3.5 ⭐ CW: Death, violence, blood, death of a parent, sexual content 

Uprooted by Naomi Novik is a fantasy reminiscent of Grimm fairytales and turns the idea of a dragon coming to take a maiden on its head. Although I did enjoy the story, the pacing wasn't great and made for a slow read, so I knocked it down half a Star. 

We follow Agnieszka, a peasant girl who always manages to get herself dirty and untidy. Every ten years the Dragon, a wizard lord, would come to their village and take an exceptional girl. At the end of ten years, she would come back changed and leave the valley for good. No one expected the Dragon to choose Agnieszka. Eventually, she realizes she was chosen because she possessed magic, and was to be trained as a witch. 

The Dragon is the grumpiest of wizards that believes magic is very formulaic, and is frustrated when Agnieszka seems hopeless at learning magic the way he thinks she should. Instead, Agnieszka leaned toward the style of magic of Baba Jaga, a more intuitive magic. The Dragon's task in his tower was to hold back the force of the Wood, a sentient evil trying to take over the entire valley. When Agnieszka's friend Kasia is taken into the Wood by monsters, she does the impossible and gets her out of the tree she is trapped inside and cleanses her of the Wood's corruption. Because of this, the Prince of the kingdom demands she free his mother the Queen, even though she has been trapped for 20 years. 

This was an interesting story, and I liked the concept of the magic and the Wood. Agnieszka was a nice departure for a female MC in this kind of story. She wasn't beautiful, and though she had a little romance with the Dragon, it wasn't an important plot point. I really loved the lore of the Wood. I do wish the story had been a bit quicker about getting to the point. Everything just took so long. I think this is a pattern for this author. I've read another of her books that I liked, but it took me a while to get into it.