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The Rizkaland Legends #2
Lady Dragon, Tela Du
Two girls with one face
Two girls with twisted fate
One in purple, one in red
One shall speak the other’s death
Who shall win their final war?
Lady Dragon or Tela Du?
Amber, the Lady Dragon, has been promised a fifty-year reign over Rizkaland and nothing can stop her from claiming it. But when you've lived six thousand years, fifty is such a pitiful number. Only one person can keep her from making this reign permanent - the Tela Du, a girl who shall share Amber's face.
The last thing Petra wants is a magical world interrupting her plans for a normal life, let alone an ultimate battle against the Lady Dragon with only one prophesied survivor. She has her childhood best friend, Reuben, at her side, but she's not sure if he's more of a help or a hindrance right now. Though she'd much prefer to just return home and forget about this whole crazy affair, things change when she discovers that the world has surprising connections to her own family - including her sister who disappeared without a trace two years before. Still, Rizkaland can't possibly expect her to risk her very life, can it?
Two girls with twisted fate
One in purple, one in red
One shall speak the other’s death
Who shall win their final war?
Lady Dragon or Tela Du?
Amber, the Lady Dragon, has been promised a fifty-year reign over Rizkaland and nothing can stop her from claiming it. But when you've lived six thousand years, fifty is such a pitiful number. Only one person can keep her from making this reign permanent - the Tela Du, a girl who shall share Amber's face.
The last thing Petra wants is a magical world interrupting her plans for a normal life, let alone an ultimate battle against the Lady Dragon with only one prophesied survivor. She has her childhood best friend, Reuben, at her side, but she's not sure if he's more of a help or a hindrance right now. Though she'd much prefer to just return home and forget about this whole crazy affair, things change when she discovers that the world has surprising connections to her own family - including her sister who disappeared without a trace two years before. Still, Rizkaland can't possibly expect her to risk her very life, can it?
526 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2016
10 people are currently reading
155 people want to read
About the author
Kendra E. Ardnek
68 books277 followersKendra E. Ardnek is the self-proclaimed Arista of Fairy Tales. She makes her home in the hills of central Texas with her fellow author husband, who she found at a writer’s conference. When not writing, you can usually find her crocheting her own cloaks, valiantly attempting to read every retelling ever written, and pretending that owning toy dragons makes her a dragon trainer.
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February 25, 2021I just wanted to say that this is a book that I cannot wait to share with the world. It's the book that taught me how to write, a story with such beautiful themes of love, trust, courage, and forgiveness. I know that Clara and Andrew aren't in the story, but I'm sure that once you read it, you won't be disappointed with the heroes of this tale.
April 21, 2023
Wow.
That was a monster of a book! But it was worth the length it took to read it. The whole of it was colourful, original, and wove together beautifully.
I can’t wait to start the final book.
That was a monster of a book! But it was worth the length it took to read it. The whole of it was colourful, original, and wove together beautifully.
I can’t wait to start the final book.
October 19, 2016
A year and a month ago, Kendra E. Ardnek released
Water Princess, Fire Prince
, the first book in the Rizkaland Legends. I enjoyed it; it wasn't amazing, but it was creative and a fun read and had a cute main couple and a good theme. I expected roughly the same from Lady Dragon, Tela Du- but when I opened the book, what I found blew me away. Why? I'm glad you asked.
(But, first, a bit of background to this review: I beta-read Lady Dragon, Tela Du before Ir ead it for this review, which basically means that I got to send the author hopefully-helpful comments, which were really more like half helpful and half fangirling. The main effects of that, as far as this review goes, are (A)I've read it twice and therefore have had more times to organize my thoughts on it, and (B)I have a more comprehensive stock of comments to look back on regarding my reactions to certain things. Anyway. On with the review.)
The Awesome:
- The Characters: Are generally awesome, with a few exceptions (which I'll get to later). A quick rundown of my favorites:
--Petra is the main character and the titular Tela Du. She's also rather snarky, quite practical, and not particularly pleased at being tossed into a fantasy world and a destiny. Thankfully, she gets over it quickly and proceeds to be awesome. She's a very human character- she makes bad decisions at times, gets annoyed at people, and harbors a fair bit of resentment over certain events. But her determination and desire to do her best even with a destiny she didn't want make up for it (as does the aforementioned snark). And she loves tea and BBC television and long skirts and chocolate and apparently has a bit of a British accent, so, yeah. What's not to like?
--Reuben is Petra’s best friend and also love interest . . . though I feel like it’s a little bit unfair to call him a love interest, because he’s way more than that. He balances Petra out while still being totally his own character: steady, dependable, and an immense lover of fantasy-fiction. I’m pretty certain that he and I would get along famously if only he was real- we could chat about The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia and shove other favorite books at each other to our hearts’ content. I was a tiny bit disappointed that Kendra didn’t make more use of the opportunities for humor with him (having a fantasy-lover in a fantasy world is practically begging for some kind of jokes about genre-savvyness or “in stories” or predicting what’s going to happen based on common narrative tropes), but I still love him.
--Amber is the titular Lady Dragon and the center of an amazing work of character and narrative development on Kendra’s part. Some of you may remember a certain Goodreads status update of mine from Water Princess, Fire Prince in which I essentially expressed my desire to be Petra so I could kill Amber in a fairly painful manner. I still held that opinion at the start of Lady Dragon, Tela Du, though I enjoyed getting to see some of the story from her perspective . . . but then, as I learned more about her, my hatred began to weaken, and by Part 4 or somewhere thereabouts, I was hoping that Petra would find some loophole by which she could avoid killing Amber. But, yeah. Amber’s a sympathetic villain, and a tragic one, and a very well-written character on the whole. (Also, she enjoys writing, so who can argue with that?)
--Granite is Amber’s husband. He tends to make me sad- he truly loves Amber, and she loves him back, but her heart has been stolen by a particular aspect of her magic, and so he’s left in her shadow. He’s not evil; he’s truly a good character. But he’s bound to Amber and it’s just so sad. And he does his best to try to temper Amber’s wrath and turn her from her ways, but there’s so little he can do and yeah. I love him muchly.
--Laura is the Doorkeeper. Occasionally there’s two of her. She’s mysterious in a very friendly sort of way and tends to drop a lot of hints about the future and plot twists and everything else, and because of her role, sometimes she’s the main one moving the plot along. She also tends to do unexpected things and not really give a great deal of explanation for them until later. She’s also the one responsible for getting people from Earth to Rizkaland and back again, so, yeah. Very fun character.
--Other characters: I liked Summer and Tyler, though I didn’t connect with them as much as I did others. Ritis was pretty cool as well.
-The couples are generally adorable, particularly Reutra (Reuben and Petra) and Amber and Granite (who currently don’t have a ship name, though they should). I fangirled over them quite a bit in my beta comments . . . so much so that Kendra, at one point, literally told me to stop encouraging her characters to kiss. (Sorry, Kendra. Not really, though. They’re just so sweet together!) So, yeah. Kendra absolutely Does Not Do love triangles, which means that any difficulties in the relationship come from the characters being actual people and not from ridiculous drama and it’s a very nice change of pace from the fantasy standard.
-No weaponry prodigies are present in this book. I know this is kind of a weird thing to put in the "awesome" category . . . but, honestly? I get tired after a while of reading about one character after another who's almost supernaturally skilled with their weapon of choice, regardless of how much actual training he or she has had with it. In LDTD, very few characters actually end up fighting period, and the only super-amazing ones are Amber and Granite . . . but they've lived roughly 6,000 years, so, yeah, I think they would be by now.
-Family emphasis. Petra and Reuben both come from mid-sized families (each has 3 siblings) and they care very much indeed for their siblings . . . even the ones that only they remember. Their parents also play a somewhat larger role than is common in fantasy books- not a huge role, no, but they know what's going on and give advice when they can. So that's awesome. And I love Ashna's relationship with her parents and her family-related struggle at one point in the book.
-Plot twists were masterfully executed. There's one particular twist regarding Amber . . . I might've had a vague idea of "Hey, maybe this" at the very beginning of the novel, but quickly dismissed it . . . AND THEN IT HAPPENED. And it caught me totally off-guard. And as a general rule, I've read enough fantasy to see most plot twists coming- if not a mile away, then still before they happen. There's a second pretty big twist as well after that first one, and I did start getting a suspicion towards that one before it was revealed, but I wasn't sure. But both twists are really well set up, particularly on a second read-through. As I think I mentioned in one of my status updates, I kept finding hints (some rather obvious in hindsight) and I got very excited.
The Non-Awesome:
-Some of the characters came out a little flat . . . and by some I mostly mean Noraeto. I feel like the only reasons he really existed were (A)as a love interest for one of the main characters, and (B)as a son and grandson for two minor characters. So, yeah. He honestly doesn't seem to do much, and on one hand, having him do more would've taken the spotlight away from Petra and Amber and Reuben and Granite and the excellent plot twists (which, let's face it, were what I was actually reading the book for), but on the other hand, if you're going to give a main character a love interest, at least make the love interest decidedly his own character.
-Part one is kind of hard to get through. It's not as bad as part one of Water Princess, Fire Prince, because there are Amber sections and those were awesome. But it also wasn't amazing, mostly because- like in WPFP- I didn't connect very well with (one of) the main viewpoint character(s). More on that in a moment. Once you get through that first part, it's much more interesting (again, like in WPFP), but yeah. Here's hoping that Kendra can break the trend in book three.
