Rogue (The Talon Saga, 2)

Rogue is gripping, amazing, breathtaking and stunning. Ember is on the run with Cobalt after escaping Talon. However, she can’t stop thinking about Garret, the soldier from St. George who saved her and is now determined to save him before he is executed. Garret is a now traitor to his people and is sentenced to death for saving Ember, and he doesn’t regret it. Elsewhere Dante, Ember’s brother, has joined Talon’s search to hunt her down whatever the costs. There is action, romance, inner struggles, choices, secrets and shocking truths. I love this story, the characters, the plot, I love this series. I love it, love it, love it.Ember is on the run after she escaped Talon to join Riley/Cobalt and his group of rogues, making her a rogue herself. Just before escaping Lilith, a Talon assassin, Ember was saved by Garret, the human from St. George and she fears for his life. Determined to save him, she forces Riley/Cobalt to help her. Ember struggles between her human and dragon selves as she struggles with her conflicting feelings for Garret and Riley/Cobalt as they run and hide from their enemies. All the while coming to terms with what it truly means of being a rogue.Garret has been named a traitor to the Order of St. George because he helped Ember escaped both Talon and the Order, and by doing so he is sentenced to death. But Garret does not regret his actions as he knows the truth and can’t fight for the Order anymore. After being rescued by Ember and Riley/Cobalt, Garret has joined them as he struggles to understand who he is besides a solider. All the while, he is helping Ember and group dodge from their enemies.Riley/Cobalt is trying to keep Ember and other rogues safe from both Talon and St. George. However, Ember has become a distraction and yet he can’t let her go. He’s not happy that Garret has joined his group and his closeness to Ember makes his inner dragon all fired up. To add to Riley/Cobalt’s stress of Ember, Garret, his responsibilities and his many enemies, he learns of a mole within his underground network and is eager to find him.We also have a new point of view character; Dante, Ember’s brother who has been given the task of finding her and returning her to Talon. While he is angry for Ember abandoning him and everything he has planned for them, he wants her to return. He also deeply hates Cobalt for his role in her leaving. Knowing that Cobalt is a threat to Talon, Dante and his team have put together a plan that will eliminate Cobalt as a threat and return Ember to Talon.The love triangle in this book is amazing. Ember is a dragon, Garret is a human and a solider of St. George and yet they both have feelings for each other. However, Ember has a more trougher struggle with her feelings as her feelings conflict with her human and dragon selves. Garret loves her human self while Riley/Cobalt loves her dragon self and both guys call to her equally.I still love the characters. Ember is fiery, passionate, loyal, strong and rebellious. Garret has changed since his was first introduced as he is against what he was taught to believe in and has joined Ember’s group. Riley/Cobalt is still the great bad boy but loyal rogue leader, but we see more of the leader as he is trying to keep everyone safe, especially Ember. I find Wes funny but sometimes annoying. Dante is blindly loyal to Talon and it’s very upsetting, however, inside Dante’s head allows me to get some insight into Talon other than Ember and Riley/Cobalt.Overall, Rogue was breathtaking and incredible. Julie Kagawa did not disappoint by delivering this amazing sequel of her newest series. It is breathtaking. I still love the multiple points of views as it provides more of the story being played out through the eyes and emotions of multiple characters. We learn about Cobalt’s past and what lead up to him becoming a rogue and a little more understanding into what kind of organization Talon is. There was more action, more romance and more of the world of Talon being revealed as the characters start to figure out where they stand. The ending left me with questions that must be answered. I cannot wait for the next book.

