Julie Kagawa

Talon

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.

In a world where dragons pass as humans to secretly grow their numbers, Ember and Dante Hill prepare for destined positions in the world of Talon only to be hunted by a dragon-slaying soldier. The plot contains mild profanity and violence. Book #1

Mel 

This is one of those instances where I should have read the blurb. I wasn’t expecting an urban-type fantasy with dragons. It was an okay book with somewhat of a hate-to-love romance.

'There are a dozen soldiers hiding in that maze. All hunting you. All looking to kill you.' To the outside world Ember Hill is an ordinary girl, but Ember has a deadly secret. A dragon hiding in human form, she is destined to fight the shadowy Order of St. George, a powerful society of dragonslayers. St. George soldier Garret is determined to kill Ember and her kind. Until her bravery makes him question all he's been taught about dragons. Now a war is coming and Garret and Ember must choose their sides - fight to save their bond or fulfil their fate and destroy one another. 'The first in a new series, Talon leaves readers perfectly balanced between satisfaction and anticipation' - BookPage 'Kagawa knows just how to end a first volume for maximum cliff-hanger drama' - Booklist 'A strong, promising start to the Talon Saga' - Publishers Weekly

Nessa Luna

A while back, I heard Julie Kagawa was coming to my town to sign her books, so I decided to put my name down for it - even though I had only read one of her books (The Iron King). I had been planning on reading one of her other series (preferably the one about dragons) before she came here, so I purchased both the first and second book of Talon (Talon and Rogue). But as 30 October crept closer and closer, I thought to myself I would never be able to finish them before that date. I still got them signed, and decided I would definitely read them in November. And so I picked up Talon a couple of days ago.

Personally, I hadn't really enjoyed The Iron King that much, because it was a story about fairies mostly and they are not really my favourite mythological creatures. Dragons, however, are amazing. I loved them in Harry Potter, I loved them in Tolkien's world, and I really want to love them in Eragon too (but I can't get through that book, sorry). So yeah, I really hoped I would love Talon. And I honestly did!

Talon is about Ember and Dante Hill who are sleeper dragons. Dragons who change into humans and live amongst us. They are placed in a little town in California for a sort of holiday before the real job starts. Unfortunately, their enemy, 'Bloody' St. George has found out where they are, and hunts them down. Because dragons are dangerous, dragons need to be killed. Or are they?

This book is told from a dual perspective (Ember and Garrett) throughout the first half, and gets a third POV (Riley) added in the second half. Honestly, I didn't really mind it that much, because I wanted to know more about these characters. They each had their own chapters, and their names were above the chapters as well, which made it less confusing. It also made the story a lot more interesting, because we got to read not only from a dragon's perspective, but also from the perspective of someone from St. George.

I liked Ember, and Garrett also even though I also didn't like him mainly for being a St. George soldier. But I liked reading about them, and that's all that matters - if you don't like reading from someone's perspective, the story will probably get a lot more annoying to read imo. I liked Dante as well, but later on in the story I started to doubt him more and more. (view spoiler)[And I was right, he turned out to be a Talon's boy through and through, such a shame. (hide spoiler)] As for Riley, I honestly didn't know what to think about him at the beginning of the story, but I kind of like him now. It may have to do with the fact he had a POV in the second part of the book.

The thing I liked most about this story was that Ember (and Dante for that matter) already knew she was special. She already knew she was a dragon, and there wasn't 'but I can't be a *mythological creature*, I have always been a normal person! I have very normal parents! I AM NORMAL!'. No Ember knew she was a dragon from the start, she knew she was dangerous and could kill someone with one strike of her claws. I loved that!

What I didn't like that much was the sort of instalove that happened between some characters, and the fact that there was a bit of a hint to a love-triangle. Two things I really despise, but that didn't really make me hate the book more. In fact, I loved it. And no amount of love-triangle, instalove, blah blah blah could change my opinion (although I am scared for the next book). Julie's writing is just very nice, and I enjoyed reading every bit. There were some funny parts (like a tiny mention of Tolkien and someone quoted something from Shrek (SHREK!).

Anyway, if you love to read a young adult story about dragons, where the main character already knows she's special, go and read Talon! Just do it!

My opinion on this book in one gif:


(yes I saw a chance, and I took it with both claws).

Rachel Kanyid

I thought this was kind of a "meh" book. I liked it well enough to finish, but I don't know if I'll continue the series when the next one comes out or not.

Sepia

This book is really good. I enjoyed reading it.

