Reviewing Kimberly A. Thomas’s DragonCrosse
Daniel Crosse, highwayman, thief, murderer and leader of the notorious Country Gentlemen, is unaware he carries a secret. Daniel holds the key to the future existence of the world.
Cassandra, Princess of Castlemaigne, must flee her tyrannical father, a repulsive political marriage, and the handsome but evil Commander of the King’s Army, Esteban Santioni.
Cassandra is the lock to Daniel’s key, with knowledge that will set his life upon a course he never dreamed possible. Will love be strong enough, set amid the beauty and dangers of a volcanic land, to fulfill an eight-hundred-year-old prophecy?
DragonCrosse, the first of a trilogy, is a book that leaves me feeling a bit conflicted as to how to ‘rate’ it.
The book reads easily, as if it was written for a younger audience, but this definitely isn’t a young adult fantasy book. With sex, violence, swearing and more, it lands well and truly in the ‘adult fantasy’ side of the spectrum.
Thomas has paid a lot of attention to detail, especially for geography’s sake. Having travelled around New Zealand volcanic areas in person, I loved the setting of the volcanic areas Thomas created by inspiration and didn’t mind the long descriptions of the landscape there.
Unfortunately, this can and will bore some readers, who would rather not pay attention to the geography wherever and whenever the Country Gentlemen (which is often). Descriptions often come in paragraph(s) length and very much contribute to the 700+ page length of the book. Though Thomas’s love of geography definitely shines through, she lets it dominate her book like a huge character who never does anything.
After about the fifth or sixth mention of how silver Princess Cassandra’s eyes are and how blue Daniel’s are, I found myself getting a bit annoyed whenever they were mentioned after. But like with a lot of my nitpicks with this book, I ignored them and kept reading on.
All in all, DragonCrosse is an entertaining book and a good light read for anyone who is looking for such. If that is what you’re looking for, then I definitely recommend it.
However, if you want something a bit ‘deeper’ that will truly make you think or are looking forward to a book full of action, then this probably isn’t the book for you. There is a lot of human interaction, but the plot isn’t filled with a lot besides relationships and geography.
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