- Dragon Slippers
- Dragon Flight
- Dragon Spear
I’m always a sucker for dragons, and I’ve been meaning to read this middle grade fantasy series for a while. Overall, these were enjoyable for a one-time read, but they didn’t really end up being books that I loved or that I wanted to add to my permanent collection.
The main reason that these books worked was because the main character, Creel, is likable. Yes, she’s independent, intelligent, determined, and sticks up for herself, but all in a not-obnoxious way. Authors frequently seem to have difficulty with writing a strong female character who is also NICE, like yes, you can be both strong AND nice and I’m not sure why this is so difficult to grasp. At any rate, Creel is both strong and nice and I enjoyed traveling with her throughout the series.
In the beginning, Creel has been orphaned and is living with her uncle and aunt and they are all very poor, so Creel’s aunt decides it will be a great idea if they send Creel to the dragon, and then surely someone will feel obligated to come rescue her, and that someone will of course be rich and handsome and single and he will marry Creel and take her and her entire family to live happily ever after in his castle. Creel thinks this plan is utter nonsense, but what with one thing and another she ends up in front of a dragon’s cave…
As Creel interacts with the dragons, there are many magical and non-magical shenanigans. The concept was fun and the overarching plot throughout the three books as to how humans should interact with dragons was done really well. However, things did get rather serious and intense – almost too much so for the age range that would otherwise be enjoying these books.
In the end, that was part of my issue with the series. It really felt like George would have been better off if she had made these stories actual YA and developed some of the themes more thoroughly. Instead, a lot of things felt like they were being glossed over in order to be more suitable for middle grade readers, to the sacrifice of the story.
I really did like these books, and if you are into dragons you will probably enjoy them as well – I just didn’t love them, even though I wanted to.
NB: Dragon Slippers was read #14 for #20BooksofSummer!
The Aroma of Books 