Blog Tour Review: The Dragon’s Apprentice by James Riley

Hi friends, I’m back for another blog tour today! I’m excited to share my thoughts and a ‘book look’ as part of the blog tour hosted by TBR & Beyond Tours for The Dragon’s Apprentice by James Riley.

Thanks to Labyrinth Road for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Dragon’s Apprentice
Publisher
: Labyrinth Road
Publication Date: 1 April 2025
Genre: MG Fantasy

Rating:

(3.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

In this hilarious fantasy adventure from the New York Times bestselling author of the Story Thieves series, a girl strikes a deal with the ancient, cranky dragon she accidentally summoned to teach her the forbidden magic she needs to save her mother.

STOP. Don’t read any further. There are magic spells in this book, and the Emperor has forbidden anyone from learning magic, because it’s way too dangerous! If you try one of the spells, any number of terrible things might happen (or so the Emperor says).

Don’t be like Ciara, a twelve-year-old girl living in the tiny village of Skael. When she used a spell from within this book, she ended up summoning a dragon. A DRAGON! Those things breathe fire! From their mouths! She’s obviously doomed.

And don’t listen if Ciara tells you that dragons won’t hurt humans, and that they even once taught us magic, a thousand years ago. Definitely don’t pay any attention to the fact that the dragon she summoned, Scorch, might be willing to help rescue Ciara’s mother and free her village from the Emperor and his Warden, because it’s all obviously a big lie. So put this book down, and forget about it. Magic is just way too dangerous. After all, you wouldn’t want to summon your own dragon, would you?

📚 BUY A COPY

TL;DR: The Dragon’s Apprentice is a fantastical and magical adventure-filled tale. With a feisty and exuberant leading character fighting for justice against evil rulers and trying to uncover what happened to the most powerful mage in the land alongside a grumpy dragon to teach her all about magic, I think this is a story that many middle-grade readers will enjoy!

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Let’s Talk Bookish: Reading Relatability

Someone want to tell me how it’s already April?!
✨ Welcome back to another week of LTB! ✨

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and myself! In this discussion meme, participants get to talk about certain topics, share opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Learn more about LTB, past topics and future topics HERE.

This week’s topic is:

Prompts: Real life can be a lot. Do you enjoy reading books with high relatability to your past or present situation (i.e. with relatable characters, situations they face, or places they visit) or do you read purely to escape reality? Do you seek out a certain type of read, depending on your head space or mood?

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The Bookish Alphabet Tag

Happy Thursday, friends! It’s time for another tag and I saw today’s Bookish Alphabet Tag on Alli @ Alli the Book Giraffe’s blog. The title feels pretty self-explanatory but you basically go through the alphabet and see if you own a book with a title that starts with every letter of the alphabet. It looked like a really fun and easy tag to do and I was very curious to see if I had a book for each letter… and I did, although I only had one option for X and Z! 🤣 I specifically focused on books that are still on my TBR but I hope to read some of these very soon. With that, let’s get to it!

The original tag is created by Fireheart Books.

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#TopTenTuesday: Books You’d be a Fool Not to Read!

We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week’s topic is: Books You’d be a Fool Not to Read (Happy April Fool’s Day! In honor of this silly holiday, share the books you think people must read for whatever reason. They could be your favorites, books you deem classics, books that you learned something important from, books you wish you’d read sooner, etc. You could even narrow it down to a specific genre and share the must-reads for that genre. Get creative!)

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Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp [276]

We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve spent your time reading in bed or wish you had time to read today.

Welp, I’m not actually reading much of anything at the moment. I started This is How You Lose the Time War and realised that nope, with my distracted travel brain now is actually not the right time to be reading this.

With the combination of exhaustion and being out and about all day, I haven’t read anything since coming to Japan, which I guess is to be expected? 😂

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Let’s Talk Bookish: Underrepresented Female Characters

✨ Welcome back to another week of LTB! ✨

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and myself! In this discussion meme, participants get to talk about certain topics, share opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Learn more about LTB, past topics and future topics HERE.

This week’s topic is:

Prompts: For the final week of March, here is another Women’s History Month topic! Do you notice certain female character archetypes that you think are used too often? What types of female characters do you want to see more of in fiction? Who are some female characters that inspire you?

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The Magical Readathon: Orilium Spring Equinox 2025

Get excited—it’s almost time to return to the Orilium Academy for ✨The Magical Readathon: Orilium Spring Equinox 2025!✨

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, our lovely host G @Book Roast created this Beginners Guide to the Magical Readathon, just in case you’re interested in starting your own journey to Orilium!

As someone who’s generally terrible at completing reading challenges, this is one challenge I join without hesitation every year because not only is it fun, but it’s also low-key, which means less pressure. This makes it easy for me to keep up as a notorious mood reader!

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Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp [275]

We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve spent your time reading in bed or wish you had time to read today.

I don’t know if I’ll end up reading after this as I’m knackered and I have to get up early for my tattoo tomorrow, but if I end up reading, it’ll be This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone. I haven’t read much into this and I might pick up the audiobook to follow along to but I’m curious!

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Let’s Talk Bookish: Guilty Pleasure Reads

✨ Welcome back to another week of LTB! ✨

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and myself! In this discussion meme, participants get to talk about certain topics, share opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Learn more about LTB, past topics and future topics HERE.

This week’s topic is:

Prompts: Do you agree with the term since it has a somewhat “negative” connotation? Should you feel ashamed or “guilty” for enjoying a certain genre or non-traditional type of book (i.e. graphic novels, manga)? What books do you love or are on your TBR do you think would be considered “guilty pleasures” by others?

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