Review: House of Dragons by Jessica Cluess

House of Dragons

Jessica Cluess

(House of Dragons #1)

Publication Date: May 12, 2020

Hardcover, 448 pages, Random House

Genres: YA, Fantasy

B&N | Book Depository | Amazon | Goodreads

Five royal houses will hear the call to compete in the Trial for the dragon throne. A liar, a soldier, a servant, a thief, and a murderer will answer it. Who will win?

When the Emperor dies, the five royal houses of Etrusia attend the Call, where one of their own will be selected to compete for the throne. It is always the oldest child, the one who has been preparing for years to compete in the Trial. But this year is different. This year, these five outcasts will answer the call....

THE LIAR: Emilia must hide her dark magic or be put to death.

THE SOLDIER: Lucian is a warrior who has sworn to never lift a sword again.

THE SERVANT: Vespir is a dragon trainer whose skills alone will keep her in the game.

THE THIEF: Ajax knows that nothing is free--he must take what he wants.

THE MURDERER: Hyperia was born to rule and will stop at nothing to take her throne.

My Review

I have a lot of thoughts about this book. I was so excited for it. House of Dragons seemed like the best book to help ease some of my anger towards the final season of Game of Thrones. However, it didn’t quite live up to my high expectations, though it’s still a good read.

We start the book introducing each character and their dragons. All five contestants for the throne get their own POVs, and, thankfully, each voice is pretty unique. I only forgot which POV I was reading from once or twice during the entire 448 pages. A rare feat. The first character introduced is Emilia, and she has magical powers. Lucian is basically Prince Zuko except his family has blue house colors instead of red. Vespir is a dragon trainer. Ajax is a goofball/trouble-maker with dark origins. And Hyperia is basically a warrior version of Daenerys Targaryen.

Sadly, the dragons in this book are kind of lacking. There simply aren’t enough scenes with the riders interacting with their personal dragons. In fact, only two of the dragons really get a personality at all. One is Dog, Ajax’s lovable dragon, and the other is Hyperia’s dragon who’s mean and cranky. I can’t even remember his name. That’s how little the dragons are seen in the book. Dog, though. Dog is amazing. He’s basically the dragon version of Dug from Disney’s Up. I love him, and he deserves so much better.

As for the humans, I liked a majority of them. Emilia’s powers felt out of place in the story. I think it would have been better without her magic and how it all plays out towards the end. However, she was still interesting a majority of the time. Lucian, aka Zuko, was fascinating because of his pacifist beliefs, and Ajax was a little $hit who made me laugh. And Hyperia, she was glorious. Major Daenerys vibes. But Vespir is the character I didn’t like. She was never explained, and her story was rather boring. Her romantic relationship was the only interesting thing about her.

Throughout the book, these characters are in a competition with each other. It was great to see all five characters at odds with one another. Unfortunately, when they weren’t in trials, it seemed like the five grew a little too close together, relieving tension too quickly and giving away too much backstory. The tension kind of fell apart when the five had a heart-to-heart. The ending, thankfully, made up for it a bit, but I was still disappointed by how lame Lucian’s war story was and how the magical secrets played out. While I was disappointed, I'll still be reading book two for Hyperia, Lucian, and Dog. They're my favorites.

All in all, House of Dragons, while eerily similar to Game of Thrones at times, is not a YA version of it. The author never advertised it that way, but, come on, the title and the cover really give that vibe. So, while I was hoping for more, I still got a fun adventure. I just wish there had been more dragons, a la How to Train Your Dragons. Instead, it was more like a PG Hunger Games with the occasional dragon appearance.

*Note: I purchased a copy of this book myself. This in no way affected my opinion/review.