Dragon * Princess is a fantasy adventure about a lovable rogue, Frank Blackthorne, who takes a job rescuing a princess in order to help clear up a little misunderstanding with a demon worshipping cult. Unfortunately, the rescue attempt is a set up and our manly hero suddenly finds himself in the body of the princess and the princess in now in the body of a dragon. What follows is an adventure across kingdoms as Frank tries to get everyone back in the body they're supposed to be in. There's also the problem of the dragon having a serious gambling debt with the elves, a relentless white knight, a gentle giant, and that nasty demon worshipping cult. While I did enjoy the book and found it to be mostly successful, I was very disappointed in the lack of quality female characters. It's just such a wasted opportunity to do something interesting with gender identity and relationships and it never really got deeper than, "boy, it's sure weird to have boobs. Oh and everyone wants to rape me, LOL." (it's not quite that bad, but close). I wasn't really looking for a women's studies thesis, but there's just SO much you can do creatively with a male character who suddenly has to live as a woman in a fantasy world. What the book ends up suggesting is that having a woman's body is kind of lame. If you go in with measured expectations, it's a nice, light read, but it could have been so much more.
7/10
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