The dragon within my heart stirred, shifting her wings, as if remembering they could be used to fly.
Hello friends! ❤️ Welcome to the last book review of 2024! This year has been so unique, I must say. While I was less consistent with my reading this year, I still wanted to bring you a book review of a title I read as my second club book. Blades and Bookmarks Reading Club consists of two high school friends of mine, and I am so glad that this book was on their TBR because it was amazing and refreshing in so many ways. Not only because it wasn’t like anything I had ever read before but because it was so well-written, so clever, and unique in every possible way. It is the first book of an amazing series with dragons, science, and exciting adventures. Let me introduce you to A Natural History of Dragons: Memoirs of Lady Trent, an amazing, hard-working dragon scholar. Sounds exciting, right? Let me clarify why this book was easily one of my favourite books of 2024.
As you can understand from the name of the book, the series is about a woman’s life. This is the story of a woman who was obsessed with dragons as a kid and worked so hard to become an educated person on the matter. From the beginning of the book, we see how full of life Isabella is and how unique she was as a child with her peculiar interests. Everything started with a wishbone, set in a universe where dragons simply exist as species. The world written in this book is amazing. In regular fantasy books, dragons are typically portrayed as “above-all” kinds of beings: they are either divine, capable of shapeshifting, able to speak or control, or are simply villains. In this story, however, dragons are just another species of animals, viewed through a scientific lens. Isabella, our main character and the owner of the memories we explore in the book, is a peculiar girl with the curiosity of a scientist. Ever since she was a child, she has been fascinated by everything alive, purely out of curiosity. She isn’t like the lady she is supposed to be, and as she will call herself throughout the book, she is more like a dragon than a proper lady.
Isabella burns with a passion for reading. While her reading and curiosities bother her mother and confuse her father, they are a supportive bunch, doing everything they can to protect their daughter and make sure she stays within the norms of society. While Isabella struggles to be the lady she is supposed to be, she pretends during her “grey” years. Eventually, she gets the chance to see a real dragon, and from that moment, the story picks up pace and becomes even more captivating.
It is incredibly hard to give you the plot of the book because everything is told through the perspective of the lady who lived these memories. This is her older self recalling her stories—at least the beginning of her story. Instead of explaining everything that happens to her throughout the book, I want to focus on how amazing the rest of the book is. I already mentioned the world the book is set in, and I must say that from the geographical settings of the places they visit to the science they are trying to build around dragons, and even Isabella finding herself through pure “love”… from the language to the depth of the characters, this book was everything I didn’t know I needed. For the time this book is set in, the idea of a husband supporting his wife in the way that Jacob does is definitely not common. Much like Jane Austen’s men, it was so sweet to see. Not only Jacob but also her father, who was supposed to be “the far but always there” kind of character, opened doors for her. They both understood that she could pretend for the rest of her life but could never let the dragon in her heart go.
The writing is so unique because, throughout the book, you definitely feel that it is written by the best version of Isabella. The small comments she makes about herself or her surroundings here and there are so sweet. These little notes are a good reminder that this is just the beginning because Lady Trent is one of the most important scholars on dragons. We are only at the start of what promises to be an incredible journey with this fancy, well-educated, and strong-willed woman. I’m not sure what else I can say about this book, but if you ever have time and enjoy dragons, quick-witted writing, and strong characters, give this one a try. I haven’t even started the second book, yet I know this will be one of my favourite series of all time.
Thank you for reading through the review, and happy new year, friends! It was a pleasure to have you here throughout 2024, and I cannot wait to see you all in 2025. Best wishes! ✨🎊
Luster of Books 