Description
The most exciting debut of 2025 – an incredible fantasy Dark Academia, perfect for fans of Babel, Fourth Wing, and the Scholomance trilogy.
EVERY FIRE STARTS WITH A SINGLE SPARK.
Welcome to Bletchley Park… with dragons.
London, 1923. Dragons soar through the skies and protests erupt on the streets, but Vivien Featherswallow isn’t worried. She’s going to follow the rules, get an internship studying dragon languages, and make sure her little sister never has to risk growing up Third Class. By midnight, Viv has started a civil war.
With her parents arrested and her sister missing, all the safety Viv has worked for is collapsing around her. So when a lifeline is offered in the form of a mysterious ‘job’, she grabs it. Arriving at Bletchley Park, Viv discovers that she has been recruited as a codebreaker helping the war effort – if she succeeds, she and her family can all go home again. If she doesn’t, they’ll all die.
At first Viv believes that her challenge, of discovering the secrets of a hidden dragon language, is doable. But the more she learns, the more she realises that the bubble she’s grown up in isn’t as safe as she thought, and eventually Viv must decide: What war is she really fighting?
An epic, sweeping fantasy with an incredible Dark Academia setting, a clandestine, slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance, and an unputdownable story, filled with twists and turns, betrayals and secret identities, A Language of Dragons is the unmissable debut of 2025, from an extraordinary new voice.
Review
Vivian Featherswallow always follows the rules, studies hard and is desperate to study dragon languages at university - she already speaks six! But when her parents are suddenly arrested for being rebels and plotting against the government to stop the class system and help the dragons, her world is turned upside down.
VIv is recruited to work at Bletchley Park as a code breaker to translate the secret language of the dragons in return for her family’s freedom. Viv finds herself surrounded by other teenager recruits, who all have dubious pasts, including her ex-best friend, who Viv betrayed. They all have to help win the war against the rebels to save themselves or their family.
As Viv learns more about her fellow recruits and what the government is really up to, she finds it more and more difficult to believe what the government is saying. Who can she really trust? And which side is she even on?
This is a page-turning fantasy that I loved. It has fantastic characters, including the different dragons, and a story full of twists and turns and unexpected friends, this a book to read in one sitting. This will become an instant favourite with fantasy lovers and I hope that there will be a sequel. Suits those 14 years and up.
