Review Detail

What I Loved: I loved meeting all of the other half-dragons and learning about their unique abilities and quirks. Seraphina’s “garden of the grotesque” was pretty interesting and those times when we were her head were pretty fascinating. The characters, both good and bad, were what made this book for me and I have a soft spot for Abdo. I also really liked learning about all the different lands and cultures that Hartman created while Seraphina traveled the world looking for other half-dragons. The humor is very subtle throughout the book, but it’s there, and I really enjoyed those little spurts in between all the fictional history and lore of the storyline.

What Didn’t Work for Me: The book felt way too long for me. Both books in the series were long, but more happened in the first book and I was more engaged than in this one. For characters who are supposed to be in the middle of a dangerous war, there wasn’t any action. Also, Seraphina is supposed to be on this journey to find other half-breeds, but it takes forever for there to be any progress in that area, and when things do happen, it’s not that exciting. When it comes to her facing off against Januola, there wasn’t nearly enough action there either. It felt like it was building up to be something big, but then the ending very anticlimactic. While Hartman does a great job at creating a very vivid picture, it was just too much and often times, unnecessary in my opinion. The pacing was just way to slow for my taste.

Final Verdict: While the pacing leaves a lot to be desired, the story itself is beautiful and compelling. Shadow Scale lets fans of Seraphina see how it all ends for some of their favorite characters.