Donita K. Paul, DragonKnight

First of all, I want to say that I give both of the other books in the series (Dragon Spell and Dragon Quest) 8/10. This is not to say that I did not like Dragon Knight. In fact, I enjoyed it thoroughly. There were many times while I read it that I had a hard time putting it down. So why did I score it lower than the other two books? While it was fun, and hard to let down at points, I couldn't help but feel it was missing something as I read. It took a while to figure out what that missing item was. When I got to part two of the book, it dawned on me. It was missing Kale. Kale is the main character of both of the first two books, and she was nowhere to be seen for the first 2/3 of the book. While this is understandable, because the book's about Bardon, I couldn't help but feel like it wasn't as good without her.

By no means does this mean that I didn't like the book. It kept me hooked the entire time, and it even had some of my favorite parts of the series so far. These fun and amusing sections are things like the kindia section and Castle Pelacce. That was one thing I loved about the book: It had a lot of humor. I don't laugh a whole lot when I'm reading, but this book pulled chuckles out of me on occasion.

The backdrop of the book lay in the emotion that Bardon went through. His troubles seeing whether he really wanted to be a knight were interesting. The romance undertone of the book was clearly there, regardless of whether the characters themselves saw it or not. Despite the fact that I'm a guy, I found the romance fun and amusing at the same time.

Although I liked the first two books more overall, this book was quite good. It kept me hook, and was enjoyable to read. It has a fairly simplistic storyline, but the things that came into play during it made it much less simplistic. It was fun, and I can't wait for the next book (Dragon Knight). After finishing it at 1:00 in the morning, I found myself holding hands over my mouth, trying not to wake the rest of my family as I went a bit crazy not wanting it to end. It definitely sets up Dragon Knight well, but I want say anymore about that. I can't wait till next June when I'll be able to finish reading this fun story.

DragonKnight

Donita K. Paul

WaterBrook, Jun 2006, $13.99

ISBN: 1400072506

Leaving Castle Pelacce, squire Bardon heads with his dragon Grier to an isolated mountain retreat so that he can meditate before he pledges his allegiance to Wulder and in turn becomes a knight. However, his solitude is interrupted before it begins when an elderly woman and her beautiful granddaughter are at the cabin retreat. The elderly Kye believes that Bardon is destined to help her though he says otherwise as she feels there is a reason that fate brought them to meet like this. Kye believes that Bardon and her granddaughter N'Rae will rescue the latter's father Sir Jilles comatose in a chamber. Bardon believes otherwise.

However, after needing rescues by Grier and N'Rae he begins to reconsider. He soon not only learns that other knights have been captured and put to sleep and concludes that his destiny resides with the two females who ruined his isolation before he had his first moment to reflect.

DRAGON KNIGHT is an entertaining romantic fantasy starring likeable heroes not ready for prime time forced to enter the fray. The action-packed story line is fast-paced with Grier providing some comic relief as he constantly rescues his human mate. Bardon and N'Rae are a fine pairing starting with her rescuing him (becoming the norm for the future knight) and continuing as their quest expands from saving her father to saving the realm. As with DRAGONSPELL and DRAGONQUEST, Donita K. Paul provides an entertaining coming of age fantasy.

Harriet Klausner