Dominion has been on my TBR ever since it was announced. I love the idea of tiger companions and Chinese mythology meets The Hunger Games. And by the end I was definitely back into it, there was a bit of a hiccup in the beginning. Keep reading this book review of Dominion for my full thoughts.
Summary
In a world divided into four rival Dominions, power is everything—and Rubi Morningtail has almost none. Three years after the Annihilation destroyed her homeland and shattered her memories, she lives as an Azure refugee in the Dominion of the Silver Tyger, scraping by as a ribbon dancer and hiding her little bit of singing magic. When she wounds a massive battle tyger on her doorstep, she draws the notice of Blake Axefire—supreme metal mage, leader of the royal tyger warriors, and the last man an Azure should trust. His sentence? Cast her into the Bonding, a brutal trial where tygers choose their riders and slaughter the rest. Surviving is unthinkable.
But survive she does. Now she’s stuck on Blake’s elite team racing to reseal the Anchors to the demon realm. With rebels striking, demons rising, and the Dominions at each other’s throats, Rubi must unlock the truth of her magic and her past…while resisting her dangerous attraction to the ruthless warrior who could be her redemption—or her ruin.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Dominion hits the ground running. I love that we get straight into the heart of the action, the doomed trials, and the future hanging in the balance. But while this quickly got off the ground, I felt a bit of a lull around the 20-50%. I felt that the world wasn’t fleshed out enough in this period to have my hooked. We don’t get a good sense of the world or politics until later on and I was missing more of a grounded connection to the stakes and the consequences. The elements were all there, the tigers, the politics of the court, but it takes a backseat to establishing the main romance of the story. Which I felt like progressed a bit too quickly for my taste?
So towards the beginning to middle I was losing steam. I appreciate a good slow burn, a good bonding experience, and it just felt a bit too shallow in parts for me. It does pick up and we get a lot more world building at the end, but it just felt a bit stagnated before. Once I suspend my disbelief at the relationship, there are some pretty swooning passages. I am intrigued by the future and the ways Dominion will continue to explore the idea of duty versus love. Of the individual versus the greater good. I am tentatively intrigued by the sequel, but this one felt a bit too loosely strung together in parts for me to wholeheartedly lock in.
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Find Dominion on Goodreads, Storygraph, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.