Book Info:
A Dragonbird in the Fern by Laura Rueckert
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publishing Date: August 3, 2021
Synopsis:
When an assassin kills Princess Jiara’s older sister Scilla, her vengeful ghost is doomed to walk their city of glittering canals, tormenting loved ones until the murderer is brought to justice. While the entire kingdom mourns, Scilla’s betrothed arrives and requests that seventeen-year-old Jiara take her sister’s place as his bride to confirm the alliance between their countries.
Marrying the young king intended for her sister and traveling to his distant home is distressing enough, but with dyslexia and years of scholarly struggles, Jiara abandoned any hope of learning other languages long ago. She’s terrified of life in a foreign land where she’ll be unable to communicate.
Then Jiara discovers evidence that her sister’s assassin comes from the king’s own country. If she marries the king, Jiara can hunt the murderer and release her family from Scilla’s ghost, whose thirst for blood mounts every day. To save her family, Jiara must find her sister’s killer . . . before he murders her too.
Book Links:
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-dragonbird-in-the-fern-laura-rueckert/1136068601
IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781635830651
About the Author:
Laura Rueckert is a card-carrying bookworm who manages projects by day. At night, fueled by European chocolate, she transforms into a writer of young adult science fiction and fantasy novels. Laura grew up in Michigan, USA, but a whirlwind romance after college brought her to Europe. Today, she lives in Germany with her husband, two kids, and one fluffy dog.
Author Links:
Website: https://www.laurarueckert.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LauraRueckert
First off I want to say thank you to TBR Tours & Beyond for giving me a spot on their Blog Tour, to Netgalley for providing me with an Arc ,the publishers North Star Flux and finally Laura Rueckert for writing a very interesting and different YA fantasy.
Our main character is seventeen old Jiara who finds herself betrothed to Raffar the King of Farnskag and sent to a foreign land where you did not speak the language and found any form of learning hard due to being dyslexic. I loved this that Laura made Jiara this way as this made the book stand out more. I also loved how Laura made each land different from each other and her descriptions were stunning. I am still trying to imagine what an elephant bird would look like. I also loved the different belief systems of each land and seeing Jiara embracing Farnskag beliefs was lovely to see. I did not see what happened towards the end of the book which was very well paced throughout all I can say is dang. I loved all the Characters apart from Aldar he really was a very annoying character and we saw a lot of him throughout the book. I really wanted to learn more about Raffar than him. I can actually see how well this story could be developed for tv or film i think viewers would enjoy it. For all these reasons I am giving this book 4 stars. I admit i probably would not have picked up on my fruition and so I am grateful to TBR Tours & Beyond for giving me this chance