Review: Dragonfly by Julia Golding

Title: Dragonfly
Author: Julia Golding
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish Corp/Ccb
Publication Date: October 8th 2009
Pages: 390
Genre: Young Adult High Fantasy, Romance
Series: Stand Alone Source: Hardback

Summary (Goodreads)

Princess Taoshira of the Blue Crescent Islands is appalled when she is ordered to marry Prince Ramil of Gerfal. And he's not too pleased, either. She is used to a life of discipline, ritual, and splendor. He is used to hunting and carousing. They hate each other on sight. But both of their countries are under threat from a fearsome warlord, and the only chance of peace is to form an alliance.
When Tashi and Ram are kidnapped, they fear there's no escape--from their kidnappers or from each other. Can they put aside their differences long enough to survive ambush, unarmed combat, brainwashing, and imprisonment? And will the people they meet on their adventure--including a circus strongman, a daring rebel leader, a sinister master of spies, and the best female fighter they have ever seen--help them or betray them to the enemy?

Review:

This story involves a prince, a princess, an arranged marriage, a kidnapping, bad guys, and a rescue.

Simple fantasy love story right. That is what one would think. I had a feeling from the beginning that this would be my kind of story. I love fairytales. I was amazed how quickly this book had me enthralled.  The writing is just beautiful. I fell in love with the characters right away. Okay let me rephrase that. I fell in love with Tashi right away, Ram took some time, not because he was not written well, but because he was written so well, I hated him at first.

Tashi is a young princess from a small island where the people live simply and love greatly. She is very naïve but strong and determined. She will do what she needs for her people, even when it is an arranged marriage to someone she has never met.

Ram is from another kingdom on the mainland.  A kingdom that is on the brink of a war and they desperately need the help of Tashi’s island marines.  Ram is arrogant and selfish and hates the idea of an arranged marriage but will agree out of duty.

Ram and Tashi’s first meeting is a disaster and the arrangement is close to being canceled, Tashi decides to right home to let her sister princesses know that she cannot follow through with the marriage when she and Ram are both kidnapped. From there, the story just takes off with romance and adventure.   

I cannot say it enough… I Love this book, this book is AMAZING….  I wish this book was a part of a series so I could have more of Tashi and Ram.  The book flowed well, kept me interested at every part, and made me fall for so many characters. I would recommend getting your hands on this book as soon as possible. 

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