It was kind of weird reading this book, because it’s number eight in a series, and I haven’t read any of the others. Somehow I picked it up at a library or thrift sale, thinking it looked lighthearted and fun. I was picturing something along the lines of Frogged, but this one wasn’t quite as good. I’m not sure if that’s because of the writing style, or just that there was so much about the backstory I didn’t already know. Many times through the narrative, the characters would make remarks reminding the reader of past events, and it was enough that I could follow along, but there’s so much I was left in the dark about. Which made me curious to read at least a few from the beginning of the series, because I just have to know. How did a princess who can magically turn into a dragon, first meet and fall in love with a dragon who can turn into a human, anyway? What was it that Audun did for the sea snakes, that put them in his debt? Why are there so many witches in this world (but only one wizard encounter)- and quite a few of them appear really incompetent. I don’t know if that was for laughs, or that in this fantasy universe, plenty of people can do magic with widely varying abilities?
Anyhow, the story goes thus: said princess and dragon-prince (engaged to be married soon), are left in charge of her parents’ castle while the adults are away. She’s then called away herself a few times to help people in the domain with various problems- to deal with a dangerous tree that stings people, for example (inspired by a real tree, Dendrocnide moroides or the gympie gympie, which grows in Australia), or to trap a bunch of mandrake/cat hybrid pests. And then comes home to find that her baby brother is missing- kidnapped. Goes on a wild goose chase with her dragon fiancé, first to find out who did it, then actually locate her brother, then to rescue him. Lots of people- and fairies, and mermaids, and other dragons- get involved helping out. There’s friendly ghosts and magic flying carpets and a guy who was once turned into an otter, a talking octopus servant, and a nasty wizard with an old grudge against her family. They have to battle a swarm of crabs on a tiny remote island, do some spectacular flying stunts, and heal a rift between two sides of the family that dislike each other- a human grandmother who loathes dragons, and a dragon relative who hates humans. Oh, and somewhere in the middle quite a few of them get turned into frogs- but I won’t say why, just in case you want to read this yourself!
I did get a bit lost sometimes. Most everything seems to happen via the dialog, so there were quite a few pages where I suddenly didn’t know what the characters were doing– they had changed locations, or their body position, or something else had happened with the surroundings- but the only indication was hints in the conversation which were unclear to me. Particularly in the cave scene. It could be that my brain still struggles with some descriptive aspects of writing- and filling in the gaps- but I felt like a quite a few chapters needed more sentences plainly telling the reader what the heck was actually going on.