ARC Review ~ Alliana, Girl of Dragons by Julie Abe

 I received this from the publisher for an honest review. Thank you Simon and Schuster!

Title: Alliana Girl of Dragons

Author: Julie Abe

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Rating: 4 STARS

Once upon a time, Alliana believed in dreams and fairy tales as sweet as spun-sugar clouds. Alliana wished on shooting stars, sure that someday she and her grandmother would be able to travel to the capital city to see the queen. Then her grandmother passed away—and those dreams disappeared in a disenchanted puff.

Now Alliana’s forced to attend to the whims of her wicked stepmother—with long days of cleaning her stepfamily’s inn as her skin burns raw or staying up until the crack of dawn to embroider her stepsister’s ball gowns. Until she meets two beings who change her life forever—the first is a young nightdragon who Alliana discovers she can magically talk to. And the second is Nela, a young witch.

Nela needs Alliana’s help navigating the mysterious abyss, filled with dangerous beasts, a place Alliana knows by heart. Alliana sees Nela’s request as a chance to break free of her stepmother’s shadow and to seize a chance at a life she’s barely dared to hope for—but there’s a risk. If caught, Alliana will be stuck working for her stepmother for the rest of her life. Can Alliana truly make wisps of dreams into her own, better-than-a-fairy-tale happily ever after?

Inspired by the Japanese Cinderella story and set in the same world as the Eva Evergreen series, this story can be read as a standalone. 

Alliana, Girl of Dragons was a fun fantasy story that is a retelling of Cinderella for young readers. I love a good Cinderella type retelling so to me this was very enjoyable even if I thought the begining was a bit slow.

Alliana's father died in the Abyss, a place were dragons roam. Alliana once had dreams but now she is doomed to work for her stepmother at her father's inn.  She doesn't mind spending her time with her grandmother (who isn't really her grandmother, but her step siblings grandmother), they spend a lot of time mending cloths for her stepmother and step siblings, plus any guest at the inn. 

Then one day the grandmother dies and things get a little harder on her and she goes walking out by the abyss where she sees a baby dragon about to get eaten by a larger dragon and she rescues it and has to keep it hidden. Then she meets a young witch Nela Evergreen and they become friends. These two things will change her life going forward.

The story spans a few years and there is a ball she has been wanting to go to as it's there that if you get picked you could go to the royal academy which could be the life changing thing she needs but it's not that simple and a lot of things happen but it was about the half way more in this story where a lot of the similarities to cinderella start to really ramp up a bit. 

I really liked Alliana, I thought she was a great character and I also loved Nela and Isao and also the nightdragon! The stepmother and stepbrother were horrible while the stepsister wasn't as bad she was just really different. 

I think if you like middle grade fantasy and a bit of cinderella retelling then I think you would enjoy this book.