This is a light romp in the world of happily-ever-after for a princess who never expected to meet her very own prince-charming.  When I say "light" I don't mean it's light-hearted, quite the contrary.  I mean it's a young adult story without a great deal of depth for an adult reader.  I'm not sure how it was marketed as the author writes for both adults and young adults.  I will say, up front, that the story resonated enough for it to be picked up by Netflix and starring Millie Bobby Brown.  That's a pretty big deal.

Elodie lived in a drought-stricken small kingdom and her only wish was to provide for her people; an increasingly difficult task.  When an envoy from a small and reclusive kingdom arrives with a bride proposal - her hand in exchange for bailing out her kingdom - she doesn't see that she has a choice.  Not that the proposal, along with a really hot Prince, was an unpleasant prospect.  Elodie was raised to be a princess of her people and she is determined to transfer that loyalty to her new kingdom and do all she can to make it an even better place.  But much about the ceremonies and her new in-laws is confusing and even a bit threatening.  Determined to understand different customs, she submits to all that is asked of her.  But, when directly after the marriage ceremony, the Queen requires her to submit to a strange ritual that ends up with Elodie being thrown off a cliff to be fed to a dragon; she comes to think that maybe herself isn't what the kingdom required when they married their son to her.  It appears they only needed a sacrifice.  And this isn't a spoiler as the information was included in the book's synopsis on the flyleaf.

Anyway…since Elodie is not a delicate flower, she manages to evade the dragon and survive the first night.  She begins seeing clues around her that indicates she isn't the first.  But the more she learns, the more she's determined to be the last.  She thinks that all she has to do is continue to evade the dragon until she can find a way out of the caverns and return home.  But that turned out to be a completely naïve assumption, considering the dragon has made its home in the caverns for uncounted millennia.  She also didn't consider what would happen when the dragon was cheated of its contract. Her survival may come at the expense of thousands of lives.  But what she really didn't consider was the effect of learning the dragon's history on her own principles and loyalties.

As I said, it was a light read in that there is no deep dive into leaders' responsibilities or their job of making decisions for many lives.  It was all handled pretty cavalierly despite Elodie's characterization of a strong-willed woman willing to sacrifice herself for others; until she didn't.  The ending was a bit unexpected and made the whole book a bit more palatable; although, it was still pretty trite.

So, I've pretty much dissed this whole book and while all that I've written is true for me; I think it is not a bad read for young adults.  It's in keeping with the current PC-correct theme of strong women finding their own salvation and not needing to be rescued; at least, not by a prince.  I did feel sorry for the poor prince character; he was pretty much relegated to the background scenery without being able to speak for himself.  After all, we all know that villains are the heroes in their own tales which meant the 'evil' Queen was just doing her duty, as she knew it.  ~~ Catherine Book