The Aurelian Cycle

Storyline: 4 Stars

I had a friend rate this series highly on Goodreads and she’s an expert in fantasy which is why I picked these books up. This was actually my first fantasy series that focused on dragons (besides Tolkien). I haven’t been drawn to dragon stories before, but the series was so much more about dragons. There were politics and friendships and alliances. I don’t think I’ve ever read a fantasy book that looks at the hard choices faced after an awful regime has been overthrown. It makes someone think about their values and how they can be corrupted overtime. For some reason it reminded me of the quote in Star Wars: Episode three Revenge of the Sith when Obi-wan tells Anakin: “you have become the very thing that you swore to destroy”.

Parental Guidance: 50% Recommend

I’m going to be honest, as far as parental guidance goes, I was a little disappointed. The first book, Fireborne, was extremely clean. There was a kissing scene and non-graphic violence, but it was clean and full of thought-provoking storyline.

The second book, Flamefall, was a step down. There was more violence, more swearing, more kissing, and a few scenes that I needed to skip. In the second book two rainbow characters were introduced and there were several scenes that I had to skip with them. There was nothing graphic, but those scenes just did not sit well with me.

The third book, Furysong, was very similar to the second book. There were about two or three pages that I had to skip throughout the book. The rainbow characters continued their relationship which resulted in a few skipped pages, and there was implied intimacy between the main characters as well, which resulted in a page skipped.

As a whole, if someone is okay with skipping some pages throughout the books, then the series is probably an okay read because the parts that need to be skipped are not instrumental to the plot. With that being said, if someone has a hard time skipping pages, it may not be the best book to read. If I were a parent recommending the book to a teenager, I would flag the pages that should be skipped, or at least let them know that there could be some scenes to skip.

Read Book Chat

Spoilers Ahead

Okay, now I can really disclose what went on in the Aurelian Cycle. Don’t read further if you don’t want anything spoiled or you don’t care to hear about what someone else thought of the series.

Annie and Lee . . . great characters, but they are awful at communicating! I was so frustrated the first and second book because I kept thinking about how most of the problems between them and most of the problems in their society would have been fixed if they would have just swallowed their pride and opened their mouths to speak to each other! I think the poor communication was the most frustrating part of the series, especially since they had been friends for so long. I would have thought they would have figured out some better ways to communicate.

Honestly, I understand Annie’s decision, but I wanted her to stay with Lee in the end. I understand the pull to her dragon, but I just wanted them to live happily ever after.

Also, Power? I totally knew that he was into Annie from the moment he offered to train with her in the first book. Maybe the author didn’t even know that she was going to write that until the second book, but I knew it was coming.