Seen at Bookish Antics! 
 Talon is the latest book from Julie Kagawa and it revolves around the idea that dragons are living among us disguised as humans. I didn't think this book could go wrong after reading the Blood Of Eden series and loving Kagawa's take on vampires. The problem is that Talon is riddled with cliches and forgoes the opportunity to explore the dragons of Talon to focus on a silly romance. A part of me was extremely annoyed with the predictable route this novel took, but another part of me still had fun reading it. 
 Ember is sent to live in a Californian beach town and train for her future as part of Talon. Ember and her "twin brother" become friends with the locals and it isn't long before Ember falls in love with one of the locals. To make things even more complicated, Ember falls in love with the enemy, a soldier from the Order Of St. George named Garrett. Garrett and another member of the order was sent to exterminate any local dragons... 
 Ever since Twilight popularized YA paranormal romance, the market has been saturated with books that are trying to emulate Stephenie Meyer's success. I hate to say this, but if had come out a few years ago I probably would've written this one off as a Twilight rip-off because Talon follows all of the cliches that made Twilight popular. All of Julie Kagawa's previous books definitely paid homage to Twilight, but none of her previous ones followed such a formulaic route. This book reads like paranormal filler which is a shame considering how talented of a writer Kagawa is and how unique the premise of Talon is. 
 Do you remember while reading Twilight and any of the crazy popular paranormal romances how obvious it was that the love interest was a certain creature? I remember being so frustrated while reading these books that the heroine couldn't figure out what the love interest was. In Talon, the frustration is a two-way street because despite the immense evidence, both Ember and Garrett are oblivious to what the other is. For gods sake, if you're a dragon hiding from humans please don't keep the name Ember and please be more discreet about your behavior. Ember makes it so obvious that she's a dragon and Garrett made it so obvious that he's part of St. George that I was frustrated how long it took for the reveals to take place. 
 Despite the fact that this romance is nothing new, I actually enjoyed the love triangle between Ember, Garrett and Riley. It's a very basic romance with little depth, but Kagawa really knows how to write an addicting, compelling love story. This is the love triangle that has become popular in paranormal romance with the bad boy who drives a motorcycle, the sensitive, nice guy and the irritating, sheltered heroine. The two guys naturally has disdain for each other and want the heroine to make the right choice because the other guy is dangerous for her to love. 
 Talon's big plot twist was poorly constructed and I saw it coming right from the start. I was actually shocked that this was even a twist because I was actually convinced that all of the characters knew this information. The twist was very clearly set-up from the opening chapters and it wasn't the expertly written twist that I'm used to from Kagawa's previous books. 
 With an irritating heroine, a Twilight-esque feel and evident plot twists, Talon will infuriate many readers to no end. For some reason, I did find the romance addicting in a "it's so bad, it's good" kind of way and so, Talon was a guilty-pleasure kind of read for me. I will continue this series in hopes that it gets better and because I have faith that Kagawa can maybe set this series on the right path.