Review by bb587 -- Dragon Born by Ela Lourenco

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Elizabeth Pass
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Review by bb587 -- Dragon Born by Ela Lourenco

Post by Elizabeth Pass »

[Following is a volunteer review of "Dragon Born" by Ela Lourenco.]
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3 out of 4 stars
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Dragon Born by Ela Lourenco was a very good story, despite the lack of editing. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about this fantasy world.

Lara is finally old enough to start magic school. She meets her dorm-mate, Leyla, and they become fast friends. Soon, they meet Sophia and Anna, completing their circle of friends. Everyone gets tested to see what their magical talents are. Lara and Leyla get tested separately. The headmistress, a friend of both their families, forges their test results so that there is no record of how well they’ve done. If the wrong people were to find out how talented both girls are, they could be in danger.

We continue to follow the girls through their first term at school. They meet new people, learn new things, and their friendship continues to grow. There is a bully, Jayla, that tends to make life difficult. The king’s three sons also attend the school. The girls spend a bit of time trying to find the legendary hidden passages. All-in-all, this is a good introductory book to the series.

I love the friendship that blooms for these four girls. Each character has her own personality without being overbearing. They’re each kind-hearted, and I feel that’s what brings them together. We also get to see Lara’s relationships at home. Lara is an orphan and lives in a home with other orphans. She treats everyone in the house as if they were blood-relatives and accepts everyone for who they are. Overall, Lara is a strong leading-lady for this series.

There is a lot of secrecy in this book. The adults often try to protect the children by lying to them. Lara’s initial test results show that she’s stronger than everyone around her, including the teachers. However, she’s only told that she has an affinity for healing. When the adults get together for a secret meeting, they tell the children they are going to a late movie. When Lara does particularly well in a one-on-one session, her teacher tells her not to tell her peers so as not to make them jealous, when really she had done something that should have been impossible. I feel this theme of secrecy will continue on into the next books.

The lack of editing brought this book down from great to good. The most distracting problem was the inconsistency of indentations. Some paragraphs were indented while most others were not. I spent a considerable amount of time trying to determine a pattern. I did not find one. Commas were also a problem throughout this book. The errors were not consistent, which lead me to believe it was carelessness instead of lack of knowledge. If this book got professionally edited, it would truly be amazing.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. The only problem I had with it was the editing. I’d recommend it to lovers of fantasy. Since the main characters are all young, this book seem intended for young adult readers but I think adults would enjoy it as well. This book does take place on a different world with different races of people. If that’s not something you’re generally interested in, I suggest finding something else.

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Dragon Born
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