Melanie and her brother Jason discover a dragon egg while camping near the Grand Canyon. They hide the little dragon and name him Scalaed. The dragon grows up and leads Melanie and Jason into another world. There they are captured by an evil huntress and imprisoned in her dark fortress. The huntress is using dark magic to create an army of dragons, and she wants Scalaed for a special purpose.

I loved the magic in this book! There are telepathic birds, shapeshifters, immortal beings, healing crystals, and magical glass swords. There is a lot of mysterious dark magic, but there is also light magic to combat the dark.

The world-building of the realm of Tindoria is really interesting, and I love the weight of history behind all the legends. The people of Tindoria have suffered from years of war, and when Melanie and Jason arrive they have to catch up pretty quickly with the local politics. But the narrative has very little exposition, allowing the story to unfold naturally as the siblings learn about this new world.

In the first section of the book set in the Grand Canyon, you get a sense of the strong sibling bond between Melanie and Jason, and then when they are transported to another world, that relationship gets even stronger as they have to rely on each other to survive. They make friends with some good folk who come together to fight against the evil huntress. Melanie has a magical bond with her dragon, Scalaed, as well, and they can communicate with each other through a heart link. These friendships between the characters were the best part of the book!

However, I have a pet peeve about multiple POVs, and this book was head-hopping all over the place. The omniscient narrator was bouncing back and forth into a different character's or animal's experience in every other paragraph.

There were several things in the plot that I didn't quite understand, that seemed silly or weird to me. There is an enemy soldier who confronts Jason, and Jason says, "You can't hurt me. I'm Helnah's [the huntress] new favorite." So the soldier "dropped his sword in frustration." I mean, this is the head honcho general of the entire fortress, supposedly a battle-hardened warrior who commands all the soldiers of the army, and he just drops his sword??? What kind of stupid soldier drops his sword? Why didn't he just sheath his sword back in the scabbard? He realizes that he can't harm Jason because his boss, the huntress, wants Jason alive and unharmed, but is that any reason to drop your sword? Because he dropped his sword, Jason "scrambled for the sword" and they start fighting back and forth. Why would the soldier let down his guard like that, knowing that Jason is a threat? There were several little things like that which seemed very odd to me throughout the story.

Overall, I enjoyed the story though! The romance is clean and sweet. The writing is exciting and emotional. The plot keeps moving along through all their adventures. A fun fantasy story!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts and are not influenced by anyone.