The Dragon's Price
Author: Bethany Wiggins
Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers
Series: Transference #1
Pages: Hardcover, 304 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: February 21st 2017
Summary:
Fans of Julie Kagawa’s Talon and Renee Ahdieh’s The Wrath and the Dawn will devour this action-packed fantasy adventure about a girl who chooses to surrender herself to a deadly dragon rather than marry an enemy prince.
When two warring kingdoms unified against a deadly menace laying waste to both their lands, they had to make a choice: vow to marry their heirs to one another, or forfeit their lives to the dragon.
Centuries later, everyone expects the sheltered princess Sorrowlynn to choose the barbarian prince over the fire-breathing beast—everyone, that is, except Sorrow, who is determined to control her own destiny or die trying.
As she is lowered into the dragon’s chamber, she assumes her life is over until Golmarr, the young prince she just spurned, follows her with the hopes of being her hero and slaying the dragon. But the dragon has a different plan. . . .
If the dragon wins, it will be freed from the spell that has bound it to the cave for centuries. If Sorrow or Golmarr vanquish the dragon, the victor will gain its treasure and escape the cave beneath the mountain. But what exactly is the dragon hiding?
There are no safe havens for Sorrow or Golmarr—not even with each other—and the stakes couldn’t be higher as they risk everything to protect their kingdom.
Review:
Let's look at the cover.. *looks at it* ... or rather let's not!
It's - well kindly put- not exactly going to draw all the cover sluts out there.
BUT please simply ignore it. Because the book is much better than the cover leads to believe (or at least a cover slut like me anyway)
I can proudly and rather smugly say, that I chose this book, due to the summary.
I've never read anything by Wiggins so I wasn't sure what to expect.
The entire book is told from Sorrowlynn's POV in first person. And at the beginning I wasn't sure if I am going to enjoy it, because I wasn't quite sure about the writing style. But very soon I was pulled in by the story and totally captivated. I am not quite sure how I feel about the writing style. I can't say I adore it but neither do I dislike it. I am however not able to put my finger on what exactly doesn't quite work for me. I am admittedly fussy about writing style, so I am guess in it is a case of it wasn't you, it's me...
But this is the only thing, I can say that is not quite fantastic!
Because the storyline is great. It's fast paced, has quite a few nice twists and is surprising, in that it strays from the usual usual, when you least expect it. The romance as example. I thought: here we go, a full on insta-everything coming our way... But that doesn't happen. Rather, from attraction comes companionship, friendship and love. I couldn't wait for the first kiss!!
The character building absolutely shines. I think I love this book so much because of it. In my mind it is completely character driven. Yet in fact it really isn't. We get to know the two MCs pretty well. And I changed my mind about them both - at first in fact I was not a fan of Sorrow to say the least. But somehow, she endeared herself to me. In fact I very quickly sympathised with her. I liked Golmarr way better from the beginning, but I didn't expect the depth of his characters we got to see so fast.
I am totally in love with both of them and I am desperate to see what happens for them next.
But my biggest surprise was the dragons and their character building. It's so brilliant. They feel like alien beings and yet I get them! So well done.
I feel like I understand and know the support cast, which is extensive. Another proof of how well the characters are written.
Which brings me to the world building. I simply adore it! It's brilliant. I love the different kingdom's, how we discover their histories. I love their different cultures and enjoyed the different realms.
As the story unfolds we get to discover past reasons, the truth about dragons and more. It's so well done. I ended putting the book aside for a day before reading the last chapters. I simply didn't want it to end!
The idea of the transference is simply genius. Add all the little details Wiggins carefully constructed and we have this amazing and intriguing world! Just brilliant.
So for me this is a MUST read fantasy. Good storyline, great character building and fabulous world building make this a wonderful start of the series.
Can't wait for the next book!!!!!
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