Author: M.D. Neu
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: December 18, 2017
Heat Level: 0
Pairing: Female/Female
Length: 50 pages (12000 words)
Genre: Fantasy, Holiday, Young Adult, LGBT, Lesbian
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36654437-a-dragon-for-christmas
Carmen is eleven years old and wants to get her dragon. Since she was seven years old, she understood two things. Once, she was going to be the strongest Dragon Keeper there ever eas. The Second was that she was going to marry her best friend, Mattie.
As Christmas approaches the magical charms Carmen has to use to fight off her curse are taking a toll on her health. But that can't stop her from taking her final test to become a Dragon Keeper. If she passes her test she gets her dragon if not, she has to start all over relying on different magical charms to fight the curse for her. That is something Carmen doesn't want to have to go through. The testing is difficult and charms make her sick. Carmen has decided that if she doesn't get her dragon this Christmas she's not going to go for a third attempt, even if that means she can't marry Mattie when she grows up.
My Review:
M.D. Neu has done it again! You may recall that I read and reviewed his vampire novel, The Calling. Although both The Calling and A Dragon for Christmas would both fall into my definition of Urban Fantasy, A Dragon for Christmas is unabashedly sweet, with just enough sadness to make it a perfect Christmas Story.
And yes, before you get all "but it's April - why are you reading Christmas stories?", let me just say that a good Christmas story is good at any point of the year. Like who doesn't want Christmas in July, or October, or even April. So there. Deal. (I'm looking at you right now with a cocked eyebrow. That's a challenge for you to defy me and tell me I'm wrong. Go ahead, do it...)
I digress.
As I've said many times before, I don't like giving away a story's twists and turns, but I have to spill a little bit of the beans on this one. Neu has written this story from the perspective of an eleven-year-old girl. It is uncomplicated and straight to the point - just like any other girl would be at this age. The words aren't big, the concepts aren't twisted, and big grown-up problems aren't addressed - but we see them. We see it all through the eyes of Carmen who is honest, optimistic, but sometimes moody. (Just like every eleven-year-old girl I have known!).
You see, Carmen is cursed. We're never really told what that curse is, or how she got it, but that is the reality. The only thing that will help her is by having a dragon of her very own. There are many things that cursed children have to do in order to obtain their dragon, and Carmen is on that journey.
You can't help but make some comparisons to kids with cancer, or other life-threatening diseases, and it pulls at the heartstrings.
In Neu's world, Dragon's carry potent magic, and it is that magic that staves off curses. Hence, Carmen needs her own dragon to be healthy. Dragons, it would seem, are abundant in nature (I wish!). In fact, I was delighted with Neu's portrayal of the flying lizards. With common names like Blue Bottom, Yellow-Tip, and Canadian Whites, you would think we were talking about various subspecies of finches, not dragons. By the way, I have to say I was pleasantly tickled by the Canadian Whites. Living in the Great White North myself, it currently being April, and with snow still on the ground, I thought Canadian dragons being white, and of course, I would assume ice-liking, was perfect. I can only extrapolate from that concept that Canadian dragons only appear in the winter, and hibernate during the summer, or perhaps migrate to either the Arctic or the Antarctic where they live out their days in glacial snow valleys and polar ice caps.
But again, I digress.
Carmen, our cursed little girl, relies on her best friend Mattie in order to get her through her struggles. Also of note, in Neu's world, same-sex pairings are the norm. It's a matter of fact. No one makes a big deal out of it. And Carmen has made it very clear that she loves Mattie, and one day, the two will marry.
That's all I'm going to tell you. You'll just have to read the rest yourself. But even though there are images that will make you feel sad, the hope and promise of getting a Dragon for Christmas, in order to cure Carmen of her curse will make you zip through this short story with the wild abandon of a Blue Bottom dragon.
Well done, Neu, well done.
Rating:
Purchase Links:
NineStar Press: https//ninestarepress.com/product/a-dragon-for-christmas/
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/y6uzd3p4
Barnes & Noble: https://tinyurl.com/yac67ojl
Meet the Author:
Growing up in an accepting family as a gay man he always wondered why there were never stories reflecting who he was. Constantly surrounded by characters that only reflected heterosexual society, M.D. Neu decided he wanted to change that. So, he took to writing, wanting to tell good stories that reflected our diverse world.
When M.D. Neu isn’t writing, he works for a non-profit and travels with his biggest supporter and his harshest critic, Eric his husband of eighteen plus years.
Links:
Website: http://www.mdneu.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Writer_MDNeu
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mdneuauthor/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17206592.M_D_Neu
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