Saturday, January 24, 2015

Monstrous by MarcyKate Connolly, Skottie Young (Illustrated by)

Kymera dearly loves her father.  He's made her what she is today.  When she died, he brought her back from death and gave her special features and abilities.  He trusts her instincts to keep her safe.  And he doesn't let her go the city or wander far.  But when he asks Kymera to save the girls of Byrne, she's ready to answer his bidding.  After all, saving the girls is a good thing, isn't it?

HarperCollins and Edelweiss allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published February 10th, so grab a copy then.

Kymera has different colored arms and legs, wings, and a tale to sting when she needs it.  The sting puts people to sleep and erases their memories of the event.  She's proud of her skills. Since she's alone so much, she sits down by the river.  One day, the rock she's sitting on moves.  She frightened to see that it's not a rock, it's a dragon: the last dragon.  He makes her his blood sister and they spend time together talking.  She doesn't tell her father about him.  She wants to, but the dragon blood she shared during the bonding won't let her.

As she sneaks in the city at night and removes the children from their prison, she sees a young man out also.  There's a curfew; he shouldn't be out.  She becomes curious about him and befriends him and that's how she finds out the things her father tells her are lies.

Her father is very angry when he finds she's been visiting with a boy.  That's just the beginning of his anger.

This is a full bodied story that emphasizes being different is hard and you have to choose your friends carefully.  It's also a grand tale that will stick in your mind.  The final battle is huge and my favorite characters don't survive.  But it's a fitting and just ending with a touch of magic living on.

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