First sentence: The screams of the children brought the villagers running.

Premise/plot: A Darkening of Dragons is the first in a fantasy trilogy that is an adapted twist on the Piper of Hamelyn tale. Patch Brightwater, our hero soon to be on a quest, isn't your typical hero. In fact, he soon lands himself in prison. The prisoner next door is legendary, and, obviously not in a good way: the evil Piper of Hamelyn. He's wearing an iron mask to prevent him from mischief, doomed to repeat the last word he said before the mask was attached. Wren, a girl with big dreams, has been cursed and turned into a rat. Wren and Patch become great friends. When an opportunity for escape presents itself (this scene reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean), Patch and Wren make a run for it. Soon they are joined by Barver, a dracogriff (dragon/griffin). Thus begins their bigger adventures...

My thoughts: The world building in this fantasy novel is great. The characterization is there--it's substantive. I never thought I would get so attached to Wren and Barver. (But I did.) The quest doesn't begin on page one, there's lots of build-up. There were twists and turns along the way....and, of course, it ends on a cliffhanger.

I can't wait to start the second book! ( )

A brilliant fantasy novel, it's astounding and the Author has written very rare aspects of the subjects! It is different and refreshing ( )

In a world where the Pied Piper of Hamelyn not only piped children away but draconic children too and where he was captured and imprisoned by other pipers, in this world pipers have power, there is some suspicion about pipers, but the town of Patterfall is desperate. So when a young man stumbles into the town, frozen and half-dead where the town has a rat problem and he's a piper, he tries to help but finds that things are more complicated than they seem. Stumbling into a rat who is a cursed girl (Wren) he eventually finds a fire-breathing dragogriff who also befriends them but they have to fight much more evil than they expected.

While technically a children's book there's a lot of layers about trust and friendship and learning to be a responsible person and sacrifices that have to be made for the greater good and I want more! ( )

This is a fantastical take on the fairy tale of the Piper of Hamelin, though with added magic and dragons; the main premise here is that music is magic when played by the Pipers. It focuses on the combined stories of Patch, a trainee Piper who's in trouble for playing a forbidden Song, Wren, a girl cursed to live as a rat, and Barver, a dracogriff (part dragon, part griffin). The story takes place about ten years after the Piper of Hamelyn abducted not only human, but also dragon children.

The three main characters are engaging and the minor characters complex considering the age of the target audience. This book is also a whole lot darker than your average children's book, and some children may well get upset by what is revealed during the course of the novel. There is plenty of action, adventure and some genuinely surprising plot twists that will keep the reader entertained and in suspense, especially as the cliffhanger ending sets up the sequel, supposed to be out later in 2019. I thought the narration and particularly the dialogue occasionally were a bit clunky – no doubt that any members of the target audience won't have that complaint – though some of the vocabulary may be a bit advanced for younger readers.

(Review written for Amazon's Vine programme.) ( )