Dragonfall

Dragon Scales, Book 1

By: L. R. Lam

Narrated by: Philip Ishak Arditti, Rebecca Hayes

The bestselling first book in the Dragon Scales duology, in which long-banished dragons, revered as gods, return to the mortal realm. Dragonfall is a slow-burn, smoldering romance between a thief and the last male dragon drawn together by prophecy and an ancient artifact with the power to break the world. Recommended by USA Today for fans of dragon-filled fantasy and Fourth Wing.

Long ago, humans betrayed dragons, stealing their magic and banishing them to a dying world. Centuries later, their descendants worship dragons as gods—but the gods remember, and they do not forgive.

Thief Arcady scrapes a living on the streets of Vatra. Desperate, Arcady steals a powerful artifact from the bones of the Plaguebringer, the most hated person in Lumet history. Only Arcady knows that the artifact's magic holds the key to a new life among the nobles at court and a chance for revenge.

The spell connects to Everen, the last male dragon foretold to save his kind, dragging him through the Veil. Disguised as a human, Everen soon learns that to regain his true power and form and fulfill his destiny, he only needs to convince one little thief to trust him enough to bond completely—body, mind, and soul—and then kill them.

Yet the closer the two become, the greater the risk both their worlds will shatter.

©2023 L.R. Lam (P)2023 Podium Audio

Critic reviews

"Tight, tense, smoldering, and wonderfully queer."

(Mike Brooks, author of The God-King Chronicles)

"Dragons have never been so sexy."

(Kate Dylan, author of Mindwalker)

Absolutely Fantastic

I was a little uncertain at first, but this book really had it all. One of the most engaging character dynamics I’ve read, and beautifully visual in its descriptions.

What’s wrong with the audio?

Not sure if someone fully listened to this before publishing. The female speakers recording quality is notably worse than the male speakers. File sounds compressed and tinny.

intriguing characters

the style of writing can be confusing and hard to follow. the characters were hard to connect with.

Great Story

I really enjoyed the story and looking forward to the next book. The ending I didn’t see it coming so I appreciated that.

COULDN'T STOP

Man, I had very low expectations on this one. I purchased the book a few months ago when it was featured as the speculative fiction or whatever at Barnes and Noble. (I'm a sucker for pretty artwork what can I say). When I got home, I read a couple reviews about the book and in general they were very low. So, I did what any reasonable person does and stuck it on my shelf as a doomed TBR.

A few months passed and I had ran out of books to listen too. This one came up on my suggested and surprisingly the reviews were pretty good. Exactly 2 days later, I had gotten so sucked in that I pulled my dusty copy off the shelf and finished it in a whirlwind of an hour.

The narration is really good and the story is strangely addicting. LGBTQ fantasy is the best and I cannot wait for Emberclaw in March 2025. Anyways, just go give it a read. You won't regret it.

Took awhile to get into

The story definitely grew on me. A few things bothered me. One was the accent of dragon which was like a Transylvanian vampire but his sister’s and mother’s accents weren’t the same. Also Arkady is always telling the story normally but Everen is always speaking directly to Arkady. It’s explained in the end but just seemed weird all the way through. I would have saved that artifice until the end of the book. I found it distracting. The other thing that irked me throughout was they were talking about someone and switched from he to “they”. (Nothing to do with gender— just another annoying artifice). It was an ok story but I’ve read better. Not sure if I’ll listen to a sequel.

Unique Approach

Not the average dragon tale. Loved the story from each character's perspective. There was excellent character development, growth and insight. Not predictable. Loved the narrators and the pace of narration.

the duet style writing

with it being a youth novel I can't really complain. the author did an amazing job bring humans and dragons to gether

Not bad

Could be better. slow paced, nothing really happened that stuck out. The end was good, and I love the character development and writing style. The female VA was not great. The male VA was amazing.

NOT MY KIND OF ROMANCE

I didn’t finish it. Not what I expected. It should tell you before you buy it.