A Dragon’s Passion, by Sandra Enriquez, explores the belief that love can conquer all. Annaliessa and Tyson live in the Land of Miradel, home to the Kingdom of Petroset. Both have one thing in common; their fathers didn’t love them. Annaliessa is the king’s daughter and Tyson is a son of a witch.
A curse unites Princess Annaliessa to five princes. She has to marry one of the five, even if she doesn’t love any of them. Her duty is to produce an heir to the throne. The curse complicates matters for a young woman who wants to marry for love, not obligation. All of the princes want to win her hand, but not necessarily her heart. Annaliessa wants to escape it all. Her father is cruel. And marrying without love feels like an abomination to her.
When an earthquake levels her castle, she has a chance to runaway and to be free of her obligations. Tyson rescues her and together they seek refuge among the commoners. Could this opportunity allow her to break free from all of her bonds? Could Tyson be the one for her?
Before Annaliessa can answer this question both of their pasts come back to haunt them. Deceit, treachery, and vengeance wreak havoc in their lives and in her quest in finding true love. All she wants is to be happy, but is that possible for a princess who has to conform to duty?
There is much about this book to get excited about. The story and the twist and turns are tantalizing. Enriquez has quite the imagination and the fantasy genre allows her the freedom to explore new worlds and characters. Fantasy has always been a genre that I love and admire. World building, I imagine, is not easy. One of my favorite things to do is to immerse myself into a fantasy novel and let the author take me to places I’ve never dreamed of.
While an almost limitless imagination is necessary for any fantasy writer, so is the ability to put down their ideas on paper. It pains me to report that the biggest flaw of this novel is the writing. While the story held much promise—love, betrayal, dragons, and revenge—the words didn’t convey the right tone. On many occasions I struggled over the author’s word choice. This novel does not take place in our time. At least I don’t think it does. Yet she slipped in phrases that didn’t fit in with the feel of the story, such as muscle department, kissable lips, learning curve, and manufacture feelings. These phrases are mixed in with expressions you would expect for this genre. There were times when I wondered if Annaliessa was a girl from our century transported back in time or to a different world.
Does this mean that the novel is unreadable? Absolutely not. The story is entertaining and many readers will be able to overcome or not notice these issues at all. For me, I wish the author had spent more time editing the novel. Consistency doesn’t only concern a novel’s plot and characters. Language is important as well.
This is a difficult novel to assign stars to. Her ideas and imagination impressed me. Yet, her writing let me down to some degree. Given that, I’ll give her novel 3.5 stars. I will warn you that some of the scenes are graphic and can be disturbing to some readers.
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