The Dragon’s Promise by Elizabeth Lim (Six Crimson Cranes #2)

Reviewed by Sam!

What I drank prior: I’m fuckin on vacation… and my best friend has been out of the country for the last weekish and I’ve had a bottle of wine and then some.

Goodreads Overview:

A journey to the kingdom of dragons, a star-crossed love, and a cursed pearl with the power to mend the world or break it…

Princess Shiori made a deathbed promise to return the dragon’s pearl to its rightful owner, but keeping that promise is more dangerous than she ever imagined.

She must journey to the kingdom of dragons, navigate political intrigue among humans and dragons alike, fend off thieves who covet the pearl for themselves and will go to any lengths to get it, all while cultivating the appearance of a perfect princess to dissuade those who would see her burned at the stake for the magic that runs in her blood.

The pearl itself is no ordinary cargo; it thrums with malevolent power, jumping to Shiori’s aid one minute, and betraying her the next—threatening to shatter her family and sever the thread of fate that binds her to her true love, Takkan. It will take every ounce of strength Shiori can muster to defend the life and the love she’s fought so hard to win.

Drunk Overview: this is the second book in a beautiful duology. So from what we know, our main lady has made a few promises to return the pearl to its rightful owner, a dragon. But she heads home not knowing what he was gonna come to, but her dad and her betrothed are all…. “But babe…” which is sorta hard to describe cause they’re not saying no to her life but they’re defitinitely trying to box her in. ANYWAY the whole story is her trying to right wrongs and deliver the pearl like she promised.

Spoiler-free Thoughts: This si super cute. And its v annoying how cute it is.

Characters: ok so we’ve got our boys… but they’re not really our boys anymore cause shiori has made her choice and I kinda love that she’s made that choice. Do the boys love that? No. But do hey follow what their characters would have done? Absolutely. Anywho. I don’t remember much about the love interested except that i am not mad about the choice nor am i pissed at them for their actions after. I can’t say who was who cause that’s spoilers but I can say that the one who wasn’t chosen was gracious and the one who was didn’t gloat and i love that. Plus there’s also the paper bird. Ok, on top of that there are a couple other side characters who i would talk about if i could remember their names but my sober notes say that i love their gumption and then there’s Kiki (i think) the paper bird. She’s dope.

Plot: so the plot is basically figuring out how to deal with the big bad. There’s a lot of character development but couldn’t happen unless there was a story to be had. I was in to the story and i never found myself bored.

Writing Style: we’re going to go with audio narrator here cause theirs was quite awesome.

World Building: what a great fable to have been made amazing. Just… keep being amazing. This author loves retelling these tales and this series was no exception.

What to pair it with: Gin and tonic. It’s almost like we’re supposed to like when its bitter… and honestly, i do most of the time,

Rating: 3/5

Until next time, we remain forever drunkenly yours,
Sam