Emma’s Dragon: London and Pemberley

Review also posted on my blog

https://myjaffobsession.blogspot.com/2023/03/emmas-dragon-london-and-pemberley-by-m.html


Emma's Dragon is the second book in M.Verant's award-winning Jane Austen Fantasy series. It is a sequel to Miss Bennet's Dragon.

At the end of the first book, Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy marry and bind with the formidable dragon, Yuánchi, thus thwarting Napoleon's plans for England.

In Emma's Dragon, we are introduced to Emma Woodhouse, a woman burdened by many secrets. Her own father's indiscretions, the machinations of her brother in law to steal her inheritance and most of all her mental afflictions.

Her gift should be healing but without being bound to a dragon, she lacks sufficient power. Instead her “gift” curses her with, what we would know as obsessive compulsive disorder.

Emma meets the Darcys and discovers that she should have been the one to bind with Yuánchi, the deadly dragon coveted by both Emperor Napoleon and England's Secretary of War.

The story unfolds in London, with dark forces kidnapping wyves and dosing them with Night Crawler venom. Those who survive become a weapon for a racist, misogynistic and ultimately traitorous group called Britain Awake.

That weapon is turned upon Elizabeth Darcy and then used to summon a terrifying behemoth with a fractured mind.

The cast of characters runs from Royalty to orphans, with a mix of races as befits a story which addresses both racial and class prejudice.

The most prominent characters are the Great Wyves, women of strength and courage, Elizabeth, Emma, Mary and Georgiana.

The survival of all will depend upon them.

Emma's Dragon is a fast-paced and exciting read, and it is sure to please fans of both Jane Austen and fantasy fiction.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review. All views expressed are my own.