Disclaimer: I received this e-arc and finished copy from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Alliana, Girl of Dragons

Author: Julie Abe and Shan Jiang

Book Series: part of the Eva Evergreen series

Rating: 5/5

Diversity: Japanese MC and characters

Recommended For...: middle grade readers, high fantasy, fantasy, dragons, Cinderella, Japanese Cinderella, fairy tales

Publication Date: August 2, 2022

Genre: MG High Fantasy

Age Relevance: 12+ (child abuse, death of parents, grief, slavery, animal harm, murder, violence)

Explanation of Above: There is a lot of showing of child abuse, allusions to slavery, slight violence, and mentions of murder (murder by omission and sabatoge). The book heavily revolves around grief and loneliness and shows the deaths of the MC’s parents and parental figures. There is also a dragon fight and some harm to a dragon.

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Pages: 336

Synopsis: Once upon a time, Alliana believed in dreams and fairy tales as sweet as spun-sugar clouds. Alliana wished on shooting stars, sure that someday she and her grandmother would be able to travel to the capital city to see the queen. Then her grandmother passed away—and those dreams disappeared in a disenchanted puff.

Now Alliana’s forced to attend to the whims of her wicked stepmother—with long days of cleaning her stepfamily’s inn as her skin burns raw or staying up until the crack of dawn to embroider her stepsister’s ball gowns. Until she meets two beings who change her life forever—the first is a young nightdragon who Alliana discovers she can magically talk to. And the second is Nela, a young witch.

Nela needs Alliana’s help navigating the mysterious abyss, filled with dangerous beasts, a place Alliana knows by heart. Alliana sees Nela’s request as a chance to break free of her stepmother’s shadow and to seize a chance at a life she’s barely dared to hope for—but there’s a risk. If caught, Alliana will be stuck working for her stepmother for the rest of her life. Can Alliana truly make wisps of dreams into her own, better-than-a-fairy-tale happily ever after?

Inspired by the Japanese Cinderella story and set in the same world as the Eva Evergreen series, this story can be read as a standalone.

Review: I really liked this book! I thought this was a great read that is a callback to other great fairytales like Cinderella and Repunzel (it is inspired by the Japanese Cinderella story after all), except with a dragon-y twist! The book is a great HP replacement and has a lot of Eragon vibes, so this would be perfect to help get your little one ready for Eragon. The book is also kinda a side story from the Eva Evergreen series! I loved the characters and thought they were well developed. I also thought the world building was good and I really thought the book was well written.

The only issue I had with the book is that I thought it was a bit slow, but overall I loved it and I hope to see more of Alliana in future books.

Verdict: I loved it so much! Highly recommend!