Rogue is like an awesome dessert that you just want to continue. An excellent sequel that forces all of our characters to make some interesting and tough decisions that no one expects. I love how all of the characters have to deal with the repercussions of what happened in the last book and are forced to see the world in a very harsh light.I totally loved how the events of what happened in Talon goes directly into this book. Ember, Riley aka Cobalt and Garret are now on the run, but Garrett is sentenced and scheduled to be executed by the Order of St. George. So of course Ember and Riley aka Cobalt have to rescue him, but Cobalt doesn’t like him. The rescue mission is interesting because you really get to see Cobalt’s deep dislike for the Order of St. George and it’s members. Plus Garret is really stunned to see Ember and Riley rescue him.The other thing that I really liked is that there are other things that are going on. Both Talon and the Order seem to have their own agenda’s. We get to see what is going on through other characters point of views. Plus Talon has their own agenda and we are not ever really sure what it is, (at least not until the very end of this book). You actually can understand where Ember’s twin Dante is emotionally. Dante feels extremely loyal to Talon, as where Ember has broken away and gone rogue. He wants his sister not to be a rogue and will do anything to prove himself to Talon.Things get much more interesting because their seems to be a love triangle between Garet, Ember, Riley aka Cobalt. Normally, I hate love triangles, but this time it makes the stakes so much higher for our three main characters. All three of our main characters are now traitors/rogues and being hunted because neither of the organizations want the Rogues or traitors threatening their existence. I really found that Kagawa giving us a good insight to Riley aka Cobalt’s past was nice. The flashback scenes with Riley/Cobalt a nice touch. You get to see how this weaves into the current storyline. Plus we get a more interesting look at why Riley/Cobalt is the way it is.A very exciting ride to say the least. Plus we learn that Talon may have infiltrated the Order or someone is feeding information to the order from Talon. Talon might be manipulating the order to do it’s dirty work. I thought that this was a very interesting development. Not to mention that there are a lot of confessions from the guys in this book. Ember also has a very easy trusting soul and that gets her into a lot of trouble along with the rest of the group. Plus the last few scenes with the new Vipers were interesting.Thought that the twist that Julie Kagawa threw at us right at the end was such a perfect way to end the book. I really love how she always throws those really unique twists/surprises makes me excited to see what she does in Soldier. I totally want to read Soldier so badly.Rating:4.5 Hearts

Book two of the Talon series, <i>Rogue</i>, is definitely an improvement on the first book. I had two complaints about the first book. One, that there wasn’t enough action; too much time was taken up to inane teenage romance. Two, that the romance wasn’t genuine because it was founded on a lie.This book improves in both of those areas. Garret sometimes struggles with his old prejudices against dragons, but his relationship with Ember feels much more real. As he slowly became more comfortable with Ember’s dragon form, I cheered. For the first time, I really feel that Garret and Ember actually have something special together—that this isn’t ordinary teenage drama, but that the protagonists have to overcome real difficulties, and challenge real prejudices, to be together.As for the action, there’s a lot of it in this book, and that makes the story way more lively than the first. There are shootouts, duels between dragons, explosions, counter-intelligence, and anti-sniper tactics. With the exception of the hacking scenes, it feels realistic, like actual modern warfare. My favourite scene was when Ember and Garret disabled the two snipers who were targeting them. The pace was non-stop right until the end.The hacking scenes should have been a bit better researched. When Ember and Riley broke into the St George chapterhouse, I laughed out loud when Wes claimed he needed to be close to the base to catch a “signal”. This is not how hacking works in the real world. More likely, the base would have a server connected to the network, and Wes would take advantage of a poorly configured firewall or a vulnerable library that wasn’t updated.The other thing I didn’t like was the ending. I understand that there is a conflict between Ember, Riley and Garret, but the love triangle feels too engineered. We all know that Garret is Ember’s true love, even if her draconic instincts are urging her to mate with Riley. I feel that Ember is still too immature, even if she has grown up a bit compared to the first book.Moreover, one thing that’s missing from the book is what Ember and Riley’s strategy actually is. They’re running, trying to survive, but do they actually have a plan for bringing down Talon and St George? Is this story actually building up to something?Overall, I enjoyed this book, but not as much as I enjoyed some of Kagawa’s other works. Good but not great is my rating.

