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Dealing with Dragons is another YA book, though for an older audience than Dragon's Blood. The book is the story of Cimorene, a princess who's frustated by the rules governing her behavior; on the eve of her engagement to a rather boring prince, she follows the advice of a talking frog and volunteers to be a dragon's princess. Dragons usually have to kidnap their princesses, but Cimorene quite likes the job (and has to come up with ways to deflect the knights and princes who arrive to defeat her dragon, Kazul, and thus win Cimorene's hand and a reward from her father). She quickly gets embroiled in the politics of the relationship between the dragons and the wizards, who want better access to magical caves near where the dragons live.
A friend of mine called this "Shrek before Shrek," in the sense that it throws a bunch of fairy tale tropes and archetypes into a blender and comes up with something funny and engaging. I don't totally agree--it's really quite a broad genre, the slightly-meta fairy tale, and this book doesn't go for the same broad humor that Shrek does, instead choosing to give a little more three-dimensionality to the characters. Still, that gives you an idea of the flavor.
( a few slightly more spoilery things )
This is another quick afternoon read, with three sequels that are also pretty fun (though I haven't read them in a long time) if you're engaged enough to want more!
A friend of mine called this "Shrek before Shrek," in the sense that it throws a bunch of fairy tale tropes and archetypes into a blender and comes up with something funny and engaging. I don't totally agree--it's really quite a broad genre, the slightly-meta fairy tale, and this book doesn't go for the same broad humor that Shrek does, instead choosing to give a little more three-dimensionality to the characters. Still, that gives you an idea of the flavor.
( a few slightly more spoilery things )
This is another quick afternoon read, with three sequels that are also pretty fun (though I haven't read them in a long time) if you're engaged enough to want more!