Rise of the Dragon Moon

Byrne, Gabrielle. K. Rise of the Dragon Moon
August 6th 2019 by Imprint
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Anatolia (Toli) is the firstborn daughter of Queen Una, but she has a terrible secret-- she feels responsible for the death of her father while the yearly tithe to the dragons was being delivered. While she loves hunting dragons (who are fairly evil, after all), she doesn't feel ready for all of the other training her mother thinks she should undergo as heir to the throne. When the queen is kidnapped by the dragons, Toli, her sister petal, and her friend Wix set out to find her. They have as a bargaining chip a dragon youngling, Ruby, who was stolen and hidden by two dragons, Krala and Dral, who hope to fight the reigning dragon queen. They let the children escape, only to try to traverse the exceedingly treacherous pass to get to the mountain where the dragons live. Ruby doesn't do well, and once Toli reaches the dragon kingdom, there is still plenty of danger ahead. Luckily, the queen is somewhat sympathetic. The two learn to trust each other, and eventually Queen Una is freed and Toli finds an unexpected place to practice skills.
Strengths: Toli's kingdom is a matriarchy, and a sort of vague, medieval, Frozen-ish sort of one. This gives it some automatic readers! Toli's relationships with Petal and Wix are solid, and there are some good secondary characters that add a lot to the story, like Spar. The dragon in-fighting has its moments, and make it seem more reasonable that Toli's people kill them. The trek over the mountains is filled with excitement and peril. A quickly moving fantasy novel with strong female characters.
XWeaknesses: Toli's guilt over her father's death always seemed weak to me, even after she starts to tell people later in the book. I know it is important as a motivating factor, but it just didn't have the punch I wanted it to.
What I really think: I'm going to have to ask my avid dragon fans if this book will be one they would like. I'm still not entirely sure the dragons will ever be good; on the one side, we have Toli with her own baby dragon for a while, which is a plus, but there's also a lot of talk of killing the dragons, which Wings of Fire fans may not appreciate. Great cover, though!



We only have 6th graders today, so that means all sorts of activities. This is a Merona knit dress ($1) and a Christopher and Banks jacket ($3) in case I need to jump up and down, chase balloons or do other get to know you activities.

I'm not a fan of the slow start. I wanted to get right to classes and homework, even as a student.