I read about 44 books last year. Most of them involving dragons or dragon-esque characters in some form or fashion and here are some of my thoughts on various series.

General series ranking ranging from S tier to F tier and a short review for each:

Wings of Fire: A tier
The first series I started this year that got me into reading to begin with. It’s a middle-school reading level series that is pretty solid and has a larger fanbase with lots of fan content one can look up. The appeal is largely in the characters and their interactions and the open-ended world-building the series has to allow for so much creativity in the fandom. It starts out a bit slow imo but by the time I hit the 3rd book I was hooked on the world and it has some of my favorite characters. Arc 2 (books 6-10) is probably my favorite arc so far. The series is still ongoing and I recommend it for anyone looking for a series that is nearly entirely just about dragons.

Temeraire: S tier
My history with this series is similar to my history with BotW. I got BotW on release and played for a bit before dropping it and not picking it back up for a year or two, and then trying again and absolutely loving it as one of my fav games. Similarly, I got the first Temeraire book probably almost a decade ago on a whim, couldn’t get into it at the time and just let it sit on my shelf until this last year. I reread it again and continued with the rest of the series and it has become probably one of my top 3 favorite book series of all time. The premise is essentially: the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s… but with dragons, and it goes from there. It’s not a traditional fantasy story and reads more like historical fiction. The only fantasy-ish elements are the inclusion of dragons but that it. No magic or anything else just dragons.
The mc was pretty meh in the first book, but that’s the point, he grows to accept his new role he is given and he and the titular dragon of the series himself become two of the most endearing characters I have ever read and their sheer devotion to one another was beautifully written and I loved the sacrifices both of them had to end up making for each other. Also, the series doesn’t JUST involve war, it evolves beyond that to address other topics like various cultures throughout the world, slavery, liberty, and one of the best realized friendships in fiction imo. I extremely recommend this series if you can get into it. The books do rollercoaster in story quality after the 5th book, but I found even the ‘bad’ one still worth reading at least once because the author does a fantastic job of world-building this fictional Earth and filling the cultures in a plausible way with how they would integrate various societies and cultures with dragons thrown into the mix.

Reunification series: D tier
I read the two books that at this time are currently released for this relatively unknown series and while I am glad to have read them, it’s only really because they serve as a reference for me to come back to as books that are bad. The main character is an indecisive twat who flip flops on her emotions and whether she even trusts the other mc no less than 20 times and it’s annoying as shit. The world is largely barren with so little world-building that I couldn’t care less to what happens to anyone in this society. The first book had the most repetitive plot that threw in the most pitiful climax possible. And the worst part is that even though it isn’t explicitly sexual, the relationship between the mcs is one of the most uncomfortable dynamics I have ever read and it bordered on me feeling like I was going to be put on a list somewhere for having had read it because of the power dynamics and age differences. It kept me JUST interested enough to see if the 2nd book would get any better but it was just as bad as the first but in slightly more interesting ways that weren’t as repetitive. I won’t be reading the 3rd book whenever it releases.

Lazy Scales: F tier
I only read the first book in this series and tbh I don’t think I even finished it for how bad it felt to read. Kid gets turned into a dragon that was supposed to ultimately take over him entirely but is left with his mind still (sort of) intact and it was just… so bad imo. From shitty pop-culture references in the dialogue, to the mc literally killing people and thinking nothing of it but fucking getting worked up over realizing he could never play his Xbox again, I hated this mc, I hated the story, I hated the friends who were so incredibly ooc to be supportive and helping him survive, I just… nothing in this series appealed to me at all. It felt like I had opened a bad fanfic that didn’t know how people in real life function or feel and it felt more like one of those dragon-tf escapist fanfics solely for the sake of that element and nothing else. I wish I could get a refund for having wasted a couple of hours reading it tbh.

Scaleshifter: B-/C+ tier
On that note of mc’s turning into dragons, this one did it a little bit better. This series excelled at really giving insight to the characters’ feelings and their emotional development, but that’s about all of the really positive things I’d say about it. The story is meandering and bland, the world-building is bland. Like ffs the dragons themselves don’t even refer to their various distinct groups outside of color lmao. The writing is also weird because the author repeats character main thoughts no less than several times as if she has no confidence in the reader’s ability to figure out character motivations on their own so it feels padded out as a result. I’d say this series does a decent enough job of making me care to say I’d think it’s an ok recommendation if you are an avid reader and have nothing better to do. Otherwise I’d likely recommend the other higher-tiered series before bothering with this one.

Wings of War: S tier
This book series is EXTREMELY brutal and violent throughout, but it works to help further the story and rarely if ever felt gratuitous. The poor mc of this series Raz takes a while to find his footing with what he wants to do in the world that is formed for the series, but once he does, this is a journey that doesn’t let up. You better be prepared for some GoT level character deaths to break your heart because this series is one of those where nobody is safe from being either axed off or being very emotionally and/or physically traumatised or violated and it makes the journey to overcome grief, PTSD, and pulling oneself from the darkest places even more compelling because the stakes are REAL. The mc is a little bit of a mary sue regarding his combat prowess, but it works because even if he is powerful, it is all the worse when he fails to protect those he loves or is deliberately targeted with all that various groups can throw at him. He’s the type of character who will make other characters regret their choices in life if they dare to hurt him or those he cares for, but he is a softy for those in his care that can take a bit to open up due to all of his trauma along with, 3rd book onward, the other mc who is also very badass in her own right but also has many emotional and physical scars that are never dropped. Like the Temeraire, series, the characters in this series grew to be so compelling that I put this as another one of my fav series this last year.
Warning tho, to repeat, it is VERY violent and deals with some subjects that you may wanna research beforehand if you have certain triggers.

Songs of Chaos: A+/S- tier
If you like Eragon but wish it was a little less of a rip-off and with a bit better writing, then do I have a new book series for you! But yeah it’s fantasy dragon rider stuff that while not the most absolutely original, it does have distinct-enough world-building and compelling characters to make this a really well done story. A couple of the dynamics that make it special are that the main dragon is blind from birth, and the magic system in this world is VERY detailed in how it functions and it actually serves as a valid reason for why sapient dragons would ever feel the need to bond with a rider in the first place by introducing a Taoist-inspired system that involves meditation, cleansing, and forging of the magic in the world that only the riders can do via their connection with their dragon that they uniquely connect to down to their souls. It’s a beautiful system that is all the more tragic when you meet certain characters who have had that connection torn apart or who misuse that connection for nefarious purposes. There’s only two books in this series but both are great adventures that have a ton of heart put into them and the author is really dedicated towards making you want to see how these characters’ stories will unfold.