Review: Dragon-shifter + boarding school, how can I resist?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 14, 2014
This review is also posted on my blogI've mentioned this before on how much I enjoy reading modern dragon-shifter novels.  I also like boarding school novels as well.  Down in Flames have both dragons and boarding school elements, so how can I resist?->I very much like this book cover.Down in Flames started out with an attracted stranger stalking the heroine, Bryn.  This incident then took on a chain of effects, Bryn found out she is a dragon-shifter, but here is the catch, she is one of a kind, a hybrid of Blue and Red dragon.  As you can guess from the description, Blue-ice, Red-fire (pretty simple and straight forward).  Both of her parents are exiled from the Dragons society, because you aren't allow to crossbreed with another kind of dragon-shifter (I know, how backward is this).  If that wasn't enough for Bryn, there are more bad news, Bryn have to attend the Dragon school to "learn" the proper way of being a dragon.  However, Bryn's unique existent will be a threat to those who control and held the traditions dearly, and some would see it as an opportunity to use Bryn to stir up a revolution.The way the story flows in Down in Flames are quite straight forward, the author doesn't beat around the brushes when it comes to what is going on and what will happen in the story.  You won't be spending much time on guessing, or lost.  This was a simple and a quick read.  However, I have often felt the story is missing something, and in need more of explanations and descriptions.I thought this book progress in a pretty fast pace, sometime maybe a bit too fast.  When Bryn first learned she is a dragon-shifter, her parents didn't wait around but quickly jump start to teach her how to use her magic (she have two, fire and ice), then at the same night, her parent also teach her how to shift to her dragon form.  All these turned out to be quite easy for Bryn, I somehow wish it was more of a challenge, since Bryn is after all still very new to her dragon side.Throughout the book we learn a little by little about how the Dragons lives, which were quite ridiculous.  Not only Dragons of different breeds aren't allow to marry outside of their own, the head of the Dragons arrange marriage for each of the young Dragons while they are still attending school ( and doesn't give you why and how they choose).  What's even more ridiculous is, if the dragon pairs aren't in love with each other (happens often), the husband will have a mistress (they called it being a sponsor) with the wife's blessing.->say what?!->So yeah, I can see why the Dragons are in need of change.Bryn is like a forbidden fruit (someone said it in the book, not me), many males are attracted to her because she is different.->rolling my eyes.->Don't get me wrong, I love YA genre, but sometime I couldn't help but wonder, when will the love triangle crap ever end?  It gets old rather quick when you read loads of YA novels.  I tend to turn the other way if the story is interesting enough that the boy problems doesn't get in the way and overshadow the focus of the story.  But really though, why oh why does triangle-love have to be a standard element in YA genre?->just to be clear there could be a potential love triangle situation, but this book focus very little on Bryn's romance relationships.I don't care much about the main love interests in the story, there weren't much of relationship developments between Bryn and Zavien to begin with.  Were there attractions, sure, but in love? Nah.  Beside, Zavien is already pair up with someone else.Surprisingly I've grown to like Jaxon's character, not that Bryn and Jaxon will become best friend anytime soon, but they now share an understanding.This book ended abruptly (really odd), I don't know if this would be a series or not, though it certainly feel like it should be.Overall I did like this book, even though I don't particular have a strong feeling, not to mention I thought this book could use some depth.  I like the idea of this book, beside I am a sucker for dragon-shifter and boarding school themes, therefore I am going to give this book (hopefully a series) the benefit of doubt and read the next book.