Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede. Harcourt, 1990. 212p. (015204566X) Series: The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, #1.

I am so glad Natalie recommended this! I absolutely loved it. And my housemate can attest to the fact that it made me laugh several times; it was so good I even read a few parts out loud to her.

Back cover:

Princess by birth. Adventurer by choice.

Meet princess Cimorene – a princess who refuses to be proper. She is everything a princess is not supposed to be: headstrong, tomboyish, smart…

And bored.

So bored that she runs away to live with a dragon. And not just any dragon, but Kazul – one of the most powerful and dangerous dragons around. Of course, Cimorene has a way of hooking up with dangerous characters, and soon she’s coping with a witch, a jinn, a death-dealing talking bird, a stone prince, and some very oily wizards.

If this princess ran away to find some excitement, it looks like she’s found plenty!

My review:

Cimorene is not your ordinary princess and she most definitly lives in fairytale land. Where else would a talking frog (who isn’t a prince) advise you to run away to the home of dragons? Where else do you borrow suffle pans from witches?

All the characters are quite delightful, the dragons’ personalities are varied and colorful, the knights sufficiently vain, and cats still think themselves superior to everybody. The wizards are the bad guys and the witch is helpful in this tale.

Patricia does a fabulous job weaving in bits and pieces of other fairytales (I love it when authors do that!). For example, did you know there’s a special school for people who are supposed to do special things? George (the dragon slayer), Art (who pulled the sword from the stone) and Jack (the bean stalk climber) all attended that school.

The plot has a bit of mystery, quite a bit of adventure, the slightest bit of romance (after all there are princes, knights and princesses), and plenty of surprises to laugh at. I am really looking forward to reading the rest of the books in this series!

My rating:

Go read it! Find it at a library near you; Buy it from Amazon

Disclosure: I borrowed this from the library. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

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