Henchgirl

"Henchgirl" by Rita Stradling brings to life an alternate world where dragons live and breed with humans to create dracons. Backed by their dragon parents, dracons control over 80% of the world. The protagonist, Dakota Kekoa, is a 16-year-old dracon who works for her grandfather as a type of enforcer. Dakota's mother is a selfish alcoholic who drinks or spends every penny she gets her hands on, so Dakota works to support her mother, her sisters, and herself.

Ms. Stradling immerses her readers in this new world from the beginning. I can feel the heat of the islands where Dakota lives, hear the hate speech from the full-humans, and understand the dread of being accidentally turned into a vampire or werewolf. I want to bitch slap those who are rude to Dakota, and yell at her mother for letting her daughter shoulder the responsibility of taking care of the entire household. If you let it, this story will suck you in and hold you to the edge of your seat as Dakota muddles her way through visiting dignitaries and the vanishing of one of her true friends.

"Henchgirl" is clean in term of no grammatical or spelling errors. But more than that, all the details line up. Not once did I hit an inconsistency that can pull a reader from the narrative. Instead, I lost track of time while reading.

I give this book 5 stars out of 5, and recommend it to anyone who loves fantasy books.

This book was incredible!!!! Dragons, love story, drama..OH MY!! Loved loved LOVED THIS! I loved that I was able to feel connected to the "supporting cast" of characters just as much as I felt connected to Dakota and Vern! It was brilliant. I don't even know how else to describe this book..I just finished and my appetite for the outcome of Vern and Dakota has not even come close to being satisfied!! Do yourself a favor and read this!!!

I knew starting this book that it would hold my interest, I expected it to be fine, even good. What I didn't expect was for it to be the BEST YA book I've read in years. It's been a long time since I read a whole book in one sitting, but I literally couldn't put this book down (So if I fall asleep at work today, blame Rita Stradling).

This book was such a pleasure to read. It was a book with a fairly new take - for me - on the magical and mystical world where a war is dawning between humanity and the "infected". The concept and development of the book was so greatly done, as you thought was going on might be completely wrong. Part of this was due to a strong female lead who was very sure of her own opinion, with which you tend to just go along with. That was definitely a big part of the fun, as the danger just looms over the characters and you truly feel it, and you feel their need to solve the mysteries going on.

I really enjoyed the lead character(s) as well as the supporting, as each had a clear vision of their mission and never strayed from that path. I can greatly appreciate that, especially with the way the book ended. It just made sense, and it definitely did not disappoint.

All in all a great YA fantasy novel of a world I cannot wait to read more of.

Looking forward to the sequel. Great weekend read.. The girls and boys will enjoy thjis book

I loved it!

This is a great, light fantasy story with dragons, dracons (human/dragon crossbreed), vampires, even an odd witch and troll or two...

The story is written very engagingly, in a casual style, that makes you just feel like you are talking to your best friend about her adventures. You kept turning the pages, and I read just about the whole book in one sitting.

There's a couple of twists in the plot, which believe it or not I wasn't expecting.

There's a vague Hawaiian-feeling to the book; the island where the story takes place is similar in feel to Hawaii, but the author points out in the back of the book that it isn't meant to be Hawaii.

The only negative is that this is definitely the first book of a series, and though the overall plot of the first book was resolved, the story isn't really over.