Review: Talon by Julie Kagawa

Talon by Julie Kagawa
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication date: October 28th 2014
My rating: 2 stars 

Long ago, dragons were hunted to near extinction by the Order of St. George, a legendary society of dragon slayers. Hiding in human form and growing their numbers in secret, the dragons of Talon have become strong and cunning, and they're positioned to take over the world with humans none the wiser. Ember and Dante Hill are the only sister and brother known to dragonkind. Trained to infiltrate society, Ember wants to live the teen experience and enjoy a summer of freedom before taking her destined place in Talon. But destiny is a matter of perspective, and a rogue dragon will soon challenge everything Ember has been taught. As Ember struggles to accept her future, she and her brother are hunted by the Order of St. George. Soldier Garret Xavier Sebastian has a mission to seek and destroy all dragons, and Talon's newest recruits in particular. But he cannot kill unless he is certain he has found his prey: and nothing is certain about Ember Hill. Faced with Ember's bravery, confidence and all-too-human desires, Garret begins to question everything that the Order has ingrained in him: and what he might be willing to give up to find the truth about dragons.

The last dragon themed book that I read and loved was Seraphina, I loved the world and character’s that Hartman created and her world building was fantastic. So when I heard about Talon I was beyond excited. The beginning actually started out really great too, Kagawa did a fantastic job at setting the back story of this world; dragons have been hunted by order of St. George for as long as anyone could remember. The men of St. George have been trained to track down and kill down any dragons, but what they never expected was one of their own men to fall for one of the enemies.

When Ember and her brother Dante move to the area, all they want to do is fit in, no one so more than Ember, yes she knows she has to remain under cover, fit in as much as possible and of course remain loyal to Talon. But the more time Ember spends with other humans and of course the rogue dragon Riley the more she realises that there’s much more to life than Talon. But her brother is all she has, she doesn’t want to leave him to Talon, but what choice does she have? Kagawa once again did a brilliant job in getting you stuck in with the story. We wanted Ember to succeed in her disguise around humans, to keep her temper in check and as we didn’t know much about the order of St George I couldn’t wait for Garret’s arrival and for things to kick off. And whilst at the beginning I was all for whatever was developing between Ember and Garrett, it became a bit too obvious and forbidden for my liking. Yes Ember was a dragon and shouldn’t be falling for a human being, but she couldn’t help herself and yes Garrett knew from the beginning (which was another thing which rubbed me the wrong way), that Ember could be his target, but he decided to keep it undercover for way too long. Usually I’m all for forbidden relationships, but in my eyes Ember and Garrett fell for each other way too quickly. Yes in parts their relationship was sweet, but still I didn’t find myself completely behind them. And then when Kagawa decided to add a third component to this already strange relationship, it made me even less concerned with what was going down in this book. How quickly could Ember shift her feelings, I was totally baffled when this person even became a potential love interest as I always saw him as a friend. And then when we were given his pov too in the middle of the book, that made me even more confused.

All in all I was left slightly disappointed with Talon; it had the great potential to actually deliver an interesting start to what could have been a great series. But sadly I don’t think this will be one series I will be returning to.