Book Synopsis:
The most exciting debut of 2025 – an incredible fantasy Dark Academia, perfect for fans of Babel, Fourth Wing, and the Scholomance trilogy
EVERY FIRE STARTS WITH A SINGLE SPARK.
Welcome to Bletchley Park… with dragons.
London, 1923. Dragons soar through the skies and protests erupt on the streets, but Vivien Featherswallow isn’t worried. She’s going to follow the rules, get an internship studying dragon languages, and make sure her little sister never has to risk growing up Third Class. By midnight, Viv has started a civil war.
With her parents arrested and her sister missing, all the safety Viv has worked for is collapsing around her. So when a lifeline is offered in the form of a mysterious ‘job’, she grabs it. Arriving at Bletchley Park, Viv discovers that she has been recruited as a codebreaker helping the war effort – if she succeeds, she and her family can all go home again. If she doesn’t, they’ll all die.
At first Viv believes that her challenge, of discovering the secrets of a hidden dragon language, is doable. But the more she learns, the more she realises that the bubble she’s grown up in isn’t as safe as she thought, and eventually Viv must decide: What war is she really fighting?
An epic, sweeping fantasy with an incredible Dark Academia setting, a clandestine, slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance, and an unputdownable story, filled with twists and turns, betrayals and secret identities, A Language of Dragons is the unmissable debut of 2025, from an extraordinary new voice.
A Language of Dragons was Children’s #1 bestseller in the TCM chart on 07 January 2025.
My Review:
A Language Of Dragons is a gripping, creative fantasy read and a great start to a new series. It’s going to be a hard book to review as I don’t want to give too much away.
Firstly I loved the fascinating world that the author has created and enjoyed learning more about it throughout the book. It is a world that blends actual historical events with a world where Dragons and humans live side by side which I loved exploring alongside the characters. As the book continues the reader learns more about the history of this world including the much praised peace agreement and the ridged class system that has a huge effect on ordinary citizen’s lives. It was quite horrifying to see how the government treats it’s people, especially as some parts have actually happened in other countries.
The story is very fast paced and soon becomes very gripping as there always seemed to be new information to discover in the world our main protagonist Viv finds herself in. There were many different layers to this story which were really fun to find out more about. I particularly loved learning more about the dragons and how they communicated with each other as I haven’t read anything involving that before.
My only slight issue with this book was that it took me a long time to warm to the main character Viv who I found very unlikeable and annoying throughout most of the book. She seemed so opinionated and against hearing anyone else’s opinion that I found her very frustrating. I honestly couldn’t understand why everyone was being so nice to her as I think I’d have given up on her quite early on. She did improve as the story continued as she discovers the full extent of what has been going on and I actually liked her by end which I wasn’t expecting.
Overall I did enjoy this book and would like to read the next book in the series as I’m intrigued to see what happens next. I thought the book was very action packed and there were lots of twists to the story, some I saw coming but others which took me by surprise which I thought quite cleverly done. The ending was brilliant and I think I inhaled the last 100 pages as there was so much going on! It does end on a bit of a cliff hanger but it sets the story up nicely for the next book which I’m looking forward to reading.
Huge thanks to Indie Thinking and Harper Fire for sending me a copy of this book.
About The Author:
S.F. Williamson is fascinated by the way languages are born and was surrounded by them long before she undertook degrees in French and Italian. She has always known that languages are creatures that live and move and breathe, and as a child she learned that speaking them meant accessing ideas, traditions, and people she would only otherwise know from a distance. A Language of Dragons is inspired by her work as a literary translator and the fact that no matter how intimately a linguist knows their languages, some meaning is almost always lost in translation. A graduate of Bath Spa University’s MA writing for young people program, Steph now lives in France with her husband and son.
Over The Rainbow Blog 
I’ve got a special edition of this one coming, and am quite excited and intrigued 🙂
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