About reading & a book review

Before I so suddenly gave up on this challenge (the blog's sudden demise will be explained in the next few weeks :) ) I had decided to start a program called blogging for books. It's a Christian publishing company that sends readers free books for reviewing said books in return. I thought it would be a nice change of pace to do a monthly post that shared something interesting I'd read lately (in case you don't know, I like to read even more than I like to cook!)


So since I'd already committed, here goes my first book review:

I received Dragons of the Valley for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review:

I'm an avid reader and I've always enjoyed exploring new fantasy worlds. I was excited to give this Christian allegory a try. Unfortunately the first 5 times I picked up the book, I was unable to progress past the first two pages. I was confused, lost, and frustrated. A lot of new terminology is thrown at the reader right off the bat, and it was overwhelming to me. Fortunately I gave it one last try and forced myself to complete the first chapter.

After reading the first chapter, it was pretty clear this was not the first book in the series. Hopefully if you've read the sequel(s) to Dragons of the Valley you won't have the frustrating start I did.

That said, once I got into the meat of the book I was intrigued. I loved being able to picture all of the different people types, especially the sprightly kimen. Dragons, and sword-fighting and magicians, oh my! I'll definitely be looking into other books in this series.

I also enjoyed the interplay with the main few characters. I think the reader is most meant to relate to the Princess of the story and I do think that many female young-adult readers would agree. However I feel like there is plenty of masculinity to make it an interesting read for guys as well.

There was a HUGE Christian tie-in, and I feel like the author did a great job of relating many of the most well-known aspects of Christ & God in this book. It was unique to read it from a fantasy perspective, and she did a good job of keeping the story from getting too 'preachy'.

My main complaint is a bit of a spoiler, so please stop here if you've not read the book. I'm disappointed that the author felt that the Princess must find 'true love' to be fulfilled. I personally believe that God/Christ can be enough without a human love interest to fulfill a young woman's life. It was also 'tacked' on so close to the end, that it just felt like a last-minute edit.

Otherwise, if you enjoy fantasy novels and are interested in a unique Christian perspective, then I highly recommend this book to you.