This was a good quick fantasy read. Interesting story enjoyed the dragon aspect. I did have to try to get into it a few times but once I did I was hooked and needed to know what happened.

This book sounded so very interesting a had lot of potential but the writing is just not for me, I just did not very dynamic or atmospheric and that let it down a lot for me.

*I recieved this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

This was such a quick and cute read, featuring a princess who turns into at the age of 16 begins to turn innot Dragon at everynight and 2 years later at 18 has to travel to break the ice kingdom to get the curse broken by a witch! She equips the help of Adie to go with her on this journey to chain her up everynight and be her compainion and quard more of less! I liked reading about both of these as it brings the book into the lgbt category when the two begin to develop feelings more than friendship which is nice to see in a high fantasy book!

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. I got every excited that this was a book about a princess that turns to a dragon from nightfall until day break because of the curse of a witch. When she discovers a way to break the curse. It involves going on a quest with her loyalest female guard who does not want to fight anymore, but seems to be developing feeling for Mellie. I enjoyed it and would like to read other things by this author.

This book need much more work. The premise was interesting and I really would love to see more F/F romances but the execution was awkward and the characters and world-building left a lot to be desired.

I received an ARC copy from netgalley for my honest review, so thank you netgalley and publishers for offering me this book! ♡
The day Princess Mellie turns sixteen, her parents reveal she was cursed as a baby and will spend the rest of her nights as a dragon. Two years later, she discovers a chance to break the curse, but it will take a quest with only her chosen bodyguard, a brave female warrior who has lost her lust for fighting but has developed an attraction for the princess.

The cover and title is what originally drew me to this book.
This is my first book by this author. It was alltogether an easy read. ♡ I give this book a
1 star rating!

This was such a quick and short read. I would have loved to seen this book develop more than the story further than the 60 pages allow. The romance was a bit under-developed but it was still cute. If there was a sequel, i would pick it up as there needs to be more than this story allows so far.

The characterization of the two main characters can feel naive and overwrought at times, and the overall message of the novella ends up feeling a bit forced and afterschool special/preachy. However, Mellie's love for Adie and their devotion to each other despite challenges is very sweet and likely to pluck the heartstrings of many young readers.

This had a lot of potential, but unfortunately I think the length worked against it. I really wish it had been fleshed out and expanded because it had a neat premise, and the relationship could have been compelling if less instalovey.

Short and sweet. This fast paced with just enough story, fantasy and romance to make both heroines likeable and their quest interesting. Throw in a curse much like the swan princess and we have a winner.

I wish the author had somehow made the book / story longer hence i took off a star.

I was sent the E-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was so intrigued by the premise of this book. Which, in retrospect, I would call this a novela more than a novel.
We follow Millie, a princess of the Silver Kingdom, who has been cursed by a Winter witch. The curse transforms Millie from a regular human to an ice dragon when the sun sets and begins on her 16th birthday. Due to the curse, her parents reach out to their allies and ask for the help of Adie, a trained warrior, to protect Millie on a journey to find the Winter witch and break the curse.

I loved the fact that we have a f/f romance set in a fantastical setting.

However, because of how short this was, everything was incredibly fast paced. The plot moved quickly, but we didn’t get a chance to enjoy the atmosphere as the world building was hardly there. The characters are what was disappointing the most. They had great potential to be powerful, empowered, and independent. Because the story moved so fast, I didn’t have the ability to truly connect with them and that made it very difficult to truly appreciate their budding and eventual romance.

The world and the characters needed more substance. They were too two-dimensional which, ultimately, is what makes this just an okay read.

This was an ok story but it fell very rushed and underdeveloped. I didn’t like that we had point of views from so many different characters. The premised the story was interesting, like an old fairy tale. I also like the queer representation. But overall I was left underwhelmed.

While Tale of a Dragon Princess reads more like a story from an anthology, it was still a cute quick read.

If you're in a reading slump or just in the mood for a short fantasy with dragons and princesses and sapphic girls then I recommend this book. 💕

With some more world building and fleshing out the characters a bit more, this story could easily have the potential to be a great high fantasy series. It currently feels more middle grade than young adult.

<i> I was provided an eARC by NetGalley and the publisher NineStar Press for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.<i>

This was a story about a princess named Mellie who is cursed at birth to turn into an ice dragon at every sunset until sunrise upon her 16th birthday. Once the curse sets in, she seeks out to find the witch who cursed her with an ally from a nearby kingdom named Adie. During the journey, they fall in love with each other and discover that the witch had not cursed her out of spite, but made her into a dragon who's ice breath was the only thing that could put out the eternal fire that would destroy Mellie's kingdom when the witch looked to the future. So the witch modified her curse so Mellie could turn at will, Mellie then saved her kingdom and came out to her parents about being gay.

I really appreciated that the author introduced issues such as the LGBTQ community and physical disfiguration. She herself is a person with these qualities but doesn't let it interfere with her passion for writing.

