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A review by cmrosens
Dragon's Treasure by Maya Starling
5.0
I am giving this 4/5 stars because I love Beauty and the Beast retellings, dragons are my favourite fantasy creature, and I found the style really easygoing. I read for pleasure after work/on the way to work, and I really need something that will provide me with relaxed escapism. That said, I'm quite demanding about the richness of the fantasy worlds I dive into, and this one is nicely realised and ticks a lot of the boxes for me.
This is the perfect book to read when you want a fairy tale kick, but its mature themes potentially make it unsuitable for a younger audience. It's very much a new adult (NA) fairy tale, and the relaxed, whimsical style of the narrative reminded me a bit of Neil Gaiman's Stardust, albeit in a more simplified style with Starling's light, gentle narrative voice. Knowing that English is not the author's first language made me appreciate the style and tone even more.
[SHORT DIGRESSION: If you've not read Stardust and only seen the film, it's got that straightforward, whimsical style of prose you'd expect from Gaiman, it seems like you could read it out loud to your kids, and then there's three pages of graphic sex quite near the start when the MC is conceived. It's so well-woven into the narrative that you can't really skip it and pick it up afterwards, at least, not very easily without ad libbing a little. So yeah, don't buy it for your kids unless you're comfortable with that.]
Similarly, although there's no graphic sex in DT, the narrative gently carries you into mature territory without you really noticing, but that's something I actually want in my New Adult fiction, especially in ones that are based on or remind me of my favourite stories. So I would definitely recommend it if this is also your thing.
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The rest of this review contains some spoilers re: characters
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Again, I really enjoyed this - it's an easy read and I love fairytale retellings that have interesting twists. This most closely resembles a Beauty and the Beast retelling with a cursed dragon, Kaden (SPOILER: the dragon is not/was not always just a dragon, hence the very human feelings he has for Olivia, the MC) and the handsome Gaston-character (the Prince) is of course the villain.
I love Beauty and the Beast regardless of its problematic elements as a story, and Starling does a fantastic job of eliminating what, to me, are the most troubling of those. There's no Stockholm Syndrome here, for a start: the protagonist runs away and is rescued from wolves by the Beast (Dragon), and they form a bond of friendship.
There's no coercion or self-sacrifice or dungeons and erratic behaviour bordering on emotional/psychological abuse. So that's one of the things that kept me reading, because I really loved the interplay between the characters and appreciated the fact that there weren't any of the elements that made Beauty and the Beast problematic for me.
The problematic elements of the Beast's behaviour appear in the Prince's character instead, displayed in the way he interacts with his subordinates and his entourage, and they are tackled and challenged within the narrative rather than excused or brushed under the carpet.
Charlie is one of my favourite characters. She's a professional sex-worker, so no, this isn't a kid's story. She's not particularly pleased about this job, but that's where the relationships with the knights come into play, particularly the ones who are actually pretty decent and steering towards the lighter end of the morally grey spectrum, even though their lord and master is pretty suspect. Even the villainous prince isn't exactly 2-D though: he has a backstory and some pretty bad father-issues, reminscent of Draco Malfoy in the later Harry Potter books, only with a crown and a bigger hit with the ladies.
I think it's also fairly obvious that the dragon is more than he seems, especially if you read between the lines in his POV, and the nature of the Beauty & the Beast story is the romance element which is pretty weird and unnatural when the Beast is in his Beastly form, because that's sort of the point. In this case, he has scales rather than fur.
Would recommend.
This is the perfect book to read when you want a fairy tale kick, but its mature themes potentially make it unsuitable for a younger audience. It's very much a new adult (NA) fairy tale, and the relaxed, whimsical style of the narrative reminded me a bit of Neil Gaiman's Stardust, albeit in a more simplified style with Starling's light, gentle narrative voice. Knowing that English is not the author's first language made me appreciate the style and tone even more.
[SHORT DIGRESSION: If you've not read Stardust and only seen the film, it's got that straightforward, whimsical style of prose you'd expect from Gaiman, it seems like you could read it out loud to your kids, and then there's three pages of graphic sex quite near the start when the MC is conceived. It's so well-woven into the narrative that you can't really skip it and pick it up afterwards, at least, not very easily without ad libbing a little. So yeah, don't buy it for your kids unless you're comfortable with that.]
Similarly, although there's no graphic sex in DT, the narrative gently carries you into mature territory without you really noticing, but that's something I actually want in my New Adult fiction, especially in ones that are based on or remind me of my favourite stories. So I would definitely recommend it if this is also your thing.
.
.
.
The rest of this review contains some spoilers re: characters
.
.
.
.
.
Again, I really enjoyed this - it's an easy read and I love fairytale retellings that have interesting twists. This most closely resembles a Beauty and the Beast retelling with a cursed dragon, Kaden (SPOILER: the dragon is not/was not always just a dragon, hence the very human feelings he has for Olivia, the MC) and the handsome Gaston-character (the Prince) is of course the villain.
I love Beauty and the Beast regardless of its problematic elements as a story, and Starling does a fantastic job of eliminating what, to me, are the most troubling of those. There's no Stockholm Syndrome here, for a start: the protagonist runs away and is rescued from wolves by the Beast (Dragon), and they form a bond of friendship.
There's no coercion or self-sacrifice or dungeons and erratic behaviour bordering on emotional/psychological abuse. So that's one of the things that kept me reading, because I really loved the interplay between the characters and appreciated the fact that there weren't any of the elements that made Beauty and the Beast problematic for me.
The problematic elements of the Beast's behaviour appear in the Prince's character instead, displayed in the way he interacts with his subordinates and his entourage, and they are tackled and challenged within the narrative rather than excused or brushed under the carpet.
Charlie is one of my favourite characters. She's a professional sex-worker, so no, this isn't a kid's story. She's not particularly pleased about this job, but that's where the relationships with the knights come into play, particularly the ones who are actually pretty decent and steering towards the lighter end of the morally grey spectrum, even though their lord and master is pretty suspect. Even the villainous prince isn't exactly 2-D though: he has a backstory and some pretty bad father-issues, reminscent of Draco Malfoy in the later Harry Potter books, only with a crown and a bigger hit with the ladies.
I think it's also fairly obvious that the dragon is more than he seems, especially if you read between the lines in his POV, and the nature of the Beauty & the Beast story is the romance element which is pretty weird and unnatural when the Beast is in his Beastly form, because that's sort of the point. In this case, he has scales rather than fur.
Would recommend.