Saturday Pages: ARC Review of Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman!!

Hello guys!

Happy Saturday! I'm having the weekend off and I'm hoping to catch up on some reading and writing some reviews because as of late I've been rather busy with things about the apartment, with visits to the bank, getting estimates for the kitchen... and I wasn't very much in the mood to read!

Today as the first Saturday Pages entry I have a review of an eARC that I got thanks to my friend Linda from La La In The Library because she let me know that this one was as a Read It Now on NetGalley!
As a book for review it counts towards my 105 Challenge in my books for review category!

Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Being lucky enough to grab this eARC as a Read It Now on NetGalley was the push I needed to finally read Seraphina, the first book in this (so far) duology and loved it.

Shadow Scale is a very interesting sequel and one that I ended up really enjoying even if I had to stop reading for a while. Once I reached 35% I hit a part where my dear Seraphina was missing some really obvious clues about something, and that quite bothered me. It took me a while to get back to the book but once I got back to reading and passed that point, I got hooked on the narrative, world building and the fantastic characters once again.

I must confess that I felt the book was a lil slow sometimes, not so much through the traveling in search of the other half-dragons and where we get introduced to Goredd's neighbouring countries and we explore their differences in customs and leyends and religion... but the way the plot and pace slows down while Seraphina tries to figure out anything that involved Jannoula.

I love me a great villain, and Jannoula IS a great villain, and I understand that for Phina it is very hard to be her usual analytical self when it comes to Jannoula given their past history and how very manipulative and what a great strategist she is. Like Phina, there were occasions when I felt bad for her, but it was really frustrating when it seems that Jannoula is progressing her plans and no one seems to even think of something that could be done!

I adored that we got more world building and information about the saints and I love that I guessed a twist just a paragraph before it was revealed, and that's always rewarding, because you feel like you guessed the twist before it's revealed but not too early or you'll end up feeling irritated.

The rest of the half-dragons where quite fascinating and I was glad to meet each one of them and see how they differed from their corresponding avatar in Phina's mind garden. All of them felt very well crafted and had a very unique voice. And seeing the changes once Jannoula entered the picture gives you an even bigger sense of urgency to figuring her plan.

I loved that the romance was mostly equally as subtle as it was on book one, even if there is a certain resolution of the so called love triangle that we have in the series. And I love how unconventionally it was done and how it avoided all the cliches!

And another thing that I absolutely loved was how it included all kinds of diversity and how well it handled how differences can be both unite us and segregate us, and how we need to see the potential of those that are not like us, instead of treating them as inferior because we fear them.

Well worth reading despite that snag at the beginning. Very well deserved 3.5 to 4 stars to this final book! Although I've heard that there might be companion books with other secondary characters!



View all my reviews

Tell Me Tuesdays #27!!

Tell Me Tuesdays is a meme/feature created by the awesome ladies of Please Feed The Bookworm and La La In The Library, where we can share how we choose the book we are currently reading from our TBR pile!

I'm always curious about that, cause as much as I tend to make myself a rough schedule for books to read and the like, I'm quite a mood reader and sometimes I just HAVE to ignore my schedule and read something else!

Black Dove, White Raven by Elizabeth Wein


A new historical thriller masterpiece from New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Elizabeth Wein

Emilia and Teo's lives changed in a fiery, terrifying instant when a bird strike brought down the plane their stunt pilot mothers were flying. Teo's mother died immediately, but Em's survived, determined to raise Teo according to his late mother's wishes-in a place where he won't be discriminated against because of the color of his skin. But in 1930s America, a white woman raising a black adoptive son alongside a white daughter is too often seen as a threat.

Seeking a home where her children won't be held back by ethnicity or gender, Rhoda brings Em and Teo to Ethiopia, and all three fall in love with the beautiful, peaceful country. But that peace is shattered by the threat of war with Italy, and teenage Em and Teo are drawn into the conflict. Will their devotion to their country, its culture and people, and each other be their downfall or their salvation?

In the tradition of her award-winning and bestselling Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein brings us another thrilling and deeply affecting novel that explores the bonds of friendship, the resilience of young pilots, and the strength of the human spirit

 Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman

Seraphina took the literary world by storm with 8 starred reviews and numerous “Best of” lists. At last, her eagerly awaited sequel has arrived—and with it comes an epic battle between humans and dragons.

The kingdom of Goredd: a world where humans and dragons share life with an uneasy balance, and those few who are both human and dragon must hide the truth. Seraphina is one of these, part girl, part dragon, who is reluctantly drawn into the politics of her world. When war breaks out between the dragons and humans, she must travel the lands to find those like herself—for she has an inexplicable connection to all of them, and together they will be able to fight the dragons in powerful, magical ways.

As Seraphina gathers this motley crew, she is pursued by humans who want to stop her. But the most terrifying is another half dragon, who can creep into people’s minds and take them over. Until now, Seraphina has kept her mind safe from intruders, but that also means she’s held back her own gift. It is time to make a choice: Cling to the safety of her old life, or embrace a powerful new destiny? 

 Uprooted by Naomi Novik

 Naomi Novik, author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed Temeraire novels, introduces a bold new world rooted in folk stories and legends, as elemental as a Grimm fairy tale.

“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.


All these three are ARCs and I'm really enjoyed them all, though I haven't been making a lot of progress with them! Uprooted is a fantasy highly recommended by Jessica for Rabid Reads and she rarely leads me astray. Black Raven, White Dove is historical fiction with a different kind of narrative that I'm quite enjoying! And Shadow Scale is equally as gorgeous as Seraphina was, but I'm feeling like Phina is less in control that she was on the previous book and it's annoying me a lil how she fails to see some things coming!

  So what are you all guys reading and how and why did you decide to pick up that book? Shiny new ARC? Comfort read? Scheduled for review? Must have new release? Tell me!!