Well, it was my first book by her and I was really excited!
It was not outstanding it was more like a so so book.
I think the protagonist Ember was a typical YA character but it was okay. 
I also loves Riley (hope I wrote it right:D)
The plot was a little bit slow and the real action came really really late but the whole dragon thing was pretty interesting!
I've never read a dragon related book before, so all in all it was a nice read!:)

Sonja H

Sehr gut geschrieben und sehr spannend! Auf zum 2. Band!

Steysha

What I expected:

What I got:


I love Julie Kagawa. I’ve read her Iron Fey series and I liked it. So I had great expectations upon this book. I mean… it’s about dragons! But I’m actually disappointed.

Ember and her twin Dante are exceptional. Dragons usually lay only one egg a time, so they don’t have siblings. They live in a Talon – organization that helps them to survive in a world, where dragons are killed by St. George – military forces, created to drive dragons to extinct. 
Ember and Dante are supposed to learn how to assimilate with humans during their summer in California, while training to become actual members of Talon and start to work for the organization. But Ember doesn’t want to work – she wants to have fun with her friends, go surfing and do pretty much nothing. 
Then she meets a rogue dragon that puts under question all she knew before, and falls in love with a boy, which is strictly forbidden and unnatural for a dragon. And yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have a love triangle. 



Ember is soooo annoying. She’s whiny, childish and irresponsible. I felt like I was reading about a 10-year-old. All she does is rambles about how bad is Talon, because they make her listen to the rules and train her to become a real dragon, while she wants to go for a walk with her friends. 
For example, she instantly thinks her trainer is a Bitch, because she teaches her how to fight St. George when our girl dreams about boys, and never pats her shoulder when she does something good (which isn’t often). She isn’t your loving mother, moron, she trains you how to survive in a world where dragons are killed! 


  Which was why I had so been looking forward to the summer, one final hurrah before I had to become a responsible member of the organization. Before I became a full member of Talon for life, which was a very, very long time for us. Three months, that was all I wanted. Was that too much to ask?


Um, let me get this straight. She trains in the morning. That she can do whatever she wants. She has a lot of time for surfing, shopping and for going out with her friends. But she never. Stops. Whining. 

Moreover, it gets her a lot of time for doing stupid things. Her brother asked her repeatedly not to bend the rules, because if Talon finds out, they’ll be sent back. This is their only chance to prove themselves. Pfff, like this girl cares. She’s attracted by everything that is forbidden: hang out with a rogue? Check. Turn into a dragon? Check. Get attached to humans? Check. 

The story was also predictable from the very start. We knew that Garret is from the St. George, and maybe that’s the reason why every time Ember met with him it looked obvious to me. But seriously: this guy has never heard about arcade, he has no friends, everything is new to him, as it’s for Ember. But that doesn’t ring a bell, for he seems perfectly normal to her. Garret also shows her that he is good at combat and that he’s a perfect shooter. But the girl doesn’t even ask where he learned it. For a dragon who all her life was taught that St. George is after them, she’s incredibly oblivious. All she cares about is for her feelings for him. 



Also, this book is cheesy and full of clichés. Like the part where Ember and her friends met some strangers and decided to ride with them to a cave. As Ember thought, these guys were looking “for fun”. Then girls are saved from those rapists by a knight in shining armor, and guess what? It taught them nothing, they sat in the car with another stranger and immediately invited him to a party in the house of one of the girls. What the hell??? You don’t even know him! 
I remember watching some documental film about dinosaurs, and there was a scene where one tyrannosaur killed another, so that he could leave its prey for himself. You get it, Ember?

The girl also does this strange thing when she talks about herself as a dragon and herself as a human, like they are two different persons. For instance, she-human liked Garret, while she-dragon bristled at the thought of him. Sounds like she has a split personality.

There were three POVs, Ember`s, Garret`s and Riley`s – the rogue dragon. And while I was annoyed by Ember, boys were actually good, if you don’t count their endless praises for her when she doesn’t deserve it. 

The writing was good, I liked the battle scenes, it was epic. Also I loved the description of Kagawa`s dragons, it was pretty realistic. I mean:


  Something dark, scaly, and massive erupted from the hacienda, sending tile and wood flying as it launched itself into the air. My heart jumped as I watched the monster soar above the canopy. It was huge, a full-grown adult, the height of a bull elephant and three times as long. Curved horns spiraled up from its narrow skull, and a mane of spines ran down its neck to a long, thrashing tail. The sun glinted off midnight scales, and leathery wings cast a long shadow over the ground as the dragon hovered in the air, glaring down at the battle below, then dove to attack.


