Talon wasn't what I imagined
Here's what I THOUGHT Talon would be:
- Dragon lore/history
- Dragons blending in with society to take over government/military/organizations
- Dragons in disguise assassinating humans
- Dragon politics, hierarchy, and structure
- Epic dragon battles and wars
- Dragon training programs
- FIREBREATHING
- Forbidden romance
Here's what Talon actually was:
- Largely about a teenage girl living a 'normal' teenage life (or pretending to)
- Beaches, parties, the mall, boys
- The girl happens to be able to turn into a dragon.. but that doesn't mean she ever does
- Very little information about the dragon history, politics, or hierarchy
- Sort of a forbidden romance, but Ember doesn't actually realize it's forbidden so it doesn't feel like a forbidden romance
As you can see, it's not quite what I imagined.
Remove dragons and you get the exact same story
This was my number one problem with the book. If you removed the dragon aspect from Talon, you'd still have the exact same story. Why? Because although Ember and her fellow dragons are dragons, they can turn into humans and they spend the ENTIRE book in human form. Or, at least, I can count the number of times they shift into dragon form on one hand. There is a bit of dragon talk, but not much.
The bulk of the story is about Ember's mission, which is to blend in with humans. This results in most of the book reading very much like a normal "teenage girl romance" book. We read a lot about Ember going to the beach, making friends, going to the mall with said friends, commenting on which guys are hot, etc. But every now and then we'd get a small snippet to remind us that she is a dragon (like "Surfing is almost as great as flying!" or "I wish I could shift and nom this asshole but I'm not allowed to.").
I think I just so desperately wanted an epic dragon book and instead I got a semi-typical teenage girl book with a small dragon element. Like, "I'm playing the part of a teenage girl but I COULD shift into dragon form if I really wanted to. Remember that." Meh.
The romance wasn't bad
It wasn't fabulous or earth shattering and I never got excited feels, but the romance wasn't bad. There is sort of a love triangle, but not really. Ember and Garret have a slow-brewing romance, which was really nice. Julie Kagawa spent a lot of time slowly building it up, so I came to like it, even if I didn't love it. They did have a few cute moments!
Then there's a third leg: Riley, the rogue. However, he isn't in the book a whole lot (compared to Garret) and I always got the impression that Riley liked Ember more than she liked him. So it wasn't a full on, in your face, annoying love triangle. Also, Riley could get a bit rapey at times:
"We belong together, you know it as well as me. Say you'll come with me. Tonight."
"We just met." Ember sounded very human then, like she was trying to convince herself. "I don't even know you, really."
"This is instinct, plain and simple. Human emotion has nothing to do with it. Stop fighting it. Stop fighting me."
Yeah, Ember, stop fighting it. Just give in. You'll enjoy it.
Overall, it was very 'okay'
Talon wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. I wanted FIREWORKS and FIREBREATHING and TOTAL EPICNESS! I was excited just at the idea of dragons in YA! FINALLY! But what I expected and hoped for wasn't what I got. It's really just a "teenage girl meets forbidden boy and falls in love while defying secret society" kind of book. You could strip out the dragon aspect entirely and still understand it.
I'm not necessarily giving up the series, but I'm not super excited to move onto the next one either.