-The writing can be a little rough in spots, particularly with regards to conversations between characters. That being said, this complaint might just be the beta-reader side talking. I was looking for that sort of thing the first time I read it, and my instinct was to look again when I got the reviewer copy. Either way, it's not significant enough to be a real problem, but it can be a touch distracting at times.
The I-Don't-Know-How-I-Feel-About-This:
-Ashna. On one hand, I didn't really connect with her that well, particularly in the first section (as I mentioned before). And I did come to like her a bit better later in the book. But she still didn't quite click for me- which is sad, because I wanted to like her more than I did. She's a sweet girl, and she's a nice change from the current cliche of warlike, hot-tempered, ultra-skilled female main characters in fiction (as I also mentioned previously). But, for some reason, that click just didn't happen.
-Karyn.// I hate Karyn. I really do. I quite literally spent the majority of two chapters yelling at her to shut up every time she said anything. (She was being an idiot at the time, for the record.) But there's certain other things about Karyn . . . things in the spoiler tags . . . so I can't completely hate her. And she actually is a well-written character, particularly when you have all the information about her- I can understand why she did what she did. But I still don't like her, and my usual reaction to seeing her on-page is still "Shut up and go away."
Cautions:
On the whole, Lady Dragon, Tela Du is a pretty clean read. There's next to no violence and no swearing. There is romance, as previously mentioned, which is the only area of (very mild) caution. A particular aspect of Petra and Reuben's abilities give certain scenes very intimate overtones, though younger readers may not fully pick up on them. Two of the couples are married, and do sleep together (we see them go to bed and wake up; nothing in between). Couples kiss- mostly the married ones, though there's one unwed kiss (which is both applauded and reprimanded). So, there's nothing of real concern, and the two main romances (Reutra and Amber/Granite) actually provide two very good portrayals of romance and marriage- one how it ought to be, one how it can be broken and then mended.
Overall, Lady Dragon, Tela Du is not only a worthy sequel to Water Princess, Fire Prince, but it defies Second Book Syndrome in actually being far better than the first book in the series. Well-drawn characters, astounding plot twists, adorable romances, and poignant themes all combine to make this a must-read for any lover of the portal fantasy genre.
(But, first, a bit of background to this review: I beta-read Lady Dragon, Tela Du before Ir ead it for this review, which basically means that I got to send the author hopefully-helpful comments, which were really more like half helpful and half fangirling. The main effects of that, as far as this review goes, are (A)I've read it twice and therefore have had more times to organize my thoughts on it, and (B)I have a more comprehensive stock of comments to look back on regarding my reactions to certain things. Anyway. On with the review.)
The Awesome:
- The Characters: Are generally awesome, with a few exceptions (which I'll get to later). A quick rundown of my favorites:
--Petra is the main character and the titular Tela Du. She's also rather snarky, quite practical, and not particularly pleased at being tossed into a fantasy world and a destiny. Thankfully, she gets over it quickly and proceeds to be awesome. She's a very human character- she makes bad decisions at times, gets annoyed at people, and harbors a fair bit of resentment over certain events. But her determination and desire to do her best even with a destiny she didn't want make up for it (as does the aforementioned snark). And she loves tea and BBC television and long skirts and chocolate and apparently has a bit of a British accent, so, yeah. What's not to like?
--Reuben is Petra’s best friend and also love interest . . . though I feel like it’s a little bit unfair to call him a love interest, because he’s way more than that. He balances Petra out while still being totally his own character: steady, dependable, and an immense lover of fantasy-fiction. I’m pretty certain that he and I would get along famously if only he was real- we could chat about The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia and shove other favorite books at each other to our hearts’ content. I was a tiny bit disappointed that Kendra didn’t make more use of the opportunities for humor with him (having a fantasy-lover in a fantasy world is practically begging for some kind of jokes about genre-savvyness or “in stories” or predicting what’s going to happen based on common narrative tropes), but I still love him.
--Amber is the titular Lady Dragon and the center of an amazing work of character and narrative development on Kendra’s part. Some of you may remember a certain Goodreads status update of mine from Water Princess, Fire Prince in which I essentially expressed my desire to be Petra so I could kill Amber in a fairly painful manner. I still held that opinion at the start of Lady Dragon, Tela Du, though I enjoyed getting to see some of the story from her perspective . . . but then, as I learned more about her, my hatred began to weaken, and by Part 4 or somewhere thereabouts, I was hoping that Petra would find some loophole by which she could avoid killing Amber. But, yeah. Amber’s a sympathetic villain, and a tragic one, and a very well-written character on the whole. (Also, she enjoys writing, so who can argue with that?)
--Granite is Amber’s husband. He tends to make me sad- he truly loves Amber, and she loves him back, but her heart has been stolen by a particular aspect of her magic, and so he’s left in her shadow. He’s not evil; he’s truly a good character. But he’s bound to Amber and it’s just so sad. And he does his best to try to temper Amber’s wrath and turn her from her ways, but there’s so little he can do and yeah. I love him muchly.
--Laura is the Doorkeeper. Occasionally there’s two of her. She’s mysterious in a very friendly sort of way and tends to drop a lot of hints about the future and plot twists and everything else, and because of her role, sometimes she’s the main one moving the plot along. She also tends to do unexpected things and not really give a great deal of explanation for them until later. She’s also the one responsible for getting people from Earth to Rizkaland and back again, so, yeah. Very fun character.
--Other characters: I liked Summer and Tyler, though I didn’t connect with them as much as I did others. Ritis was pretty cool as well.
-The couples are generally adorable, particularly Reutra (Reuben and Petra) and Amber and Granite (who currently don’t have a ship name, though they should). I fangirled over them quite a bit in my beta comments . . . so much so that Kendra, at one point, literally told me to stop encouraging her characters to kiss. (Sorry, Kendra. Not really, though. They’re just so sweet together!) So, yeah. Kendra absolutely Does Not Do love triangles, which means that any difficulties in the relationship come from the characters being actual people and not from ridiculous drama and it’s a very nice change of pace from the fantasy standard.
-No weaponry prodigies are present in this book. I know this is kind of a weird thing to put in the "awesome" category . . . but, honestly? I get tired after a while of reading about one character after another who's almost supernaturally skilled with their weapon of choice, regardless of how much actual training he or she has had with it. In LDTD, very few characters actually end up fighting period, and the only super-amazing ones are Amber and Granite . . . but they've lived roughly 6,000 years, so, yeah, I think they would be by now.
-Family emphasis. Petra and Reuben both come from mid-sized families (each has 3 siblings) and they care very much indeed for their siblings . . . even the ones that only they remember. Their parents also play a somewhat larger role than is common in fantasy books- not a huge role, no, but they know what's going on and give advice when they can. So that's awesome. And I love Ashna's relationship with her parents and her family-related struggle at one point in the book.
-Plot twists were masterfully executed. There's one particular twist regarding Amber . . . I might've had a vague idea of "Hey, maybe this" at the very beginning of the novel, but quickly dismissed it . . . AND THEN IT HAPPENED. And it caught me totally off-guard. And as a general rule, I've read enough fantasy to see most plot twists coming- if not a mile away, then still before they happen. There's a second pretty big twist as well after that first one, and I did start getting a suspicion towards that one before it was revealed, but I wasn't sure. But both twists are really well set up, particularly on a second read-through. As I think I mentioned in one of my status updates, I kept finding hints (some rather obvious in hindsight) and I got very excited.
The Non-Awesome:
-Some of the characters came out a little flat . . . and by some I mostly mean Noraeto. I feel like the only reasons he really existed were (A)as a love interest for one of the main characters, and (B)as a son and grandson for two minor characters. So, yeah. He honestly doesn't seem to do much, and on one hand, having him do more would've taken the spotlight away from Petra and Amber and Reuben and Granite and the excellent plot twists (which, let's face it, were what I was actually reading the book for), but on the other hand, if you're going to give a main character a love interest, at least make the love interest decidedly his own character.
-Part one is kind of hard to get through. It's not as bad as part one of Water Princess, Fire Prince, because there are Amber sections and those were awesome. But it also wasn't amazing, mostly because- like in WPFP- I didn't connect very well with (one of) the main viewpoint character(s). More on that in a moment. Once you get through that first part, it's much more interesting (again, like in WPFP), but yeah. Here's hoping that Kendra can break the trend in book three.
-The writing can be a little rough in spots, particularly with regards to conversations between characters. That being said, this complaint might just be the beta-reader side talking. I was looking for that sort of thing the first time I read it, and my instinct was to look again when I got the reviewer copy. Either way, it's not significant enough to be a real problem, but it can be a touch distracting at times.
The I-Don't-Know-How-I-Feel-About-This:
-Ashna. On one hand, I didn't really connect with her that well, particularly in the first section (as I mentioned before). And I did come to like her a bit better later in the book. But she still didn't quite click for me- which is sad, because I wanted to like her more than I did. She's a sweet girl, and she's a nice change from the current cliche of warlike, hot-tempered, ultra-skilled female main characters in fiction (as I also mentioned previously). But, for some reason, that click just didn't happen.
-Karyn.// I hate Karyn. I really do. I quite literally spent the majority of two chapters yelling at her to shut up every time she said anything. (She was being an idiot at the time, for the record.) But there's certain other things about Karyn . . . things in the spoiler tags . . . so I can't completely hate her. And she actually is a well-written character, particularly when you have all the information about her- I can understand why she did what she did. But I still don't like her, and my usual reaction to seeing her on-page is still "Shut up and go away."
