Jessica Day George (Tuesdays at the Castle)
ISBN: 978159990575
Coming-of-age, betrayal and friendships, and very nice dragons, with a side order of creepy.
I really loved Tuesdays at the Castle, and I don't know why I assumed it was George's first book, but I just discovered the truly excellent Dragon Slippers, and I'm very glad I did. Great storytelling, excellent characters (both good and bad) and a lovely take on dragon-kind and dragon hoards.
Creel's family is dead, so she and her brother are being raised by her aunt and uncle. Sadly, no one really has any money, so auntie gets the bright idea to have Creel captured by the local dragon, rescued by the local lord's son, and carried off to a glorious life in the manor house (whereupon manorial favor (ie, money) will shower down upon the rest of the household (meaning auntie). Creel, like most of us reading this devious plot, attempts to point out the many and manifest errors in logic, but auntie is firm, and Creel figures the old dragon is probably dead anyway, so she'll hang out for a bit, then come back home and her aunt will move on to a new wild scheme.
But the dragon is NOT dead, and Creel finds herself set off on an adventure that has her struggling to use her wits and her talents (embroidery and design) to support herself in a wide and wild world that doesn't particularly care about her.
Creel is sharp and smart, clever and hard-working, and she's aided by (and hampered by) a well-written supporting cast (human and dragon). She plans, she acts, and she is unafraid to speak up for herself (even when it doesn't necessarily work out well for her).
The story gets a little dark and parts of it are downright creepy towards the end, but the overall tragic/terrible details are blurry and distant - think Prince Caspian, or the weirder parts of Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Anyone who's more than one book into Harry Potter ought to be just fine as well.
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