This one was just okay for me. I read the LoTR first so it was nice to get the background of the journey of Bilbo prior to the events of LoTR but I could tell it was a much simpler story aimed at a younger audience.

Maybe I read it too close to the main series but I’m finding myself ready to move on to another author. 

It has a lot of charm and it’s nice seeing some do the names we do, but I couldn’t help but feeling like I wanted a bit more from it as an adult.

I still found the storyline with Smaug to be the best part of the book.

We get introduced to Smaug and he’s an immediate threat. He’s mysterious and all powerful and the conversation we have between him and Bilbo is tense and very well done. My issue is we then get a GoT-esque quick ending with a single area taking down a legendary destructive dragon. I just found it a bit underwhelming.

Other than that, you can’t not find the charm in the LoTR universe but this one was fine for a single reading for me. Not sure I’ll return to it.