Review: Inferno by Julie Kagawa

Inferno (Talon #5) 
Author: Julie Kagawa
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date: April 24, 2018
Pages: 397
Format: Galley/NetGalley

TODAY, WE STRIKE BACK.

WE SHOW TALON THAT WE WILL NEVER ACCEPT THEIR NEW WORLD.

Ember Hill has learned a shocking truth about herself: she is the blood of the Elder Wyrm, the ancient dragon who leads Talon and who is on the verge of world domination. With the Order of St. George destroyed, Ember, Riley and Garret journey to the Amazon jungle in search of one who might hold the key to take down the Elder Wyrm and Talon—if they can survive the encounter.

Meanwhile, Ember’s brother, Dante, will travel to China with a message for the last Eastern dragons: join Talon or die. With the stakes rising and the Elder Wyrm declaring war, time is running out for the rogues and any dragon not allied with Talon.

The final battle approaches. And if Talon is victorious, the world will burn.

*Contains spoilers if you haven't read the previous books, or this one. Kinda hard to review it without spoiling some things from previous books that play big parts in this* 

Review: This is the book I've been waiting for this whole series! This was a solid well rounded, good book! I finally feel like there was significant growth, good choices, and great plot in this book. Inferno is definitely the best book out of this series! 

I really loved the growth with Ember. She finally takes the damn blinders off. She steps up big time in this book. She's helping lead the resistance and work at relations with St. George. She's also the one encouraging everyone to work together and fight for their futures and to take down Talon for the greater good. I was so proud of Ember's growth. She becomes such a strong leader in this book and I'm proud! I also really liked that things aren't tense anymore with her and Garrett and Riley. Since they settled the whole thing with who Ember chooses, they are able to focus on the upcoming battles and not with petty fights with each other over who gets her. I've come to accept Ember choosing Garrett. He's a good guy and he proved himself in this book as well fighting hard to get St. George to work with the rogues and work toward change. So I approve finally. He's showed he can very much be her equal in this book and I'm really glad for that. 

I also was pretty happy with Riley in this book. Despite not liking the fact all the rogues he's saved will have to fight and potentially die, he accepts Ember's push to fight Talon head-on instead or hiding and letting Talon go through with their plans. I definitely saw growth in Riley with the war going on. I'm also happy that he at least has also found someone that is his equal as well, though you wouldn't have thought it possible a few books ago. He's finally discovering that dragons can have feelings as well after believing it wasn't possible for so long. 

This is gonna be short on Dante. I still don't like him. Nothing can make me change my mind after the things he did. But I am glad he finally saw some of the truth behind what the Elder Wyrm and Talon were planning. Freaking took him long enough. I have respect for the fact he at least chose Ember over the organization when he found out the plans and sacrificed himself to save her after all he did. I might not like him, but at least he did something right in the end. 

I thought it was quite entertaining how hard Talon was trying to fight acting like they were still going to win. The rogues and St. George at this point were just making hit after hit against Talon and they refused to acknowledge they were losing this war. And the Elder Wyrm fighting until her last breath trying to keep her plans for humanity from dying. She had some nerve to ask Ember "what she had done?" Seriously, trying to force humanity into being Talon slaves pretty much just because some humans had stood up against dragons in the past. Punish every one for what a few did? Serious issues here. 

I also loved how much action we got in this book! We see our new allies stealing a gun from the US Army, breaking into Talon's breeder facility, taking on Talon as a whole at the facility holding the cloned dragons. So much action and plot building for the ending. It was so great compared to the other books! 

I really enjoyed the ending. Seeing Ember take over Talon so that way the dragons would still have somewhere to go and an organization to help them, but not one solely going to use them and force them into things. Seeing Garrett take over St. George in the US cuz he was one of like 11 left and they felt it best to put him in charge to lead the change. Seeing Riley step up and going to open another branch of Talon to help those that want to leave the organization get settled and survive on the outside. Even seeing the Eastern dragons willing to have contact with Talon now that Ember is in charge and working toward change. It was a great ending. And while not surprising to me, but finding out Garrett's life span has most likely been extended because of the dragon blood transfusion a few books back. It was definitely a good ending for Ember after all she goes through in this series.