Review: The ending surprised me, in a good way.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 10, 2014
When I saw this cover on Netgalley, my first thought was 'Pretty!', but then I saw Save the Dragons on the cover and had to read the blurb. I love a good dragon story, and though I haven't read anything by Jamie K Schmidt before, I decided to give it a try.Straight up, the blurb doesn't give a true accounting of the story. Yes, the details are technically correct, but the order is a bit off and just doesn't give you the whole picture.  The blurb leads with something we don't find out about until several chapters into the book.  Second, Carolyn doesn't actually totally shift, for Reed to believe her. It took someone else pointing out that she had a breathe weapon and seeing the results for that to happen.  The other thing is that though she was kidnapped, she was being used as bait at the time, and in no real danger. That came later on.Basically the story is that Carolyn believes she will turn into a dragon. She has gone in for test after test for over a year. She has just been told that the dragons won't be doing any more testing, that she is now too old to shift.  When an attack on the Dragon Embassy happens and during the crisis, Carolyn vomits acid on an attacker, melting his gun and hand. That's when the bad guy dragons decide that she is a Queen and try to grab her. One of the defending dragons, Jack, hears the attackers call Carolyn a Queen and keep her from being taken.The next day, Jack and Reed come to her office to talk to her boss, the dragon Niall.  While Reed and Niall have a "bonding moment", Jack takes Carolyn home and see proof of her breathe weapon. It's not until Niall confirms she will shift until Reed believes.  It is in this same scene that they find out that the last Queen to be born, Reed's sister and Niall's daughter, was sacrificed on the site her house was built. This begins the hunt for those who had sacrificed the Queen and the beginning of Carolyn's transformation.I have to say that I loved this book.  It was told from the point of view of Carolyn. We get the peek into her head with all her doubts, fears and confusion. But we also get her sarcastic wit and charm. I couldn't believe how often I laughed out loud in this book. The ending surprised me and that doesn't happen often. I can't wait to see where the author goes with this series, totally a 4 star read.