The plot wasn’t very interesting, because, as I said, it was predictable. The characters made me feel like banging my head against the wall, though I really liked Riley. Unfortunately, I expected much more. 2,5-3 stars.

Libby G

I really wanted to love this one. I love dragons but this story just fell flat for me. The concept was cool but didn't seem important. I didn't feel the stakes enough. There wasn't much plot, just relationship building between Garrett and Ember. I wanted more about the culture that kept them separated. The first half was really so slow and all the concluding parts too fast and predictable.

Entertaining audiobook while doing yard work.
Impressive story line and character development.
Enjoyed this book.

Courtney ✿ @librarycutie

Actual Rating: 3.7


I picked this book up a few weeks ago at Barnes and Nobles because the cover, title, and blurb has intrigued me. 
  Dragons
. How can you not love a book about dragons? I was sadly let down when the dragons didn't actually show their true form until most of part 2. It was still an all-in-all great book!

I love the idea of Talon, an organization that has corrupted and brainwashed their dragons to believe what they want them to to keep them functioning the way they want. That way, in the long-run, dragons will be the rulers over humanity. They would dominate the earth, crimping the humans to nothing but ash and bones in their wake. That's why they sent hatchlings like Dante and Ember Hill to Dodge, California to assimilate into human life and be trained for the summer. The last bit of their freedom before they're given a job, a priority, at talon.

Ember and Dante aren't technically siblings, but they did hatch together, and have been together ever since, so they technically are siblings. Ember is fierce, curious, and spirited. She connects to human life, attaches to the idea of friends and surfing and cute boys. Dante, on the other hand, really is assimilating, he's blending in, but knows what his mission his, knows what to believe. His instincts are to protect Ember, his sister. He just trusts the wrong people.

From the start I was intrigued with the Rogue dragon, Cobalt/Riley. In Part 1 of Talon, op you see him as this tough rebel guy. Once you get the Part 2, which includes chapters in his POV, you get a deeper look in who he really is. He saves dragons who are itching to defy Talon, who have been lied to, and want freedom as well. Cobalt/Riley saves them, takes them under his wings, and promises to protect him. And that he tries. Then he meets Ember, and he just has to have her. His dragon aches for her, basically.

The writing was okay, I did find myself skimming over parts here and there, wanting and craving the action. I was glad to find that Garret has stepped out into his freedom, his own actions and for the right reasons too. He is, or was, a part of St. George, a group of humans with a job to slay/hunt/kill dragons at any cost. He's Seventeen and was one of their best, has killed dozens of dragons from the age of fourteen! One girl, one red haired girl, was all it took to change his entire outlook on what he's doing. He's been lied to, he's been told dragons have no remorse. Can show no emotions. They're just monsters. He know's that's a lie because of her.

I WASN'T EXPECTING A LOVE TRIANGLE! That made my decision of the guys difficult. Garret has not lived a childhood, and Ember is the one who shows him how to live, what it's like to be free, if only for a few moments. That's all it takes, really. Cobalt…Riley… I just imagine him to be one gorgeous hottie with a leather jacket and dark jeans with naturally spiked hair in his human form, and a breathtaking blue dragon, ferocious, daring, and brave as ever. Dragon and Dragon makes sense… But Dragon and Human, that could complicate things. Yes, Ember can transform to her Human form, but her TRUE form is a dragon. A red and fierce dragon at that! Oh, but don't get me wrong, it's exciting and definitely a new look for a love triangle.

I do admit I rate this 4 stars because dragons dragons dragons oh my! But there's a lot of greatness in this book, I have high hopes for Rogue, the second book of the Talon series. It comes out April 28 2015, so read that after Talon.

Jennifer

This book was just amazing. The story that Julie has created was very gripping. I was not able to put this book down. The dragons were described beautifully. I find the whole concept of dragons being able to live among humans in human form very intriguing. 

Overall I would definitely recommend this book. I can not wait for the next book to come out.

Kerry Gibbons

This book surprised me by how much I enjoyed it. It’s not particularly surprising or unique or anything like that and the writing is straightforward.

But I thought it was pretty great and have already started on the second book!

ashley hopkins

review to come

:) I totally think this fits.

Jelke Lenaerts

This book has a content warning for sexual assault.

This book is one of the books that's been on my TBR for the longest and after falling absolutely in love with Julie Kagawa and her Iron Fey world I was super excited to get into this book. Sadly enough, I just ended up being very dissapointed by this book. It was just super boring. Not a whole lot happened in this book and it just felt like one huge set up for the series as a whole. On top of that I also just wasn't a huge fan of Ember. I thought she was pretty annoying, selfish and had like zero survival skills. Not liking to main character definetly didn't help with the lack of plot for me. However, I do really like this world and I'm intrigued to learn more about Talon and St. Joris and just how dragons work in general. The side characters were also pretty interesting and I can't wait to spend more time with them either. I could do without the insta-love and love triangle though, but at the same time that's something I've come to expect a bit from Julie Kagawa.

