The Last Namsara

Kristen Ciccarelli's "The Last Namsara" tells the story of Asha, the formidable dragon hunting princess of Firgaard. Asha became the embodiment of Iskari, the feared god of destruction and death, following a gruesome dragon attack at a young age that left her horribly scarred and filled her with anger toward all dragons. Asha learned at this young age that storytelling was evil, as was her mother for sharing them with her, and the Old One for creating them (since they attracted dragons who also had stories to share). She grew up desiring to be her father's Iskari by killing dragons and everything that was reminiscent of the old ways. Asha learned to hate herself, skrals (Firgaard's slaves), scrublanders (a desert tribe), and her beloved cousin (a mixed race child). The Old One suddenly enters her life bearing gifts with strings attached should she not use them correctly. These gifts go against every fiber of her being, but the Old One's consequences cannot be ignored. As Asha is forced to confront her entire identity and worldview with these gifts, she begins to discover her entire world is built on numerous layers of deceit. I enjoyed "The Last Namsara" from beginning to end and found Asha to be a relatable character. (Lets face it, we all have things we don't like about ourselves.) Asha's entire worldview (and her personal identity) was challenged by the very god her father, the Dragon King, desperately wanted her to eradicate. I loved the inserted stories throughout; they explain so much but would be hard to introduce into the storyline by themselves. I can't wait until the next book comes out ("The Caged Queen")! My opinion is solely my own, but I do want to thank Goodreads, HarperTeen, and Kristen Ciccarelli for a copy.

I received an ARC from Hachette India in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own. I have been OBSESSED with dragons for as long as I can remember, or, more specifically, from the first time I saw Saphira in Eragon, the movie and then HAD to read the rest of the books despite the fact that I was only eleven, and barely understood anything from them. At the beginning of this year, I had two young adult books featuring dragons on my radar, and I knew I NEEDED to read BOTH of them. The first was Before She Ignites by the LOVELY Jodi Meadows which I FELL IN LOVE WITH and I honestly cannot wait for more in her trilogy. The second was this book, The Last Namsara, Kristen Ciccarelli’s debut novel which sounded SO GOOD that I was SO EXCITED to read it, and then I did. One of my biggest problems with this book was HOW MUCH I STRUGGLED TO CONNECT WITH ANY OF THE CHARACTERS IN THIS 400 PAGE BOOK. And I mean ANY. Let’s break this down: 1. I absolutely love that this book had dragons. DRAGONS, I TELL YOU. Like I said above, I love dragons so much and I love how the book portrayed them. 2. I love that STORIES themselves had so much power in this book. I live on stories, just like most of my closest friends, and a story that talked about the power of stories and was actually filled to the brim with its own stories and fables from the world and it was really good. 3. This is where most of the things I liked about The Last Namsara ends. The rest of the book was dry, PREDICTABLE and I honestly didn’t enjoy much of it. The forbidden romance, BORING. The evil ruler, MEH, and so on. 4. I also struggled to connect with the characters. I just didn’t feel anything for them emotionally, which made it so hard to care about their world, their struggles or their relationships. They all felt like monotonous characters, with only a one track mind. 5. More than anything, THE PLOT OF THIS BOOK DIDN’T MAKE SENSE. Or maybe, by that time, I had stopped caring enough but there were just SO MANY imprisonments and kidnappings and claims of a new world coming, with JUST THE SAME IDEALS? HOW IS IT A NEW WORLD IF THE SAME DISCRIMINATION AND RULES TAKE PLACE? WHAT? I honestly don’t know what was happening, especially with the whole Regicide rule. If you want a rebellion, and a NEW King on the throne, you need to kill the OLD king, RIGHT? So if someone on the opposing side DOES KILL THE OTHER SIDE’S KING WHY IS HE/ SHE IMPRISONED AND THEN SENTENCED TO DIE? WHAT EVEN? ISN’T THAT A WIN? ISN’T THAT THE POINT OF THE REBELLION? 6. I also felt like this book had a LOT of filler and the important scenes, where Asha, our main character actually realised things that changed her perspective on everything happened so quickly, that even I couldn’t process them. All in all, I WISH THIS BOOK HAD BEEN MORE. It was predictable and dry, BUT it had dragons and some excellent world building and so I’m on the fence about this series. 3 stars.

At first I was wondering where this book would take me. Will it be cliche or non original? I was wholly surprised. Was this a love story? Was this break the stereotype of women? I feel this book touched on so much culture stigma women fall into in this day and age. I am happy this author was able to show case the vulnerability and decision some women make to break out of the shell. Thoroughly enjoyed the story. I feel for sweet shadow. The twist and turns were unexpected. Who doesn't love dragon and love?!