The Dragon’s Price by Bethany Wiggins (ARC Review)

The Dragon’s Price by Bethany Wiggins

Release Date: Feb. 21st, 2017

DNF @ 11%

I have never been a huge dragon book fan. I mean, I like them just fine, but I’ve never thought, goodness, do you know what YA needs more of? DRAGONS. When I saw this book, I thought it sounded so good, and I finally, finally got on the dragon train.

Once Upon a Time…

When two warring kingdoms unified against a deadly menace laying waste to both their lands, they had to make a choice: vow to marry their heirs to one another, or forfeit their lives to the dragon.

Centuries later, everyone expects the sheltered princess Sorrowlynn to choose the barbarian prince over the fire-breathing beast—everyone, that is, except Sorrow, who is determined to control her own destiny or die trying.

As she is lowered into the dragon’s chamber, she assumes her life is over until Golmarr, the young prince she just spurned, follows her with the hopes of being her hero and slaying the dragon. But the dragon has a different plan. . . .

If the dragon wins, it will be freed from the spell that has bound it to the cave for centuries. If Sorrow or Golmarr vanquish the dragon, the victor will gain its treasure and escape the cave beneath the mountain. But what exactly is the dragon hiding?

There are no safe havens for Sorrow or Golmarr—not even with each other—and the stakes couldn’t be higher as they risk everything to protect their kingdom.

As you can see from above, I DNF’d pretty early on. There were some major issues I had with the book, but before I dive into those. I want to talk about the positives, because I think there were quite a bit that I saw before I ended terms with this scaly novel. Eh, too early for the dragon puns? My bad.

I loved the author’s creativity for this novel. This was a whole new world that she created and I loved seeing what she would create next. While it’s truly terrible, I was fascinated by the concept of the girl who refuses to marry a different clan would then be forced to be fed to a dormant dragon. It was quite different than anything I’ve read in YA in a long time, and I truly appreciated it. There was a lot of originality here, and I was completely sold on her concept.

I also love the name Sorrowlynn. XD

The biggest issue perhaps coming from the characters. There was nothing new with them. There was the instalove, the girl trying hard to be a feminist girl by NOT LIKING DRESSES (can’t someone just like a pretty, frilly dress? Ugh, I do!!), and the parents were oh so mean. It felt like the generic YA trope setup in a super cool fantasy world. I couldn’t get over just how many cliches were being introduced to the setup when the world had been so original. The first few chapters, too, felt so melodramatic for me – which is actually the same issues I had with Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes (another amazing world killed off by the melodrama – and I couldn’t really get behind any of it.

I also wasn’t a fan of Sorrow. Again, she felt like heroines I had seen before in other fantasy novels. And I couldn’t get over the whole marriage thing. She was told multiple, multiple times that she wouldn’t have to pick the oldest brother who already had a while but any of the brothers, but she couldn’t get her head around it and that was her excuse for running away.

Snow is not amused to be showing back up here again so soon.

And then the whole instalove thing appeared at 11%, and this Book Princess had to call it quits.

While I loved, loved the whole concept and addition of dragons of this book, I couldn’t get behind the other issues that were puffing up in this book. The concept truly was cool, but the melodrama, meh heroine, and instalove fired up the DNF Princess in me. I do think the author has talent in writing, but there were just a few things that conspired against this book to make it great for me. A Snow White rating, and no crowns for today since I didn’t get far enough in it!

Check it out:

• Goodreads
• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble

What do you think? Have you read this? What do you think about dragon books? A fan or just kind of meh?