I did enjoy this book very much. I do admit that it is a reread for me, but I cannot truly say when the last time I read this was. Since this year I decided to start over entirely (meaning treating all of my books as if I had not read them) I thought it would be a nice thing to try and read the books in proper order (obvious fail).

The characters in this book are well developed, as is the story line. I'm so glad that we have a chance to learn more about Tiger, find out more about him, and travel part of his journey as he adjusted to living outside a lab. It takes until the end of the book, or nearly so, to find out what the scientists were doing, creating him in a lab, but it has a happy ending, obviously. It also shows that good can overcome evil, even when there are people in a position of power who are looking out for themselves and not for anyone else.

As I said, it focuses on Tiger as he is adjusting to living among shifters and not in a lab with scientists constantly working on him or ignoring him. I truly enjoy how this story was woven together and is able to draw me in again and again.

This is perhaps the second time I have read the book over the years, but somehow I never go beyond this book in this series. I own all four in the quartet, but I don't seem to have the motivation to go beyond this one. It continues the story of Vetch, now known by his rightful name of Kiron.

In this book he gains a few friends, true friends who don't necessarily just want to befriend him for what he has (the second ever tame dragon), but ones who come to respect him for what he has managed to accomplish.

While it doesn't really show up as much in this story, he is still taking much inspiration from his mentor and master from the Tian Jousters and he manages to get the members of his wing of Altan Jousters to understand just how much he feels he owes his former master and possibly unrealizing mentor, Jouster Ari of Tia.

Through hardship, death, conspiracy, and challenges of how to train and overcome the wrongs being asked of them, Kiron's wing of Jousters overcome the odds and manage to free themselves and others from those who would kill them for challenging their authority, for not conforming to traditions and the unchallenged certainty that those who plot to take over Alta will do so with the unspoken permissions of the rightful rulers.

The first of the Drake sisters series, it does a fine job, in such a short time, introducing the sisters, though there is not much character development beyond Damien and Sarah (the main characters in this story). Many of the characters, possibly just due to lack of space or time, seem rather flat and one dimensional. There isn't much to this story, though it does a good job in opening up the series and letting you know of the potential for more in the future (of more than just this series, but rather the possibility of another, which has been written and so confirms that potential).

As I said, there isn't much to the story, just enough to make you care about the characters and it clears up something in Damien's past that had brought him to the small town of Sea Haven to begin with. But it honestly leaves you more curious about Sarah's sisters than them, in the end.

The first in the series is always the most difficult for me to review. I think it is because while the story of the main character is neatly wrapped up when it comes to a companion series, it also leaves you questions about the other characters that you have come to know in the book and wondering which you will be learning more about next.

However, in this case, the characters were well developed and believable. Their abilities did push the realm of believability in this world, so we can put this in the category of magical realism, I think, though what they can do is more of a natural born talent and not something that they learn from a book--either the person has the potential to do it, or they don't, it is not something that they can develop the potential for later in life by reading a book or being taught.

I enjoy the way that we are swept away into their life and world and that the world is so like ours and so modern, but there are some aspects that are impossible, with no true ability to comprehend what the characters are going through when they use their ability, though it is very vividly described, and eloquently, as well. I just think that there is no comparison that a reader can compare it with in regards to their own experiences or what they have heard of among other individuals.

Overall it was a solid story and I truly enjoyed reading it (having read it multiple times back to back once I got my hands on it, though I only recorded the once).