November 5th 2019 by Bloomsbury Children's Books
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
This is set in the same world as The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart and The Girl with the Dragon Heart, but this time we find out more about Katrin, who is ruling Drachenheim, and her younger sister Sofia, who is not a fan of her sister. When Katrin decides that Sofia will be flown by dragon to the Diamond Exhibition in Villenne to represent the country, Sofia thinks this is just another way her sister is manipulating her. When she arrives, bedraggled and ill after a difficult journey, the king and queen are not impressed and politely banish Sofia and her retinue to a small house far outside town. Since she doesn't think she can make much of a difference, Sofia decides to go undercover and explore Villenne on her own. She doesn't quite think through how difficult and dangerous this is; she even has to borrow clothing from one of her ladies maids in order to go out! She is a fan of a professor of philosophy at the university, and after attending one of his interesting lectures (he is also a bit at odds with the local government), she meets some other students-- goblins Talvikki, Berritt and Hannlena, and a kobold named Fedolia. Not long after, her dragon pen pal Jasper shows up in human form! The two go back to the town and have more adventures. Eventually, however, Katrin gets wind of Sofia's antics and shows up in town, only to be frozen with the other leaders by Ice Giants! Sofia knows she must save her sister even if she isn't her biggest fan, and with the help of Jasper and Fedolia, she heads into the giants' territory to try to save her, which takes skills that Sofia didn't know she had.
Strengths: I adored The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart , with it's interesting setting and copious amounts of hot chocolate! It's fun to revisit the same world but deal with other characters. It's interesting to meet Jasper and get more dragon insight into Drachenheim, and the Ice Giants are a formidable and misunderstood adversary. Sofia's non-princess adventures with the goblins at the university are unusual and teach her a lot about what non royals experience. Sofia is able to solve the Ice Giant problem in an unconventional way, and I think there is at least one more book needed in this series.
Weaknesses: I did not like Sofia. She would have small epiphanies about how much harder everyone else's life was, but then she would go right back to her privileged way of thinking. She did make some progress, but she was not my favorite character.
What I really think: I'm curious to see what direction the next book takes.
I do like that Burgis gives the perspectives of the other characters in the story. I'm hoping to get to this one soon.
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