THE DRAGONS OF TALON: Once hunted nearly to extinction, they are now poised to take over the world. THE ORDER OF ST. GEORGE: The legendary dragonslayers will stop at nothing to wipe dragons from the face of the earth. These mortal enemies are locked in secret and deadly combat, with humanity none the wiser. To take her rightful place in the Talon organization, young dragon Ember Hill must prove she can hide her true nature and blend in with humans. Her delight at the prospect of a summer of "normal" teen experiences is short-lived, however, once she discovers that she's also expected to train for her destined career in Talon. But a chance meeting with a rogue dragon will soon challenge everything Ember has been taught. As Ember struggles to accept her future, St. George soldier Garret Xavier Sebastian is tasked with hunting her down. But when faced with Ember's bravery, confidence and all-too-human desires, Garret begins to question everything the Order has ingrained in him--and what he might be willing to give up to uncover the truth about dragons.

Elaine

this was a huge surprise for me. I would have never though I would like this as much as I do. I really liked the voice of Ember and I never lost the feeling form which perspective I was experiencing the plot. I especially liked the descriptions of the dragons and the flying parts, which was very unique, something I have never read before. 
And the romance in this one was quite remarkable and felt sooo real!! I am definetly going to check out the next one in this trilogy.

Jeni Enjaian

Having just been introduced to Kagawa with "Iron King," when I saw this book in the list for Kagawa I opened the listing, read the summary and knew that I had to read it. When I finally got to read it, I was not disappointed in the slightest. The concept of dragons who can take human form is quite intriguing. In fact, it's something that, even after reading the first two books in the series, I still have a little difficulty wrapping my brain around. That being said, the concept still falls within the realm of "suspension of disbelief" which is something I frequently use when evaluating novels.
Kagawa also challenges the narrative with the technique of switching narrators and manages it well. Each voice is unique. Each switch serves a distinct purpose. Again, the romantic entanglements seem extra and do not add much to the plot, at least in the first book of the series. 
I definitely recommend this book and series.

Kristen

Maybe it was because I was expecting to hate this, based on the reviews, but I actually ended up enjoying it. Funny how that happens when you lower your expectations.

Leelynn Brady

Find this review and more on my blog: Sometimes Leelynn Reads

“Rnesh karr slithis," I hissed back, which was Draconic for eat your own tail, the dragon version of go screw yourself. No extra translation needed.”

First of all, this book is about dragons. My favorite mythical creature in the entire world. So of course I was going to immediately want to jump on this book.

This book had an interesting premise, although it may seem a little cliche. Dragons have been hunted down by this sect of human hunters called the Order of St. George for centuries, pretty much to the point of extinction. It makes sense since we haven't seen or heard of dragons outside of fairy tales. There's no way that dragons are actually real, actually out there in the world, or else we would have seen them already right? According to this book, it is because dragons have the ability to shift into humans and blend in without us even realizing it.

In this story, we meet an anomaly in the dragon world, a hatchling that is actually a twin, something that is completely unheard of. According to everything that Ember and Dante Hill know, they are the only two twin dragons in existence, and they have never been apart. They have spent their entire lives being trained by Talon, the dragon organization that is dedicated to making sure that their dragons are able to survive, and whatever else they are supposed to in the world. Right now, it didn't seem like the real objective of Talon is obvious, and this is something that Ember will have to learn throughout her journey. After their summer is over, where they have a chance to learn how to assimilate with humans, the real training will begin.

One of the main ideals that Ember and Dante were taught is that while they need to learn how to blend in, they will always be better than the human species. They were not supposed to show any real human emotions because it got messy, and would get into the way of Talon's objectives for them. But as we can see with Ember, she has a lot more human tendencies than she anticipated to have. She wants to enjoy this sliver of freedom that Talon has allowed her to have in Crescent Beach, making human friends and learning how to surf among other things. So everything that she was taught seems to contradict what she's been experiencing.

Not only do we follow the summer of Ember Hill, but we also hear from one of the soldiers of the Order of St. George, dubbed The Perfect Soldier by his teammates, named Garret Xavier Sebastian. He grew up having his family killed by dragons, and indoctrinated into the mindset that all dragons were monsters that needed to be destroyed no matter what. They even knew that dragons could shift into humans, and that they were good at mimicking human behavior. For some reason, they even knew when a dragon was in the area and would be able to set up house at least a month in advance before they were even placed into human society. How were they getting their intel on where the dragons would be, and how would they know who the dragon would be?

