Eon/ Eona

 

Eon and Eona

Written by Allison Goodman

Published by: Viking and Penguin


















Eon (taken from Goodreads.com):  Also Known As: Two Pearls of Wisdom, Eon: Rise of the Dragoneye, and Eon (All the same book just published with different publishers)
Eon has been studying the ancient art of Dragon Magic for four years, hoping he'll be able to apprentice to one of the twelve energy dragons of good fortune. But he also has a dark secret. He is actually Eona, a sixteen-year-old girl who has been living a dangerous lie for the chance to become a Dragon-eye, the human link to an energy dragon's power. It is forbidden for females to practice the Dragon Magic and, if discovered, Eon faces a terrible death. After a dazzling sword ceremony, Eon's affinity with the twelve dragons catapults him into the treacherous world of the Imperial court, where he makes a powerful enemy, Lord Ido.

This was a great book!  I loved the entire world that the author created.  I will admit, the story was breath taking for the first 5 chapters, and then the story slowed to a painful pace.  There seemed to be an awful lot of "info dumping" in the first half of this book.  I can completely understand- the author created a very elaborate world.  And to her credit, she gave all of this information without explaining everything to the reader.  The information flowed well into the book.  It was simply difficult to have 200 pages of few major developments.  The last third of the book, though, made the entire book worthwhile.  This was a fantastic book and I highly recommend it to any lover of Maria V Snyder, Robin McKinley, etc.

~~~~Warning:  Spoilers about the second book ahead~~~~~

Eona (taken from Goodreads.com):  Eon has been revealed as Eona, the first female Dragoneye in hundreds of years. Along with fellow rebels Ryko and Lady Dela, she is on the run from High Lord Sethon's army. The renegades are on a quest for the black folio, stolen by the drug-riddled Dillon; they must also find Kygo, the young Pearl Emperor, who needs Eona's power and the black folio if he is to wrest back his throne from the selfstyled "Emperor" Sethon. Through it all, Eona must come to terms with her new Dragoneye identity and power-and learn to bear the anguish of the ten dragons whose Dragoneyes were murdered. As they focus their power through her, she becomes a dangerous conduit for their plans. . . .

 What the author does so well:  engaging the reader.  I read this book while doing laundry, and other multi-tasking.  I simply couldn't put it down!  The story was so elaborate, so passionate, and so fast paced, it was hard to break away from the book!  

One of the central themes of this story is the love triangle between Kygo, Ido, and Eona.  I have to say- this triangle irritated me.  Ido was obviously using Eona and she blatantly chose to not care.  Somehow even though she had feelings with Kygo, which were met by equal passion, Eona still chose to "connect" to Ido.  I was incredibly frustrated with Eona.  She simply was a very flawed hero.  Her morality choices seemed to worsen as the book went on.  And although the author tried to redeem her at the end- it felt lacking.  It isn't a good thing when I disagree with the heroine so much I hope she loses.  I think that was the major fault of the story- the ending lacked a great deal.  I felt that Eona really hadn't learned from her mistakes and would keep on making horrible choices.

However, this was an incredibly imaginative series.  The author has a very special way of writing- as the reader, I feel as though I really am a part of the story.  I can't wait to read other books by her!

Want to learn more about the author Allison Goodman- check out her site and keep up to date on her new series (in the making)!