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City of Dragons #2
Rise of the Shadowfire
Grace and friends return for a new adventure in this second installment of the bestselling City of Dragons series!
Ever since the battle in Hong Kong, Grace and her friends have been trying to find a way to get to Paris. When Nate suddenly appears and whisks Grace away to the Dragon King's lair, she learns that Daijiang and his underlings are searching for an ancient relic that will let them subjugate the dragons, and Grace needs to find it first!
With Grace's burgeoning Hùnxuè powers, the team must get to Paris and stop Daijiang's plan. But their new ally, Dr. Kim, may not be all she appears, and Daijiang has formidable allies of his a strangely familiar accomplice and a terrifying, powerful dragon that could threaten all of Paris.
Ever since the battle in Hong Kong, Grace and her friends have been trying to find a way to get to Paris. When Nate suddenly appears and whisks Grace away to the Dragon King's lair, she learns that Daijiang and his underlings are searching for an ancient relic that will let them subjugate the dragons, and Grace needs to find it first!
With Grace's burgeoning Hùnxuè powers, the team must get to Paris and stop Daijiang's plan. But their new ally, Dr. Kim, may not be all she appears, and Daijiang has formidable allies of his a strangely familiar accomplice and a terrifying, powerful dragon that could threaten all of Paris.
224 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 17, 2023
About the author
Jaimal Yogis
23 books209 followersJaimal Yogis is the author of numerous books including Saltwater Buddha, The Fear Project, and All Our Waves Are Water, which have been internationally praised and translated into numerous languages. More recently he has been writing children's books like Mop Rides the Waves of Life, which was named a 2020 Favorite by the Children's Book Review and one of the best sportsbooks for all ages by Book Riot. The next picture book in the series, Mop Rides the Waves of Change, comes out this July from Parallax Press and Penguin Random House, and his middle-grade graphic novel series, City of Dragons, also releases this fall, 2021, from Scholastic. Jaimal's award-winning journalism has appeared in publications like The Washington Post, ESPN Magazine, The Atlantic, and many others. He lives near San Francisco's Ocean Beach with his wife Amy and their three boys.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
January 4, 2024
3.5 stars
It took a while for me to get into this one because the pacing felt a little off. The characters are just as fun and amazing as in the first volume; however, it takes a while before readers will see any action within the plot. I wouldn’t have an issue with this if this was the first volume; however, as a second volume in a series, it costs the story some traction. I did enjoy the twist that happened at the end. I definitely thought that the kids made the mistake of trusting the wrong adult again so it was great seeing that play out. The artwork was stunning as always. I’ll be reading volume 3 when it releases.
It took a while for me to get into this one because the pacing felt a little off. The characters are just as fun and amazing as in the first volume; however, it takes a while before readers will see any action within the plot. I wouldn’t have an issue with this if this was the first volume; however, as a second volume in a series, it costs the story some traction. I did enjoy the twist that happened at the end. I definitely thought that the kids made the mistake of trusting the wrong adult again so it was great seeing that play out. The artwork was stunning as always. I’ll be reading volume 3 when it releases.
April 14, 2024
Representation: Black and Asian characters
Trigger warnings: Death of a father in the past, fire, explosions, near-death experience, implied building collapse
Score: Seven points out of ten.
Find this review on The StoryGraph.
I read and enjoyed the first instalment of the City of Dragons series last year, so I wondered whether the second part would be better. Soon enough, I saw the library get Rise of the Shadowfire, so I immediately picked it up and read it. However, when I finished it, I didn't think it was a step up or down.
It starts (more like continues) with the characters that need no introduction: Grace and her dragon friend from The Awakening Storm, Nate. Rise of The Shadowfire takes a while to get going--half the narrative is about Grace still residing in Hong Kong, but not before Nate takes her somewhere else to explain that the antagonist is in an ongoing search for a dragon-controlling jewel. It's up to her and her accomplices to stop that before it's too late. Fortunately, the latter half of Rise of the Shadowfire is much faster paced as Grace, alongside others, travels to Paris with the Shadowfire after them. The ending is dramatic, leaving me anticipating further expansion of the City of Dragons series.
Trigger warnings: Death of a father in the past, fire, explosions, near-death experience, implied building collapse
Score: Seven points out of ten.
Find this review on The StoryGraph.
I read and enjoyed the first instalment of the City of Dragons series last year, so I wondered whether the second part would be better. Soon enough, I saw the library get Rise of the Shadowfire, so I immediately picked it up and read it. However, when I finished it, I didn't think it was a step up or down.
