Henrietta The Dragon Slayer by Beth Barany

eBook Edition

I first became aware of Beth Barany as an author earlier this year when I attended the 2016 Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley, California. Beth Barany was the moderator for an interesting author event I attended titled 'From Bodice Rippers to Trailblazers: Feminism through Romance'. 

After attending the 'From Bodice Rippers to Trailblazers: Feminism through Romance' event, I decided that Beth Barany's Henrietta The Dragon Slayer series sounded very intriguing based on the plot summary and the overall high ratings it has received on Amazon's website based on customer reviews. Henrietta The Dragon Slayer by Beth Barany is the first novel in the series and is approximately 238 pages in length. Henrietta The Dragon Slayer falls into the young adult fantasy genre and is also the 2012 Winner of the California Fiction Writer's Book Contest.

So, I went ahead and purchased the ebook edition of Henrietta The Dragon Slayer by Beth Barany from Amazon and read it on my Kindle over the course of a few days. 

I was surprised to find that some minor editing throughout Henrietta The Dragon Slayer by Beth Barany needed to be done after reading this novel. I expect an award winning novel to be more polished and be completely free of errors by the time it is released to readers.

As far as the story goes, I enjoyed the premise of the Henrietta The Dragon Slayer. I like that a strong female heroine is the leading character in this novel and that she happens to be in a nontraditional female role.... Women are usually aren't dragon slayers or blacksmiths. 

But I thought there was too much drama between Henrietta and Franc (the Knight) during much of the novel. I also felt that Henrietta was way too curt/short with Paulette (a witch in training) throughout most of the novel. I think the interactions of the characters seemed too stunted in how they responded to each other. They all seemed to act a bit like immature teenagers to some degree in their posturing. 

It wasn't until towards the end of the novel that I thought all four of the main characters finally became more interesting. By the end of the novel, we see that Henrietta has grown emotionally and learned more about herself by going through the events she has in the novel. Henrietta has changed for the better and is happier for it.

The following is the plot summary for Henrietta The Dragon Slayer by Beth Barany from GoodReads:

Henrietta, the legendary Dragon Slayer of the Kingdom of Bleuve, can’t stomach the thought of one more kill. Yet, in order to save her dying mentor, she must go on one last quest. But will the quest for the healing stone be derailed by misfit companions, seasickness, and an egomaniacal king? And will she be able cut past her conscience and kill the dragon?

I am giving Henrietta The Dragon Slayer by Beth Barany a rating of 2.5 stars out of 5 stars. 

I won't be reading the rest of the series. In the end, I just didn't care enough about the characters or the storyline to want to read any further.

Until my next post, happy reading!!