#review She Dreamed of Dragons by Elizabeth Walker #ya #fantasy #mg

Welcome to the Blog Tour for Elizabeth J.M. Walker's 

Young Adult Fantasy Novel ~

She Dreamed of Dragons!!

Follow the tour to read exclusive excerpts, guest posts, reviews, and spotlights.

Could a dragon mage be the next ruler of the magical kingdom of Dorlith?

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Title: She Dreamed of Dragons
Author Name:  Elizabeth J.M. Walker
Genre(s): Young Adult, Fantasy
Length: Approx. 234 pages
Ebook ISBN:  978-0-9947490-6-2
Print ISBN:  978-0-9947490-5-5

Release Date: July 17, 2015
Publisher:  Mirror World Publishing
This is a re-release tour.  Book previously published through a different publishing company.

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About She Dreamed of Dragons:

Trina is a fifteen-year-old dragon mage in a kingdom ruled by witches and wizards – the same people who have brought dragons and other magical creatures near extinction. Trina can barely control her fire powers and is desperate for an apprenticeship, but finding a fellow dragon mage to be her teacher is proving more difficult than coming across an actual dragon.

Then there’s the Royal Tourney – a competition presented by the Queen to find a successor to the throne. Trina heads to the competition in the hopes of sparking some interest in the mage society and earning herself an apprenticeship.

She never intended to be a frontrunner in the competition.

She never meant to catch the attention of the evil witch trying to take over the throne.

She never expected to fall for a wizard.

Now Trina must face tough decisions about who she is and who she could become. Trina must ask herself: Can she really win the Royal Tourney?

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My Review

She Dreamed of Dragons is a fun fantasy that fans of Harry Potter would enjoy. In Ms. Walker’s beautifully imagined world, mages and witches don’t get along. The witches harbor the secrets to their magic carefully and blame mages for turning their king into a spider. Mages, along with fairies, pixies, and other creatures are pretty sure witches eat puppies along with other terrible things.

Trina is a dragon mage, one of the rarest, so there’s no one for her to apprentice to. Her father died trying to restore the king to his human self, but still, the witches don’t trust mages. A sentiment encouraged by some who’d like to take advantage of the weakened queen as she’s (obviously!) unable to bear children to carry on the line.

So a tourney is organized to find the best witch or wizard to become the new queen or king. Mages weren’t invited, but the head of the mage school makes sure that Trina crashes the party and has a little help getting into the competition. Trina has no interest in becoming queen, she only agrees to go to keep an eye on her impulsive pixie cousin.

But soon Trina finds herself at the top of the competition, much to the chagrin of her witch roommate and the powerful Etiquette teacher who’s determined the roommate is the proper lady and potential queen that a mage could never be. It seems the contest is rigged and only if Trina learns to control her dragon powers can she fulfill her destiny as well as complete the job of saving the king.

This was a fun story, with training, testing, and magical points counters similar to a bit of the Harry Potter series, but it’s not nearly as dark of course. There’s a lot of fun like a device that transforms clothing and hairstyles magically for events like the dancing competition and a Halloween party. Trina has to fight her dragon powers overwhelming her and accidentally setting everything on fire. The ending was great (not giving away any spoilers!)

The only complaints I had were a bit of a slow start, not enough conflict with the nasty roommate which makes it read younger than YA, or at least early YA, and when Trina sets off to master her dragon powers, it’s a big, unexpected leap – and the reader doesn’t get to see any of it. She returns and is able to save the day. It felt like this was a much longer book, but something had to be cut to keep the word count down. Personally, I would have sped things up in the beginning and let us see this training. For this reason I give the book 4 stars rather than 5. A minor nit, at times the POV was close third with Trina, but occasionally it would slip into an omniscient voice with a couple head hops. I think only writers would notice this.

Recommended! Kids will certainly enjoy She Dreamed of Dragons.

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Purchase Links:

Amazon Kindle - US -
http://amzn.to/1M1Ctat

Amazon Paperback - US -
http://amzn.to/1dVVRYG

Mirror World Publishing -
http://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/products/she-dreamed-of-dragons-e-book

Barnes & Noble -
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/she-dreamed-of-dragons-elizabeth-j-m-walker/1120223680?ean=9780994749055

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Meet the Author:



Elizabeth J. M. Walker lives in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. She has always loved books and writing. As a teen she discovered zines, which inspired her to publish her own litzine of odd fairy tales for over a decade.

She Dreamed of Dragons is her first novel.

Connect with her on her website: www.elizabethjmwalker.com
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Follow the Tour - Schedule Posted at the Following Link: 

http://saphsbookblog.blogspot.com/2015/07/tour-schedule-re-release-of-she-dreamed.html