Here is a multi-million copy bestseller. It’s about school for dragon riders, kind of GAME OF THRONES meets HARRY POTTER, with some added TWILIGHT, and you can see where that got the publisher’s immediate greenlight, because let’s give the people what they want. I read a charming article with the author, Rebecca Yarros and learnt she is a military wife (and mother of six!) who’d written twenty or so contemporary romances that sold only middlingly well, before she hit on this mashup of high fantasy and romance, which has made her famous. Her mind is blown.
So I love the author, but I’m afraid this is not really my kind of book. I just can’t get passed how dumb it is. I think this is more a me-issue than the book’s issue though, and is all down to my being rigid and joyless. A better person would not be immensely bothered by the fact that the love interest’s name is ‘Xaden’! I mean: Xaden?!?. In any case, I did read the whole thing – it’s very more-ish, with lots of plot and twists and turns and will-they won’t-they – which I really admired. And I’m delighted for this lady’s success.