4.5 stars. This was a great read. I really don't know what took me so long to get to this book. I'd heard so many good things about it, which is why I added it to my to-read pile in the first place, but it must have sat there for more than a year. I think it's probably due to the series described to me as "The Napoleonic wars...but with dragons" that initially made me reluctant. I had it in my head that the book was going to focus more on war and the military fantasy side of things, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that this was not the case.
Yes, there are indeed many training scenes and airborne dragon battles, but the bulk of the book focused on the main character Laurence and his relationship with his dragon Temeraire. Don't get me wrong, I loved the action too, but I was more interested in the dynamics between the two. I devoured the first half of the book for this reason, as master and dragon bonded over time. Temeraire speaks, has his own personality (some parts reminded me of Dragonheart, actually) and I probably liked the author's characterization of him even more than I liked what she did with Laurence.
This was a quick read too, and I'm surprised how quickly I went through it. Just another indication of how much I enjoyed it.