It starts (more like continues) with the characters that need no introduction: Grace and her dragon friend from The Awakening Storm, Nate. Rise of The Shadowfire takes a while to get going--half the narrative is about Grace still residing in Hong Kong, but not before Nate takes her somewhere else to explain that the antagonist is in an ongoing search for a dragon-controlling jewel. It's up to her and her accomplices to stop that before it's too late. Fortunately, the latter half of Rise of the Shadowfire is much faster paced as Grace, alongside others, travels to Paris with the Shadowfire after them. The ending is dramatic, leaving me anticipating further expansion of the City of Dragons series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 4, 2024
Service de presse de la librairie🥹 J'avais tellement aimé le premier tome, j'étais très excitée pour le deuxième!
Le début était assez lent et très chargé niveau histoires, mythes et légendes; un petit peu trop à mon goût malheureusement. La deuxième moitié du livre est beaucoup mieux et le fil conducteur coule bien! J'ai plus apprécié le premier tome, mais celui-ci est très bien et la fin me donne hâte à la sortie du troisième tome!
Le début était assez lent et très chargé niveau histoires, mythes et légendes; un petit peu trop à mon goût malheureusement. La deuxième moitié du livre est beaucoup mieux et le fil conducteur coule bien! J'ai plus apprécié le premier tome, mais celui-ci est très bien et la fin me donne hâte à la sortie du troisième tome!
March 22, 2024
A beautifully illustrated and action packed second volume. This series is such a lot of fun and can’t wait to see where the story goes.
November 18, 2023
I read this book with my son, but I have to say: it really surprised me! We both enjoyed it a lot. It’s packed with action, adventure, and a nice touch of comic relief.
November 2, 2023
This just takes way too long to get going. The book is more than half over before the characters even get to Paris. In some ways, that makes sense on the page, since it's not like kids their age can just jet off to another country by themselves. It still should've gotten moving sooner. But the art is great, and the four kids at the center of the book are all fun characters who have realistic interactions with each other. I just would have liked to see more of Paris.
December 24, 2023
"There's nothing in the universe more powerful than courage and compassion."
October 27, 2023
I actually really liked this book! Ever since the first book came out, I’ve been really liking the City of Dragons series! I love all the characters (Grace, Jing, Ramesh and James), and the storyline is really cool and interesting!
This book was good but it does take a little concentrating to really understand the story.
Grace keeps having dreams about seeing her dragon, Nate again. She and her friends must travel to Paris while being tracked by the fearsome Shadowfire.
I loved the illustrations in this book and the story was really good! I can’t wait for (hopefully) book 3!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4 stars- a great read.
This book was good but it does take a little concentrating to really understand the story.
Grace keeps having dreams about seeing her dragon, Nate again. She and her friends must travel to Paris while being tracked by the fearsome Shadowfire.
I loved the illustrations in this book and the story was really good! I can’t wait for (hopefully) book 3!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4 stars- a great read.
December 28, 2023
I was awaiting this one ever since I read the first one a year or so ago :) The art itself was the draw for me because Nate the water dragon was adorable and probably the most memorable to be honest. I would love to see more of the lore. It takes a bit longer to delve into the lore and storyline for this book but it was fun seeing Nate. Personally I think Grace is the only memorable one of the humans we see in this story but that's just me.
January 26, 2024
After some time with no sign of Nate, Grace and her friends are relieved when he shows up again. However, he takes Grace to visit the Dragon King and he shows Grace that Daijing has put out an order to bring her and Nate in alive, but also that he is looking for 1 more dragon stone. He has the other 3, and if he has all 4, he can rule the world through people's thoughts. Grace and friends need to get to Paris to stop Daijing's minions, but how can they get from Hong Kong to Paris?
The plot thickens in this one and promises more adventure ahead. I'm excited there will be more in the series, but only certain questions are answered in this volume. Nate discovers some new powers during their adventure, and the kids gain a new ally. Jing and James provide good support for Grace along the adventure while Ramesh provides the comic relief. I'm going to have to buy 2nd copies of this and the 1st book...this series is shaping up to be something my students will love and bonus points: it features international students just like themselves. Because things get a bit tense and serious at times, I'd only recommend this series for middle school, it may be a bit much for some Elementary students.
