Review: Rogue (Talon #2) by Julie Kagawa

Rogue

Author: Julie Kagawa

Series: Talon #2

Pages: 464

Publisher: Harlequin Teen Australia

Release date: 1^st May 2015

Amazon

Synopsis (Goodreads)

Ember Hill left the dragon organization Talon to take her chances with rebel dragon Cobalt and his crew of rogues. But Ember can't forget the sacrifice made for her by the human boy who could have killed her—Garret Xavier Sebastian, a soldier of the dragonslaying Order of St. George, the boy who saved her from a Talon assassin, knowing that by doing so, he'd signed his own death warrant. 

Determined to save Garret from execution, Ember must convince Cobalt to help her break into the Order's headquarters. With assassins after them and Ember's own brother helping Talon with the hunt, the rogues find an unexpected ally in Garret and a new perspective on the underground battle between Talon and St. George. 

A reckoning is brewing and the secrets hidden by both sides are shocking and deadly. Soon Ember must decide: Should she retreat to fight another day…or start an all-out war?

Review: 4 out of 5 stars

Contains possible spoilers from the first book!

To be completely honest, the first book in the Talon series by Julie Kagawa didn’t wow me, there were a number of aspects I didn’t enjoy – the main being the lack of background information and dragon appearances but everything has been kicked up a notch in the sequel and I found myself engrossed in Julie Kagawa’s storytelling.

After the events that happened at the end of Talon, Ember Hill, now considered a traitor to Talon and rogue dragon, Riley set out to rescue soldier, Garret Sebastian who is being held for treason for betraying the Order of St George who he has always been fiercely loyal to.

The characters are further developed in Rogue and we begin to understand more about their motives and reasons for decisions they have made; we get the POV’s from not only Ember but also Garret, Riley and Dante, I did find myself skimming Dante at times, I didn’t find him as interesting as the other characters and his betrayal grated on my nerves. I did love Cobalt/Riley, I found his back-story to be extremely interesting and to be honest I love him with Ember BUT we do have a love-triangle and I am still finding myself a little indifferent towards Garret, he just doesn’t interest me unfortunately. Speaking of love-triangle, I find it to be completely unnecessary and pointless; it seems to be included to create more tension which isn’t needed and since book one I just can’t see a dragon matched with a human.

The plot flows at a steady pace and I really enjoyed learning more about Talon as well as the rogues; there were many surprises and twists and turns I wasn’t expecting. We are thrust into action and many dangerous situations from the onset which I always enjoy.

Julie Kagawa’s writing is wonderfully creative, the setting is vivid and the story is gripping but the ending OMG! What an unexpected shock so I am super eager to get hold of the next book in the series.

Overall, Rogue is an entertaining YA shifter tale that had me eager for more as I was reading along, whilst some parts were predictable others had me gaping. Rogue is an engrossing, exciting sequel to Talon.

Thank you to Harlequin Teen Australia for the opportunity to read and revie Rogue.

Fave Quotes:

“There was no way I was going to let him die. He was my other half; without him, I felt incomplete. I wasn't sure if this was my dragon talking or me,but I couldn't imagine a world without Riley.” 

“That's okay. If we are attacked by zombies I don't have to run fast. I just have to run faster than you.” 

About the author: Julie Kagawa, the New York Times bestselling author of the Iron Fey and Blood of Eden series was born in Sacramento, California. But nothing exciting really happened to her there. So, at the age of nine she and her family moved to Hawaii, which she soon discovered was inhabited by large carnivorous insects, colonies of house geckos, and frequent hurricanes. She spent much of her time in the ocean, when she wasn’t getting chased out of it by reef sharks, jellyfish, and the odd eel.
When not swimming for her life, Julie immersed herself in books, often to the chagrin of her schoolteachers, who would find she hid novels behind her Math textbooks during class. Her love of reading led her to pen some very dark and gruesome stories, complete with colored illustrations, to shock her hapless teachers. The gory tales faded with time (okay, at least the illustrations did), but the passion for writing remained, long after she graduated and was supposed to get a
real job.

To pay the rent, Julie worked in different bookstores over the years, but discovered the managers frowned upon her reading the books she was supposed to be shelving. So she turned to her other passion: training animals. She worked as a professional dog trainer for several years, dodging Chihuahua bites and overly enthusiastic Labradors, until her first book sold and she stopped training to write full time.

Julie now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where the frequency of shark attacks are at an all time low. She lives with her husband, an obnoxious cat, an Australian Shepherd who is too smart for his own good, and a hyper-active Papillion.