Book: Alliana Girl Of Dragons
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Publishing Date: August 2, 2022
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Synopsis:
Once upon a time, Alliana believed in dreams and fairy tales as sweet as spun-sugar clouds. Allianawished on shooting stars, sure that someday she and her grandmother would be able to travel to the capital city to see the queen. Then her grandmother passed away—and those dreams disappeared in a disenchanted puff.
Now Alliana’s forced to attend to the whims of her wicked stepmother—with long days of cleaning her stepfamily’s inn as her skin burns raw or staying up until the crack of dawn to embroider her stepsister’s ball gowns. Until she meets two beings who change her life forever—the first is a young nightdragon who Alliana discovers she can magically talk to. And the second is Nela, a young witch.
Nela needs Alliana’s help navigating the mysterious abyss, filled with dangerous beasts, a place Alliana knows by heart. Alliana sees Nela’s request as a chance to break free of her stepmother’s shadow and to seize a chance at a life she’s barely dared to hope for—but there’s a risk. If caught, Alliana will be stuck working for her stepmother for the rest of her life. Can Alliana truly make wisps of dreams into her own, better-than-a-fairy-tale happily ever after?
Inspired by the Japanese Cinderella story and set in the same world as the Eva Evergreen series, this story can be read as a standalone.
My Review:
I love reading Middle Grade Fantasy to take a break from other heavy books and I'm glad to say I loved this book.
➳ First things first, one of the things I loved about this book: family. The book starts with Alliana being forced to do chores for her cruel stepmother to repay her 'loan' after her father died. A Cinderella story as said in the synopsis. I hated how Alliana was treated, she's very sweet and kind and me hating her Stepmother proves that she was written very well. Alliana's mother also died and the only true family she has left is her Grandmother. This aspect of the book was one that enraptured me the most. Reading the conversations between the two, I was truly moved. The tapestries they made together and the biscuits they shared, basically every little thing made me so happy! Even though her father had passed away, Alliana still drew strength from what her father did say when he was alive and afterwards from her Grandmother after her passing as well. This is what I meant when I said family being an aspect I loved the most.
➳ Another thing to always get me is the friendship. As almost all middle grade books, this book features amazing friendship. A little further into the story, Alliana rescues a Nightdragon who immediately becomes her friend. I personally loved the nightdragon, Kabo, the most. He was so cute! The only problem is that I would've loved more interactions between them since the name of the book is based on this. I loved Alliana's friends Isao and Nela. Their friendship was so cute and another important highlight of this story.
➳ Overall, this book was a great Middle Grade Fantasy which I must admit almost made me cry😅 It has themes of family, friendships and hope which is a must read for all middle grade readers!
Thank you so much TBR And Beyond Tours for an eARC and an opportunity for being on a tour for this book! The tour schedule can be found here.
Book Links:
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indigo | IndieBound
About The Author:
Julie Abe is the author of the EVA EVERGREEN, SEMI-MAGICAL WITCH middle grade fantasy series; the middle grade fantasy ALLIANA, GIRL OF DRAGONS; and the young adult novel THE CHARMED LIST. She has lived in Silicon Valley, spent many humid summers in Japan,and currently basks in the sunshine of Southern California with never enough books or tea. Keep up with Julie’s latest books and adventures at instagram.com/julieabebooksor sign up for her newsletter at julieabebooks.com/newsletter.
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