My Thoughts: Seraphina (Rachel Hartman)

Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.

Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.  (Goodreads Blurb)



My Thoughts:
Seraphina was one of those books that dragged me in under false pretenses. What do I mean by this? The beautiful cover immediately captured my attention, then I was yanked in further by the captivating summary blurb, the first couple chapters as well had me thinking wow, this book is going to be magically awesome. And dragontastic. Well. ahem.

Even now, it's hard for me to put my thoughts down.

I found the mythology of the dragons that was created in this book to be interesting and unique. The first couple pages pulled me in instantly with the writing and beautiful descriptions.  However, I eventually found myself getting bored with the story development. I found some parts to be confusing. The climax of this book was anticlimactic and the ending was eh. Why did I keep reading, well as soon as I was ready to give up, BAM, I would come to a magical passage that would suck me back in. 

Sometimes I can put up with a little bit of boring or a little bit of poor writing if the characters are AMAZING. I just couldn't connect with any of the characters, which was disappointing. I didn't root for any of them. I was just reading about characters on a page. I didn't feel them come to life. And I didn't get pulled under by the romance.  Sad.

Seraphina had all the ingredients to be magical and amazing, but somehow it just didn't all come together for me. I will probably read the next book because the moments of  magic it did have were worth reading.

Favorite Quotes:
"A feeling rose in me, and I just let it, because what harm could it do? It only had another thirty-two adagio bars of life in this world. Twenty-four. Sixteen. Eight more bars in which I love you. Three. Two. One."

"He is transparently simple, this one, and unexpectedly complicated. And radiantly beautiful."

"If I could keep a single moment for all time, that would be the one. I became the very air; I was full of stars. I was the soaring spaces between the spires of the cathedral, the solemn breath of chimneys, a whispered prayer upon the winter wind. I was silence and I was music, one clear transcendent chord rising toward Heaven. I believed, then, that I would have risen bodily into the sky but for the anchor of his hand in my hair and his round soft perfect mouth."

Bottom Line: Seraphina had moments of dragon magic, but somehow didn't live up to the hype in my head. 3/5