About the Author
Check out my Talon Review for more information on Julie Kagawa.
Story Set Up
(Spoilers for Talon, the first book in the series) We left off with Garrett’s capture from his own group, St George. Now he will have to stand trail for his crimes of protecting the enemies, Dragons. Ember isn’t ready to let the boy she learned to love die for saving them. Fighting the confusing feelings of betrayal and love Ember and Riley embark on the epic mission of rescuing Garrett from his inevitable doom.
Will Garrett be able to forgive himself for betraying his brothers? Can he accept help from his new dragon allies? Will Riley ever be able to trust a soldier of St George? Can Ember forgive Garrett for lying to her?
All this and more in Rogue, the second book of the Talon Saga.
Rating
I decided to at the rating section to help those that may be interested in reading the book have an idea of what they’re getting into.
Rating is a hard thing to do. A simple “I’d give this a pg-13 rating” doesn’t really cut it and could mean a lot of things. On the other end some people wouldn’t read a book if it has any swearwords, some can handle some of the more general swear words but anything that says the F word is off limits and some could care less about language and care more about content. I hope this can give people a better idea on what they’re in for when reading this book.
Language: For the most part they use damn and hell, but the characters will use the occasional F word. It isn’t very often and is used to cuss not sexually.
Violence: Violence is another hard one to determine. You have dragons attacking humans and visa versa, guns shooting others, mentions of death or of killing. Its littered throughout the book with a couple chapters focusing around dangerous activities.
Sexual: They have intense kissing. Nothing else is explicit.
Plot (Spoilers)
We start with an exciting prison break. I especially love the way Garrett talks about Ember in her dragon form. At the end of Talon you’re left with Ember and Garrett discovering each others true identities near the end. It makes sense Garrett would feel uncomfortable around Ember in dragon form.
This book plays around more with Riley and Embers relationship, with a big focus on Riley’s origins. My biggest issue with this book was the Riley backstory. Throughout the book you flash back to Riley before he was the leader of the rogues. Most of what he has to say is just back story we’ve already heard extended.
We also get to hear from Dante more in this book. It’s nice to be on the other side and see what Talon is working on through him.
The story finishes with a double cross from a few dragons pretending to have escaped Talon. We watch Ember battle with the desire to be good, but also have to come to terms with making tough decisions when others morals don’t match her own.
Character Development
Dante: Dante’s character doesn’t so much develop this book as get revealed. Unlike Riley in Talon, hearing how Dante thinks was very interesting. It showed how much he cared for Ember, while still being deathly loyal to Talon.
Ember: Ember grows in a lot of ways. She has to come to terms with this new life. Does she really want to be fighting against Talon if it means killing or is she willing to sacrifices that part of herself in order to help others. She has a battle within herself with her relationship to Garrett. He’s no dragon, and she feels something for Riley she can’t explain. Is it right for her to be with a non dragon?
Garrett: This book is were Garrett really grew on me. Here he has to decide what he wants to be. He’s given up his life as a man of St George and betrayed all the people he swore to defend. He learns to love Ember no matter what she is and once he knows he expresses it to her. He decides he want to fix his own organization if he can. He’s willing to go out on his own to accomplish this.
Riley: Honestly I don’t feel like Riley has much development here. In the end he expresses his desire to go after Ember romantically, but it’s under a truth serum and honestly doesn’t seem like much of a development from how he’s felt before. His back story portions are meant to show how he become a Rogue leader, which is interesting fodder, but his character is shown in the mindset of wanting to leave Talon already. It was disappointing with the title of the book being focused on rogue.
Summary
This was a good book. It keeps you interested enough to keep reading, but after it was over I found myself asking what really happened throughout the story. They don’t move around a lot. The ending was pretty good, I didn’t know what was going to happen until it was happening, then the foreshadowing was clear. A good second book.
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Jacob Gittins 