Cautions:
On the whole, Lady Dragon, Tela Du is a pretty clean read. There's next to no violence and no swearing. There is romance, as previously mentioned, which is the only area of (very mild) caution. A particular aspect of Petra and Reuben's abilities give certain scenes very intimate overtones, though younger readers may not fully pick up on them. Two of the couples are married, and do sleep together (we see them go to bed and wake up; nothing in between). Couples kiss- mostly the married ones, though there's one unwed kiss (which is both applauded and reprimanded). So, there's nothing of real concern, and the two main romances (Reutra and Amber/Granite) actually provide two very good portrayals of romance and marriage- one how it ought to be, one how it can be broken and then mended.
Overall, Lady Dragon, Tela Du is not only a worthy sequel to Water Princess, Fire Prince, but it defies Second Book Syndrome in actually being far better than the first book in the series. Well-drawn characters, astounding plot twists, adorable romances, and poignant themes all combine to make this a must-read for any lover of the portal fantasy genre.
October 25, 2016
I wasn't terribly excited about this book to start with--I wanted book three so I could have more Clarand. But that sort of sentiment? Totally foolish. Because while I still can't wait for book three (and want it even more now), LDTD is AWESOME! Like, way better than WPFP. I didn't think that was possible, but wow. You find out so much about Amber and Granite, and there are Reuben and Petra!
First Reuben. I'll be interviewing him next week, so you'll get to meet him. Reuben is the brother I never had. Seriously, this guy is a total fantasy lover, the kind of kid who looked for Narnia in the back of his closet, a sweet puppy dog, very excitable, and just so much fun. But yet, he knows how to be serious when it counts. And he loves Petra so much (and is slightly obsessed with her hair). He's so sweet, so amusing, so adorable. Love that guy.
Petra. That girl. She's very much an introvert, very dependent on Reuben, very much against having a romantic relationship. After all, she's only sixteen. And she's very insistent that her sisters Sarah and Sylvia and Reuben's brother Richard are real, even though she and Reuben are the only ones who can remember them. Even though Petra can be--difficult--at times, I love her. And I love her relationship with Reuben. And their telepathy. They're just perfect for each other.
Then there are Summer and Tyler, Ashna and Noraeto, and Amber and Granite. They're all so different from each other, and they all add something unique to the story. I didn't think I'd enjoy Amber and Granite's story as much as I did, but it was quite...interesting.
The storyline contains a lot of...family drama. But I can't say much because of spoilers. Still, it's a book that is all about family, and I loved it. Petra, as the Tela Du, is supposed to kill Amber, the Lady Dragon. And things happen.
Read Lady Dragon, Tela Du. Seriously. You won't regret it. And then book three is totally going to rip your heart out, but it'll be awesome. Because Clarand AND Reutra.
First Reuben. I'll be interviewing him next week, so you'll get to meet him. Reuben is the brother I never had. Seriously, this guy is a total fantasy lover, the kind of kid who looked for Narnia in the back of his closet, a sweet puppy dog, very excitable, and just so much fun. But yet, he knows how to be serious when it counts. And he loves Petra so much (and is slightly obsessed with her hair). He's so sweet, so amusing, so adorable. Love that guy.
Petra. That girl. She's very much an introvert, very dependent on Reuben, very much against having a romantic relationship. After all, she's only sixteen. And she's very insistent that her sisters Sarah and Sylvia and Reuben's brother Richard are real, even though she and Reuben are the only ones who can remember them. Even though Petra can be--difficult--at times, I love her. And I love her relationship with Reuben. And their telepathy. They're just perfect for each other.
Then there are Summer and Tyler, Ashna and Noraeto, and Amber and Granite. They're all so different from each other, and they all add something unique to the story. I didn't think I'd enjoy Amber and Granite's story as much as I did, but it was quite...interesting.
The storyline contains a lot of...family drama. But I can't say much because of spoilers. Still, it's a book that is all about family, and I loved it. Petra, as the Tela Du, is supposed to kill Amber, the Lady Dragon. And things happen.
Read Lady Dragon, Tela Du. Seriously. You won't regret it. And then book three is totally going to rip your heart out, but it'll be awesome. Because Clarand AND Reutra.
May 10, 2021
I absolutely could not put this down. I think I read the whole thing in less than a week. While also packing my entire apartment for a move. Which required dedication.
Things I loved about Lady Dragon, Tela Du:
- World-building. Wow wow wow wow wow. I thought Water Princess Fire Prince had good world building but the amount of expansion on the world in LDTD...incredible. In depth explanations of magic systems and government, explorations/mentions of other worlds in a way that made sense, new parts of Rizkaland explored--it was absolutely beautiful and took my breath away.
- Characters. I was worried that Reuben and Petra would be too similar to Andrew and Clara, but I was so pleased that they had their own distinct and engaging personalities. Amber and Granite's character development was *chef's kiss* Laura's character development as well; I really enjoyed the glimpses into her life and backstory. I had some trouble connecting with Summer and Tyler, and I wish Noraeto had been given more "screen time" or whatever you want to call it, but overall, the characters were delightful.
- Real romance. Like I said in my review for WPFP, I have little use for romance these days, as most of it seems fake and stupid and detracts from the real plot. But this time, I found a new reason to love the romantic subplots. One problem I have with Christian romance novels (especially since getting married) is that they skirt around the issue of marriage and the intimacy it includes in a way that almost suggests intimacy within marriage is wrong. The issue I have with contemporary romance is that it takes things way too far, making intimacy about the actions rather than about the love, and honestly just being way too graphic in general.
What I love about Kendra's stories is that they allude to things in a chaste way that shows the love between a couple without making it crude. It is always about the love between a couple and she writes nothing more than needed to show that love. It is a breath of fresh air to see intimacy within marriage handled in a way that doesn't suggest it's wrong, but also doesn't throw it in your face in an inappropriate way. It is a kind of romance I can actually enjoy.
Things that were less than great:
- I found a few characters very annoying. I think Karyn was MEANT to be annoying so I didn't mind that, but Summer really got on my nerves. I felt that she was flippant, obnoxious, whiny, and didn't ever take things as seriously as she should have. Maybe I would have liked her better if we had gotten more time with her, but as it was, she felt like a very flat and one dimensional character.
- I predicted pretty much all the plot twists. While this wasn't REALLY an issue, because it doesn't make the book any less interesting, it was kind of disappointing that nothing in the book truly surprised me. (Actually there were a few things, just not the plot twists.) But again, even expecting the plot twists didn't really ruin anything because it's still written in such a great way.
- No Clara and Andrew *pouty face* Okay so honestly I guess this isn't really an issue but I really miss them and I'm excited to have them back in Love and Memories.
Overall, I highly recommend this book. I will mention that I don't think it's a book for young kids/teens, as it does have some mature content, especially in the romance category, and it can be very intense during some parts. But for older teens, say 16/17+, I think it's a wonderful book that teaches a lot of good values. I loved it.
Things I loved about Lady Dragon, Tela Du:
- World-building. Wow wow wow wow wow. I thought Water Princess Fire Prince had good world building but the amount of expansion on the world in LDTD...incredible. In depth explanations of magic systems and government, explorations/mentions of other worlds in a way that made sense, new parts of Rizkaland explored--it was absolutely beautiful and took my breath away.
- Characters. I was worried that Reuben and Petra would be too similar to Andrew and Clara, but I was so pleased that they had their own distinct and engaging personalities. Amber and Granite's character development was *chef's kiss* Laura's character development as well; I really enjoyed the glimpses into her life and backstory. I had some trouble connecting with Summer and Tyler, and I wish Noraeto had been given more "screen time" or whatever you want to call it, but overall, the characters were delightful.
- Real romance. Like I said in my review for WPFP, I have little use for romance these days, as most of it seems fake and stupid and detracts from the real plot. But this time, I found a new reason to love the romantic subplots. One problem I have with Christian romance novels (especially since getting married) is that they skirt around the issue of marriage and the intimacy it includes in a way that almost suggests intimacy within marriage is wrong. The issue I have with contemporary romance is that it takes things way too far, making intimacy about the actions rather than about the love, and honestly just being way too graphic in general.
What I love about Kendra's stories is that they allude to things in a chaste way that shows the love between a couple without making it crude. It is always about the love between a couple and she writes nothing more than needed to show that love. It is a breath of fresh air to see intimacy within marriage handled in a way that doesn't suggest it's wrong, but also doesn't throw it in your face in an inappropriate way. It is a kind of romance I can actually enjoy.
Things that were less than great:
- I found a few characters very annoying. I think Karyn was MEANT to be annoying so I didn't mind that, but Summer really got on my nerves. I felt that she was flippant, obnoxious, whiny, and didn't ever take things as seriously as she should have. Maybe I would have liked her better if we had gotten more time with her, but as it was, she felt like a very flat and one dimensional character.
- I predicted pretty much all the plot twists. While this wasn't REALLY an issue, because it doesn't make the book any less interesting, it was kind of disappointing that nothing in the book truly surprised me. (Actually there were a few things, just not the plot twists.) But again, even expecting the plot twists didn't really ruin anything because it's still written in such a great way.
