Thank you Usborne Publishing for this book in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis:

After playing a forbidden spell-song to save a village from rats, 12-year-old piper Patch Brightwater is thrown in jail. But there he meets Wren – a noble girl under a rat-shaped curse – and together they befriend Barver, a fearsome dracogriff, and set off on a grand adventure filled with sorcerers, dragons, bandits…and one very deadly enemy.

From the depths of the Tiviscan dungeons to the highest peak of Gemspar Mountain, this stunning book reminds us of the soaring joy of adventure, the captivating danger of magic, and of the delight of finding friends in unexpected places.

Review:

I LOVED THIS BOOK!

I repeat, I loved this book that much that it was extremely hard to fault anything about it. I finished the book two days ago and over the course of the last two days found nothing I could even nit-pick on. A Darkness of Dragon’s was wonderful! I need more!

Our journey begins with Patch Brightwater, a 12 year old apprentice piper that comes across a village that is over run with rats, and in desperate need of assistance. Eagar to assist, Patch puts his lungs to work and plays a forbidden song that not only leads to the rats to their deaths but the spell had begun to work its magic on the humans! Caught in the act, Patch gets locked up in the dungeons of Tiviscan, with the hope of escaping. Along the grand adventure Patch discovers unusual yet wonderful friends, the need to help those in need and hopes that no one can find out who he is and what crimes he committed. Oh and did I mention that he gets locked in the same dungeon as the Hamelyn piper, a notorious villain that lured children and baby dragons to their deaths??? Can’t forget to tell you about the bad guy can I? After all villains are my favourite!

There are so many fun aspects of this book that I am not even too sure where to start!?! Shall I start with the fact our lead Patch and the fact that he is a piper? I loved it. As much as I love fairy tale retellings it is always based around the following: Beauty and the beast, The Little Mermaid and Alice in Wonderland. Don’t get me wrong, I love retellings. Actually I am obsessed, especially retellings of Peter Pan, I can never get enough. However, in all my years of reading and in all the books I know and own, I have never come across a retelling of the piper and it’s one of the amazing aspects of this book. But not only do we have Patch that is a piper we also have the villain, Hamelyn piper who is a piper as well. Hamelyn piper would have to be based around The Pied Piper of Hamerlin or as most of us would recall, Pan Piper. This legend of the piper dates back to the Middle Ages, where he was hired by a village to lure the rats away with his magic pipe. When the citizens of this village refused to pay for his services, the piper retaliates by luring the children away just has he had done to the rats. Amazing right? See, I told you this book was amazing!

Overall the plot for this book was amazing, I immensely enjoyed the progression of the story and found every part of their journey engaging and fast passed. There was always a twist in the tale, a new character introduced or an old character returning which kept the story lively and left no room for boredom.

Can I start gushing over the characters yet? Wow I loved them all. Bright. Unique. Fine. Beautiful. Classical. Gahhh I loved them!!!

Patch, our leading guys was wonderful. He always would put his best foot forward to help those around him and would go to any length to help his friends and it was delightful. And I can’t get over the friendship that he and Wren share, its sweet, innocent and I put want to put them in bubble wrap and protect them. Adorable!

Wren, not only has a great friendship with Patch, she is also a bright, sweet and delightful character. Wren was cursed to live the remainder of her live out as a rat until she came across Patch and together they face challenges to find out how they can reverse her curse. Their teamwork is inspiring and it really brings into question, how far you will go to help a stranger? I think this is important since you look at modern society and how little humans will lend a hand to help another. When did helping someone turn into a painful chore?

S.A Patrick is a compelling writer. I found his words flowed so well together that I lost track of all time while reading. I was a month to the flame that is Patrick’s words, I’m now addicted and need more.

Overall A Darkness of Dragon’s is a fast-passed, compelling and wonderful book full of pipers, dragons, a crazed villain, sorcerers and bandits. What more could you need?

Rating: 5/5

Publisher: Usborne Publishing

ISBN: 978147495677