Holly Chism has come out with the second book in her “Pendragon” series, in which the knights of the Round Table were really dragons, magic still lives in the world, and old rivalries can become bloody.  I reviewed the first book in the series here, and Pendragon Resurgent is an excellent follow-on to the original story.

The story opens with Sara, the main character from “The Last Pendragon”, preparing to shut down her career as an educator to join Mordred, son of Arthur Pendragon, leader of the European population of dragons, and the love of her life, when someone attempts to assassinate her.  A rogue group of dragons is trying to rekindle a millenium-old war, and the European dragons are in danger of being snuffed out just as they are beginning to rebuild.  Mordred and Sara have to not only figure out how to survive this onslaught, but also how to create a new home for their family in Europe.

Chism truly seemed to enjoy telling this story, and the characters she creates are easily visualized and filled out, at least on the good-guy side.  The bad guys, who are rogue dragons, tend to be less three-dimensional than the good guys, but they aren’t cardboard cutouts.  This may be because the story is told from the perspective of Sara, so the only time we see the antagonists is when they are interacting with her or when she is magically eavesdropping on them.  The exception to this is Morgan, Mordred’s mother.  Her character gets more time in the story than the other antagonists, and she is filled out quite nicely.

Overall, the book is a great page-turner.  It’s not a thriller, but it keeps your interest through the interactions of the characters, human, dragon, or wizard.  Chism doesn’t belabor the plot by going into excruciating detail about settings and tactics, but neither does she gloss over things.  The book is a quick read, but after reading it, I broke out my copy of the first book and re-read both stories again.

If you’re looking for a good weekend book, I’d suggest checking this one out.

Disclaimer- I was a beta reader for “Pendragon Resurgent”, but I bought a copy of the finished work.   I received nothing for doing this review.