Great YA fantasy! It started off a bit corny, especially with the character names (e.g., "Leo" hiding as "Lee"). But but once it got its footing I was sold.
I enjoyed the characters and the internal struggles Lee and Annie had to go through. The themes were the most interesting part of the book. It deals with questions that don't have clear answers. Who is best suited to rule? Is the new regime after the revolution actually better? Is a meritocracy system fair? Or is it all just more of the same?
The side characters were interesting, especially Power and Crissa. I wish the dragons had more personality, but it was still fun to see all the dragon fights.
There was some romance, but it was definitely not a major focus of the book, so I appreciated that.
I admit I don’t really understand some of the logistics of this whole setup (Why are they all teenagers in the running for Firstrider? Who was Firstrider before this contest and why aren’t they leading the charge when things happen? Certainly there’s someone else other than some kids in training?). But whatever - there's dragons!

Great continuation of the series. For me, it didn't hit quite as the first one, but I am definitely along for the ride and am excited to see where the trilogy ends. I enjoyed the new characters Griff and Delo, even but some of the other characters felt a bit more distant. Still there's more twists and moral quandaries and hard choices that our characters need to make. We'll see how it all wraps up in the next one!

This was a great way to end the series. I didn't love everything about it (e.g., the pacing was off, I could have done without some of the romance aspects, and there were characters who deserved better deaths), but on the whole it was very satisfying.