dragons

Book Review: Searching for Dragons

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Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
Searching for Dragons (Enchanted Forest Chronicles, #2) 
by Patricia C. Wrede, Peter de Sève (Illustrator)

5 out of 5 stars on GoodReads


King Mendanbar, Monarch of the Enchanted Forest, is having trouble with wizards burning up bits of his forest. He visits Kazul, the King of the Dragons, for some advice, but Kazul is missing, and Mendanbar teams up with Princess Cimorene to find Kazul and restore the Enchanted Forest.

I enjoyed this book even more reading it for the second time! I still wish that there were a little more romance between Mendanbar and Cimorene, but I do enjoy their friendship and the way they respect and rely on one another through all the sticky magical situations they find themselves in.

There are so many delightful characters in this book! Even the side characters shine with originality and wit.
The basic plot is rather straightforward, but there are so many misdirects and twisty roads for the characters to get delayed and misguided and thrown off course, that it feels like a complex plot.

Book Review: The Tea Dragon Society

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The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O'Neill
The Tea Dragon Society 
by Katie O’Neill


3 out of 5 stars on GoodReads
In this graphic novel, Greta’s mother is teaching her to be a blacksmith, but Greta is distracted when she befriends a tea-shop owner with a pet tea dragon. As Greta learns to care for the tea dragons, she befriends a whole new group of people in the society dedicated to protecting their tea dragons, and brewing the delicious tea leaves harvested from their horns. But will Greta ever return to her blacksmithing lessons, or have a tea dragon of her own?

I love the whimsical artwork! The colors and lines are soft and sweet. I thought the plot was adorable and lovely. The little tea dragon creatures are the cutest thing ever created! But there were some confusing things about this book that make it difficult to review.

My main problem is that there is a homosexual couple in this book. One of them is a human and the other is some kind of furry llama-looking guy with a long tail. I did not appreciate this kind of political/philosophical posturing in an otherwise lovely children’s book about dragons.
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Book Review: The Secrets of Ordinary Farm

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The Secrets of Ordinary Farm
The Secrets of Ordinary Farm by Tad Williams

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lucinda and Tyler are back for the summer at their mysterious Uncle’s farm. Lucinda is determined to become closer to the dragons, but with all the adventure and wild mystery going on, she barely has time to visit the dragons, until one of them reaches out to her in a surprising way.

Tyler continues his feud with the crusty Colin Needle, and both of them are snooping around the farm, spying on each other, desperate to find the secrets of the farm before the other. Continue reading →

Book Review: Ship of Destiny

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Ship of Destiny
Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Usually I love Robin Hobb’s books, but there are so many things that annoyed me about this one. It’s entirely too long and repetitive. It could have been about 200 pages shorter. There are too many POVs flip-flopping all over the place in every chapter. I HATE it when a POV changes in the middle of a orscene! And there are about 10 or 11 different POV characters in the book. Too many! Continue reading →

Book Review: Mad Ship

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Mad Ship
Mad Ship by Robin Hobb

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The story continues with Althea desperate to prove herself as an able-bodied seaman so that she can hopefully regain control of the Liveship Vivacia. But unbeknownst to her, Vivacia has been captured by pirates, and Wintrow is forced to bargain with the evil Kennit to save his own life and his father’s.
Malta is caught up in a flurry of courtship that could mean the forgiveness of the Vestrit family’s crushing debts, or it could spell ruin for her reputation. Brashen is striving to simply make a living on board a ship anywhere, but the mad ship Paragon might change his plans. And the mysterious Amber begins to have more influence on events as she has a finger in every pie in Bingtown. Continue reading →

Book Review: The Dragon’s Child

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The Dragon's Child
The Dragon’s Child by Jenny Nimmo

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a sweet little story about a dragon child who can’t learn to fly and gets left behind when all the other dragons migrate to other lands. Poor little dragon child has a hard time because his wings are too small, and everyone is exasperated with him and losing their patience waiting for him to fly.
He befriends a bird, who tries to teach him flying lessons, and an orphan girl, who brings him a lot of comfort in friendship. Continue reading →

Book Review: The White Dragon

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The White Dragon
The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This 3rd book in the Pern series follows Jaxom who has the only albino dragon in the world. He and his dragon, Ruth, set out to prove that they can do anything regular dragons can do, fly together, fight in the skies, travel “between” and through time. Through their adventures, they discover even more talents that other dragons do not have, such as understanding the mischievous little fire-lizards. When all of Pern is in danger, and Jaxom’s lady-love is threatened, Jaxom and Ruth will need all their talents and the help of their friends to save the world!

I love Anne McCaffrey’s writing! She puts together these strings of events that follow one upon another in a meandering story-arc that finally comes full circle. In this book, we see Jaxom growing up, fighting for his dragon rights, breaking the rules, and ultimately finding his place in the world. But underneath the overall story, there are a thousand little details that bring the story to life! Continue reading →

Book Review: Alexander the Good Dragon

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Alexander the Good Dragon Alexander the Good Dragon by Fred Wolf My rating: 1 of 5 stars

“ALEXANDER THE GOOD DRAGON … a stirring tale of long ago battles between good and evil, men and dragons… Sean is tormented by guilt when his father is kidnapped by a malevolent dragon. Unable to simply sit still and wait for the king and his men to come to the rescue, Sean sets out on a long and perilous journey through the Cumbrian Mountains to seek the help of Alexander, a great and benevolent dragon who has proven to be a defender of men. But lately, Alexander is nowhere to be found. Can Sean find the reclusive Alexander?” -GoodReads Description

This book was only okay. I do love stories about dragons though! This book has the basics for a good dragon story, but just needs some better structure. The characters are one-dimensional and the story needs some further development. There’s almost no sub-plot at all, and it ends pretty quickly instead of having a third act climax and then denouement. The main character has almost no Continue reading →