Moroda
In Linaria, dragons are revered as gods.
Airships command the skies.
And across the land, war is brewing.
Devastated by their father's death, Moroda and her sister struggle to make ends meet. Things go from bad to worse when a rogue dragon destroys their city.
Fleeing on a sky pirate's airship to escape the chaos, the sisters find themselves penned in by untrustworthy companions, a bloodthirsty warlord, and dragons on the rampage.
For Moroda, who would do anything to protect her sister, nowhere is safe. Not even the sky.
The balance of power in Linaria is tipping. Can one woman make a difference?
If you love dragons, airships, and sky pirates, you'll love discovering THE WORLD OF LINARIA.-Goodreads
Title: Moroda
Series: World of Linaria #1
Author: L.L. MacRae
Page Count: 534
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 5.0/5.0
Date Read: October 12th, 2022
Opening
A couple of months ago I made a short list of India Authors I've been hearing about in the last two years. L.L. MacRae actually had two series on the list. The deciding factor was that I had got my hands on the novella to introduce me to the World of Linaria which I knocked out last weekend. It was intriguing enough that I dove right into book one of the series.
I will admit that the beginning was bit of a shock for me as I was transitioning literally minutes from the novella which focused on Amarah's backstory going right into a bit of time later putting Amarah into a quite different situation where I left her. With that being said I still feel this was the right decision for me to read the novella first because it definitely helped me see Amarah in a bit different light knowing that background on her.
I truly enjoyed this read. It was right up my alley! I returned to reading a book that I wanted to pick up and continuing reading whenever I got a chance. Early on, it reminded me a lot of the world of Dragonlance that I grew up reading. It definitely evolved from that fairly quickly though. I loved the diversity of regions and races. I'll try to refrain from too much along the lines of spoilers but meraki is awesome! This story was so interesting to me with dragons, races that can fly, shapeshifters, races that can bite and poison people and of course the magic, scholars and stones of power!
If anyone reading this also read my post on Twitter you'll already know but I did fall in love with Moroda in this book. She was just so endearing. Perhaps a bit pure and naïve at times but that is part of her charm. At the same time she's adventurous, caring and not afraid to fight for what she feels is right. On to my typical scoring and wrap up.
Pacing
The pacing was spot on for me. As I previously mentioned this was a book I wanted to pick up often and had trouble putting down at times. It flowed well and kept me interested throughout. And we had a lot to learn and experience in this one.
World Building
The world building was great. Granted this is book one but we explore a lot of area in the first book and it seems we still have plenty to still explore that is mentioned or only briefly seen. We definitely find out about different cultures, races and geographic locations which include different climates for our characters to deal with!
Character Development
And I honestly can't speak enough on the character building. The connection I made with Amarah both with the novella prequel and previously mention of Moroda would be enough. But the sporting cast we learn about only helps expand the understanding and connections with this world. We have characters we can't help but pull for and others that we are perhaps optimistically cautious and maybe even a couple we just aren't sure about at the end of this read.
Closing
Book one in the World of Linaria was such a great read for me. I can't wait to continue this series which already has book two lined up for November. I still have plenty of questions and hopes that I need to find out what happens from here!
I'd recommend this book to any reader that items I mentioned above might enjoy along with anyone just look for a solid fantasy read that flows well, has a good mix of action, character development and storytelling. It isn't a very long read either so I feel that might appeal to a larger audience. I know some epic novels breaking the 600 and above page count do tend to scare some readers away. This honestly should be fairly easy and worth the effort to slide into your TBR list!
Scoring
Pacing 5.0 / 5.0
Worldbuilding 5.0 / 5.0
Character Development 5.0 / 5.0