- No Clara and Andrew *pouty face* Okay so honestly I guess this isn't really an issue but I really miss them and I'm excited to have them back in Love and Memories.
Overall, I highly recommend this book. I will mention that I don't think it's a book for young kids/teens, as it does have some mature content, especially in the romance category, and it can be very intense during some parts. But for older teens, say 16/17+, I think it's a wonderful book that teaches a lot of good values. I loved it.
February 3, 2019
I really loved these books! They were clever and magical, reminiscent of Narnia but yet different. And the romance was absolutely perfect, just how I like it.
August 2, 2017
Lady Dragon, Tela Du, book two of the portal fantasy series, the Rizkaland Legends- how can I start to tell you about this book? By now, I’ve read quite a few books by the author, Kendra E. Ardnek, and I have to say that this book is my favorite. (In a close second would be The Ankulen , which is a humorous tale of adventure within one’s imagination that packs a powerful message inside its covers.) Kendra’s writing style has improved drastically since her very first books. I enjoy reading her, now much more complex novels and seeing the change.
The plot begins telling of how the corrupted and immoral queen Amber, also known as the Dragon for her ability to change into one, and her faithful husband Granite were banished from Rizkaland years now by the Fire Prince and Water Princess from book one. Now Amber is ready to end her banishment and return to Rizkaland to reign as queen as she feels is her right.
In doing so, she is challenged not only by the current kings and queens but by the Bookkeeper and his family. They serve Alphego (God) in delivering and recording the legends and prophecies of Rizkaland. Ashna’s, the Bookkeeper’s daughter, life is turned upside down as Amber’s façade of kindness slips and her dragon nature is revealed.
But a prophecy that was given keeps alive a spark of hope for the Rizkans. A girl bearing the identical face to Amber is promised that will be able to end Amber’s immortality and be able “to speak the death” of the Dragon. What those rather ambiguous words refer to exactly is anyone’s guess.
Meanwhile back on earth, there’s an unsuspecting teenage girl whose life is about to change forever, along with that of Rueben’s, a good friend hers that's absolutely not her boyfriend :)
That’s the basic plot, but there’s so much going on within this novel besides the initial plot and all of its many twists and turns throughout this epic tale. First off, the characters are a brilliant part of the story. Compared to book one, I felt that the characters were a great deal more balanced. True, I wasn’t able to get into Summer and Tyler’s part of the story as much as I would have liked. But I found that I could enjoy all of the characters without yelling at them to stop being so dramatic like I did at Clara from book one. (Well, I might have yelled a little at Karyn a little *guilty face*.)
Laura is another is another one of my favorite characters. She’s probably the most complicated to understand with her job as the Doorkeeper of portals. She raised Amber, (and all the other immortal queens), before Amber became corrupted, and she's lovingly tried many times to personally warn Amber against going against Alphego’s will. Poor Laura, I really feel sorry for her as she shoulders the burden of knowing the future and struggles with trying to have a normal conversation without accidentally referring to something that’s happened in the future. What a life she must have running into younger versions of herself and giving them cryptic advice!
Overall, I enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to fantasy readers. The author did her best to keep the book clean and very clearly from a biblical perspective, but it is written with young adults and older teens in mind so keep that in mind while reading. This series is turning out to be one of my favorites, and I hope you check it out for yourself.
*Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC copy of this book (a rather long time ago) in exchange for an honest review. *
The plot begins telling of how the corrupted and immoral queen Amber, also known as the Dragon for her ability to change into one, and her faithful husband Granite were banished from Rizkaland years now by the Fire Prince and Water Princess from book one. Now Amber is ready to end her banishment and return to Rizkaland to reign as queen as she feels is her right.
In doing so, she is challenged not only by the current kings and queens but by the Bookkeeper and his family. They serve Alphego (God) in delivering and recording the legends and prophecies of Rizkaland. Ashna’s, the Bookkeeper’s daughter, life is turned upside down as Amber’s façade of kindness slips and her dragon nature is revealed.
But a prophecy that was given keeps alive a spark of hope for the Rizkans. A girl bearing the identical face to Amber is promised that will be able to end Amber’s immortality and be able “to speak the death” of the Dragon. What those rather ambiguous words refer to exactly is anyone’s guess.
Meanwhile back on earth, there’s an unsuspecting teenage girl whose life is about to change forever, along with that of Rueben’s, a good friend hers that's absolutely not her boyfriend :)
That’s the basic plot, but there’s so much going on within this novel besides the initial plot and all of its many twists and turns throughout this epic tale. First off, the characters are a brilliant part of the story. Compared to book one, I felt that the characters were a great deal more balanced. True, I wasn’t able to get into Summer and Tyler’s part of the story as much as I would have liked. But I found that I could enjoy all of the characters without yelling at them to stop being so dramatic like I did at Clara from book one. (Well, I might have yelled a little at Karyn a little *guilty face*.)
Laura is another is another one of my favorite characters. She’s probably the most complicated to understand with her job as the Doorkeeper of portals. She raised Amber, (and all the other immortal queens), before Amber became corrupted, and she's lovingly tried many times to personally warn Amber against going against Alphego’s will. Poor Laura, I really feel sorry for her as she shoulders the burden of knowing the future and struggles with trying to have a normal conversation without accidentally referring to something that’s happened in the future. What a life she must have running into younger versions of herself and giving them cryptic advice!
Overall, I enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to fantasy readers. The author did her best to keep the book clean and very clearly from a biblical perspective, but it is written with young adults and older teens in mind so keep that in mind while reading. This series is turning out to be one of my favorites, and I hope you check it out for yourself.
*Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC copy of this book (a rather long time ago) in exchange for an honest review. *
January 4, 2021
*Spoiler-free review!*
Even though I enjoyed Water Princess, Fire Prince, this book completely blew me away. Here’s just a few of the things I loved about Lady Dragon, Tela Du:
-Around 55% through the book, things started clicking. The crazy thing was, it was two sentences that I connected together and figured out a major plot twist. Not to say that this book was predictable- two of my main theories, about how the Tela Du was going to defeat Amber, were completely wrong, but Kendra did a great job foreshadowing.
-Reuben is a fantasy reader and it was hilarious reading his commentary on things, especially at the beginning. I loved the subtle references- the only two I caught were about the deplorable word and then also “the little squiggly lines” on his ring, which I thought was absolutely hilarious.
-The characters were amazing! I will say, some characters I didn’t connect with as deeply, like Summer and Tyler. But the only one that I really strongly disliked was a certain watermelon-hair character. I understand her motivations, but... still.
-Petra and Reuben’s relationship! 😍 OTP material here.
-Laura! She’s just so mysterious and fascinating and fun, and I absolutely loved her being a main character in this.
-Amber and Granite’s relationship, and just how Amber was portrayed. Definitely not your run-of-the-mill, cookie cutter villain.
-Great Christian themes!
Content: Mild. So... one reviewer mentioned that some scenes had “intimate overtones”, which is definitely the case. However, there’s nothing explicit or even objectionable, in my humble opinion, just something to be aware of. No offensive language or violence. If you have any questions about the content you’re welcome to PM me.
5 stars! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Even though I enjoyed Water Princess, Fire Prince, this book completely blew me away. Here’s just a few of the things I loved about Lady Dragon, Tela Du:
-Around 55% through the book, things started clicking. The crazy thing was, it was two sentences that I connected together and figured out a major plot twist. Not to say that this book was predictable- two of my main theories, about how the Tela Du was going to defeat Amber, were completely wrong, but Kendra did a great job foreshadowing.
-Reuben is a fantasy reader and it was hilarious reading his commentary on things, especially at the beginning. I loved the subtle references- the only two I caught were about the deplorable word and then also “the little squiggly lines” on his ring, which I thought was absolutely hilarious.
-The characters were amazing! I will say, some characters I didn’t connect with as deeply, like Summer and Tyler. But the only one that I really strongly disliked was a certain watermelon-hair character. I understand her motivations, but... still.
-Petra and Reuben’s relationship! 😍 OTP material here.
-Laura! She’s just so mysterious and fascinating and fun, and I absolutely loved her being a main character in this.
-Amber and Granite’s relationship, and just how Amber was portrayed. Definitely not your run-of-the-mill, cookie cutter villain.
-Great Christian themes!
Content: Mild. So... one reviewer mentioned that some scenes had “intimate overtones”, which is definitely the case. However, there’s nothing explicit or even objectionable, in my humble opinion, just something to be aware of. No offensive language or violence. If you have any questions about the content you’re welcome to PM me.
5 stars! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
December 13, 2016
This was a really good read. :) I was kind of debating whether to rate it 5 stars or 4.5. *shrugs* Well anyways, it was a really good book and I really enjoyed it. The main characters are Petra, Reuben and Amber. Along with a few other people. :) Petra and Reuben go through a house and end up in a different world, they are confused and wary, but they would never know what exactly they were getting into. Filled with action and somewhat hilarious at times, this book was pretty good. I liked Reuben, he was funny. And Petra was pretty good too. I was really confused at times though. :7 The world was very unique, and the gifts and talents of the people were really cool. I would recommend it to ages 13-14-up.
November 23, 2016
Hooray for another trip to Rizkaland! I loved the witty dialogue and world building once again. Petra and Reuben had a really hilarious and cute relationship, and . I honestly nearly cried when he . My favorite character is definitely Laura (I'm loving the snippets of her backstory), but I did develop a pretty huge respect/liking/crush on Granite at one point. Honestly a really complicated character. Oh, and Ashna! I sympathized with her quite a bit and hope we get to see more of her in book three. ;) The author did a brilliant job making the Lady Dragon and the Tela Du veeeerrry similar in personality but very different in action. The theme was really amazing, though I felt like it got slightly buried in a drawn-out resolution and confusing number of characters. Not recommended for younger readers because this book is more magical than the first one and there is a very strong element of physical romance between .
Best quote(s): "Rizkaland will soon see a new day under the Tela Du, but a new day can't come unless there is night first."
But since she knew that he would never forgive her if there was food involved and she didn't offer it to him, she marched over, pulled the glasses off of his face, and deftly tucked them into his shirt pocket. She had long ago discovered this to be the quickest, most efficient method to bring him back from the realm of story.
Altogether, I found this to be a fun read with a few bookworm, BBC, and tea jokes to enjoy. ;)
Best quote(s): "Rizkaland will soon see a new day under the Tela Du, but a new day can't come unless there is night first."
But since she knew that he would never forgive her if there was food involved and she didn't offer it to him, she marched over, pulled the glasses off of his face, and deftly tucked them into his shirt pocket. She had long ago discovered this to be the quickest, most efficient method to bring him back from the realm of story.
Altogether, I found this to be a fun read with a few bookworm, BBC, and tea jokes to enjoy. ;)
October 17, 2021
After Water Princess, Fire Prince, I was very much anticipating reading this book. I didn't get through this one as quickly, although that might have been more me refusing to let my entire life be consumed with a book, as I am want to do. xD I love how thoroughly Kendra E. Ardnek weaves her plot and worldbuilding! It amazes me. The characters were once again well-made and well-portrayed, although I will admit I missed the MCs of the previous book a bunch. Petra (and all the others) grew on me, though.
This is, for sure, fantasy done right. I'm forever hooked on Kendra E. Ardnek.
This is, for sure, fantasy done right. I'm forever hooked on Kendra E. Ardnek.
October 21, 2016
Lady Dragon, Tela Du is an epic. It’s set in the colorful and imaginative world of Rizkaland – a world plagued with its own problems, not the least of them being Amber, the Lady Dragon. Intriguing characters and stunning plot twists fill the pages of this tale. You’ll be on the edge of your seat as you read.
Writing: Good
This story has undergone countless rewrites and revisions, and it shows in the final product. Since I had the privilege of being an alpha reader for this story, I read the last three versions. Even in that short amount of time, I saw tremendous improvement in the tightness of the story and the writing style itself. LDTD is written almost in the tone of a lighthearted fairy tale, but the conflicts and depth of the plot and characters lend dead seriousness to the tone of much of the story. Still, despite the dangers and uncertainties faced by the characters, the overall mood is fairly light and easy to read. It won’t drag you down, but it’s complex enough that you won’t be able to put it down.
Plot: Excellent
So seamlessly are the plot twists and foreshadowing woven together into the story that you’ll probably want to start the book over again the moment you finish. The best part of that element is that the second read will be just as exciting as the first. You’ll pick up hints you totally skimmed over, ignored, or misinterpreted the first time. Personally, I loved how the author crafted the plot so skillfully. Even though I guessed at some of the resolutions and ending, the story was so craftily put together that up until the last moment I had no clue if my desired outcome would happen or not. At the same time, the ending and everything leading up to it were extremely satisfying – so much better than I even could have hoped for or imagined. The points of view of various characters are put together in a clear way that’s easily to follow and, for the most part, easy to keep track of.
Characters: Extremely excellent
While the plot makes the story, the characters make the connection with the reader. All of the characters are vividly pictured through their dialogue, point of view, actions, and the style in which they are written. Petra and Reuben’s relationship is real and deep; Petra and Ashna’s relationship is real and strained; Petra and Amber’s relationship is real and business-like; in short, the author does an excellent job of creating true-to-life characters. And we can’t forget Amber and Granite—their relationship as a married couple is both sweet and endearing despite one of them being the villain. Throughout the course of the book, I found myself sympathizing with them more and more despite the evil that Amber continued on wreaking throughout Rizkaland. It truly take a masterful author to incite such kinship with the clearly-marked antagonist.
Content: Mild violence (nothing to be concerned about); romance (married couple and soon-to-be-married couples). Also one “dream sequence” scene (it’s not a dream sequence, but that’s the best way I can think of to describe the scene’s tone without giving spoilers) featuring dead animals coming to life. For a younger or more sensitive audience, I recommend skipping the scene – though it is as tastefully handled as possible under the circumstances.
A Few Elements I Liked:
The ending. Wow. There’s not much I can say without giving spoilers, but I will say the ending was well worth the entire book. I loved everything about it.
The message. This isn’t just entertainment; there’s truth here.
Granite and Amber’s relationship – a sweet picture of married love complete with deep struggles and heartaches. Such loyalty.
Petra and Reuben’s gift/power. It adds a new and interesting depth to their relationship.
The plot twists! I’ve never seen plot twists done in such a satisfying manner.
If you liked Water Princess, Fire Prince, you’ll absolutely love Lady Dragon, Tela Du. While the plot, characters, and message of the first were excellent, those of the second are even better.
Writing: Good
This story has undergone countless rewrites and revisions, and it shows in the final product. Since I had the privilege of being an alpha reader for this story, I read the last three versions. Even in that short amount of time, I saw tremendous improvement in the tightness of the story and the writing style itself. LDTD is written almost in the tone of a lighthearted fairy tale, but the conflicts and depth of the plot and characters lend dead seriousness to the tone of much of the story. Still, despite the dangers and uncertainties faced by the characters, the overall mood is fairly light and easy to read. It won’t drag you down, but it’s complex enough that you won’t be able to put it down.
Plot: Excellent
So seamlessly are the plot twists and foreshadowing woven together into the story that you’ll probably want to start the book over again the moment you finish. The best part of that element is that the second read will be just as exciting as the first. You’ll pick up hints you totally skimmed over, ignored, or misinterpreted the first time. Personally, I loved how the author crafted the plot so skillfully. Even though I guessed at some of the resolutions and ending, the story was so craftily put together that up until the last moment I had no clue if my desired outcome would happen or not. At the same time, the ending and everything leading up to it were extremely satisfying – so much better than I even could have hoped for or imagined. The points of view of various characters are put together in a clear way that’s easily to follow and, for the most part, easy to keep track of.
Characters: Extremely excellent
While the plot makes the story, the characters make the connection with the reader. All of the characters are vividly pictured through their dialogue, point of view, actions, and the style in which they are written. Petra and Reuben’s relationship is real and deep; Petra and Ashna’s relationship is real and strained; Petra and Amber’s relationship is real and business-like; in short, the author does an excellent job of creating true-to-life characters. And we can’t forget Amber and Granite—their relationship as a married couple is both sweet and endearing despite one of them being the villain. Throughout the course of the book, I found myself sympathizing with them more and more despite the evil that Amber continued on wreaking throughout Rizkaland. It truly take a masterful author to incite such kinship with the clearly-marked antagonist.
Content: Mild violence (nothing to be concerned about); romance (married couple and soon-to-be-married couples). Also one “dream sequence” scene (it’s not a dream sequence, but that’s the best way I can think of to describe the scene’s tone without giving spoilers) featuring dead animals coming to life. For a younger or more sensitive audience, I recommend skipping the scene – though it is as tastefully handled as possible under the circumstances.
A Few Elements I Liked:
The ending. Wow. There’s not much I can say without giving spoilers, but I will say the ending was well worth the entire book. I loved everything about it.
The message. This isn’t just entertainment; there’s truth here.
Granite and Amber’s relationship – a sweet picture of married love complete with deep struggles and heartaches. Such loyalty.
Petra and Reuben’s gift/power. It adds a new and interesting depth to their relationship.
The plot twists! I’ve never seen plot twists done in such a satisfying manner.
If you liked Water Princess, Fire Prince, you’ll absolutely love Lady Dragon, Tela Du. While the plot, characters, and message of the first were excellent, those of the second are even better.
October 31, 2016
The Good:
So, guys, you know the Second Book Syndrome thing-y? Yeah, well, this kicks that in the face! With a metal-toed boot. Um-hm.
Anyways. This was DEFINITELY a worthy sequel to Water Princess, Fire Prince! Like, I just finished both LDTD and WPFP, and I can’t choose which I like better!
I love the ships in this book! Like, they’re all so cute and some *ahem* my favorite *ahem* is adorably awkward.
The characters are all so awesome, and most of them are fleshed out! Petra is really similar to an INTJ (that’s my sis) … just slightly different. So she’s different from a lot of MCs. And her ship is adorable! Bringing me to Reuben. He’s just … awesome. Like, all of Part 2 he’s comparing everything to his fantasy books and he loves to read and he’s just so EEK.
I also really liked Tyler. He’s just amazingly awkwardly adorable. And I totally ship him with Summer (who I’m not sure about … I like her, yet, I’m indifferent towards her. Whatever.).
And you (obviously) have Amber (the Lady Dragon) and her husband, Granite. I love them together as well.
For most of the book, it was pretty fast-paced. Though I guessed the end (and GR can prove it! Though don’t look unless you want spoilers…), I was surprised by something!!! So, yeah, that’s cool.
Oh! Oh! Something that I ADORED was that everything wasn’t all happy-happy at the end. Like, there were consequences to peoples actions, and that was totally cool!!!
The Bad:
Okay, so, I feel like Noraeto (I don’t think that I spelled his name right…) could’ve used some improvement, and I DEFINITELY wished that he had had more “book time.”
Ashna, so … okay. I didn’t love her. But I also didn’t hate her by any means! It’s just … I wasn’t quite a fan. She was awesome AND I SO WANTED TO LIKE HER, but I just couldn’t really.
There were some slow parts that did drag a bit. I kinda wished the first part had been spiced up a bit … but you do have Amber taking over some stuff, so I guess that that was cool.
Really, this was a good book! For those of you looking for Christian fantasy, this is a really good series so far! Definitely recommend this to those of you!
Okay. So the romance was amped up a tiny bit in this book. There were kisses between married people (and I think once between two people who weren’t). Married people slept together, though nothing happened (yay!). Some moments like that. Nothing too bad.
There was violence. People died. There was some fighting. Assassination attacks. The like.
So, guys, you know the Second Book Syndrome thing-y? Yeah, well, this kicks that in the face! With a metal-toed boot. Um-hm.
Anyways. This was DEFINITELY a worthy sequel to Water Princess, Fire Prince! Like, I just finished both LDTD and WPFP, and I can’t choose which I like better!
I love the ships in this book! Like, they’re all so cute and some *ahem* my favorite *ahem* is adorably awkward.
The characters are all so awesome, and most of them are fleshed out! Petra is really similar to an INTJ (that’s my sis) … just slightly different. So she’s different from a lot of MCs. And her ship is adorable! Bringing me to Reuben. He’s just … awesome. Like, all of Part 2 he’s comparing everything to his fantasy books and he loves to read and he’s just so EEK.
I also really liked Tyler. He’s just amazingly awkwardly adorable. And I totally ship him with Summer (who I’m not sure about … I like her, yet, I’m indifferent towards her. Whatever.).
And you (obviously) have Amber (the Lady Dragon) and her husband, Granite. I love them together as well.
For most of the book, it was pretty fast-paced. Though I guessed the end (and GR can prove it! Though don’t look unless you want spoilers…), I was surprised by something!!! So, yeah, that’s cool.
Oh! Oh! Something that I ADORED was that everything wasn’t all happy-happy at the end. Like, there were consequences to peoples actions, and that was totally cool!!!
The Bad:
Okay, so, I feel like Noraeto (I don’t think that I spelled his name right…) could’ve used some improvement, and I DEFINITELY wished that he had had more “book time.”
Ashna, so … okay. I didn’t love her. But I also didn’t hate her by any means! It’s just … I wasn’t quite a fan. She was awesome AND I SO WANTED TO LIKE HER, but I just couldn’t really.
There were some slow parts that did drag a bit. I kinda wished the first part had been spiced up a bit … but you do have Amber taking over some stuff, so I guess that that was cool.
Really, this was a good book! For those of you looking for Christian fantasy, this is a really good series so far! Definitely recommend this to those of you!
Okay. So the romance was amped up a tiny bit in this book. There were kisses between married people (and I think once between two people who weren’t). Married people slept together, though nothing happened (yay!). Some moments like that. Nothing too bad.
There was violence. People died. There was some fighting. Assassination attacks. The like.
August 22, 2016
Review to come. :)
December 7, 2017
I totally called most of the plot twists. The book still kept me up, though, way past when I should have gone to bed. But I had to finish it so I could focus on my review of Reversal Zone. (At least, that's what I told myself.) At any rate, Kendra has entered my roster of evil authors.
Writing: 4.75/5
Kendra's writing style is very fitting for her personality. Really fun, yet somehow serious, too. It was really well-written. The only drawback was the many typos. Some of them were fixed, but I didn't mark all of them, so not all of them got fixed. Oh, well. Most of the time I could figure out what she meant, so it wasn't really that much of a drawback.
Setting: 5/5
Of course, a lot of the world had already been set up in the first book, so there wasn't as much ground for Kendra to cover, but the world-building she did was very well-done. The settings were interesting, fun, yet serious, and the descriptions were well-done.
Plot: 5/5
So twisty and turny. Oh, my goodness, I'm not even sure I even understand everything that went on. It was very intriguing and kept me up reading, as I said, really late. It's just so...I don't know how to describe it, especially without giving something away. You just have to read the book.
Character Development: 5/5
Okay, so you know the author's doing a good job when you heartily wish for the bad guy's reformation even though there seems to be absolutely no way she will survive. Just all of the characters...but this category is even more spoilery than the last one. So I'll just talk about Reuben and Petra. They're both awesome and cool and I love their relationship. It's so close. I like Ashley, too. Amber and Granite...it's complicated. Really complicated. I won't even try to talk about anyone else.
This is such a good book. You totally have to read it. Although you have to read Water Princess, Fire Prince first. Which, by the way, is free from the 19th to the 23rd. That includes today, so go get it and start reading, if you haven't read it already. And go here to buy Lady Dragon, Tela Du on kindle and paperback.
Writing: 4.75/5
Kendra's writing style is very fitting for her personality. Really fun, yet somehow serious, too. It was really well-written. The only drawback was the many typos. Some of them were fixed, but I didn't mark all of them, so not all of them got fixed. Oh, well. Most of the time I could figure out what she meant, so it wasn't really that much of a drawback.
Setting: 5/5
Of course, a lot of the world had already been set up in the first book, so there wasn't as much ground for Kendra to cover, but the world-building she did was very well-done. The settings were interesting, fun, yet serious, and the descriptions were well-done.
Plot: 5/5
So twisty and turny. Oh, my goodness, I'm not even sure I even understand everything that went on. It was very intriguing and kept me up reading, as I said, really late. It's just so...I don't know how to describe it, especially without giving something away. You just have to read the book.
Character Development: 5/5
Okay, so you know the author's doing a good job when you heartily wish for the bad guy's reformation even though there seems to be absolutely no way she will survive. Just all of the characters...but this category is even more spoilery than the last one. So I'll just talk about Reuben and Petra. They're both awesome and cool and I love their relationship. It's so close. I like Ashley, too. Amber and Granite...it's complicated. Really complicated. I won't even try to talk about anyone else.
This is such a good book. You totally have to read it. Although you have to read Water Princess, Fire Prince first. Which, by the way, is free from the 19th to the 23rd. That includes today, so go get it and start reading, if you haven't read it already. And go here to buy Lady Dragon, Tela Du on kindle and paperback.
March 27, 2017
A good second book, and I look forward to reading the third in the series! I knocked off a star for the characters, while fully developed, I just didn't relate to them. This book has slightly more romance than the first in this series, but it didn't bother me. I love love love the worldbuilding, and the plot doesn't suffer. The flow is a little different from "normal" books, but it never lost my attention. I really enjoyed Lady Dragon, Tela Du.
October 3, 2019
Thoroughly enjoyed this book! The long awaited battle meets all expectations... or perhaps not. :D
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 5, 2018
I hate doing this, but it's about time I DNFed this book. I'm done. It's annoying the heck out of me, it's been almost a year, and I don't want to finish.
I'm giving it two stars instead of one because--I don't know--it could get better? Also, I really like Kendra E. Ardnek. She's a great inspiration to many, even me at one point, and it's amazing what she's done.
But this book is not my cup of tea. I did enjoy Water princess, Fire Prince, but that was also years ago and my opinions have changed since then.
Here comes the list.
What I did not like about the 43% I read of Lady Dragon, Tela Du :
-too much backstory. It's hard to keep track of it all. There are ten rulers or something who came from our world, and then seven people, and the timelines are different between our worlds. Very reminiscent of Narnia, but not as good because Narnia came first, did it well, and didn't have a ton of backstory to remember.
-Petra was Gosh. Dang. Annoying. She was mean to everyone and I didn't understand the whole thing with the accent or her obsession with purple. She was really possessive of Reuben and unsupportive of his decisions even though she claimed to be his best friend. Really uncool. That's not a healthy relationship. I'm also surprised Reuben never called her out on her BS. (well, he might have, but I probably didn't read it)
-Reuben was creepy. He seemed like a great guy but the way he's still after Petra even after she keeps telling him it's not going to happen (not to mention how mean she is) is incredibly stalkerish and problematic. She should have gotten a restraining order or something.
-respect each other already. Petra--let him have a girlfriend. Reuben--you're a creepy stalker man.
-And they're being forced into a marriage at 16. Not cool not cool. They basically have no say in the matter. it's either, get married, or fail to save the world.
-The parents are okay with forcing their children into this arrangement. NOT COOL. Just cause it worked for you doesn't mean it will work for them.
-bend some rules already. it's 2018. you can rule together without being married.
-(and Petra goes from not wanting to ever go beyond friends to wanting his babies??!? TRIGGERED)
-the only person I like is Laura. I also like Amber. She's cool.
These are just my opinions on the book. Who knows? You might like it. But if you're triggered by arranged marriages and Narnia ripoffs, stay away.
I also really hate to be the only negative review on this book, but these issues need to be addressed.
I'm giving it two stars instead of one because--I don't know--it could get better? Also, I really like Kendra E. Ardnek. She's a great inspiration to many, even me at one point, and it's amazing what she's done.
But this book is not my cup of tea. I did enjoy Water princess, Fire Prince, but that was also years ago and my opinions have changed since then.
Here comes the list.
What I did not like about the 43% I read of Lady Dragon, Tela Du :
-too much backstory. It's hard to keep track of it all. There are ten rulers or something who came from our world, and then seven people, and the timelines are different between our worlds. Very reminiscent of Narnia, but not as good because Narnia came first, did it well, and didn't have a ton of backstory to remember.
-Petra was Gosh. Dang. Annoying. She was mean to everyone and I didn't understand the whole thing with the accent or her obsession with purple. She was really possessive of Reuben and unsupportive of his decisions even though she claimed to be his best friend. Really uncool. That's not a healthy relationship. I'm also surprised Reuben never called her out on her BS. (well, he might have, but I probably didn't read it)
-Reuben was creepy. He seemed like a great guy but the way he's still after Petra even after she keeps telling him it's not going to happen (not to mention how mean she is) is incredibly stalkerish and problematic. She should have gotten a restraining order or something.
-respect each other already. Petra--let him have a girlfriend. Reuben--you're a creepy stalker man.
-And they're being forced into a marriage at 16. Not cool not cool. They basically have no say in the matter. it's either, get married, or fail to save the world.
-The parents are okay with forcing their children into this arrangement. NOT COOL. Just cause it worked for you doesn't mean it will work for them.
-bend some rules already. it's 2018. you can rule together without being married.
-(and Petra goes from not wanting to ever go beyond friends to wanting his babies??!? TRIGGERED)
-the only person I like is Laura. I also like Amber. She's cool.
These are just my opinions on the book. Who knows? You might like it. But if you're triggered by arranged marriages and Narnia ripoffs, stay away.
I also really hate to be the only negative review on this book, but these issues need to be addressed.
November 18, 2016
Okay, so the read dates aren't accurate on here, but that's because I was a beta-reader and I don't remember when exactly I read this. So. Without further ado...
This book was fantastic. I loved Water Princess, Fire Prince, but this one knocked my socks off. (Well. It would've, had I been wearing socks.) I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Reuben and Petra...and their powers. Oh my word their powers are adorable and cool all at once.
But not just Reuben and Petra! All the characters in this book are so well developed, and the complex relationships between them, though hard to keep track of at times, add so much to the story. I was absolutely floored by how Amber's story unfolded in this book. One of the things Kendra is amazing at is plot twists, and this book sure didn't disappoint. I suspected maybe two or three, but for the most part? I was kept guessing. Especially in relation to the characters.
I love the themes of trust, teamwork, and most of all redemption and grace in this story. There's nothing better than a wonderful story that really drives home truth, and Lady Dragon, Tela Du is exactly that. Definitely recommended.
Content warnings for occasional violence, including one disturbing scene in part four, I believe it was. Message me if you need details. Also, there are a few kisses, mostly between married couples.
This book was fantastic. I loved Water Princess, Fire Prince, but this one knocked my socks off. (Well. It would've, had I been wearing socks.) I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Reuben and Petra...and their powers. Oh my word their powers are adorable and cool all at once.
But not just Reuben and Petra! All the characters in this book are so well developed, and the complex relationships between them, though hard to keep track of at times, add so much to the story. I was absolutely floored by how Amber's story unfolded in this book. One of the things Kendra is amazing at is plot twists, and this book sure didn't disappoint. I suspected maybe two or three, but for the most part? I was kept guessing. Especially in relation to the characters.
I love the themes of trust, teamwork, and most of all redemption and grace in this story. There's nothing better than a wonderful story that really drives home truth, and Lady Dragon, Tela Du is exactly that. Definitely recommended.
Content warnings for occasional violence, including one disturbing scene in part four, I believe it was. Message me if you need details. Also, there are a few kisses, mostly between married couples.
October 25, 2017
I'm not sure I've had more fun reading any book other than Lady Dragon, Tela Du.
Perhaps it was because I first read it aloud with brothers and had a chat group with other readers. Or perhaps it was also because it's a great book. And this is why I love it.
It’s as good as the first book
Or better. It doesn’t suffer from any common second book problems. But then it’s not exactly a second book, since Kendra has been working on it much longer.
It touched on many of the same things, but in a fresh way. The relationships were handled differently, the pace was different and many locations were different. The world building wasn’t repetitive of the first book. In fact it worked better because Kendra wasn’t trying to explain everything. Anything necessary just came up naturally.
I certainly wasn’t disappointed by the different characters. I may have liked a few in book one better than their counterparts, but overall they were better.
The Plot Twists
This book had at least 6 plot twist of significance and numerous smaller ones. I saw less than half of them coming. And I like that. I felt smart for what I did figure out, but the ones I didn’t is what made it really brilliant. Because they are telegraphed way back, in very subtle ways. Kendra is brilliant at this.
I also made the mistake of trying to make guesses based of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Yes, this book was inspired by that. But I knew there had been many major changes. Yet still I tried to use it as a pattern. Take my advice, don’t bother making too many predictions. You will never figure it out.
The Emotional Depth
You know how some books seem to change how you feel and you get so full of emotions that you almost burst. The books that you must talk about in some form. This is one of those books. I felt the situations almost as if I was there. It got me pondering deep things. What would it be like if someone else knew what I was thinking, what I have locked away in my heart? What would it be like to have great things asked of me? Things I almost certainly couldn’t do, but felt I couldn’t avoid. What if my life spun completely out of control? Would I still be able to trust God to help me through each day? Am I really trusting him to help me through life now?
Reuben
This is actually a kind of odd one, because though I can’t help liking him, the intensity of his feelings for Petra makes me a bit uncomfortable. an enthusiastic, irrepressible optimist. This often annoys Petra which makes me either annoyed or amused. He can be ridiculous at times, but under it he has his serious moments. I love those serious moments. They’re usually when Petra is worked up and needs sense talked into her.
Petra
She’s an uncommon protagonist. Not at all interested in risking her life to kill Amber. Well not until she has a personal reason to hate her. But people who are willing to risk their lives to make things better for others probably aren’t as common as books would make you think.
She’s also very smart and logical, has a very matter of fact way of speaking and won’t put up with nonsense.
The World
Different colours of water; crazily coloured everything; telepathic, teleporting unicorns; doormats that also teleport you; three different castles; what more could you want? Well there is more, Ambers magical items for example. She has pocket sized stars that do everything from invisibility to changing winds and lots in between: a table that makes its own food; touch activated lights and doors, and much more. And we get a little peek into another world.
Ashna
Every book needs a sweet elf girl doesn’t it? Well maybe not, but we have one here. Ashna goes through a lot of hard things, and though she gets scared she’s not weepy. She’s very quiet and would never intentionally hurt anyone. She’s a contrast to other female characters who easily explode or and least get annoyed. But I think gentleness is common in Kendra’s elves since they are weaker. Her gift is colour change and though it might seem a bit trivial she finds both valuable and caring uses for it.
Family
This isn’t quite a book about family, but it’s got a good bit in it. Parents appear a few times, and are referred to at others. There’s lots of siblings and though they are actually not together for most of the book (instead we get pairs, one from each family), there is a certain closeness and loyalty shown. And in the end of the book, when they are together. It’s very good. I can’t say more than that.
Amber
The villain is always a valid reason for liking a book. I’d met Amber in the previous book, but now I get to see her side of the story. She’s not just some crazy lady who can turn into a dragon. She’s obsessed with the idea of ruling Rizkaland and won’t see what stands in her way. She thinks she knows exactly what she’s doing, but she can’t avoid her destiny. And under her callousness, there’s a slight sense of humour. Characters need a sense of humour.
I hated Amber in the first book, was glad she was going to die and didn’t care how. But somehow Kendra twisted be around so that I actually pitied her. I wished for her to change. Doing that with a villain is masterful
Granite
Amber’s husband. I feel so sorry for him. How could a good man still love his wife when she had been evil for so long? Yet he does. He tries to make her see what she is doing wrong.
He’s also at times quite a fun character. He and Reuben would make quite a pair.
The Themes
Trusting in God to make everything turn out all right. God has a plan even in the things that don’t make the least sense. Sometimes we wonder why he let things happen how they have. Wouldn’t it be so much better if Amber had never come to Rizkaland? Or sometimes we worry about the consequences of our choices. What if the thing we thought was right messed everything up?
And once again, the important of commitment in relationships. I like to see love shown in it’s best for rather than the selfish love we often see.
What I didn’t like so much
The structure just didn’t quite feel right. The point of highest tension was at the three quarter mark. After that it slowly dropped, getting down to almost nothing before jumping up pretty high just before the end. It’s not a big problem and my love of the character and a knowledge that something had to happen kept me reading, but it was a little slow.
There wasn’t enough room in the book for all of the characters to be fully developed. There was one couple in particular I would have like to see a little more of. But since that would have had to happen in the end part of the book it would have made the previous problem worse.
Content warning
This book does have romance. There’s young married couples doing about what you would expect, kissing, falling asleep together, nothing more than that. And the description tends more towards the character’s emotions than physical sensations.
There’s a bit of violence, with people getting stabbed or turned into ice. I’d say it’s got less than Water Princess, Fire Prince. There’s a bit of blood, but no gore.
So overall, I highly recommend this book for anyone with a taste for fantasy, tales of adventure and high callings, of sacrifice and love.
Major Spoilers in a happy rant:
Perhaps it was because I first read it aloud with brothers and had a chat group with other readers. Or perhaps it was also because it's a great book. And this is why I love it.
It’s as good as the first book
Or better. It doesn’t suffer from any common second book problems. But then it’s not exactly a second book, since Kendra has been working on it much longer.
It touched on many of the same things, but in a fresh way. The relationships were handled differently, the pace was different and many locations were different. The world building wasn’t repetitive of the first book. In fact it worked better because Kendra wasn’t trying to explain everything. Anything necessary just came up naturally.
I certainly wasn’t disappointed by the different characters. I may have liked a few in book one better than their counterparts, but overall they were better.
The Plot Twists
This book had at least 6 plot twist of significance and numerous smaller ones. I saw less than half of them coming. And I like that. I felt smart for what I did figure out, but the ones I didn’t is what made it really brilliant. Because they are telegraphed way back, in very subtle ways. Kendra is brilliant at this.
I also made the mistake of trying to make guesses based of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Yes, this book was inspired by that. But I knew there had been many major changes. Yet still I tried to use it as a pattern. Take my advice, don’t bother making too many predictions. You will never figure it out.
The Emotional Depth
You know how some books seem to change how you feel and you get so full of emotions that you almost burst. The books that you must talk about in some form. This is one of those books. I felt the situations almost as if I was there. It got me pondering deep things. What would it be like if someone else knew what I was thinking, what I have locked away in my heart? What would it be like to have great things asked of me? Things I almost certainly couldn’t do, but felt I couldn’t avoid. What if my life spun completely out of control? Would I still be able to trust God to help me through each day? Am I really trusting him to help me through life now?
Reuben
This is actually a kind of odd one, because though I can’t help liking him, the intensity of his feelings for Petra makes me a bit uncomfortable. an enthusiastic, irrepressible optimist. This often annoys Petra which makes me either annoyed or amused. He can be ridiculous at times, but under it he has his serious moments. I love those serious moments. They’re usually when Petra is worked up and needs sense talked into her.
Petra
She’s an uncommon protagonist. Not at all interested in risking her life to kill Amber. Well not until she has a personal reason to hate her. But people who are willing to risk their lives to make things better for others probably aren’t as common as books would make you think.
She’s also very smart and logical, has a very matter of fact way of speaking and won’t put up with nonsense.
The World
Different colours of water; crazily coloured everything; telepathic, teleporting unicorns; doormats that also teleport you; three different castles; what more could you want? Well there is more, Ambers magical items for example. She has pocket sized stars that do everything from invisibility to changing winds and lots in between: a table that makes its own food; touch activated lights and doors, and much more. And we get a little peek into another world.
Ashna
Every book needs a sweet elf girl doesn’t it? Well maybe not, but we have one here. Ashna goes through a lot of hard things, and though she gets scared she’s not weepy. She’s very quiet and would never intentionally hurt anyone. She’s a contrast to other female characters who easily explode or and least get annoyed. But I think gentleness is common in Kendra’s elves since they are weaker. Her gift is colour change and though it might seem a bit trivial she finds both valuable and caring uses for it.
Family
This isn’t quite a book about family, but it’s got a good bit in it. Parents appear a few times, and are referred to at others. There’s lots of siblings and though they are actually not together for most of the book (instead we get pairs, one from each family), there is a certain closeness and loyalty shown. And in the end of the book, when they are together. It’s very good. I can’t say more than that.
Amber
The villain is always a valid reason for liking a book. I’d met Amber in the previous book, but now I get to see her side of the story. She’s not just some crazy lady who can turn into a dragon. She’s obsessed with the idea of ruling Rizkaland and won’t see what stands in her way. She thinks she knows exactly what she’s doing, but she can’t avoid her destiny. And under her callousness, there’s a slight sense of humour. Characters need a sense of humour.
I hated Amber in the first book, was glad she was going to die and didn’t care how. But somehow Kendra twisted be around so that I actually pitied her. I wished for her to change. Doing that with a villain is masterful
Granite
Amber’s husband. I feel so sorry for him. How could a good man still love his wife when she had been evil for so long? Yet he does. He tries to make her see what she is doing wrong.
He’s also at times quite a fun character. He and Reuben would make quite a pair.
The Themes
Trusting in God to make everything turn out all right. God has a plan even in the things that don’t make the least sense. Sometimes we wonder why he let things happen how they have. Wouldn’t it be so much better if Amber had never come to Rizkaland? Or sometimes we worry about the consequences of our choices. What if the thing we thought was right messed everything up?
And once again, the important of commitment in relationships. I like to see love shown in it’s best for rather than the selfish love we often see.
What I didn’t like so much
The structure just didn’t quite feel right. The point of highest tension was at the three quarter mark. After that it slowly dropped, getting down to almost nothing before jumping up pretty high just before the end. It’s not a big problem and my love of the character and a knowledge that something had to happen kept me reading, but it was a little slow.
There wasn’t enough room in the book for all of the characters to be fully developed. There was one couple in particular I would have like to see a little more of. But since that would have had to happen in the end part of the book it would have made the previous problem worse.
Content warning
This book does have romance. There’s young married couples doing about what you would expect, kissing, falling asleep together, nothing more than that. And the description tends more towards the character’s emotions than physical sensations.
There’s a bit of violence, with people getting stabbed or turned into ice. I’d say it’s got less than Water Princess, Fire Prince. There’s a bit of blood, but no gore.
So overall, I highly recommend this book for anyone with a taste for fantasy, tales of adventure and high callings, of sacrifice and love.
Major Spoilers in a happy rant:
June 11, 2021
4.5 stars, rounded up because of worldbuilding and character awesomeness!
Things I loved:
-RIZKALAND
-Amber POV chapters (CUNNING! MAGIC! DRAGON! SEEING GRANITE THROUGH HER EYES!)
-Laura, as always (each time she shows up we learn a teeny bit more about her, and this year she will win a Silmaril! Because she totally should)
-Between Laura and Amber, we learn a bit more of a variety of other worlds (will the random snippets end up becoming important later? Maybe, since a lot of the stuff Laura says ends up coming back in one way or another.)
-Reuben and Petra (very much a beneficial power couple)
-Telepathy and exploration of abilities (this definitely gives the characters that have this ability a bit more of an intimate relationship, but the hints and such in regards to that will likely go well over many young readers’ heads)
-There were a lot of secondary and side characters, but I have to say my favorites are Summer and Ritis (Summer because she’s a great foil for Petra, and Ritis because he’s a kind Bookholder with a heart wrenching Gift)
-That ending…partly expected, partly not; I expected the eventual outcome, but not the way it happened, so that was nice
-FAMILY INVOLVEMENT!!!! Siblings play important and/or encouragement roles, lots of “close as family” friend involvement, and parents are supportive and there for advice (I know caps lock is a somewhat lazy way to convey excitement/emphasis, but hey THIS WAS EXCITING. It was also very much needed for the characters. I shudder to think how this would have gone without the support and guidance, just blind stumbling in the literal and metaphorical dark…)
-Love triangles were not a thing, in any way, shape, or form; all difficulties involved character nuances and flaws/development <3
Things I didn’t like so much:
-Huh? Things, plural…uh…okay, one thing, and it was just a few rougher patches of writing (primarily dialogue), but it was very much improved from Water Princess, Fire Prince.
-I was kind of sad that Reuben didn’t get more comments about fantasy/genre savviness in, but that was more of a mild disappointment that was quickly swept away by everything else than something “I didn’t like”, so…
Things I loved:
-RIZKALAND
-Amber POV chapters (CUNNING! MAGIC! DRAGON! SEEING GRANITE THROUGH HER EYES!)
-Laura, as always (each time she shows up we learn a teeny bit more about her, and this year she will win a Silmaril! Because she totally should)
-Between Laura and Amber, we learn a bit more of a variety of other worlds (will the random snippets end up becoming important later? Maybe, since a lot of the stuff Laura says ends up coming back in one way or another.)
-Reuben and Petra (very much a beneficial power couple)
-Telepathy and exploration of abilities (this definitely gives the characters that have this ability a bit more of an intimate relationship, but the hints and such in regards to that will likely go well over many young readers’ heads)
-There were a lot of secondary and side characters, but I have to say my favorites are Summer and Ritis (Summer because she’s a great foil for Petra, and Ritis because he’s a kind Bookholder with a heart wrenching Gift)
-That ending…partly expected, partly not; I expected the eventual outcome, but not the way it happened, so that was nice
-FAMILY INVOLVEMENT!!!! Siblings play important and/or encouragement roles, lots of “close as family” friend involvement, and parents are supportive and there for advice (I know caps lock is a somewhat lazy way to convey excitement/emphasis, but hey THIS WAS EXCITING. It was also very much needed for the characters. I shudder to think how this would have gone without the support and guidance, just blind stumbling in the literal and metaphorical dark…)
-Love triangles were not a thing, in any way, shape, or form; all difficulties involved character nuances and flaws/development <3
Things I didn’t like so much:
-Huh? Things, plural…uh…okay, one thing, and it was just a few rougher patches of writing (primarily dialogue), but it was very much improved from Water Princess, Fire Prince.
-I was kind of sad that Reuben didn’t get more comments about fantasy/genre savviness in, but that was more of a mild disappointment that was quickly swept away by everything else than something “I didn’t like”, so…
February 4, 2019
This one was fantastic! I can't say too much, because spoilers, but we get a satisfying ending. Loved the themes of betrayal, loyalty and forgiveness. And that characters who are forgiven still must deal with the consequences of their actions. I need more!
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