The Dragon’s Price (Tranference #1)  by Bethany Wiggins

Hardcover, 304 pages

Expected publication: February 21st 2017 by Crown Books for Young Readers

ISBN13: 9780399549816

5/5 books

*eARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

 

 

Fans of Julie Kagawa’s Talon and Renee Ahdieh’s The Wrath and the Dawn will devour this action-packed fantasy adventure about a girl who chooses to surrender herself to a deadly dragon rather than marry an enemy prince.

When two warring kingdoms unified against a deadly menace laying waste to both their lands, they had to make a choice: vow to marry their heirs to one another, or forfeit their lives to the dragon. 

Centuries later, everyone expects the sheltered princess Sorrowlynn to choose the barbarian prince over the fire-breathing beast—everyone, that is, except Sorrow, who is determined to control her own destiny or die trying. 

As she is lowered into the dragon’s chamber, she assumes her life is over until Golmarr, the young prince she just spurned, follows her with the hopes of being her hero and slaying the dragon. But the dragon has a different plan. . . . 

If the dragon wins, it will be freed from the spell that has bound it to the cave for centuries. If Sorrow or Golmarr vanquish the dragon, the victor will gain its treasure and escape the cave beneath the mountain. But what exactly is the dragon hiding? 

There are no safe havens for Sorrow or Golmarr—not even with each other—and the stakes couldn’t be higher as they risk everything to protect their kingdom.

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What if a dragons treasure wasn’t always the piles of gold you see in the movies or in books? What if it was something more private and personal

Since Sorrowlynns birth she has lived up to her name, but not exactly by choice, her destiny has been stated that she will die by her own hand.  Others in the kingdom have referred to her as Suicide Sorrow.  She has resolved herself to death in order to get out of an arranged marriage based on a history of the two Kingdoms.

Golmarr is the Prince that falls in love with Sorrow, and wants to be the one to marry her, but Sorrow binds herself to die by the dragon, over marriage.  He chooses to follow her into the dragon’s lair.

This is where the book gets fun.  I wanted to throttle Sorrow for being an idiot, but if she chose to marry it wouldn’t be much of a book.  Sorrow is so helpless, due to her family keeping her locked in her chambers her whole life, she can’t really do much for herself.  Golmarr comes across at the Knight in Shining Armor at this point.  Sorrow was so focused on what was proper for a Princess over trying to survive.  Her idea for surviving was a hunting knife and a bottle of Stickbane.

After fighting baby dragons and hiding from the fire dragon in the lair, they so end up coming across Zhun (the dragon).  After a bit of a fight, Golmarr is gravely injured, and Zhun turns on Sorrow, she has her vial of Stickbane in hand.  Girl loses hand, dragon digests Stickbane, dragon is getting weaker and weaker, and the girl somehow gets the strength to kill the dragon.  End of story right?  WRONG!  There is a bright blinding flash of light that knocks Sorrow out for a few minutes.  When she wakes she feels different, she has knowledge she never had before (Think Neo from the Matrix “I know Kung-Fu”).  She manages to save Golmarr, and get them out of the lair.

Now back to that treasure, when Sorrow killed Zhun she inhereted his “treasure” which is knowledge.   From this point on Golmarr and Sorrow try to survive getting back to his Kingdom, along with avoiding being killed by the other dragons in the land.  Legend is when the Fire Dragon wakes the other dragons wake too.

I loved this book, granted I always root for the Dragon; I had to root for Sorrow and Golmarr this time. The ending was heart breaking, and an awful way to leave the story for the next book.