Notes on content:
Language: None
Sexual content: None
Violence: There's some shooting, dragon vs dragon battles, and evil dragons trying to roast humans, there's a bit of property damage and a lot of peril (some injuries), there's also a lightning bolt that hits some dragons and a human (they aren't dead), a past death from medical experimentation and the mutant result is shown (it's a little gross), Grace's dad died in the past from what they thought was cancer
Ethnic diversity: Hong Kong residents, some of Chinese heritage, some of Indian heritage, Grace is half White half Chinese, French residents and visitors of a variety of backgrounds
GBLTQ+ content: None specified
Other: Daijing has brainwashed some people and caused rifts in families, they go into the catacombs in Paris and skeletons are shown
The plot thickens in this one and promises more adventure ahead. I'm excited there will be more in the series, but only certain questions are answered in this volume. Nate discovers some new powers during their adventure, and the kids gain a new ally. Jing and James provide good support for Grace along the adventure while Ramesh provides the comic relief. I'm going to have to buy 2nd copies of this and the 1st book...this series is shaping up to be something my students will love and bonus points: it features international students just like themselves. Because things get a bit tense and serious at times, I'd only recommend this series for middle school, it may be a bit much for some Elementary students.
Notes on content:
Language: None
Sexual content: None
Violence: There's some shooting, dragon vs dragon battles, and evil dragons trying to roast humans, there's a bit of property damage and a lot of peril (some injuries), there's also a lightning bolt that hits some dragons and a human (they aren't dead), a past death from medical experimentation and the mutant result is shown (it's a little gross), Grace's dad died in the past from what they thought was cancer
Ethnic diversity: Hong Kong residents, some of Chinese heritage, some of Indian heritage, Grace is half White half Chinese, French residents and visitors of a variety of backgrounds
GBLTQ+ content: None specified
Other: Daijing has brainwashed some people and caused rifts in families, they go into the catacombs in Paris and skeletons are shown
January 11, 2024
I read but didn't review the first book since that was prior to joining Goodreads. I have some regrets about that, because I only sort of remember the details at this point (not helped by my reading addiction shovelling as many stories into my head as possible, haha).
The story is cute, but it feels like it's missing something. I can't really put my finger on what. It's a rather standard "secret life of school-age children" adventure, and I definitely like it, but... why doesn't it stick out in my mind more? It even has an Asian/biracial main character, which is me finally being represented in media!
I don't know. Maybe if I binged the series at once so I could remember what's going on better, I'd be a little more into it. As it is, I had to struggle to think, who is this? why was this important? Oh, the dragon's named NATE. Huh.
Maybe I'm just not excited about , haha. I get why that happens in fiction—because it's FICTION!—but the idea of it happening in real life makes me INCREDIBLY sad. :(
Recommended for fans of dragons, though! Also for any other people of colour, like me, hunting for more representation in media (which, in the case of Book 1, is me totally having to have my "native" language translated for me by a white friend, oops).
The story is cute, but it feels like it's missing something. I can't really put my finger on what. It's a rather standard "secret life of school-age children" adventure, and I definitely like it, but... why doesn't it stick out in my mind more? It even has an Asian/biracial main character, which is me finally being represented in media!
I don't know. Maybe if I binged the series at once so I could remember what's going on better, I'd be a little more into it. As it is, I had to struggle to think, who is this? why was this important? Oh, the dragon's named NATE. Huh.
Maybe I'm just not excited about , haha. I get why that happens in fiction—because it's FICTION!—but the idea of it happening in real life makes me INCREDIBLY sad. :(
Recommended for fans of dragons, though! Also for any other people of colour, like me, hunting for more representation in media (which, in the case of Book 1, is me totally having to have my "native" language translated for me by a white friend, oops).
December 30, 2023
I was really excited to get my hands on this book since I loved the last but I'm sad to say I wasn't happy with how the series is continuing.
❗Spoiler warning ahead❗
This book picks up where the last book left off taking the young adventures to Paris!
💛Things I liked about it💛
1. The happy and healthy relationship between Grace and her mom.
2. The beautiful flying scenes of dragon rides through the night.
3. The unique and original art and storytelling
4. The fun friend group and all their interactions together!
5. The tiniest little hints that James has a crush on Grace
6. Nate! He is the best🥰
😠Things I didn't like 😠
1. The dark and creepy cult just felt a little much for a Middle-Grade graphic novel.
2. Taking a name meant for the One True Living God and giving it to a villain.
Personally I won't be continuing the series, and although I can't say I recommend this one, I really loved the first! ☺️📚💛
❗Spoiler warning ahead❗
This book picks up where the last book left off taking the young adventures to Paris!
