The Oracle's Hatchling by Mell Eight

 Ling is hated because his birth killed his mother. He hopes that testing will ease his troubles—either his rank will be so low that everyone forgets about him, or it will be so high they'll be forced to respect him. What he doesn't expect is to walk out of the testing chamber with an egg emblazoned on his back. Laughed out of the Monastery, Ling hides himself in Altnoia, where he becomes embroiled in a plot to overthrow King Edan and the Oracle who supports him.

The ringleader behind the plot is Prince Damarion, son of the evil despot who forced King Edan to flee in the first place—but his motives are not anything that Ling could have anticipated. Neither could he anticipate a friendship, or what that friendship could become, and the choices it would force him to make.

To be honest, when I started this book I was a bit confused about what exactly was going on. Because it felt like the story almost started in the middle. But the one thing that I can say that I’m extremely glad about is that the author DID add a bit of the history of the main character. So you are able to find out more of what is going on.

I do like that the characters that were in the first book in the series were brought back into this story. Being able to follow up with what was going on with them was awesome. And I did enjoy that even though the author added that information, the trio didn’t take over this story.

The characters in this book were quite a bit more sexual than the first story. In a way, I did enjoy that fact, but on the other hand I think that if they wouldn’t have been, it would have still been a good story. Ling’s character is by far my favorite one out of the series so far. With everything that he has been though, and that he was still pushing on, just made him that much more likeable for me. Damarion’s character I am not really sure what to feel about him. I thought that he was a good match for Ling, but I personally didn’t like him.

One thing about this book though was after the beginning part with Ling, it became very predictable. I was a bit disappointed in that fact, which is the reason that I couldn’t rate the book higher. I do also wish that the story would have been longer. But despite all of that, I will read the next book in the series.