Feathers of Dawn

The Graveyard Trees, Book 1

By: Jess Galaxie

Narrated by: Mac Rae

This cozy, queer book about dragons is perfect for D&D fans who love a good combination of fluff and violence.

After fighting and killing dragons for years, Asith Evourin is finally enjoying an early retirement, using his free time to trace the location of his father, who's been missing since Asith's youth. But all that changes when a Bronze dragon lands in a field of his small village. Asith is the only dragon knight who can step up to protect Cairn from the wrath of this beast, but in doing so, Asith is kidnapped by the dragon and brought back to their hoard.

Surprised he hasn't become an instant meal, Asith interrogates the dragon, named Dradevai, to gather enough information to plan an escape. But he doesn't expect Dradevai to be such a lonely, gentle soul. Everything he knows about the dragon knights might be wrong, and befriending this dragon might prove some shocking discoveries, such as the whereabouts of his father.

Recognizing that a close relationship with a dragon might jeopardize their safety, Asith must decide how close to keep Dradevai and how badly he wants to uncover the history of the dragon knights and his homeland.

Cuddle up with this cozy queer fantasy romance about dragons, with compelling, complex characters, impressive world-building, a magic system, high stakes, and a slow burn.

Contains mature content. A complete list of content warnings can be found on the author's website.

©2023 Jess Galaxie (P)2025 Podium Audio

Truly a treasure in a Dragon’s hoard.

The narrator did an excellent job with this read. It’s romantic without being raunchy. I thoroughly enjoyed this on my long car rides. Looking forward to the second book.

I enjoy a romantic adventure

It is a romantic adventure involving a man, who was raised by his mother, and a decidedly sweet enby dragon, who was raised by books.

As far as the enby representation, I hardly thought about the dragon being enby. I am transgender, and I use "they" and "them" with anyone and everyone until I have a chance to ask for their pronouns. Hearing "they" and "them" just sounded normal to me. When I was about halfway through the book, I looked up the author's website. The author apparently sees the enby-inclusivity as a selling point, so I assume they would welcome some feedback about that aspect.

If I read you rightly, author, I like your decision to integrate Dradevai's gender smoothly into the story without disruption. Something that I notice other authors doing is making the presence of an enby character weird or stopping to preach. You simply decided the character would be enby, and you kept the cursor moving. You employed a "wild person" romantic archetype for Dradevai, but if other authors are going to do the same with male and female characters, you may as well do it with an enby character.

As far as dragons that read far too much romantasy and then feel very confused when the world doesn't actually work like that, yes, some of us do that.

The story leaves the reader wanting more, which is a good goal for any writer.