The Iron Crown

Dragon Spirits, Book 1

By: L.L. MacRae

Narrated by: RJ Bayley

Length: 18 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Fenn’s first and only memory is finding himself in the middle of a forest, face to face with a dragon spirit mocking him, all knowledge gone apart from his own name.

Lost and confused, his only hope for answers is Calidra—a woman living on the edge of the world with her partner. Forced to return home when her father dies, Calidra has put off facing her estranged mother for seven years, and she begrudgingly helps Fenn, forging papers for him so he can avoid the Queen’s Inquisitors.

But her mother is the least of her worries when they discover an ancient enemy is rising again. It should be impossible with the Iron Crown in power—and Fenn is terrified he might unwittingly be playing a part in the war’s resurgence.

Surrounded by vengeful spirits and powerful magic, Fenn’s desperate attempt to find his way home might well alter the fate of Tassar, and every power in it.

A new high-fantasy series bursts into life with the Dragon Spirits who reign supreme in the magic-drenched world of Tassar.

©2021 L.L. MacRae (P)2022 L.L. MacRae

A Great Epic Fantasy

The Iron Crown lives up to the hype. It reminds me of the epic fantasy novels that I grew up with. The magic is intriguing and creates a world that is fascinating to discover as the pages rapidly turn. It is engaging, exciting, and many other things. It also has a unique take on dragons that makes it a lot of fun to read and to figure out how it all works out in the grand scheme of things. The characters are beautifully flawed, with each having a weakness to either overcome or succumb to.

The strength of this novel are the wonderful characters that the reader has the pleasure to meet throughout the course of the novel. They all are well thought out and hold their own as individuals, each with strengths and flaws. There were a couple of times I wondered about the timing of how characters ended up in certain areas but this does not effect the story at all.

It is a fun and interesting novel of adventure, mystery, and family. It will pull on the heart strings while taking your breath away with the awesomeness of adventure that awaits within its pages. The novel sets up what promises to be a great and interesting new adventure series in a wonderful fantasy world filled with dragons and griffins. Do yourself a favor and pick up The Iron Crown for your next read!

I listened to the audio of this novel, which is fantastically done! Highly recommend the experience as R.J. Bayley once again does a fantastic job of making the story come to life.

Thank you for taking the time to read my review. As always, happy reading and Stay Great!!

Awesome

I felt like I took a journey with the author‘s friends. The Combination of characters and old ones from the novella worked well.

A high fantasy series with a fun, unique twist on

A high fantasy series with a fun, unique twist on dragons that I couldn’t get enough of.

Plot: 5/5
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The Iron Crown is an epic, multi-POV story that follows a cast of individuals as they discover that an ancient enemy is not quite so locked up as once believed. Meanwhile, one of the main characters also struggles with the loss of his memory and how he might bring it back.

The plot is well paced and filled with several surprises and intriguing moments. The stories combine and mix well as the characters each battle with their own personal battles while seeing rise to a much larger battle. I am very excited for book two and to see what the crew will face in the future!

Characters: 5/5
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There is a large cast of characters and each are wonderfully molded within the story. You are introduced to their personal battles, which helps to provide deep and emotionally interesting characters and arcs.

Worldbuilding: 5/5
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The world felt reach and plentiful, I was excited to keep diving in and learning more and more about the different creatures, dragon spirits, magic items, and so on.

Writing: 5/5
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I always find writing to be harder to judge when listening to it as an audiobook, but I was always highly interested in the story and was not often lost or confused, so I feel confident when I say the writing was excellent. It was very easy to fall into the world and become captured by it entirely.

Enjoyability: 5/5
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I had such a good time with this book, and was ready to return to it each time. I am excited to return once more to the world of the Dragon Spirits with book #2, The Shadow Gate!


OVERALL: 5/5 Dragons


Narration: 5/5
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RJ Bayley narrated the audiobook for Iron Crown and his narration is fantastic. The voices are well done and rich, and helped to keep me interested throughout.

Juvenile and under-developed

I stuck it out until the end and boy do I regret it. Impulsive characters of below average intelligence and executive function with the most basic of motivations (survival, violent temper, emptiness caused by cold mothers) make for an unsatisfying story.