Review: Dragonwatch

Dragonwatch

Fablehaven Adventure #1

by Brandon Mull

Source: Hardback sent from an anonymous person. If it was you–THANK YOU!!!

Stars: 5 out of 5

Warning: This series will make more sense if you first read the Fablehaven series

Description:

In the hidden dragon sanctuary of Wyrmroost, Celebrant the Just, King of the Dragons, plots his revenge. He has long seen the sanctuaries as prisons, and he wants nothing more than to overthrow his captors and return the world to the Age of Dragons, when he and his kind ruled and reigned without borders. The time has come to break free and reclaim his power.

No one person is capable of stopping Celebrant and his dragon horde. It will take the ancient order of Dragonwatch to gather again if there is any chance of saving the world from destruction. In ancient times, Dragonwatch was a group of wizards, enchantresses, dragon slayers, and others who originally confined the majority of dragons into sanctuaries. But nearly all of the original Dragonwatch members are gone, and so the wizard Agad reaches out to Grandpa Sorenson for help.

As Kendra and Seth confront this new danger, they must draw upon all their skills, talents, and knowledge as only they have the ability to function together as a powerful dragon tamer. Together they must battle against forces with superior supernatural powers and breathtaking magical abilities.

How will the epic dragon showdown end? Will dragons overthrow humans and change the world as we know it?

My Review:

So excited that someone sent this to our family! We’ve loved it so much. It came at a perfect time. We were just reading the last book in the Fablehaven series when this arrived at our doorstep–signed!!! So cool. I enjoyed reading it aloud to my children.

What I liked:

• Kendra is still my favorite main character. She’s just so real. She wants to do what’s good and right, but she’s scared. Doesn’t matter though, she’ll step up and do what needs done. I just love her.
• Dragons. Need I say more?
• Knox is so annoying. I like it though. Fits right in, lol.
• Tess is sweet. I love how she’s obsessed with fairies and is convinced about them even though she doesn’t know the “bugs” actually are them.
• Like most of the other Fablehaven books, this one is full of adventure keeping us wanting to read more and more instead of just the one chapter a day we usually read aloud with my kids.

What I didn’t like:

• Seth still needs to use his brain more, but he’s doing better than he used to. I have hope for him in the future that he’ll be able to use his extreme ideas for good instead of stupidity. He did have some good moments in this book. There’s a lot of hope for him.
• Grandma and Grandpa Larsen never say how they explained to their nonFablehaven family how they came back from the dead. I would have liked to know how they managed that one.
• I wish Bracken was in the story more. I understand why he wasn’t, but I missed him.
• I also missed some of the other characters from the last series that didn’t show up in this book. That’s alright. We got to meet some cool new ones.

Although this is kind of a middle grade novel, it’s definitely bordering on YA. One of the main characters is 15 and has an almost boyfriend. I think YA topics are bound to start coming up.

Needless to say, both I and my children loved this book. We are sad we have to wait for other ones to come out, but know it will be worth the wait. This is a great book for anyone that’s read the Fablehaven series. And if you haven’t read it yet, you should pick it up if you like fantasy/adventure books.