Before She Ignites (Fallen Isles, #1)

by Jodi Meadows

[Ashley]

Actual rating: 2.5 stars

Well shit. I'm sad I didn't love this. :(

Things I didn't like:

1) The format. It kept flip flopping between different time periods and I didn't like it. I'm not opposed to that overall, but I didn't feel like it really worked here. I think the book could have been more powerful and interesting if it was linear. Instead it was like:

-- Now
-- 10 years ago
-- Now
-- 10 days ago
-- Now
-- 7 years ago

It was all over the damn place.

2) A lot of it was just boring. Like 95% of the "now" chapters took place in a pitch black prison. There's only so much interesting stuff that can happen in those circumstances.

3) Most of the characters were pretty bland, especially the main ones. The MC wasn't bland, but everyone close to her was. I barely got to know her two BFFs, and her main prison friend is literally known for being silent. The one character I did really like is kind of an awesome badass but she was a minor character in the grand scheme of things.

4) The world building. I feel like there was a lot to this world, but it was really poorly and shallowly explained. There's clearly tons of history, culture, and politics that are REALLY important to the plot, but it was never explained very well so it was hard to get invested or truly understand and appreciate what was going on. It was hard to care about it when I knew so little about it.

5) The dragons didn't excite me as much as I thought they would. Although the "dragon trafficking" is the focus of the story, the dragons seemed to play a surprisingly small role. Maybe that was because the MC spent the whole book in prison where there were no dragons at all. I think there was just so much more that I hoped for.