Talon the Black

By: Melissa Mitchell

From Goodreads:

What would you do if a dragon fell from the sky? Claire Evans is a small-towner from Indiana faced with this exact situation. When a dragon crash-lands in her corn field, she goes gallivanting off to find it.

This incident triggers a chain of events that sweep our heroine into a complicated plot to destroy a kingdom. At the heart of it is a powerful sorcerer whose only desire is to bring about a past long forgotten, a past that favors those of magical blood and condemns those who are not worthy, a past that would result in the annihilation of peace and the deaths of many.

Claire finds herself thrust into an old fashioned world liken to those she's grown up reading about, one of fantasy and intrigue. There, she soon realizes that a lifetime of books hardly prepared her. She must face difficulties never before confronted, and in so doing, discover secrets about herself. All the while, there is one obstacle that ultimately stands in her way: The King of Dragonwall. And she needs him on her side if she is to succeed. Will such a thing be possible?

The King of Dragonwall is not like those before him. Troubled and temperamental, he is scarred by more than the events that shaped him. Worst of all, he is mateless. With no queen and no heir, his subjects are demanding he abandon tradition and marry into nobility. But with the rising threats upon his borders, gobelin unrest to the east, and talk of an even darker terror to the north, he will soon have far greater problems than that of finding a wife.

Modern meets medieval in this first installment of The Dragonwall Saga, which is full of magical creatures and adventure. In addition, there are a variety of interesting characters, and even a dose of romance.

My Review:

Hole. Lee. Moly.

Before I even finished reading the first paragraph of this book, I knew the story was going to sweep me away. And I was right! I tried so hard to savor it but I just couldn’t. I devoured this book. Melissa Mitchell is a new author for me and has quickly become one of my favorites. This book has magic, dragons, sprites, an evil sorcerer, and much more. Mitchell does a great job of world building by bringing in multiple POVs and building stories upon stories by introducing new characters with tales of their own. All of it is masterfully woven together and brings us back to Claire and those around her.

Claire is a heroine that is easy to root for. Getting to know Dragonwall through her eyes and those around her was so much fun - almost as much fun as getting to know those in the King’s Shield. This book has adventure at every turn and is loaded down with intrigue for what happens next. I quickly fell in love with Dragonwall. After reading this book I immediately purchased the second one and finished it in a little over a day. Talon the Black is the first in a series of seven books and I am so excited to read the others. I highly recommend this series for fans of fantasy, Sarah J. Maas, and Jennifer L. Armentrout.