Anna and the Dragon - Fantasy Adventure Book for Kids | Magical Storytime Reading | Perfect for Bedtime, Gifts & Classroom Libraries

As I found myself getting very involved in the strained and emotionally tempestuous lives of the two leading characters of this quietly engrossing yarn, I became disturbingly aware of the fact that I was reading a romance novel. Now under normal circumstances I would sooner be dragged naked though a patch of cactus behind a galloping mule in southern Arizona in July at high noon than be caught reading a romance novel.This is the very first piece of fiction I have read in almost 40 years, to say nothing of romance. I don't read fiction. Not on purpose, but for the same reason I don't play tiddly winks. Just never appealed to me that I knew of. Romance I viewed as eye rolling girl's stuff.I had come to be friends with the author (long story) and we were discussing (and debating) some weighty and in Christendom, somewhat controversial matters. In an effort to understand this person better I bought this book with no expectations one way or another. As I say. I have zero experience with fiction. Theology, philosophy and history are my things.Right away I found myself caring what happened with these people and looking forward to being able to read some more as time allowed. I don't want to give too much away, but I was eventually rooting and hoping for them as a couple. REALLY wanting for certain things to turn out to be true as I went along. As well as one really big one not to be true. I began to feel like I knew them and it would be a tragedy if things didn't turn out well.Along the way I also began to feel like I'd been to Portland and surrounding coastal Oregon though I have never been within a thousand miles. Jill's detailed immersive way of enveloping you in the drizzling, dreary, drippy environment made me want to reach for a waterproof windbreaker. Yet it is clear that she has affection for this region as even with all the wet and windy weather, she makes you feel good about being there. I began looking up landmarks and places and finding them to actually exist and to look pretty much how she'd made me imagine them. Especially the Umbrella Man Statue.It's difficult to talk about this story without giving it away. It has elements of plain human drama, time travel, for me suspense, I guess what I'd call science fiction and also, yes, dragon folklore. I learned that there are actually recorded species of dragons. I looked them up and yes there are. Who knew :DWithout getting too far into possible content concerns, I'll just say that there is sin in this story and sexual sin. The author handles it so far offstage that even this arch conservative old time Calvinist would have survived a bit more detail tastefully portrayed. It is advanced completely with the vehicle of implication. You just know without ever even actually being told. This speaks well of Mrs. Domschot in my view. There is no need for lurid, graphic, explicitness for us to know what's going on. Or in this case, what happened. There is some righteous resolution here as well though.The time travel aspect produces a very serious moral dilemma for Anna which is left unresolved. A sequel would beg for this to be addressed. (yes, that's a hint :) )In our conversations before the book arrived, Jill expressed some concerns that I may disapprove of some of the language. She was right, but left the impression that it would be far worse than it was. A handful of expletives that while I honestly must say didn't add to the story, again in my view, they also were not pervasive and didn't distract or detract from it either.I would be remiss if I neglected to mention Jill's impressive command of the language and annoying ability to send this fellow wordsmith to dictionary.com. I must humbly assert, and that to the glory of God, that I too am blessed with a well stocked vocabulary so imagine my consternation as I'm reaching for my mouse and keyboard to look up a word here and there. I intend to have a discussion with her about how we can avoid this intolerable state of affairs in the future. ;)I have never written a book review and I've never read a book like this so these are both firsts for me. I very much enjoyed reading Anna and the Dragon and as anyone who knows me will tell you, I would have no problem saying otherwise if it were the case. Some who read this will probably disregard it as the ramblings of an ignorant fiction novice and they'd be right. Others will no doubt surmise that if she can get this level of response from an unlikely candidate for this kind of writing like me, then maybe it would be worth a whirl. They'd be right too. I hope there are more of the latter than the former.