Review- Nice Dragons Finish Last

Nice Dragons Finish Last - Rachel Aaron

I stumbled over this charming little book about a young dragon by accident and now I have to wait for the next in the series (and have added another of Aaron’s books to my TBR pile).  I bought it because the opening was interesting and the story takes place in a little town down the road from mine- Detroit.

 

Julius is a young dragon with a problem, well, more like problemS. His mother is the most prolific dragon ever, he has far too many lethal siblings, he is too nice for a dragon, and this embarrasses hid family greatly.

 

Marci is a young mage on the run from the Las Vegas gangsters who killed her father.

When they meet by lucky accident in Detroit, a city destroyed and rebuilt by the god Algonquin, their separate stories bring them together in a partnership that is awkward but ultimately rewarding for both.

 

Julius has spent the last seven years hiding in his room to avoid his large, ambitious, and lethal family. Now his mother has sealed him from his dragon and dropped him in Detroit where his most ambitious brother offers him a job retrieving a runaway dragoness.

 

Then Marci offers him her magical services because she is broke and they, and the story, are off and running.

 

The story moved along at a steady, satisfying pace with the two young, earnest  main characters trying to be as honest with each other as possible while one is hiding the fact he is a dragon and the other hiding the fact she is running from a Really Bad Man and his large supply of hired goons.

 

The plot and the character’s growth balance each other nicely because the book isn’t just about Julius and Marci having adventures but also about Julius and Marci finding and coming to terms with who, and what, they really are.

 

No Chosen One. No love triangle. YAY.

 

Here there be dragons, mages,  magic-eaters, seers, a ghostly cat, a sparkly golden orb, and under and above all- Detroit.