade upon decade of only seeing the worst in humans. The fact that draga are longer lived than humans and we have a draga/human bond growing was never discussed. I guess the fact that Malachus would stay young while Halani grew old is irrelevant for our HEA.

Halani the storyteller of the groups once again tells the tale of the Golden Maiden used to trap the evil and greedy dragon (whose skeleton hung in the bedroom of the Empress) which you can imagine doesn’t go over well with the draga who has his own understanding of what happened that day.

I did find the whole mother-bond being a bit convoluted a premise. Draga stay hidden in a human form to keep them safe. The mother dragon puts some magic in a piece of herself, in this case a piece of her claw, and when the child is old enough to protect themselves, they use the mother-bond to release their inner dragon. Obviously Malachus’s quest for the mother-bond is the basis of our story but it seemed a little too complicated to have mom keep yanking off pieces of herself, casting them with magic and having to remember where she keeps each one and look — this one got stolen. You would think dragon shifting would be like puberty. You hit that specific age where you can protect yourself and boom — draga hormones kick in and you get zits and tail.

This story also differs from Phoenix Unbound as there is a third POV for our story. The Empress has heard that there is a draga searching for its mother-bond and wants a new draga skeleton for her summer palace. She tasks Gharek to find the artifact and the draga. I am not sure how we are supposed to feel about Gharek since he obviously has no problem hurting people to do the Empresses bidding but we find that he does these things to protect his young daughter who was born with a birth defect which would get her stoned by the masses if he wasn’t there to protect her. He even is willing to double cross the Empress if he can find the draga and get him to use draga magic to heal his kid. Bad guy? Good guy? Not so bad guy? We do have a character make a reappearance from the first book and although she wasn’t given a name in the first story, but how many people can speak with the dead? I am not sure if Gharek will make a reappearance in the third book but I am not 100 percent able to hate him.

I am definitely enjoying Grace Draven’s storytelling which is what lead me to pick up Radiance and Eidolon and I am going to check out more of her stories as soon as I can.

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.