I had a good time with this book and recommend it if you like classic dragon stories. Admittedly it took me a little while to be properly gripped by it - I would describe the first half as a three star - but by the second half it really picked up, and I do intend to carry on with the sequel.

There are a lot of tropes and themes here which are recognisable from other novels, especially dragon stories such as Pern and Eragon - and the conversations about class even reminded me of the Aurelian Cycle (servants are not supposed to be dragonriders). For me though these similarities are not criticisms, I like these tropes and enjoy reading about them in new stories. I liked the worldbuilding here and while I liked rather than loved the characters, I feel that there is the potential for them to be developed further in the sequels. 

I love that there is some inclusion of disability as the dragon Ash is born blind, although I will leave it to others to say how well or otherwise this was handled. 

I believe the book fits the description of a progression fantasy, with the main character getting magically stronger as the book continues. If I'm honest I wasn't overly keen on this part and I think it's less that it was badly handled and more that I just don't personally like progression fantasy. 

Overall a fun, classic dragon story (with an absolutely gorgeous cover).