Book Review Henchgirl by Rita Stradling

Henchgirl Cover Choice 1Title: Henchgirl
Author: Rita Stradling
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Age Group: Young Adult
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by Enchanted Book Promotions in exchange for an honest review.

I had never thought my life was ideal, but it had been manageable.

By day I pretended to be a human, going to a ‘human’s only’ high-school, making human friends and trying to get the attention of Keanu Hale, my school’s quarterback. At night, I worked as a henchman, making sure no one got in the way of my grandfather’s hotel-empire which spanned across the Mabiian island chain. I was my grandfather’s most cherished weapon, I stole and manipulated emotions, I would even drain someone of their ability to feel joy if my grandfather ordered me to.

I won’t apologize for what I did, it kept my sisters fed and my grandfather from finding out that my mother squandered our monthly allowance on shopping and throwing extravagant parties. It kept my family alive. But more importantly, my job kept me from being trained to be a wife and married off to some rich and powerful dracon, a human-dragon hybrid, as all girls with one-eighth dragon blood are.

As I said, my life was just manageable, until Wyvern Manderson vacationed to my island. Wyvern Manderson, the rich, powerful, and famous for something or other, half-dragon jerk, just kept showing up, sabotaging my missions and ordering me around. On top of that, for some reason he was always angry at me.

Pretty soon I was suspended from further missions, facing eminent financial ruin and still had to see the jerk everywhere I went. When my friend Amanda from my human-high-school vanished, Amanda turned out to be Wyvern’s human half-sister he was keeping secret and protecting.

Taking on the mission to find Amanda might have been what I needed to save my family from losing everything, but to do it I would have to spend all day everyday with the jerk. To top that all off, Amanda was not the only girl who disappeared, and when girls started being discovered dead I realized that my sanity wasn’t the biggest thing I would be risking in this investigation; I might very well be the next to die.

In Henchgirl, Dakota is sixteen years old, and she’s a dragon. During the day, she pretends to be a human and goes to high school like everyone else. But at night, she works as a henchman (hence the title: Henchgirl) for her grandfather. She does have a complicated relationship with her alchoholic mother, who loves to spend the money Dakota makes. The family dynamics are important in this book, and I enjoyed that.

There’s also some romance, which pops up as soon as Wyvern is introduced. He’s a half-dragon, a Dracon, just like Dakota. I liked him, and I thought Dakota and Wyvern had some fun chemistry.

I also liked how Dakota was willing to do what it takes to get her friend Amanda back. It shows how much she values friendship.

I loved the world the author created, filled with half-dragons, magic, and more. The main character was fun too, especially since she had real values and held on to them, no matter what. The plot held quite a few surprises, and overall, I thought this was a pleasant, enjoyable read.

If you’re a fan of fantasy books, I recommend taking a look at this one.

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