Necklace of the Gods by Alison Goodman

Transworld gave me a copy of Necklace of the Gods by Alison Goodman to review. Note: this book is also available as a YA edition with the title Eona: Return of the Dragoneye.

Here's the synopsis:

Once she was Eon, a girl disguised as a boy, risking her life for the chance to become a Dragoneye apprentice. Now she is Eona, thrust into the role of her country’s saviour.

But Eona has an even more dangerous secret — she cannot control her power. When she tries to bond with her Mirror Dragon, the anguish of the ten spirit beasts whose Dragoneyes were murdered surges through her. The result: a killing force that destroys everything before it. On the run from High Lord Sethon’s army, Eona and her friends must help the Pearl Emperor, Kygo, wrest back his throne. Everyone is relying on Eona’s power. Can she face her own darkness within, and drive a dangerous bargain with an old enemy? A wrong move could obliterate them all.

Against a thrilling backdrop of explosive combat, ruthless power struggles and exotic lore, Eona is the gripping story of a remarkable warrior who must find the strength to walk a deadly line between truth and justice. Full of pulse-racing drama, heart-stirring romance, dazzling fight scenes, and myriad surprises, The Necklace of the Gods brings this extraordinarily imagined and exciting fantasy epic to a resounding climax.


I've not really read any fantasy novels before so I kept putting this off.  Once I got started though I found that I did like it more than I expected.  I'd thought that fantasy would be full of weird words and things that didn't make sense and would just be really hard going.  It wasn't anything like that at all.

This is the second book in a trilogy featuring Eona.  I don't think it is necessary to read the first book before reading this but it might be better to do.  I certainly would like to because I think it might make certain parts of the story clearer. It wasn't that I didn't understand them just that I wanted to know more about the whys etc than was included in this book (rightly so because no one wants to retell the entire first book in the second, that would be pointless).

For various reasons I didn't finish this book - I kept finding other things that I wanted to read more.  It was perfectly readable but just not my genre as such.  Plus I have a good friend who was very keen to read it so I passed it her way. When she finishes it I've asked her to review it ;-).  I will definitely give it another go when I get it back but I'll probably read the first book in the series first.  There are definite parts of the plot that have got me wondering what comes next... always a sign of a good book.