Title: Sarcasm is a Dragon’s Best Friend:…Until You Lose Your Scales
Author: Stephanie Collins
Publisher: PageTurner Press and Media
ISBN:978-1649085375
Pages: 1030
Genre: Fantasy
Reviewed by: Jack Chambers
Hollywood Book Reviews
While we live in an age where science prevails over myth more often than not, there are still plenty of people who subscribe to superstition and legends. That includes the power of curses, or the power at least that people put into curses. One thing that many consider to be a “curse” is the moments we are forced to change something about ourselves or our lives. Yet are all changes “curses” or is there an opportunity to learn something about ourselves which we never knew before? As William Arthur Ward once said, “Change, like sunshine, can be a friend or a foe, a blessing or a curse, a dawn or a dusk.”
In author Stephanie Collins’s Sarcasm is a Dragon’s Best Friend.…Until You Lose Your Scales, the author explores the literal changes that overcome a dragon named Gemini. After nearly killing her own mother, Gemini is banished from her nest by her father, and in the midst of fighting with one of her sisters and completing missions for her long-dead grandmother, she stumbles across a witch who thinks Gemini’s arrogance warrants punishment, and so she turns the dragon into a human. Over time, Gemini is captured by a human kingdom, is then taken to another kingdom and made King, and deals with an army commander who seeks to kill the reluctant leader. Gemini must find a way to regain their scales and break the curse before it’s too late.
The author did an incredible job of bringing a perfect balance of world-building and mythology to the narrative. The imagery and tone the author established early on in the narrative helped to bring this fantasy world to life so eloquently. The detail the author put into the life and social structure of dragon life was so inspired to read, as it helped illustrate the struggles that the protagonist went through during his young life. The themes the author explores through this fantasy world were great to see as well, as readers were treated to storylines that explored the often-tumultuous relationship between fathers and their sons, as well as the struggle to determine our own identities, and so much more.
This is the perfect read for those who enjoy fantasy novels, especially those that delve into fantasy worlds overall and incorporate fantasy specific creatures and themes. The imaginative and gripping writing style of the author was perfect to showcase the vast and dangerous world the author created, and the moral quandaries that the protagonist faces help illustrate the rich and complex character growth that is explored throughout this novel.
Captivating, entertaining, and richly developed, author Stephanie Collins’s Sarcasm is a Dragon’s Best Friend:…Until You Lose Your Scales is a must-read novel and the perfect fantasy world to get lost in. The emotional and breathtaking character growth that the author utilized and the journey the protagonist underwent through this novel kept the reader truly engaged and invested in the narrative overall. Twists and turns abound, and the almost epic nature of this story will have readers hopeful for more stories in this grand world.