After finishing the initial trilogy, I decided to go on with the extra book in that world that follows some time after the fist three, with a focus on a different character.

This book focuses on Elka, who lives far from the town of Kierell, where the first three books took place. This town has a strong steampunk vibe. Elka is typically overlooked by her two brothers but wants to earn her place in the family and their business. With the brothers planning to expand their business but lacking the workforce, she develops a crazy idea – to use an artifact that was the source of problems in the first three books – if she can find it, that is.

Thus, she travels to Kierell and makes the climb and the training to become a dragon rider. The early part of that story has frequent gaps as it “zooms” through some of the key point of her training, but not much more, and while it shows the major moments, I did wish that there was more to it, especially given that there was a lot more that could’ve been shown. Especially as Elka considered the riders and having a dragon as the means to an end, but the reception and compassion by the other riders started to form cracks in that.

It takes almost two years – and a stroke of luck – for Elka to get an idea of where she could find the artifact, after spending days without success. Unfortunately, her escape isn’t as flawless as he hoped, and the riders, led by Aimee and her friends, end up pursuing her.

Back home, Elka hands over the artifact to her brothers, but things don’t go as she had hoped – her brothers might be willing to let her be a part of their plans, but in their own way – while Elka has gained a fair amount of independence during her time with the riders, and she doesn’t take it well. Less so when the harsh truth of her brother’s business comes out – that they were threatening, bribing, and kidnapping people who stood in their way, or were simply found to be an inconvenience for their goals.

Elka will need to choose whether she finds her place between the family she wanted to impress and accept the dark parts of it, or the riders she spent two years with, even though their desire for justice might make that hard, knowing that both options will cost her.

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Read date: 26.6.-5.7.2025
Published: 7.5.2024
Goodreads/Amazon rating: 4,53/4,7
My rating: 85%
Length: 406 pages (Kindle edition)
My highlights

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I admit that, given Elka’s nature, I had a harder time connecting to her than to Aimee in the first trilogy. The time skips at the beginning, as I mentioned, made me feel there was more that could’ve been shown about Elka’s early decisions. And I also think that showing at least some insight from Aimee’s point of view would be a good idea (the full book, apart from the closing sequence, is solely from Elka’s PoV). Despite that, it was still an enjoyable read.