Long ago, humans betrayed dragons, stealing their magic and banishing them to a dying world. Centuries later, their descendants worship dragons as gods. But the gods remember, and they do not forgive. Thief Arcady scrapes a living on the streets of Vatra. Desperate, Arcady steals a powerful artifact from the bones of the Plaguebringer, the most hated person in Lumet history. Only Arcady knows the artifact's magic holds the key to a new life among the nobles at court and a chance for revenge.
The spell connects to Everen, the last male dragon foretold to save his kind, dragging him through the Veil. Disguised as a human, Everen soon learns that to regain his true power and form and fulfil his destiny, he only needs to convince one little thief to trust him enough to bond completely--body, mind, and soul--and then kill them. Yet the closer the two become, the greater the risk both their worlds will shatter.
"Truth was a wound that could bite". L.R. Lam's Dragonfall is many things: a queer enemies-to-lovers romance, a heist book, a high-stakes epic. None of these things take center stage, instead striking a perfect balance and creating a novel that works well, where not all is as it seems and you keep questioning who's right. Who betrayed whom? The dragons, or the humans? The bond between the two certainly seems to work a certain way. Can we even trust the dragons' chronicles, since so few survived the fire that destroyed their library?
The world-building is on point, the magic system well-developed, even if some things are still a mystery or maybe don't work as we're told. The dragons, banished generations before to a dying world, are only bent on revenge. The humans, having forgotten everything, now worship them as gods: this creates a truly interesting dynamic when the two perspectives collide. There's a black market for dragon relics, a secret sect of assassins bent on punishing those who desecrate these relics, and hints of a larger world and an existential threat.
The POVs are phenomenal. Two of the POVs feature the two halves of the romance: Everen, the dragon prophet with a terrible mission, and Arcady, the nonbinary thief with a big secret. It's delicious to watch these two wallow in angst and slowly peel away the layers that protect them, learning to trust each other until disaster strikes. While Arcady's POV is a simple first person narrative, Everen's POV is much more interesting, with its first person that almost morphs into a second person, as he's addressing his whole narration to Arcady.
The other POV character is one of the assassins tasked with punishing heretics: the young woman is reluctant to do her job and has a terrible relationship with her father figure, who molded her to his purposes and has her wrapped around his little finger. The latter, a high priest, seems to know more than he lets on about the conflict brewing. The rest of the cast pulls its weight, especially Everen's sister and Arcady's father figure, to create a vibrant narrative.
Dragonfall is an incredible tale about love and sacrifice.
✨ 4.5 stars
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