Island of Dragons

 Book 1 of my 2021 Reading Challenge

Island of Dragons 

by Lisa McMann

Book 7 of the Unwanteds series

Summary

published 2016

Alex and his allies work together, combining the knowledge of all the things they've learned from their previous island adventures, to fight in a final battle that will either save Artime once and for all or will destroy it forever.

First Impression/Judging a Book by Its Cover

This is the final book in the series.  I started the series because my daughter loves it and I continued reading it because I like it too.  There is also a spinoff Unwanteds Quest series that she received for Christmas so I'll probably read those too.

I'm reading the paperback version my daughter owns.  I like that the series are numbered on the spine and that the titles and covers of the whole series are pictured on the back for easy reference.

My Opinion

5 stars

This was an amazing way to end the series.  Looking at the series as a whole, other than a dip at book 5, I really enjoyed everything.  Each book had an individual purpose (none of them felt like the "filler" than can sometimes happen) but they also all built off of each other so that I was very invested in the battles of this final showdown.

Looking at this book individually, it had good pacing, good visuals, and wrapped up in unexpected yet plausible (or as plausible as a magical island can be, ha) ways.

As mentioned above, there is a spinoff Unwanteds Quest series that I will probably read at some point but for now, I want to just let these characters digest before jumping into new ones.

I'm not sure why this series hasn't gotten as much attention as some of the other fantasy/semi-dystopian ones have but I would recommend this to fans of Harry Potter/The Hunger Games/Divergent (although with the last two I add the caveat that the recommendation is for those who liked it because of the worldbuilding or action; these are J Fic books so there is no romance or language).

Quote from the Book

"Let's make this our final battle forever. And when it's over, like Mr. Appleblossom said, we'll start the world again. With peace, and with family, and with friends."