A Sky Full of Wings by M. Raiya

Title: A Sky Full of Wings
Author: M. Raiya
Cover Artist: Alessia Brio
Publisher: Torquere
Genre: fantasy
Length: 15k words

You're invited to a dragon's wedding!

That's right! Varian and Josh from the Notice series are getting married! There will be swooning (not by whom you'd expect) and wings (not on whom you'd expect) and champagne, roses and rainbows. Warning: there will also be mysterious prophecies, swords, and uninvited guests from the distant past. And the grooms will get a wedding gift beyond their wildest dreams.

Find Varian and Josh in Notice, and in Nice: The Dragon and the Mistletoe.

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It’s always lovely to see the big pay-off in the true love—here we get to see Josh and Varian celebrating their wedding. If you don’t know the characters ahead of time, there is enough in here to introduce them somewhat, and to let the reader sink into the general “Aw!” feeling any wedding will inspire. There are a few extra possibilities for the little oopsies no wedding is without, because one of the grooms is a shapeshifting dragon.


Of course everyone they care about is there, resulting in a cast of thousands , each with some small part to play, and it is a lot like a live wedding where one only knows a few of the guests—a kaleidoscope of strangers, and the smallest guests uttering the most memorable lines.

Josh and Varian, and those closest to them, are better explained in the preceding novel, Notice, and if you haven’t read that, you really should, otherwise a number of references and character traits are going to be incomprehensible. All the reasons to care about Josh and Varian start there, aside from general good wishes for those about to get hitched and the humor that comes from an eager but nervous groom.

Everything the blurb promises is in there, but in such a way that this story feels like the set up for something larger and more complicated. There isn’t a lot of actual conflict, though many plot possibilities could arise later from what happens. What little there is has a ring of implausibility, like someone’s been  asleep at the switch for a long time.

The writing is smooth and enjoyable, with some really charming turns of phrase, and the relationship between Josh and Varian is deeper and more loving by the end, but we’re really starting in the middle with this story, and we really haven’t seen an end. Start with Notice, and plan to read whatever comes next, and this story will be more stellar, but as a stand-alone, it’s a lot of happy-happy and not much plot. Which might be just what you’re in the mood for. 3.25 marbles