💛Things I liked about it💛
1. The happy and healthy relationship between Grace and her mom.
2. The beautiful flying scenes of dragon rides through the night.
3. The unique and original art and storytelling
4. The fun friend group and all their interactions together!
5. The tiniest little hints that James has a crush on Grace
6. Nate! He is the best🥰
😠Things I didn't like 😠
1. The dark and creepy cult just felt a little much for a Middle-Grade graphic novel.
2. Taking a name meant for the One True Living God and giving it to a villain.
Personally I won't be continuing the series, and although I can't say I recommend this one, I really loved the first! ☺️📚💛
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 9, 2024
I really enjoyed the first one in this series. It'd been recommended by my 4th grader and we both had a great time reading it. Despite being a book for kids the plot was intriguing, the characters fun and interesting and I likes following their adventures. On this one though I felt the story lacked consistency. There were parts that seemed disconnected and I had to turn back and see if I'd missed something. Maybe it was my older brain. But then I asked my 6th grader, who'd read it before me and she said she'd liked it but less so than number one, because number one had more plot twists, which I agree on. Still, since tis is my review, and my all-in-all is tat it's definitely an adventure story that seems to end with a promise on an upcoming new book. And yes, I'll read it too.
July 13, 2023
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus Grace has further adventures after The Awakening Storm (https://msyinglingreads.blogspot.com/...), nd finds a way to get to Paris. I've been looking for more fantasy graphic novels for my students, since there aren't quite as many of them as there are traditional novels. Since this involves the ever popular dragons, I'll definitely order this, even though it was hard for me to get through. (Neither the topic nor the format are my personal favorites.)
December 26, 2023
I remember liking the first one a lot more.
What's up with the really annoying Indian boy? Or an adult taking 4 children out of the country and flying them to Paris?!! And taking them to the flipping catacombs?!! I know it's fiction, but kids think fiction is Real Life.
The boy was so annoying through out PLUS the kidnapping situation was such a headache, I couldn't get into this book. I like Fantasy bc it's fun, not because it's full of federal crimes that wouldn't happen in real life. How hard is it to get permission?
What's up with the really annoying Indian boy? Or an adult taking 4 children out of the country and flying them to Paris?!! And taking them to the flipping catacombs?!! I know it's fiction, but kids think fiction is Real Life.
The boy was so annoying through out PLUS the kidnapping situation was such a headache, I couldn't get into this book. I like Fantasy bc it's fun, not because it's full of federal crimes that wouldn't happen in real life. How hard is it to get permission?
June 25, 2023
Nate brings the emperor's stone lost in the sea, back to Grace. Daijiang is after a piece of it which splintered off long ago. Grace and her friends must get to the splinter before he or his associates can.
The plot is good. I liked how the book delved in the pasts of Dr. Kim and Daijiang more. The new superpowers that a Grace has got are amazing too. Eagerly waiting for the next edition
The plot is good. I liked how the book delved in the pasts of Dr. Kim and Daijiang more. The new superpowers that a Grace has got are amazing too. Eagerly waiting for the next edition
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 10, 2024
How does one make a sequel? Well you make it bigger and flashier with lots of twists you didn't see coming. Is that book this? Yes. Although it has predicable twists. Doesn't make it bad though, the art is charming and the characters are well flourished. I'm only hitting a roadblock because I feel like the next one is gonna follow the same storyline as this one, or the first one.
December 7, 2023
i think this is a great series. really wonderful artwork. the story line is good, though i thought a bit anemic in this book. hopefully this is setting the stage for a big good vs evil blowout in the next one! also, requests for more cute dragons, please.
January 4, 2024
3.5 stars—An action-packed adventure, especially for middle grade! I don’t think I enjoyed this one quite as much as the first one, but I’m excited to see where the story goes. I’m so here for the Chinese mythology, dragons (Nate💙), and found family.
June 29, 2024
Nate the dragon is why I read this series. He is so cute and we get to see more of his personality here as well. Ramesh remains the same... but the other characters seem to have grown. Looking forward to the next book.
July 26, 2024
This volume had me thinking the story was going one way and then it turns out to be something else. I wanted a little bit more to the story before the end of the volume, but I guess I'll have to be patient and wait for the third.
Want to read
April 29, 2023Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through Edelweiss.
November 21, 2023
A bit predictable at times but I’m sure that the age group it is intended for will find it interesting and adventurous.
November 23, 2023
Solid kids fantasy.
December 12, 2023
I think this will continue to be popular with the middle grade readers.
January 12, 2024
Even though graphic novels aren't my thing, I think this is a series some of my reluctant readers would enjoy.
February 4, 2024
Maybe it's been too long since I read the first one, but the plot seemed really convoluted. Art is gorgeous, though.
February 17, 2024
The adventure is unmatched! Love this series! Can’t wait for the next book!!!
March 23, 2024
The first book was better, but this one is still pretty good.
April 3, 2024
really thrilling, actually got me to panic massive plot really good
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews