Author Julia Golding has created a fairly standard fantasy novel here, with a typical princess-in-trouble, endangered betrothal, eventual reconciliation storytline. Dragonfly would be a fairly run of the mill fantasy, except that there are many unique touches and original details that make the book worth reading.
Fourth princess Taoshira is sent off to marry a rude, uncouth princeling from a foreign land. Neither she nor the prince are pleased with the prospect: Prince Ramil calls her a "white painted witch", and Tashi has her formal sensibilities offended time and again when she arrives in the much more casual land of Gerfal.
Tashi sends a message to her co-princesses calling off the wedding, but before she can announce her intentions she and prince Ramil are both kidnapped by their mutual enemy, Emperor Fergox Spearthrower. Through their wits and perserverence, Tashi and Ramil escape, and find that their opinions of the other have changed drastically for the better during their ordeal.
The plot is quite predictable, but the details of princess Taoshira's complex and formal religion are standouts. Her prayer sequences and thoughts on religion will be of interest to any teen with an interest in philosophy or world religions.
grades 8-11
Fantasy
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