d_s_t_e's Wattpad Reviews

The Dream Keeper's Dragon by AlinaKG [Fantasy]

The Dream Keeper's Dragon is a fantasy book about Auelie Dranoir, a teenage girl just learning how to control her powers as a dragon. In the kingdom of Highfire, dragons aren't humongous flying creatures covered in scales, they are people with extraordinary abilities to control and to bring forth fire. They also happen to be members of the ruling family, which is a problem because this ruler, Emile Dranoir, is a dangerous and power-hungry king who wants nothing more than to capture Aurelie and her family. Well, nothing except more power, perhaps. When the king discovers where the family has been hiding and Aurelie is forced to strike out on her own, she falls into something much larger than she bargained for.

One thing that's consistent in this book from start to finish is a nice balance of action. There's always something going on to keep the reader interested from beginning to middle and especially the end, and it's balanced so that the excitement is maintained without constant magic and danger and confrontation. It doesn't go overboard so that the reader gets worn out or appear so infrequently that the reader gets bored.

Another thing that I enjoyed seeing was the realism, even in the midst of a fatansy setting. When Aurelie falls, she scrapes up her legs. When a character is injured, they go through a realistic process of recovery. The littlest details, even those that other authors might conveniently ignore or forget, are as they would be if the events of the book were really happening.

These details are also described skillfully, allowing the reader a perfect understanding alongside a vivd image or original description. A good example of this is shown in the second chapter as Aurelie's emotions are threatening her control over her powers:

"Breathe," her mother said, her blue eyes covered in red veins.

"I'm trying."

"Ou," her mother cried, and clutched her one hand in the other. A thin layer of white skin as large as a teaspoon appeared on her palm.

We know what happened without having to be told. Aurelie's mother reached out to touch her, only to receive a burn. We don't have to be told that this is a burn; we connect the dots from fire powers to the description of the blister that is familiar to anyone who has ever received such a burn themselves.

However, the passage as a whole only works as well as it does because the reader was previously told that Aurelie has fire powers, that they are tied to her emotions, and that she has virtually no control over them. It is also worth noting that Aurelie tends to see everything through an orange or red haze when her control is slipping. My interpretation of the description of "blue eyes covered in red veins" is that her mother's eyes only appeared this way because there was a pattern of red veins covering Aurelie's own eyes. I'm not completely certain of that, though, because I feel that this is never quite fully explained.

This leads into my next point, which is that, while this style works really well with things that the audience would be implicitly familiar with, such as burns, it can actually confuse the reader if not executed properly in a fantasy setting. It would not be known to the reader that a dragon such as Aurelie would see orange smoke when her control over her powers is slipping. This fantasy aspect is unique to this book alone, as far as I am aware, and, while that is really neat, it also gives a reader no real reference point for connecting the necessary dots.

Any fantasy element that is used like this must be introduced and explained prior to the point at which a basic familiarity is expected. This can be tricky for an author to do since it all makes perfect sense to the one who dreamed up the world and all the ways in which it functions, but it is essential for an author of a work such as this one to step back and consider what would and would not be clearly understood from an outside perspective. I found a several places throughout where I felt that having this sort of clarification would have gone a long way. With just this change, confusion could switch over into being really entertained and impressed by the descriptions available.

Another aspect in which I thought this book could use some improvement is certain character relationships. One is more of a personal gripe, I suppose, but I think there's still a valid point to it. I personally don't enjoy reading about girls being romatically attracted to guys who seem kind of like jerks, which I seem to come across too often. I'm not saying that the character I'm talking about in this book absolutely is a jerk, but he definitely acts like it at certain moments. Personal taste aside, I'm inclined to think that most readers would like to see more negative aspects of a love interest balanced out with positive ones that redeem the character in some way. I think in this case it wouldn't hurt to have just a little more of those positives in just the right places. Even the readers who are already rooting for the romance may be inclined to root still harder.

The other relationship is the one between Aurelie and the girl who is supposed to be her best friend. I understand that there was a lot going on and that the situation changed quite a lot, but I still feel as though Aurelie's interactions with this girl should have reflected the bond that they had shared. Even though it happens before the book begins, these two have significant history that should be affecting every current encounter that they have with each other. I found it a bit difficult to even tell if Aurelie still considered this girl to be a friend, whether she felt that they weren't as close or that something had come between them or any variation in between. Whatever the case, I was expecting emotions to be higher than they sometimes were, whether positive emotions or negative ones.

I did like a lot of the other character interactions, though. I especially enjoyed some of the back and forth between characters in dialogue that sprinkles in a bit of light humor here and there. I also liked seeing character relationships grow and develop as they would naturally.

A final thing that I consider to be among this book's strengths is that it contains natural limitations on what its protagonist (and her allies) can do, even when it comes to magic. It's always more enjoyable to read a book where the protagonist must struggle than to read a book where the protagonist is as perfect and powerful and invincible as Superman without kryptonite. A book where the protagonist is in possession of magical ability, especially very powerful magical ability, makes this challenge all the greater. I think there's a great temptation to have magic simply work by magic -- snap your fingers and it is done -- but without limits the story becomes a lot less interesting. This book addressed that in multiple ways, from the way that the magic is tied into Aurelie's emotions to the fact that she is young and still learning how to control it to the fact that there are actual physical consequences to overusing it to the point of exhaustion. I felt as though all of these added to the book very well, and, in some places, the excitement added because of these "rules" is almost tangible.

On a final note, typos and errors. The major problem I had with this book was with its commas. I noticed this especially near the beginning, though I'm not sure if that was because they're more prominent there or whether I simply started skipping over them after a while. Either way, I think this author would definitely benefit from brushing up on where it is appropriate to place a comma and where it is not. Many people miss commas where they really need them, but this book also added commas where they were not necessary to the point where it could be a little annoying to certain readers. There's an example of this in the passage above, in fact (just before "and clutched her one hand"). Other errors and typos were not as big of a deal, though I noticed a couple that could change the meaning of a sentence or be confusing if read incorrectly. A good read through would certainly not hurt.

All in all, I enjoyed this book. I read only the first one, but the second is just being published now, right at the end of the first like a continuation. I'm definitely going to check it out and consider following along as the updates continue. No spoilers, but I definitely want to read more about the king.

** Published in March 2015 **