Review: Blood Oath (Darkest Drae #1)

Blood Oath (Darkest Drae #1)
By Raye Wagner and Kelly St. Clare

Publication Date: November 9, 2017
Date Read: March 29, 2021
Genre: YA – Fantasy
Source: Bought
Format: E-Book

From Goodreads:
Dark Fantasy. Dragons. Intrigue. Romance.

More than anything, I crave adventure. But in the disease ridden land of Verald, life is mapped out much like the well-established rings of our kingdom.

At the very heart reigns our vicious king and Lord Irrik, an invincible dragon shifter, at his side. Their power poisons the land and the people, leading to a steadily mounting number of enemies.

But change is coming.

When the rebellion surges, the king strikes back. Captured by Lord Irrik, I’m suddenly embroiled in a deadly game. One where I’m desperate to understand the rules.

Because I’m not only fighting for my life… but also a love that could be the very key to my freedom.

The Darkest Drae series is one that I haven’t been aware of for very long. I am a huge lover of dragon books and after finding myself in a reading slump, a friend of mine recommended for me to try this series. It’s a series that focuses on dragon shifters. Before this book I had never read a book about dragon shifters, so this was completely new to me. I love dragon books but usually I read about dragon riders, or dragons that are included just as part of the higher fantasy world etc. I had never considered picking up a dragon shifter books as shifter books are not usually my kind of thing. However, I am so glad I picked this one up as I really enjoyed it.

Blood Oath was so different to what I was expecting when I first started reading this book. It’s a really intriguing and fascinating storyline. It follows our main character Ryn, who is living in a world cruelly ruled by the King and his Drae, a dragon shifter who everyone is afraid of. Suddenly finding herself captured by the King, Ryn must do whatever she can to survive, even if it is to get close to the King’s Drae, Lord Irrick. I really liked Ryn. She isn’t your usual kick-ass fantasy heroine that you often find in these kinds of books. She’s quite innocent and naive to start. I know a lot of people get frustrated when the heroines are like this but I personally loved it, because she had so much room to grow. And grow she did. She is an awesome kickass heroine by the end of this book and I loved her journey getting there.

Blood Oath is quite a dark book. There are some dark themes explored in this book, including torture. Some of the scenes were difficult to read for me. I am such an emotional reader, that I truly feel everything that the characters going through, so when Ryn was captured I was so scared of what was going to happen. I am so very glad I pushed through though. It was such a fantastic story and Ryn and Irrick’s development was amazing.

My one gripe with this book was the romance aspect. I felt like it was super weird. It just didn’t feel all that natural to me, and it was very sudden. Not even in an ‘insta-love’ kind of way; just in a takes you by surprise… but you’re kind of confused how we got here, kind of way. There is something that happens at the end which makes me feel like this is going to be much better in the second book. If you’re curious about what I’m talking about and have read the book (or don’t mind being spoiled) I will put a spoiler paragraph at the end to explain my full feelings regarding this. It’s very difficult to explain without spoiling a major twist that happens towards the end of the book.

Blood Oath was enjoyable. I really did enjoy it and I will definitely be continuing the series. I will also be on the look out for other dragon shifter books in the future too. I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens with Ryn and Irrick in the next book, so I’ll definitely be diving into that one soon. I can’t wait. If you’re a fan of dragons and fantasy books with an uprising/rebellion, this book is definitely for you and you should definitely check it out.

Spoiler Zone: Read On At Your Own Risk

If you’ve been following me for a while you will know I don’t really do spoilers in my reviews. However for this one it’s hard to talk about my feelings about the romance without spoiling it… so here we go. While Ryn is captured she is communicating with three people. Ty, the prisoner in the next cell, Lord Irrick when she has to do jobs for the king and Tyr, the person who mysteriously gets into her cell after she’s been hurt to heal her.

Now she’s met Tyr like 3-4 times, she’s always half unconscious at this point and then suddenly she’s like ‘I’m in love with Tyr’. I was just like… what? How? You’ve never even had a conversation with him. It just wasn’t very well developed. Come to the twist at the end Ty and Tyr are both Lord Irrick in disguise and she is so, so mad about it and acts totally heartbroken and I’m just over here like GURL…. you didn’t even have a conversation with him!! I don’t know it just didn’t feel well developed to me. It was sudden and it just didn’t feel authentic to me. Like there was nothing leading up to this declaration of love and I was just like…. huh? Really?

End of Spoiler Zone

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