Review: wonderful fantasy-romance
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 18, 2013
Although it's written in fairly simple prose, it's a wonderful book.  Very much in the vein of McCarthy's Dragonriders of Pern.  There are small house dragons and large battle dragons in the story.  The story is about a woman (Emmye) who can hear and talk to dragons.  All of them.  The only other people who can do so is the dragon's rider and he/she can only hear his particular dragon, no others.  Through the dragons, Emmye hears about a plot to kill the king.  Emmye has a 'pancat' which is a shapeshifter cat who can shift into a panther.  There is a myth about a person who would be able to talk to all dragons and who would presage war.  Emmye was left on a doorstep in infancy with a note that said "Hide Her Well."The romance aspect isn't so blatant that it'll put off male readers, though female readers will be happiest.  I guess Dragonriders of Pern had the same target audience.  A lot of those stories had a bit of romance somewhere in them, too.  The romance in this book is sweet - a matter of blushes and hand-holding.  Great for twelve year olds, but the story kept my adult interest and I'm not a fan of YA books and rarely read them.Overall, I enjoyed the story and would buy another book by this author.  This story is kind of old-fashioned and reminds me of stories written in the golden age of fantasy.  The writing is better than modern writing, too.  No info about the author, but I'd bet she's British.  I guess the British education system is better than ours in the U.S.  Anyway, the book was either professionally edited or written by someone who is truly literate.