Spark of Secrets by Julie Janis

Book Synopsis:

In the Empire, dragons are revered creatures, but only boys have the ability to bond with them—or so everyone believes.

Fourteen-year-old Aura Blackstone has always dreamed of becoming a dragon rider, even though she knows it’s impossible with her being a girl. But when she sneaks into a dragon’s lair to save an egg destined for destruction, something impossible happens: she bonds with the dragon within.

Now, Aura must keep her identity secret as she enrolls in Wings Academy disguised as a boy to train as a dragon rider. Between the academy’s rigorous trials and prejudiced classmates, hiding her true self is harder than she imagined. One mistake could reveal her secret, endanger her dragon, and upend everything she’s worked for.

Meanwhile, the Empire is on the brink of chaos. Savage dragons are wreaking havoc, and whispers of rebellion are spreading. Aura must decide if she will hide in the shadows or risk everything to influence the destiny of both humans and dragons.

My Review:

3.75 stars. This book told an interesting story, and I enjoyed the main characters, but there were also some big issues. The pacing was off, some things were a bit beyond my suspension of disbelief, and there were a few too many Harry Potter similarities. However, the worldbuilding revealed at the end was cool and unique, and I'm interested to read the sequel at some point.

Early on, I thought the book was going to have pro-life themes. When Aura stole the dragon egg because they were otherwise going to be destroyed, there were some comments that almost sounded pro-life. Unfortunately, that wasn't a direction the story went in. But it just goes to show how good values can show up unintentionally because people inherently know killing innocent lives is wrong.

There were some unexplained details about Aura's background and the world's mystery set up from the beginning the kept me interested. I wanted to know more about the dynamic between Aura and the professor, and then obviously was curious about the main unexplained part of the story—why girls were not allowed to bond with dragons even though it was possible.

Once the story got going more, however, I started to enjoy it less. I felt like the main plot dragged on longer than necessary. Even by halfway through the story, her identity at the academy still hadn't been revealed yet in any way, despite how many near-misses and opportunities for something to go wrong she was in. That was a bit hard to believe. I figured that, by 50%+, there should have been at least some big conflict. Instead, it was a lot of little conflicts all just acting as set-up for later stuff.

After it got to the main conflict and all the fallout of that, however, things picked up again. I was invested in Aura's plight and felt her frustration at how the professors were handling everything. But, given what was revealed at the end, their reactions make more sense now.

Speaking of, that ending was another part I enjoyed. I definitely wasn't expecting it, and it was a pretty cool piece of worldbuilding and unique concept. The book sort of ended on a cliffhanger, but I'm not so desperate to read the sequel right away. I likely will get around to it eventually, though.

My last criticism is that there were a few too many similarities between this story and Harry Potter. They were small things, but they just felt very cliche: the orphan who learns she's different from everyone else, the rich blond bully (this one was the most obvious—too Malfoy-like), the "slits for a nose" in the monster at the end (almost the exact same description as Voldemort).

Content:

Language: none

Sexual content: crushes and cheek kisses

Violence/Gore: fist fights, blood, dead bodies

Drugs/Alcohol: none