Talon by Julie Kagawa

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Publication Date: October 28th, 2014

Edition: Audio Book Pages: 449

Purchase: Book Depository
Rating: ★★★★ (4/5 stars)

Summary

Long ago, dragons were hunted to near extinction by the Order of St. George, a legendary society of dragon slayers. Hiding in human form and growing their numbers in secret, the dragons of Talon have become strong and cunning, and they're positioned to take over the world with humans none the wiser.

Ember and Dante Hill are the only sister and brother known to dragonkind. Trained to infiltrate society, Ember wants to live the teen experience and enjoy a summer of freedom before taking her destined place in Talon. But destiny is a matter of perspective, and a rogue dragon will soon challenge everything Ember has been taught. As Ember struggles to accept her future, she and her brother are hunted by the Order of St. George.

Soldier Garret Xavier Sebastian has a mission to seek and destroy all dragons, and Talon's newest recruits in particular. But he cannot kill unless he is certain he has found his prey: and nothing is certain about Ember Hill. Faced with Ember's bravery, confidence and all-too-human desires, Garret begins to question everything that the Order has ingrained in him: and what he might be willing to give up to find the truth about dragons (goodreads).

What I Thought

The gist of this book is simple, one group of people hate the other group of people and they fight each other to the death to keep living their lives. One of these groups happen to be made of dragons that masquerade as humans to survive, pretty simple right? Not when you throw two teenage dragons out into the human world knowing nothing about human emotions but they watched a heck of a lot of TV to be able to reference pop culture like NCIS. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed this book but it was kind of contradictory at times when Ember was interacting with people and the things that went through her head. 

Seriously though, this book was hilarious! Ember and Garret take turns narrating their sides of the singular story of the rivalry between Talon and St. George. I really enjoyed the audio book for this book particularly because they had two different voice actors for Ember and Garret and they portrayed the characters so well. There are some interesting twists and turns and some silly, witty dialogue that is just fun to read.

I would recommend this book as a guilty pleasure/ light and fluffy read, it is practically a contemporary novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was fast paced and hysterical just how blind Ember and Garret can be to everything they experience but I think that is what makes this book great. There is a bit of romance, brother/sister rivalry, and surfing mixed in to make this one very interesting and thoroughly enjoyable read. I am definitely going to read on through the series!