While I enjoyed the plot, this novel was way too short for it to have told the story completely and it was *too perfect* - meaning: 1) when they discovered the witch cursing their daughter, they didn't get mad as you'd expect but instead were calm and collected which definitely is not realistic; 2) Mellie was the "perfect" child with no flaws. She herself didn't get mad when she discovered she was cursed and accepted it with no argument. I mean she turns into a dragon so shouldn't she have some form of aggression or temper at least?; 3) Mellie didn't struggle with being gay or about coming out to Adie - this is where the author should have spent a lot of time on as it's a big issue today that many struggle with; 4) the big battle with the eternal fire was so minor it's not even worth imagining; 5) Adie's internal battle with her disfigurement was a an obstacle she had to overcome but by the end i don't think she really did overcome it.

I couldn't relate to any of the characters both major or minor as they were all too perfect and no human being is. It was just unrealistic how they were written and because of that, each and every single character had no development whatsoever. I did really like that the dragon was a small and dainty one - definitely reflecting how Mellie is. I just couldn't really enjoy it because there was so much more that could have been done and the depth just wasn't there. There are so many questions that are unanswered - who is the villain and why did he want to burn the kingdom? Why is Adie's kingdom familiar and completely comfortable with LGBTQ and yet Mellie has very little inkling of it? What sort of kingdom is Adie's that focuses on training its women along with men but Mellie's one has none at all? Who exactly is the witch and why does she have powers - is she a god? Was their journey to see the witch so easy that there really was NO obstacle including other travelers who could have encountered Mellie in dragon form? How was Adie disfigured?

My list goes on and on but I think you get the gist of why I gave this book only one star. The plot was a great idea but the development was absent.

I think I went into this story expecting something different. It is marked as a novelette, so I should have known it was short beforehand. It still surprised me a bit.

What I liked about this story is the diversity. It featured a f/f romance, one half of which was a woman of colour and suffered from a disability. Overall it's a nice little fairytale about a cursed princess, who transforms into a dragon at night and sets out to save herself from that curse. The story itself is intriguing enough, but the execution sadly didn't work for me.

Since the story was so short, I felt like everything was very rushed. Two chapters were filled with introduction that could have dealt with in a quicker manner so that there would be more space for adventures on her quest to save herself. There wasn't space though and that meant there weren't really adventures. The romance also came quite out of nowhere and the resolution to the conflict came quick and easy.

I would say this could be a nice read for much younger readers than me, maybe middle-grade, who just wanna read something quick and easy without much drama or excitement. The diversity is great, everything else was sadly lacking in my opinion and couldn't convince me.

Tale of a Dragon Princess sounded like an exciting book with an f/f romance, lesbian princess who is cursed, and bisexual warrior. It had a really exciting and grabbing premise and with sapphics on top of that? Exciting! But the execution wasn't the best. 

The world was quite... bland. There wasn't any world building, and what there was felt very generic. It could've used the world to its advantage, it could've used magic more, it could've use the setting more since you don't see snow too much in fantasy (at least what I've read), but it really wasn't. It wasn't too long to begin with, it was only 20k words. Short books can sometimes be detrimental to a book. Some stories work contained in a novelette like this, but the length was a huge problem for the book. There wasn't too much time for the romance or the characters to develop, and it was mostly contained to one setting. This made the book dull, and the characters suffered from that.

I did think there were some positives though. I liked the discussion around the trauma Mellie was going through, and I did enjoy that there was some talk in how she's a lesbian who is in a position where she feels she has to marry a man, but she's not met with any homophobia either. Adie is also from a kingdom where queerness is normal. I loved that aspect. Their romance is something I'd describe as 'sweet' but it was insta-love. And I feel that's because of the short length. There was no time to develop it fully, so that was used instead which was kind of annoying.

I wouldn't say this book was bad, it was just dull and forgettable.

Than you to Ninestar Press for the arc of this book, I actually enjoyed this short story, makes a nice change to have a sickly sweet ending, I would have liked for this to have been a little longer, for it to have been a bit more in-depth, but it was a light read and I enjoyed it.

The story and themes of this work have a lot of potential but the writing is not very dynamic or atmospheric. When princess Mellie is a baby her parents find a witch at her crib putting a curse on her. She is to turn into a dragon from sunset to sunrise from her sixteenth birthday onwards. Dragons are not revered in the kingdom and Mellie would be in danger from hunters.

What the story has going for it is ethnic diversity, a character with a physical and learning disability, a lesbian main character, a bisexual main character, loving parents and a cute, little ice dragon. The problem is that the story is very linear with fairly bland dialogue and very little action.

It’s too simplistic for the YA age group but it could work successfully for a pre-teen or early teen that isn’t a strong reader but doesn’t want to read books with babyish themes. 2.5 stars rounded up.

Book received from Netgalley and NineStar Press for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and NineStarPress LLC for providing me with a copy for review.

