Eona
Eona (Eon #2)by Alison Goodman
Where there is power, there is betrayal…Once she was Eon, a girl disguised as a boy, risking her life for the chance to become a Dragoneye apprentice. Now she is is Eona, the Mirror Dragoneye, her country’s savior—but she has an even more dangerous secret.She cannot control her power.Each time she tries to bond with her Mirror Dragon, she becomes a conduit for the ten spirit dragons whose Dragoneyes were murdered by Lord Ido. Their anguish floods through her, twisting her ability into a killing force, destroying the land and its people.And another force of destruction is on her trail.Along with Ryko and Lady Dela, Eona is on the run from High Lord Sethon’s army. The renegades must find Kygo, the young Pearl Emperor, who needs Eona’s power if he is to wrest back his throne from Sethon. But if Eona is to help Kygo, she must drive a dark bargain with an old enemy that could obliterate them all. ( author's website)
In Eon, Eona spent much of the story disguised as a boy. I found it much easier to believe her as a boy than I did as a girl in Eona. I am not entirely certain why this was, but as I was reading her as female I was still picturing boy-Eona in my head. It was hard to get around, which was how many of the characters seemed to feel as well. :)Eona is a much longer book than its predecessor and is very action packed. I found the middle-last half of the book to be rather chaotic with so many things happening at once. I will admit to being slightly confused with what was going on. I was happy enough to see everything resolve in the end because with how confused I was, I wasn't sure what direction things were going in.I felt that everyone was a little too harsh in judging what Eona was doing as wrong. She'd given them no reason to believe she had ulterior motives and she was as shocked as they were when it turned out she could control the will of those she healed. Ryko turned away from her completely rather than accepting her apology the first time. No one thought that maybe she had no control over things because it was all new to her and she had no training. I felt their reactions harsh and should have been a little more sympathetic. Yes, Eona ended up abusing the power she had for a little while, but I can also see why she would do that. It was all new. It was a wonderful feeling. She is YOUNG (even at 16) and she doesn't know what she's doing! Her only option for a trainer is the one man who betrayed them all and wanted power for himself. It's not like she had a path of sunshine and roses ahead of her on this Dragoneye journey. People should have given her more support I think.At least the Pearl Emperor, Kygo, seemed to think different of her. I had a feeling the romance aspect would blossom in this series, but I did think it would start in the first book, so I was surprised when the story went a different way. It was inevitable in Eona though but at least it wasn't the entire 500+ pages of them making mooneyes at each other. There was a relationship that was built, fell apart and was patched up in the end. Eona and Kygo is a union I can support. It did not seem forced or out of the blue. In fact Eona was almost blind to it the entire time the Prince/Emperor was struggling with his own feelings.I was sad about the lack of Lady Dela in the story. She was around, but often disguised as a man, er, well, you know what I mean and she didn't have the same role in the story as she did in Eon. I was also saddened by the lack of the Ryko that I enjoyed in the first book. His angry, confused and distant attitude in Eona was such a disappointment to me. I get that he felt betrayed, but I still think he was overreacting and way too much of a jerk.This was a great two-book series (I hope there isn't another one! I really enjoyed the way this ended!). I am happy that I took the plunge and read them and I am sufficiently ashamed for letting myself be swayed by the cover last year when Eon came out. (I much prefer the paperback cover though!) Will I learn my lesson from this? Probably not. I'm an old dog that doesn't like to learn new tricks. =PEon series