I hate to say this but this book was a bit of a slog. While I liked Jacob and his dragons, I felt that the story was mostly setup for what is intended as the start to a series. The book is essentially one long training montage. We don't even meet a big bad until almost the end and then the action is bang, bang, bang. Everything happens at the end. Because of this, I'm not really interested in continuing the series. ( )

Embers in the Wind, Fire of Life Series by LW Greenwood an early readers’ review:

My apology to the author—in the middle of this read my family ran into health issues that caused me to quit in the middle. I returned to it after several others have commented, but my feelings run along similar lines.
I really like the concept and I think that the author was able to convey the loneliness of the main human character by the prolonged isolation she held him to; however, as a reader, I felt lonely too. I liked the way he interacted with the dragons, but I wanted conversations & ideas that were more than what was presented. His sleeplessness became dreary—maybe to convey depression—but again, it wore on me as I read. When additional human characters were introduced, I was excited, but soon they felt incomplete too (perhaps just setting anticipation for thereat of the series). The motivations behind their actions were superficial. The “bad guys” were not frightening—they were just in opposition. The idea that they represented the force of death should have been overwhelming and the battle scene was pretty strong—but it was such a small part of this story; more time was given to history of previous wars and that was needed as background information, but it overshadowed the drama of the present story.
I think there is a good story here, but it needs to be strengthened and polished. ( )

The description sounded amazing! The story of a boy and his dragons. And although it has so much potential, I was a little disappointed.

The book held a lot of similarities to Eragon - magic swords for riders, bonded dragons and riders (although the egg doesn't rely on a specific person to hatch in this case), the long lifespans of riders, the dragon dying with their rider and the rider often not lasting long (yes, it does get ore complicated in Eragon but this is what is shared in the first book). Some of these ay be relatively common tropes, but there is something familiar in how they are presented in approached, even if the books themselves aren't the same. Although it's been several years since I've read Eragon I found myself thinking "so Eragon?" several times throughout this book.

Keeping on the it reminded me of Eragon train of thought, one of the most common criticisms I've seen of that book is that it needed a better edit. I felt the same way about this book. The author did cut it down a bit after some of the first reviews, but I feel like there is more to be done. I don't really have a problem with the length because I tend to really enjoy world building in books and like learning about how things work. But the dialogue is a little frustrating at times. While the book itself is not marketed as being for young readers, I often found the dialogue to be a little simplistic and stilted (as it often is in books for younger readers - this isn't a problem of course due to how brains develop). Some of the voices were also a little underdefined which made it more difficult to connect with certain characters. There were also one or two minor inconsistencies. For example, Jacob tells Jocelyn that he has never met a dragon with a non-nature name. Yet one of his is called Jasper (although he does go by Jocko Jacob knows what his "real" name is). (so many J names in this book!). (Yes, it's technically a cultivated variety of a flower but although the setting of the world is not completely nailed down, this doesn't feel like something that would exist in this world, and at the very least not something Jacob would be aware of even if it did). The sharpness of his knife when it comes to hunting vs butchering his kills towards the start also comes to mind.

I enjoyed the start of the book most. I found my mind started wandering a bit around the 50-60% mark but I was interested enough in the world to keep going. It picked up a bit towards the end, but I think I missed something in between because I don't think it hit like it should have. I think a bit of tightening of the middle portion could have helped the experience (as much as I said I enjoy world building). The author has lovely ideas and has such great potential. I wish them the best of luck for writing and editing in the future! ( )

Embers on the Wind definitely has potential from a storyline perspective. The permise is very interesting, however like others I feel like it could do with some heavy editing. The characters are a bit superficial to me and the dialogue does not seem consistent across the novel.

Greenwood has an imaginative fantasy plot in Embers in the Wind, but I feel there are a few things that could be improved.
At many places in the story I felt ideas and situations were over-explained. In conversations Jacob had with others or in his own narration things were often repeated when it wasn’t needed. This tended to make certain parts drag, mostly in areas of exposition. The action sequences moved along fairly well.
The character of Jacob dwells on his weaknesses and insecurities (and insomnia) so much that it makes him seem flat. He does change some as he goes through the book, and he is better in the action sequences, but there often is a note of defeat or not being good enough in his dialogue.
The dialogue of the “younger” characters (the young dragons, Jacob, Katie) and the “older” characters (Jocelyn, Mathias, the Lord Marshall) have some major differences. The young ones seem to speak using modern day (current) expressions while the older characters’ speech sounds like it is from a different time. There is no exact time period described in the book, but it seems to be set in a pre-technological time. The two styles seem to clash.
I feel this book has potential, but I also feel it has some things that need to be changed. ( )