Dragon's Keep

Dragon’s Keep

Janet Lee Carey

Rosalind, princess of Wilde Island, is almost perfectly beautiful. She has a lovely face and will have a beautiful shape when she is a woman. But she is not perfect. The ring finger of her left hand – the finger on which she should wear her wedding ring – is not a finger at all but a claw, a dragon’s claw. Nobody but Rosalind and her mother are aware of her deformity – she always wears golden gloves to hide it. If anyone finds out, she will no longer be a princess – will perhaps be thought of as a witch and killed. It was prophesied by none other than Merlin that she will be the one to bring peace to the island – but how can that happen.

To make matters worse, the island is under periodic attacks by a dragon, who has no compunction about eating humans. When Rosalind is captured by the dragon, there is no real hope that she can survive. But there is that prophesy – and can Merlin be wrong?

I really enjoyed Dragon’s Keep. Janet Lee Carey is a wonderful writer and this novel has a lot of depth to it. I did find that I did have to pay attention to what I was reading – I couldn’t simply fly through the novel because I got lost a couple of times. I read the book during a read-a-thon at school and it was easy to get distracted by people who came into the media center needing my help. I don’t think this is necessarily a good book for people who don’t like fantasy, but if you do love fantasy novels, this would be a good choice.

The copy of Dragon's Keep that I used for this review was checked out from my media center.