The Girl With The Dragon Heart by Stephanie Burgis
Once upon a time, in a beautiful city famous for chocolate and protected by dragons, there was a girl so fearless that she dared to try to tell the greatest story of all: the truth.
Silke has always been good at spinning the truth and storytelling. So good that just years after arriving as a penniless orphan, she has found her way up to working for the most splendid chocolate makers in the city (oh, and becoming best friends with a dragon). Now her gift for weaving words has caught the eye of the royal family, who want to use her as a spy when the mysterious and dangerous fairy royal family announce they will visit the city. But Silke has her own dark, secret reasons for not trusting fairies …
Can Silke find out the truth about the fairies while keeping her own secrets hidden? From the author of the magical The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart comes a second magical adventure perfect for fans of Cressida Cowell, Cornelia Funke and Peter Bunzl.
Rating: 
I previously reviewed the first book in this series, The Dragon With The Chocolate Heart, and I had ordered both, so I dug into this one shortly after finishing the first one. Once again, there is a lot of chocolate, which is delightful.
Adventurine is still part of the story, but it gets more interesting as we see more of Silke and we’re more inside her head. We learn a little about her past (well, a lot but it starts with a little that makes her accept a mission she isn’t that suited to do).
She also uses her “smarts” to win the situation over and realises the power of friendships, of family and herself (and she finds out who she truly is and what her talents are rather than trying hard to be something she isn’t).
It is an adorable story that I would recommend to anyone and it has sent me into a spiral of buying books about dragons and witches, all middle grade… (I even have a MG dedicated shelf now, oh dear!).
Moon recommends
First, check out the prequel out and then dig into this one because it is worth it.
Moon Dreams 
Hi Moon,
Terrific review! I’ve also written a book about a dragon, would you be interested in reviewing it? It’s called Sophia & the Dragon: Who Came for Dinner.
Kind regards,
Sarah J. Williams
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I usually will read almost anything with dragons 😛
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Nominations close tomorrow for Cybils, the blogger awards for children’s books. If you haven’t nominated your favorites yet, here’s the link for placing your books published between October 16, 2017 and October 15, 2018 into the nominations pool: http://www.cybils.com/2018/10/the-2018-nominations-are-now-open.html
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