[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Random House in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]
Summary
Lady Elodie Bayford, eldest daughter of the Duke of Inophe, loves her home. Yes, the country is poor and barren. Their people must rely on trade with one another and the generosity of the duke to get by. But Elodie is devoted to the people and the land. She would do a lot for her people. But the arranged marriage still took her by surprise.
Elodie would be marrying Prince Henry of Aurea, and her marriage in turn would save her country. But while excited about the match – and her future on the gorgeous and lush Isle of Aurea with the handsome and charming Henry – she is puzzled by what the prosperous country is getting in return for this arrangement.
And then she finds out about the dragon.
Review
This is a novel based on a screenplay which will be a Netflix movie this fall (October 13, 2023). And it is AMAZING!
I loved Elodie from the beginning. I was rivetted from the first few pages as I was watching for Elodie to discover the dragon and role she is to play in Aurea in exchange for resources to save her people. And once she knew the whole arrangement, I couldn’t put the book down until the end. This is going to make an amazing movie!
When I first picked this up and realized I had read this author before (Circle of Shadows was fantastic!), I was even more excited to read this. And Evelyn Skye did not disappoint. I was concerned that because Elodie was going to be alone, trying to survive the dragon, for a large portion of the book, that there would be a lot of long, dry sections of description. The sorts of things I usually skip over to get to the dialogue. But that wasn’t the case at all. This is super engaging, and I felt like I couldn’t skip past anything because I had to know it all. This is simply excellent.
Fantasy fans, there’s so much here to love – dragons, royalty, secrets, family, betrayal. I think this works for both adult readers and YA readers. And the bonus material at the end was FASCINATING – do not skip that part! I can’t recommend this highly enough – don’t miss this one! (Some language)
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥*
*♥♥♥♥♥ = Outstanding!