Review: Danny Dirks and the Heir of Pendragon by S.A. Mulraney

Item: Danny Dirks and the Heir of Pendragon
Rating: 3.5
Author: Bee

Posted December 8, 2014 by Bee in Reviews / 5 Comments

Danny Dirks and the Heir of Pendragon

by S.A. Mulraney
Series: Danny Dirks #1
Published on September 1st 2014
by S.A. Mulraney
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: eBook
Source: Netgalley
Amazon | Goodreads

Danny Dirks wants nothing more than to play baseball in his father's orchard now that school is out, but he's finding out that he is no ordinary boy.

With the approach of his fifteenth birthday, Danny's begun hearing voices and seeing visions of his dead mother. He's also fairly certain that the cute girl next door is really a shape-shifting dragon. All of these things lead Danny to the discovery that he is the heir of the legendary Arthur Pendragon and the linchpin in a pact established between man and dragon centuries ago.

Now, rogue dragons threaten that pact and the peace that comes with it. They aim to reopen the portal through which they originally came to Earth in order to bring back a rebel dragon army. It's up to Danny to learn to channel the power that is Excalibur and, with his new friends, prevent the portal from being opened.

I received this book for free from the publisher or author in exchange for an honest review.
This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This book wasn’t perfect. Far from it. Actually, I had quite a few issues with it. But in the end… I still enjoyed it a lot. I mean… It’s dragons, guys. DRAGONS!

Now that school is out for the summer, Danny just wants to play baseball in his father’s orchard. But with his fifteenth birthday approaching, Danny finds out he is no ordinary boy. He hears voices and sees visions of his dead mother. He’s also pretty sure the cute new girl next door is a shape-shifting dragon. Danny soon discovers that he is the heir of the legendary Arthur Pendragon and the key in a pact made between man and dragon centuries ago. Rogue dragons are threatening that pact and aim to reopen the portal to their world to bring a rebel dragon army. And it’s up to Danny to stop them.

Sure, we’ve seen this kind of story a million times before. Boy finds out he’s no ordinary boy, but an extremely powerful (even more than others before him) [insert magical/supernatural/… being here] and he’s destined to save the world from some great evil. But if I’m being honest, I never really get boring of this formula, as long as the execution is good enough. And in this case, it is. That doesn’t mean it’s perfect, because it’s not, but I didn’t really care most of the time. The myth and legends behind the dragons were really interesting and I loved all of that! The dragons in this book were awesome too, seriously.

I think the reason why I enjoyed it as much as I did, was because I went in expecting exactly what I got. The writing was good, not great, just good. The characters were pretty standard but still likeable. I didn’t really buy the romance, if you can call it that? But it wasn’t really that big of a part in the story so it doesn’t really matter. Sometimes this book does try to be more than it is. Can’t really explain it, it’s a feeling I got. But overall the story was pretty original and the last couple of chapters had me on the edge of my seat.

In the end I’d recommend this book to people who like this formula and want to see a pretty original new version of it with dragons. I personally really want to read the next book in the series because I have to know what happens next. Which, I guess, is saying a lot.

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Bee

Bee (born as Bieke) is 27 years old and from Belgium. (No she won't send waffles.) She's a strange, nerdy and anxious creature floating around somewhere on the ace spectrum. Oh, and she also writes books as Nelly B. Jones. Or tries to anyway. You can also find her on Novel Ink.

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