Review: Rogue (Talon #2) by Julie Kagawa

Rogue

by Julie Kagawa

Release: 28th April 2015
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance, Dragons
Other books by Julie Kagawa:
The Iron Fey (Series)
Blood of Eden (Series)
Talon (Series)
etc...


Goodreads Description

Ember Hill left the dragon organization Talon to take her chances with rebel dragon Cobalt and his crew of rogues. But Ember can't forget the sacrifice made for her by the human boy who could have killed her—Garret Xavier Sebastian, a soldier of the dragonslaying Order of St. George, the boy who saved her from a Talon assassin, knowing that by doing so, he'd signed his own death warrant.

Determined to save Garret from execution, Ember must convince Cobalt to help her break into the Order's headquarters. With assassins after them and Ember's own brother helping Talon with the hunt, the rogues find an unexpected ally in Garret and a new perspective on the underground battle between Talon and St. George.

A reckoning is brewing and the secrets hidden by both sides are shocking and deadly. Soon Ember must decide: Should she retreat to fight another day…or start an all-out war?


My Review

In this upstanding sequel to Talon, Ember, Riley and Garret continue to run from Talon and St. George, whilst Ember continues to battle between her feelings for the bad boy dragon, Cobalt (Riley), and the enemy-turned-ally human, Garret.

Contrary to Talon, Rogue is definitely a lot less teeny-I’m-kinda-a-dragon-romance and more YA- I’m-a-badass-dragon-fantasy. I loved this even more than I loved Talon, and probably for this reason. Not that I don’t like the romance aspect, I just like it quite a bit more when there’s dragons and fire and bloodshed involved! It adds a bit of an edge to the cliché girl meets two boys and can’t choose between them part. So, first off, Rogue is a hell of a lot more badass than Talon.

The increased badass-ness (I’m sorry, but it’s the best term to describe this book ;D) definitely made me root for the characters a lot more. On top of this, the characters seemed a lot more 3D in this novel, whether that’s because I was more interested in it due to all the action, or because the characterisation was actually better. Riley stole me this time. Originally, in Talon, I’d been a little dubious when it came to him, not quite sure what to make of the whole “look how amazing I am: come join me and be awesome too” thing. However, in Rogue, we find a lot more out about Cobalt (Riley) and he quickly loses that act, as I now know it was, becoming a pretty amazing and exciting character. I noticed that the characters’ faces all seemed to be a little more characterful in my mind’s eye. Again, probably because of how much Rogue sucks you in compared to Talon.

I found myself reacting to almost every situation: laughing, gasping, “f**k you”-ing. The one thing I’m waiting for is a bit of a sob. Yes, something a little sad happened at the end, but it wasn’t to the extent of tears. I’m strongly hoping that the next book in the series can reduce me to tears, because, well, no book series should go without at least one breakdown.

Julie Kagawa, if you can hear me, I’m ready to get out the buckets!


Links
Goodreads
Amazon UK
Amazon US


Abi Ainley