Scales and Sensibility (Regency Dragons Book 1), by Stephanie Burgis (Five Fathoms Press)
About 15 years ago, Jane Austen mashups were the hot new
thing. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith came out in
2009, followed by a glut of similar parodies and even a film or two. The fad
didn’t last, especially as the stories got more derivative and less creative. Stephanie
Burgis’s Scales and Sensibility opens with an homage to Austen: “It is a
truth universally acknowledged…” Other than an occasional textual reference to
Austen’s prose, it has nothing in common with the earlier, vapid parodies.
Instead, it takes off in its own whimsical and engaging direction. The
protagonist is named Elinor, like the heroine of Austen’s Sense and
Sensibility and she is indeed sensible, but there the resemblance ends. She
is an orphaned cousin, not the eldest daughter, and her counterpart is not her
romantic, good-hearted sister but her wealthy, narcissistic cousin, Penelope.
When witnessing Penelope’s abuse of her fashionable miniature dragon becomes
intolerable, Elinor kidnaps the tiny creature and runs away. Little does she
know the dragon’s secret or guess the adventures the two will embark upon.
This novel rests comfortably in the intersection between Young Adult fantasy, Regency romance, and romantic comedy. It’s an engaging, quick read with enough schemes and mistaken identities to satisfy the reader.
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