Uptown Oracle Reads… Palom

Linaria’s cities lie in ruin following Aciel’s war. As dragons turn against the survivors the devastation worsens. The world attempts to recover from one war and arm itself against another, Palom, hero and creator of the dragon-forged weapons that thwarted Aciel, flees across the Val Sharis wilds to rid himself of unwanted fame. Overwhelmed by guilt for failing to protect loved ones, his greatest threat is not just the weapons he created, but the new shadow growing over Linaria. He is accompanied by a dragon hatched in his care – but with the god-like creatures turning against the world, will she be his salvation or destruction?

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Palom
L.L. McNeil

After reading Moroda last year I was so excited when Lauren emailed me about reading Palom as well! Similar to book 1, I found Palom to have great world building scenes and I enjoyed the different scenery we had throughout. From the ice cold tundra to lush forests to floating rocks in the sky! In all these areas I was enjoying the little descriptions that made my imagination a bit more vivid.

One thing I love about Palom is that it has a summary of book 1 before we’re thrown into the story! Recaps are one of those things that would be fantastic for all books series – especially when waiting for the successors.

As with Moroda, the book is split between POV’s and I personally loved Amarahs. She’s a sky pirate, and a pretty damn good one at that. We see as Amarah she ventures to Oren, a place only Arillians had ever been before. I loved the exploration of a different land, but also different people we hadn’t seen much of in book 1 and their different ways of living. There’s also a lot of lore and myth around them with the Ice Golems and their magic which was intriguing for me.

As a whole, Palom does suffer from the usual second book syndrome. It isn’t quite as action packed as Moroda, and a lot of time is spent more on developing characters and building up this world even more. For me, I enjoyed this as I love world building and watching characters develop, although I know some people may struggle with less action.

Throughout, we get to see Palom, Isa and Amarah grow and develop into their new roles. Palom as as savoir and great war hero. Amarah as someone who’s trying to help and to be a good friend to both Moroda and Kohl. And Isa as she navigates being the kings sister, with no real power of her own.

The only character I particularly disliked was Lathri. This is just because I found her to be (quite obviously) a manipulative person who ‘preyed’ on Palom and then Isa when they were weakened. Throughout the book, Lathri doesn’t change much so I do hope she comes back to cause problems in the next instalment.

Palom made me extremely excited for the third book as I loved McNeil’s writing. Amarah won’t be out for a while but the ending of the book made me hope for the character to be reunited and to start off on a bigger adventure.

POSITIVES

+ Developing Characters

+ World building

+ Created excitement for next book

NEGATIVES

–  Second Book Syndrome

I received Palom by L.L. McNeil from the author. This is an unbiased and honest review