Title: Penny White and the Temptation of Dragons (Penny White #1)
Author: Chrys Cymri
Rating: 4/5 stars
Synopsis: Bishop Nigel smiled at
me. ‘Holy water doesn’t harm vampires. Which is just as well, as it
would make it impossible to baptise them.’
When I was asked by a
dragon to give him the last rites, I never dreamed it would lead to
negotiating with his cannibalistic family or running from snail sharks.
Life as the priest of a small English village is quite tame in
comparision. At least I have Morey, a gryphon with sarcasm management
issues, to help me. And if all else fails, there’s always red wine and
single malt whisky.
As if my life weren’t complicated enough, a
darkly beautiful dragon named Raven keeps appearing where I least expect
him, I’ve met a handsome police inspector who loves science fiction as
much as I do, and my younger brother is getting into trouble for trying
to pick up vampires.
That’s what happens when you’re dealing
with an incredible and dangerous parallel world full of mythical
creatures. And I have to learn to navigate it all without losing myself,
or my brother…
Source: E-copy from the author
My Thoughts:
I cannot
thank Chrys Cymri enough for providing me an e-copy of Penny White and the
Temptation of Dragons. It was pure fun to peek into the daily life of Penny
White, vicar of a small English village and Vicar General of Incursions. The
latter title makes our Penny a dragon rider, a snail shark tamer and a friend
of a gryphon among many things.
What gripped
me in this book?
We have an
adorably crazy protagonist. Penny is a Doctor Who and Buffy fan and she often throws
in references to these and other series during conversations. Being a Whovian
myself I welcomed this addition to the character. She is a very funny
individual, she often goes into witty banters with Morey, the gryphon who
becomes a sort of sidekick in the story. I liked that she was realistic (you
know, despite the fact that she was surrounded by all kinds of mythical
creatures). She is a very caring person, yet sometimes she fights her inner
battles against selfishness – like all of us do. She fulfils two different
kinds of role successfully and that’s something, if one of the roles
occasionally include dealing with cannibalistic dragons or entering a bar full
of drunk harpies…
It was great
to get a glimpse of the everyday life of a vicar in England and get to know
what tasks they have to handle. Of course the book was spiced up with humour,
but I believe we get a close-to-real picture of what goes on in a vicarage if
we take the colouring layers off the story. You don’t have to be a Christian to
enjoy Penny’s day to day journey though; even religious matters are shown in a
humorous light (however, religion is not treated offensively, remember, both the protagonist and the writer are priests).
The part that
is set on Earth reminds us how impossible – impossibly ridiculous? – people can
be sometimes. Consider this excerpt for example:
The baptism family grinned indulgently as I apologised and let the call
go to messages. But then I had accepted without comment the name they had given
their son, Friday Storm (He was conceived on a Friday during a storm) and that
they had chosen eight people to be the godparents. Including an atheist who was
still happy, they said, to make the promises and the profession of faith.
But Penny
doesn’t spend all her time on Earth. After she encounters a dying dragon on the
road and gives him the last rites she is offered a job: she has to help
mythical creatures and humans that accidentally end up on Earth or Lloegyr (a
parallel world where the creatures live).
Penny gets to
meet dragons, vampires, unicorns, elves, harpies, gryphons and other strange
beings. I was so pumped when it turned out there are snail sharks in the book!!
I have a thing for giant snails/ snail monsters for some reason.
All of the
creatures speak Welsh (a language I want to learn since I watched Torchwood),
that was really lovely!
The plot
revolves around the death of the dragon and how Penny learns to manage her
double life. She also has to try to keep the peace between James – her brother
– and the gryphon, Morey, she ends up living with.
There is a
mysterious dragon that appears to her at the most unexpected places, too. Raven
takes an interest in Penny and the vicar soon realises the curiosity is mutual.
I have to confess I was afraid there would be human/dragon racy stuff in there
– I don’t know if I’d be comfortable with that – but the relationship is written
very tastefully so far. It’s all hugs and dragon rides (no pun intended, haha :).
There were a
few tiny things for which I took away a star, but they weren’t major issues.
One: Penny’s reaction was too mild when she saw the
dragon in the beginning and she digested the existence of Lloegyr too easily I
think.
Two: There was too much booze in the story for my
liking but drinking became a character trait of Penny in a way, so I got used
to it after a while.
And three: I was a bit confused during the
first half of the book because I didn’t understand why one person can see the
creatures but others can’t. It gets explained too late why it’s so, I think.
But then
again, these don’t change the fact that I loved this novel and I can’t wait to
read the second instalment in the series. I think I haven’t written such a long
review in a while and I still could go on and on… It means something, doesn’t
it?
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