Dragonfall

Dragon Scales, Book 1

By: L. R. Lam

Narrated by: Philip Ishak Arditti, Rebecca Hayes

The bestselling first book in the Dragon Scales duology, in which long-banished dragons, revered as gods, return to the mortal realm. Dragonfall is a slow-burn, smoldering romance between a thief and the last male dragon drawn together by prophecy and an ancient artifact with the power to break the world. Recommended by USA Today for fans of dragon-filled fantasy and Fourth Wing.

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 that 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 fulfill 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.

©2023 L.R. Lam (P)2023 Podium Audio

Critic reviews

"Tight, tense, smoldering, and wonderfully queer."

(Mike Brooks, author of The God-King Chronicles)

"Dragons have never been so sexy."

(Kate Dylan, author of Mindwalker)

Absolutely Fantastic

I was a little uncertain at first, but this book really had it all. One of the most engaging character dynamics I’ve read, and beautifully visual in its descriptions.

intriguing characters

the style of writing can be confusing and hard to follow. the characters were hard to connect with.

Took awhile to get into

The story definitely grew on me. A few things bothered me. One was the accent of dragon which was like a Transylvanian vampire but his sister’s and mother’s accents weren’t the same. Also Arkady is always telling the story normally but Everen is always speaking directly to Arkady. It’s explained in the end but just seemed weird all the way through. I would have saved that artifice until the end of the book. I found it distracting. The other thing that irked me throughout was they were talking about someone and switched from he to “they”. (Nothing to do with gender— just another annoying artifice). It was an ok story but I’ve read better. Not sure if I’ll listen to a sequel.

COULDN'T STOP

Man, I had very low expectations on this one. I purchased the book a few months ago when it was featured as the speculative fiction or whatever at Barnes and Noble. (I'm a sucker for pretty artwork what can I say). When I got home, I read a couple reviews about the book and in general they were very low. So, I did what any reasonable person does and stuck it on my shelf as a doomed TBR.

A few months passed and I had ran out of books to listen too. This one came up on my suggested and surprisingly the reviews were pretty good. Exactly 2 days later, I had gotten so sucked in that I pulled my dusty copy off the shelf and finished it in a whirlwind of an hour.

The narration is really good and the story is strangely addicting. LGBTQ fantasy is the best and I cannot wait for Emberclaw in March 2025. Anyways, just go give it a read. You won't regret it.

Great Story

I really enjoyed the story and looking forward to the next book. The ending I didn’t see it coming so I appreciated that.

Good tension

I think this book is well written. I liked the characters. There were some good surprises. I think the audio enhanced the writing. Looking forward to book 2

Engaging Dragon Tale

I really enjoyed this book and the narrators did a good job telling the story. Can't wait to read more.

Just couldn’t get into it.

The narrators were slow, and their voices were kind of dull. I feel like the story was just lacking excitement. Everything just moved very slowly in my opinion.

The back and forth of POV

Story was good. Pace was choppy. Overall it was good although confusing with voice changes and who was who.

good

I like all the different points of view. Highly recommend, how could I not look for the next book.