Ahoy there me mateys!  This series deals with dragons and chocolate so of course I had to read it.  I binged this series and loved it.  Who doesn't love the themes of embracing who ye are and finding yer own inner strengths.  Here be me thoughts.

the dragon with the chocolate heart

This book made me salty heart sing with its awesomeness.  This is the story of young dragon Aventurine who is determined to prove how fierce she is by sneaking out of the family cave.  Only the first human she tries to catch turns her into a human girl!  Using enchanted hot chocolate!  Aventurine's inadvertently discovers that chocolate is her passion but then has to figure out how to survive the new world she finds herself in.

I adored Aventurine.  I adored her dragon family.  I adored her found family.  I loved watching her navigate the human world and her very dragony thoughts about it.  I loved the ending.  Basically this was a perfect read for me.  One of the best parts about it is a scene where an adult takes responsibility for problems that occur and apologizes.  Children take responsibility for things outside of their control sometimes and this book deals with that in a lovely way.  I just loved this moment of reality in a book where children still save the day.  And I wanted to eat all the chocolate.

the girl with the dragon heart

The second book follows Silke who is Adventurine's best human friend.  Silke is a natural born storyteller who likes to adopt other roles.  She is brought in as a spy to the royal family when fairies come along.  But she has a mission of her own when it comes to dealing with the fairies.

This was very enjoyable but me least favorite of the bunch.  I just wasn't as thrilled with the fae aspects and Silke's bumbling around.  Silke was just a little too focused on her own quest to the detriment of others.  In the first book she seemed so capable and this book seemed to go against the character traits of the first book.  Of course it all works out.  I loved Adventurine in this book too.

the princess who flew with dragons

This was me second favorite of the series.  Princess Sofia is coerced into a diplomatic mission in a neighboring kingdom.  She doesn't want to go.  Sofia has always had problems fulfilling her royal duties and relating to others and the events of book two have made her terrified to face the larger world.  And of course, her mission goes wrong right from the start.

And how it goes wrong is so delightful that I was laughing out loud.  The first carriage ride is stunningly horrible and funny.  Of course with her mission in tatters, Sofia decides to use the time to do what she wants to do.  And what she wants to do it be a student at university.  It is there that Sofia is exposed to bigger ideas about the world and the people in it.  And how her life of privilege has kept her blind despite all the books she has studied.  Then ice giants attack and Sofia has to save the day.  This book had lovely messages about friendship, forgiveness, and working together.  I loved it.

the short stories

I was delighted to find that the author has three short stories set in the world available on her website.  Of course I had to read these too.  One is a prequel about Citrine, Aventurine’s disapproving older sister!  Citrine gets revenge for her younger siblings trick.  Short and fun.  Another is a story about Marina and Horst, the chocolatiers, and how they met and started their future together.  It was sweet.  And then Silke's brother, Dieter, got his own mission.  It was lovely to see what happened to Dieter after his world was turned upside down by the events of book two.

I loved this series and need to read more of Stephanie Burgis' work.  Arrr!