Tale of a Dragon Princess is a short novella that tells the story of Mellie, a young princess who was cursed to become an ice dragon each night following her sixteenth birthday and her journey to break said curse when she turns eighteen. To do this, she enlists the help of a female warrior, Adie, who she has been intrigued by since they first met two years ago.

One of my favourite aspects of this novella was how the story really had the feel of a 'tale' due to its short and easily readable nature and the way that the story felt like it was being retold and recounted. It reminded me of a fairytale. However, though this gave it a strong tone that resonated with the promise of a tale from the title, I think that it also would have worked really well as a full length novel (or at least a longer novella) that allowed the author to go more in depth with the story and the characters. The plot felt a little rushed and the characters were not able to develop as well as they could have been if there had been more opportunity to follow them and really understand them in a longer tale. It sometimes felt like plot resolutions came before I really had chance to be intrigued by them and for suspense to be built. 

The characters themselves were wonderful. Mellie and Adie are both strong characters who show how deeply they care about each other and the kingdom that Mellie will one day rule as queen. They do not judge each other and develop a loving and open relationship that was wonderful to read, especially about a same-sex female couple. Mellie's parents, Jasmine and Magnus, were also great and would do anything to protect their daughter and ensure her happiness. Though I appreciated the ease of their relationships, the shortness did not allow for much conflict so the characters often felt too perfect and I would have liked to see the relationships build more naturally over a longer period of time.

I really appreciated and admired the representation that this novella contained in such a short time. I was immediately intrigued by this when I realised it was a fantasy story with a same-sex female relationship because they are often hard to find, especially ones that acknowledges people can be attracted to more than one gender. The representation didn't stop there either as I discovered whilst reading that Adie is a disabled POC who experiences PTSD, all of which are handled well and many representation aspects (bi and disabled) are own voices.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this and feel that even just a few more chapters to allow for a slower development would really improve the story and give the characters and plot more depth whilst protecting the fairytale tone it already possesses. The premise of the story was really interesting and definitely added to the fairytale nature, it easily felt like something you would expect to read as part of a collection of fairytales with the likes of Cinderella and Snow White, and I really appreciated the inclusion and representation it added to stories like this. I highly recommend it.

Thank you, NetGalley and the Publisher for a chance to read this Novella!

Title: Tale of a Dragon Princess
Author: Lizzie Colt
Genre: YA Fantasy Romance
Released: 20th August 2018
Publisher: NineStar Press
My Rating: 3.5 stars
Trigger/content warnings: One main character who suffers from PTSD (nightmares of the wars she has been in)

This story begins from the perspective of Jasmine, the Queen and mother to our main character, Mellie. We are told the story of how the princess was cursed when she was a baby and by who, then years later, on her sixteenth birthday, the curse coming into effect. I did think that Jasmine's perspective went on longer than it needed to. If this was a full-length novel I would understand, but seeing as this is a novella about the princess, I wish her perspective came a bit sooner than around the 20% mark, as the story is fundamentally about her. 

For me, the story really began when it switched to Mellie and Adie's perspectives. When both characters are eighteen and nineteen, Mellie enlists the help of Adie to travel to see the Queen/witch who cursed her. It is said that on the blue moon, the witch grants wishes to anyone who comes to greet her, so the two begin their adventure.

Adie is a warrior from another kingdom. She has dark brown skin, has a disability and is Bi. She suffers from PTSD, experiencing nightmares from her time in battles and the people she has killed/who have died. When she first met Mellie when she was seventeen, she was attracted to her right away, vowing to help her in any way she could. She was by far my favourite character!

Mellie is a princess, due to the curse placed upon her, every night she transforms into a dragon and has to be locked away in a dungeon for her safety. She is described as having pale white skin and blonde hair. She knew from an early age that she preferred women, but was scared of the reaction from her parents so she kept it a secret until she rekindles her friendship with Adie and they confide in each other.

Adie and Mellie were brilliant characters and so well suited. They both had flaws and vulnerabilities, it was about loving and accepting each other in spite of them.

This is an Own Voices (Bi and disability rep) Novella of 21k words. Even though it's short, I feel like I have so much to say about it! 

Right from the start, I was hooked completely and I ended up reading this in one sitting.

I did have some problems though, mainly with the length, writing and pacing. For starters, I think this would have been so much better as a full-length novel, the characters would have more development and there would be better world building. I can really see this being amazing with a little tweaking. The writing felt too basic and simplistic to me, however, the story was incredibly fast-paced and addicting. 

Like many of the Novellas I have read, this seemed very well paced at the beginning but began to rush towards the middle/end, leaving out vital character and world development along the way. 

While I did have a few issues, there is just such a shortage of books like this, diverse characters in a unique fantasy setting! A YA fantasy novel with LGBTQ+ and disability rep...amazing diversity that needs more recognition. 

Overall, I really liked this story and I am so glad I read it. At its heart, this is a very romantic, YA fantasy adventure! If it sounds like something you would like, I would definitely recommend checking it out.

A review will be up on my blog by the end of the week.