2 1/2 stars. 
 So after becoming a "Berkian" (How to Train Your Dragon fan) last December, right when the first full HTTYD2 trailer came out, I eventually got around to reading the first book from the series that inspired the critically acclaimed DreamWorks film series. I was ... underwhelmed by this book --it felt too juvenile and the characters weren't quite the ones I came to know and love through the movies (e.g. Toothless). However, I realize that I'm not of the tween target age range and I've heard that the books get better as the series progresses, so I'm willing to keep reading and finish the series later (after all, I'm doing that for the Divergent series). As of right now, this is one of the rare instances where I think the movies are better than the books.