4.5 stars for Shadowed by Wings (Dragon Temple Saga book 2) by Janine Cross.
Shadowed by Wing is a seamless follow-up to book 1 Touched by Venom. Eight years have passed since the very beginning of Zarg’s narration. The nine-year-old child who has watched her father murdered, who has been evicted by her clan, and who has been abandoned by her mother over a mad obsession has grown up. Now, at seventeen years of age, Zarg continues to recount her life happenings and weeps for want of a welcoming home.
In this book 2, there are many forces at work, to each his own yet all congregating against Zarg: the rage of the Temple, the resentment and hostility of her fellow apprentices, Clutch Re overseer’s determination to learn the dragons’ secret, and the dragonmaster’s plan to free the Djimbi. With much oppression and inequality directed at Zarg and the weaker gender, I read bulk of the story with a clenched fist. However, it is also through this harsh reality that I learn to appreciate the author’s story spinning skills which paint life-like scenarios with no window dressing.
In her bid to join the dragonmaster’s apprenticeship, Zarg crosses path again with Dono, her milk brother who is also a playmate of her youth. The author does a terrific job on devising the revisit of Dono as his presence always manages to stir up a turbulence of emotions within me: a sense of longing, joy, sadness, guilt, fury, betrayal, courage, hope.
Just when I believe that Zarg, as the dragonmaster’s apprentice, is hard at work and well on her way to learning the necessary skills required for survival in the Arena, the story takes on an unexpected turn of events. The sudden change in plot only serves to make me hold my breath and keeps the pages turning.
All in all, Shadowed by Wings is remarkably well written with well-developed and defined characters. A heart-felt story about a girl’s struggle for love and acceptance in a world where there is no place for the feminine.
Publisher: Roc
Publication date: 3 Apr 2007
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The Dragon Temple Saga continues as Zarq Darquel embarks on a trial by fire, defying Dragon Temple scripture by undergoing the rigorous training of an apprentice dragonmaster, while desperately searching for the doctrine that allows women permission to participate in the battles at Arena.
Yet Zarq's difficulties pale in comparison to her craving for the hallucinogenic dragon venom, and her desire to understand the dragons themselves-both of which make her a vessel to receive the ancestral memories of the great beasts. And now, eager for the knowledge only Zarq can uncover, Temple has her imprisoned and subjected to starvation and torture-all to make her reveal the dragons' deepest secrets...
*Blurb from FantasticFiction*
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