PhillipKs
Summary:
In "The Dragon of Arnhem," Clara van Bloemendaal, a soft and kindhearted 18-year-old German resistance fighter, discovers she's the biological daughter of Adolf Hitler and an Aesir-Dragon hybrid, engineered to be the Goddess of War. As Allied forces converge to kill her as part of Operation Market Garden, brothers, Chris and Alex, are dispatched behind enemy lines. Alex, who is part of the 30th British Corps, starts his journey in Belgium and must reach his brother, Chris, who is a paratrooper of the British 1st Airborne Division, dropped in Arnhem, joined by Clara, who must choose between love and destiny. As they navigate zombies, vampires, and mythical creatures, they uncover a hidden prophecy that threatens Clara to destroy everyone she holds dear as she reaches her 19th birthday. Clara's journey becomes a battle for redemption, love, and self-discovery.
Core themes:
Clara's story is one of love, compassion, and kindness. Despite being born to a tyrant father and a dragon mother, bred to be Hitler's goddess of war, she defies her father's purpose for her by sheltering Jews, mixed race, and disabled people in her bedroom while growing intimately with everyone she comes across, showing love and affection even to those who wronged, harmed, or even tried to kill her, including Nazi officers and a boy destined to slay her when the prophecy comes true. She tends to injured soldiers and paratroopers in hotel basements and even her own bedroom. Despite the prophecy that she would turn into a dragon that destroys the city of Arnhem on her 19th birthday while Chris, the boy who fell from the heavens, is destined to kill her, she goes on a quest to save and reunite him with his brother, Alex and his family. Despite several warnings, even from her boyfriend, Alex, that she is destined to die in the hands of Chris. They discover their unnatural abilities along the way, echoing themes of puberty and self-discovery that run parallel with modern superhero tales.