I liked this book more than the previous one. That's mostly because it feels more original than the one before it.

It does end up in the group of books where I was expecting a certain vibe and received a different one, which is mildly disappointing. I rather liked Bentleigh more in the previous book, I think, although that may be because I simply perceived him differently.
Azalea was a decent heroine. I like the growth the two of them had, and the story was certainly an interesting twist on the fairy tale.

I have observed that this author seems to write the male characters getting incredibly angry (to the point of violence) on behalf of the female character, and that's somehow... attractive? I'm not saying the book shows it as a good thing, or even that it should show it as a bad thing, it's just something I noted because I personally felt a little uncomfortable at the clear rage and was bemused that the other characters seemed to be okay with it.

I do feel as though I don't have very firm of a grasp on the characters' personalities. Perhaps that's because I read this book as a leisure read, perhaps because I usually read authors with very distinct characters, or perhaps because I wasn't really invested in this world. Whichever the case, the series still feels like a vanilla variety of fairy tale retellings; as close to the norm as is humanly possible.

I'd recommend it, if only for something interesting to have a go at. The dragons are a nice touch.

Content warnings: This book was completely clean in terms of explicit romantic content, swearing, and descriptions of gore and violence. Bentleigh does kill a few villain characters and then seems to have no remorse afterwards, which I note because I normally expect some kind of shock or horror after taking a life. But yeah, pretty safe read.