Review: An amazing trilogy that just begs to be read.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 22, 2013
I have broken my review into three separate parts for each of the books.Hidden Gates 5 of 5 stars:One of the benefits and downfalls of rereading a series is knowing how it ends and this wasn't something I took into consideration when I started reading this series. Once again I fell into this story with ease, but all to quickly we reach that point in the book where PJ realises her feelings for Bryn are more than platonic friends and it was at this point that I lost control of my emotions and I broke down. I was swept up in the here and now but there was that part of my heart that knew what was coming and it reacted prematurely.Maybe it was because I came to love Khol later in the series but this time round that man rubbed me up the right way. When I first read this I found him to be overly domineering and aggressive in his pursuit of PJ but the second time round he was softer and definitely more alluring. I wasn't prepared to banish Bryn but I definitely would have offered Khol some 'comfort' of my own.All in, this was just as enjoyable as the first time round. One thing that did surprise me was finding out that this was the first novel Dyllin had written. When I first read this I clearly remember falling into this book with ease, the first few pages had me completely hooked and that is not something I would have expected from an authors first book.I originally read this in November 2012. I'm in the process of rereading the entire series. This book was a hit the first time I read it and I loved it even more the second time around.Broken Gates 5 of 5 stars:It really is true that when you read something for the second or third time you pick up on little things that you never noticed before. And in this case it was how much Bryn pissed me off. Ask anyone of the other Dragon Hussies and they will tell you I am Team Bryn. Bryn is/would be my Anam Cara, yeah sure I came to love Khol, but there is that part of me that will always choose Bryn first. Until now. At several points in the book I wanted to slap him upside the face so much so that I actually took delight in the fact that PJ did slap him upside the face. And then I started to feel sorry for my poor baby dragon. Again. I mean it cant be easy being the baby dragon around these other more powerful dragons, ones who have always known what/who they are and have had many years to work with their powers. He has known just a few short months what he is and he's supposed to compete? Yeah it's definitely not easy being the baby of the bunch. And so I softened to him again. At which point I realised I'm just as bad as PJ. I love them both. I truly am a Dragon Hussy. And I'm greedy because unlike PJ I refuse to choose.Word of warning. This book has an awful ending. I mean soul destroying awful not badly written awful. An ending that has me loving and hating Dyllin in equal measure. An ending that saw me dub Dyllin as an evil genius, a title she has lived up to in other series ;-) . An ending that has had me in tears once again, even though I knew it was coming.Originally read in February of 2013 as a Beta read for the author. This review was based on a re-read.Open Gates 5 of 5 stars:Despite the fact this isn’t my first time reading this book I am seriously struggling with how to articulate my feelings for what I have just read. Reading the book for the second time has not lessened the blows that I knew where coming. Every thing that smacked me in the gut and had me bawling like a baby the first time round hit me exactly the same this time round.The beginning of the book I kind of read in a trance like state, I was on auto pilot in much the same way PJ was, my poor Bryn was gone, I was heartbroken. When I first read the book I spent this early section hoping and praying (to DT) that Bryn would come back in a mystical dragony type manoeuvre. It took several chapters before i finally accepted that wasn’t going to happen, and this time round my heart felt heavy with the knowledge that he was truly gone. Bear in mind I started reading this right after finishing broken gates, there was no months of recovering like last time, my lovely husband fetched me some chocolate from the shops to try and cheer me up because I was so upset.PJ grows up so much in this book. I mean she just lost the love of her life, her Anam Cara. She’s pregnant and unsure who the father is. And she’s trying to save the world from the Riders. I guess she really doesn’t have a choice to do anything but grow up, and it does take her a while but she gets there. She becomes this super strong dragon queen who in the end makes such a big personal sacrifice that I again was an emotional wreck that my husband had to pick up off the floor. The PJ from the first book would most likely have crumpled up into a ball and rocked herself into oblivion.