Princess Ahira

By K. M. Shea

Getting kidnapped by dragons on her sixteenth birthday was the best thing that ever happened to Princess Ahira. After spending her life avoiding lectures and lessons, Ahira is thrilled when she is kidnapped and selected as live-in-princess (servant) for a powerful dragon named Azmaveth. Her dreams of escaping royal monotony are dashed, however, when she realizes she will have to marry the prince that saves her. Tradition rules, after all. Being a romance cynic, Ahira doesn’t consider marriage a fantastic future. So she decides to stay with Azmaveth until her brother, a prince, can sneak away from their kingdom to rescue her. Life is interesting thanks to eccentric tenants of the dragon lands. As a live-in-princess Ahira meets Snow White and her seven dwarf uncles who have fallen asleep, Hansel and Gretel who have locked an old woman out of her cookie cottage, and a miniature unicorn who has some pretty powerful magic. However, there are a few negatives to Ahira’s new life. There’s Kohath, Azmaveth’s infuriating human steward; Azmaveth’s tendency to mis-make magic spells Kohath; the ongoing epic battle between the dragons and the Valkyrie, magical warriors bent on dominion over magic; and Kohath. Things get scaly when the dragons realize Azmaveth has unwittingly put their future in Ahira’s hands. If Ahira wants her happily ever after she’ll have to fight tooth and nail for it.

This book is a tad hard to review without giving away certain key plot points, so I’ll do my best to convey things without spoilers. This is the story of Ahira, reluctant princess who just wants to be treated like a normal person and not swept under the royal rug. When Ahira is kidnapped on her birthday along with a few other princesses of the realm, she is quickly found to be the most level-headed unromantic and pragmatic princess ever. Azmaveth, who is akin to a Duke among the dragons, feels extremely fortunate to have found such a servant and housemate. Azmaveth is a bit of an oddity himself, a dragon who is an inventor as well as a magician, he has created quite a few useful things, but has caused a lot more mayhem with his failures. Ahira has to learn how to manage the house of a dragon, and an unusual one at that, and she is surprised to find that she enjoys her life with Azmaveth much more than her old one. She’s useful and wanted. This story is quite fun, though a bit unimaginative with Ahira. She’s a quirky princess who is stolen by a dragon, and seems to be the only princess that isn’t a dunce. Kohath on the other hand is a little strange and does his best to befriend Ahira, though there is something off about him. He is the more interesting character of the two, as there is a mystery to him. When all is said and done, this was a fun read and I loved the squat little unicorn that Ahira makes friends with; it just made me giggle. For a dragon book it was middling because I was disappointed with the finale. I do recommend this book, however, despite some of my disappointment with different facets of the book. It’s a fun little read and I was smiling at the end, which counts for a lot.

I give it a 3.5 out of 5