Cimorene is not a "proper" princess. She is bored by traditional princess things, and her parents don't let her do anything interesting (like bake, learn swords or study Latin), so she runs away to become a dragon's princess. I love how this book played around with fairytale tropes and worked with the common fairytale rules. I plan to read the rest of the series eventually, but I have too many books and I'm trying to buy less.