From the moment that Ember and Garret met, their entire world will change, and everything that they thought they knew will be tested. There's moments of love and fear, heartache and betrayal, and all the human emotions that both Ember and Garret were forced to hide from themselves and others. All it really took was for them to bring it out of one another in a way that made them learn more about who they are as people, whether they are a human or a dragon.

I really rooted for Ember and Garret to be free to feel something other than what they were told to feel. I wanted both of them to have that teenage experience of enjoying themselves in the summer, having friends and learning how to love. I wanted them to be teenagers again, something that they haven't allowed themselves to be. It made me cheer for them when things were going well, and broke my heart when they were having issues being real with themselves. But throughout the entire book, all I could do was enjoy the ride and hope that things would get better all around. The ending absolutely killed me, and I need to get my hands on the entire saga as soon as possible.

Dorianne Vervoort

** spoiler alert **
           I’m a bit disappointed by this book. I read so much good stuff about it. Maybe my expectations were too high. 

The story was a bit long-winded it started slowly. It was also a very typical young-adult, where there is a “forbidden love” between two sworn enemies. And then there was this love-triangle... It was all a bit too obvious.
There were a couple of “plottwists”, but they were quite predictable. I knew Dante was a little shit from the beginning. 

Only near the end it became better, when the enemies met each-other and got in a fight.

Wren Hardwick

I'm not going to spend too much time writing a review on this book.

I did like it, don't get me wrong, but it was just so predictable to the point that I was skimming some of the pages. 



You have a Romeo and Juliet thing going on in two different corners.
St. George: Killing dragons
Talon: A big organization of dragons
Rogue: Dragons not in Talon.

Girl: Talon
Boy 01: St. George
Boy 02: Rogue

It's very youngly written, so it's towards the younger age of young adult, which as a early twenties woman, probably why I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have if I was fifteen or sixteen. 

I am going to read the next book because it does have potiental. I mean, this book felt like a set-up book in all honesty, so maybe the next books are going to blow my mind and I am going to fall in love with the writing as it matures? 

Here's hoping!

 Bruna Acioly Leão

3.5 stars

This book is definitely different than your typical paranormal romance stories. For starters: the heroine actually is a dragon, and the hero is a human who is part of an organization (called the order of St. George) who has sworn to kill all dragons and purge them from the earth. Not your typical romance. And then you have things like dragon politics (with the Talon organization being super controlling with younger dragons) and rogue bad boy dragons (a little bit more typical paranormal YA) and a heroine who isn't quite sure that she is capable of human emotions or if she should be, or if should trust her dragon instincts more. Combine those and you have a fun, action-packed story, with interesting and complex characters and a plot that keeps you interested all the way through.

Despite all that, my overall feelings about the writing and the world building were a bit lackluster. I don't really feel like I understand dragons and I think the writing itself was missing a certain something - I can't really put my finger on it. However, I do think those are problems that can be compensated with the rest of the series, and I am interested in continuing on with it at some point in the future, though I am not suuuper eager to do so right now.

Pamela Alvarado

Since this book is about dragons, and written by one my favorite authors, I was counting on it blowing my mind to a point of no return, which I guess it kind of did. But… Yes, there are some but’s.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the plot. It was brilliantly executed and the little twists and turns were amazing.

What I realized, however, after finishing the book was that with all the action (if you may call it that), character development wasn’t very present. Sure, the most important change was there. But, to be truthful, neither Ember, Riley/Cobalt, or Garret were very memorable to me. That said, there is a lot of potential there, and I’m eager to see what happens to them in the next installment.

It was totally a plus to read the story in different POVs. It didn’t feel forced and I doubt it’d have worked as well if it’d just been Ember.

I don’t know how I’ll live until Rogue is out, but I’ll try to manage. The fact that an excerp of The Call of the Forgotten #3 will be featured in Rogue isn’t doing much for my feels.

This review and others can be found at A Writer's Tales too.

Giulia 

Non posso scrivere una cosa sensata in questo momento, vuoi per l'orario, vuoi per i vari feels non bene identificati che mi passano per la testa. 
Vi basti sapere che mi è piaciuto, amo la Kagawa e le storie che riesce a creare ;) devo procurarmi il seguito, tipo la prima cosa che devo fare domani è ordinarlo... PER FORZA!

Talon

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