Despite having read Rogue and forming thoughts on it, I genuinely feel as if this book flew past me without me taking much of it in. Even though I did and could recount key plot points. It’s a weird one, and so because of that I present to you a short, possibly incoherent review. Enjoy.I definitely enjoyed Rogue more than Talon, and I think that’s largely in part thanks to the higher stakes and more action-packed plot. This book saw a lot more fighting and tension than book one, balancing out the romance and annoying characters I didn’t enjoy as much from book one.It also felt a lot more political, what with Dante now working from inside Talon and the flashbacks we got from Cobalt, and I appreciated the worldbuilding a lot. I feel like Talon could have benefited a lot from including more information about the organisation, but I’m also aware that wouldn’t have been easy to do with the narrative style.Ember was still incredibly annoying throughout. I really didn’t feel any kind of character growth or development from her, even though you can see she was meant to have poignant emotions about certain events. She just feels so childish and there were several points in the story where I just got so frustrated with her and her actions. I’m hoping that things change in book three, because I’m just baffled as to how she’s remained the same for about 800 pages now.Rogue was a fast read though, and I do enjoy the take on St George and the Dragon, so I am interested to see where the series goes. It just still doesn’t remain a priority for me.

I love the Talon Series! Julie Kagawa's fast paced, action packed world of dragons pretending to be humans and forced into a fight for survival against two giant companies (Talon being the first: the dragons attempting to take over the world, using all technological advances and firmly suppressing any kind of insubordination from their own people and The Order of ST George being the second, which is a group of soldiers who know about the dragons and want to eradicate them from existence) and being caught in the middle. So this is the second book, the first of which being Talon, and I won't go into too much detail to prevent spoilers.The protagonist Ember, is instantly likeable as the dragon that winds up in California pretending to be human, a dragon that is forever questioning Talon, isn't easily satisfied and is more than a bit hot tempered. Actually, I haven't found one character that I dislike (besides the baddies, obviously) and it's testament to Julie Kagawa's writing that she can do such fantastic world building while also juggling a first person narrative from the point of view of multiple characters spread out over different chapters!It's a phenomenal series that I would recommend to anyone reading fantasy novels, or those just wanting a bit of change and escapism, because this will definitely provide that.But be warned, once you start this series, you will literally be putting everything else aside until you finish it! :D

The Talon series is fast-paced, interesting and heart-warming. I am very glad that I was introduced to Dragons through this series- I think it did justice to the species! The mythical element, Dragons, although a central and vital part of the storyline did not take away the relatability. Kagawa did a fantastic job of maintaining relatability for the reader by emphasising human emotions, behaviours and features through the Dragons. I felt attached and empathetic to almost all the characters, which I think made the series more enjoyable. The originality in this respect allowed me to see all parts of almost every character, and the mundane villain verses hero synopsis was challenged.The dramatic, thriller- fantasy genre throughout kept me interested. I never felt bored whilst reading this series, I was always excited and looking- forward to what would happen next. I think Kagawa did justice to the love story between Ember and Garret, and I felt teary and attached to them. It was heart- warming and heart- wrenching at times to read. I genuinely loved their chemistry.Ember and Garret's stereotypes about each other's species were constantly challenged, and that was the element that kept me engaged the most. This series is very close to my heart. I'm sure I read all five books in maybe two weeks, and when I finished the series I felt suddenly hollow.The most surprising thing was how realistic the novels were. Even though it is a fantasy novel aimed at a younger audience, it was shockingly emotional. The character's concerns were very valid and their doubts too.Although the storyline was very dark, the homour kept the atmosphere and tone light- hearted and I really enjoyed the healthy balance Kagawa established between the two.I am very biased in recommending this series to anyone who loves fast- paced, fantasy- centric, love- bound action novels, that are more realistic than you would expect and though- provoking as well.

Kagawa, Kagawa, Kagawa... What are you doing to me?! I was so sure the Talon Saga would be a hit with me as the Iron Fey series after 10 years is still my favourite read ever. The descriptions and world building in Iron Fey set my imagination on fire!!Something with this current series though is not sitting right with me.The plot feels predictable and the characters immature leaving a overall feeling of "average". I feel like we are being given too much information about what the male leads are thinking which takes away (for me at least) the mystery and suspense of their thoughts and feelings.All that being said, like the first book, this was a real easy read and didn't feel like a chore.There's still three books in the series to go and I'm not giving in just yet... Holding my breath for some major transformation.The book ends with a great intrigue teaser so I'm putting my faith on Kagawa and hoping for the best.