Review of Wings of Life by Meghan Le Fay... 2.5/5āļø... minor spoiler warning...
First of all, I just wanted to say that I had a very difficult time trying to figure out what rating I wanted to give this and I am STILL not certain I have the right score. Bare in mind though, these are just my opinions and what I look for when I am reading and in no way should be taken as objective fact. What could be a low score for me could be a perfect score for someone else -- reading is always subjective!
TLDR plot: Merida from Brave (Disney) gets forced into an arranged marriage with a young Stoick the Vast (How to Train Your Dragon), moves to Berk (How to Train Your Dragon) and has to learn to adapt⦠quickly⦠while also doubling as a spy for her Father/country. Magic and dragons are present.
A couple of things influenced this score for my personal tastes⦠I'll start with those first.
Pacing. There is a major pacing issue that happens right after the beginning towards the middle that I would say dips in and out until the end. The majority of the story nothing is really happening and the characters are constantly "training". Training for this, training for that, they are ALWAYS training. It's monotonous and repetitive and it makes the flow of the story really start to drag in these moments. It was a good few hundred pages of this and I honestly debated dropping this because I felt like the plot was at a standstill and refusing to move forward. I think a good chunk can be cut out easily, maybe 30% of this book, and still keep to the same story. I felt like the beginning was so fantastic and had really good momentum going into it but it absolutely died off with its pacing issues. I honestly would not be surprised if a large number of readers chose not to continue midway because of this as I feel this is the number one issue that can be fixable.
Suspension of disbelief. I think this only affected me later on in the story with some of the character choices. I had a hard time believing some of the evil characters would do what they did compared to their earlier version of themselves we first met. Particularly of the reveals for some of the more traitorous or scorned characters. I just had a hard time believing these character are just straight up black or white in evil disposition without nuance or reason in the midst of a world where nuance and mistakes are present and forgivable. Growth was never a factor. Overall I think it just made the characters more shallow and lacking the complexity that is more common in a young adult book than an adult book.
This is where I start getting a bit spoiler-ishā¦
Conflict. This ties into the same pacing/repetitive issue. We got SO many pages dedicated to Serae's training and skills and nearly zilch using it. The few times things did change it up it was over just as soon as it started. Until the end of course. I wish we had more battles or something else to stir things up other than a laughably shallow scorned ex here and there.
Sarae's capabilities. For a girl who spent nearly the entire book being trained by both her new family and her new dragonbound friend, she was easily fallible. I feel like despite all her abilities she was constantly taken down and beaten so easily it felt like her training was just pointless. She is the only one who can do what she can do and yet she can still get cut rather easily, pass out, and spend the next few days sleeping off her injuries.
I also felt a little icky about one particular couple because it felt entirely too close to stockholme syndrome and I just was not vibing with it. To each their own.
Now onto what I DID likeā¦
The world. The worldbuilding is actually much better than I ever anticipated, including the cultural norms between kingdoms and the histories. I really loved learning about the various customs Serae herself also picked up on and the various terms they used to describe titles and expressions. The dragons too had a whole section on their history. The magic they used to bind with people and how it impacted the world and themselves felt unique and I really enjoyed the relationships between the bounded. I honestly would love more dragon involvement.
I also LOVE arranged marriage plots and this one definitely hit that for me. It's not for everyone, but the little miscommunication nugget between the MMC and FMC when she finally realized who she was engaged to was actually hilarious. I was yelling at her of course, but still amusing. This girl took WAY too long to put 2 and 2 together and let me tell you my faith was washing away.
That's basically all my thoughts on this and I again want to emphasize this is merely just opinion. I can easily see both views on why someone would love this series and why others may decide it's not for them. I may raise my score later as I sit longer on this or I may not. I don't think I will continue personally but I'm not writing it off either.
But, if this sounds like an interesting story to you, I implore you to give it a shot. I feel this is a book where you can honestly go either way.












