The Dangerous Gift by Tui T. Sutherland

The #1 New York Times bestselling series continues! Snowfall didn't expect to be queen of the IceWings at such a young age, but now that she is, she's going to be the best queen ever. All she has to do is keep her tribe within IceWing territory, where it's safe -- while keeping every other tribe out, where they belong.It's a perfect and simple plan, backed up by all the IceWing magic Snowfall can find. That is, until a storm of unidentified dragons arrives on her shore, looking for asylum.The foreigners are completely strange and, Snowfall is certain, utterly untrustworthy. But as she escorts the miserable new tribes out of her kingdom, Snowfall is forced to reconsider her plan. Maybe she can only keep her tribe safe . . . if she's willing to risk everything.

After the very-okay The Hive Queen and the pretty-close-to-being-bad The Poisom Jungle, this book was actually surprisingly good!

And, strangely, I remember, just two years ago, I read this and I hated it. I remember genuinely believing that this was one of the worst Wings of Fire books I had ever read. I hated that Tui brought Wren into the main books (okay, it still bugs me a little as a pet peeve, but I can see how this unforseen expansion into scavenger stories would help to progress the plot), I didn't like that the book wasn't set in Pantala, and I didn't like Snowfall as a character.

But, after re-reading it as a junior in high school, I see now that this is actually one of the best Wings of Fire books. Here's why:

1. This is one of the few books in the series to actually give a character a full, complete arc. Snowfall grows from a paranoid, insecure, distrustful young queen to a wiser, more sympathetic, more confident ruler.

2. The book contains a minimal amount of filler

3. The characters in the book all written as very round, developed personalities. In some books such as The Hive Queen and the The Poison Jungle, it is very clear that characters have lost depth and become flat when compared to their initial introductions or previous appearances. In this one, however, Moon, Qibli, Winter, Luna, and Jerboa are their fully-rounded charming selves, and some of them are even develoepd further.

4. Snowfall is a round, dynamic character with a well-developed arc and personality (discussed in number 1)

5. The book actually moves the plot forward and builds up anticipation. This book is the start of the arc's premise: “face a great evil with talons united, or none of the tribes will survive.” The book builds on this by shifting focus from Pantala to Pyhrria, which has now been drawn into the conflict of the other continent. This book smoothly directs the arc along the prophecy and creates anticipation for a final battle between all tribes.

I don't know if it was because Tui used the chance to write about a Pyhrrian dragon again, but man, this book was really good, unlike the last two, which were either bad or meh.

But, yeah. Snowfall was awesome, Lynx and Mink and all the other characters were awesome. The book also expanded on IceWing customs and culture, which was, yes, very awesome. The visions made the narrative awesome and special.

And, I am still a bit mad about scavengers becoming major characters, ughhhh...but, I can see why Tui needed Wren in this book. The arc was meant to pit all the tribes, Phyrrian and Pantalan, plus the scavengers, against this really massive mysterious lifeform in an epic very-high-scale conflict. Ugh, makes me so disappointed in the succeeding book. This book sets it up perfectly. And yet...arghjjjjjlkfdjsflikdjf! I hope Tui rewrites Flames of Hope some day to live up to the high expectations that The Dangerous Gift set up.

But what is the “dangerous gift” in this book? The IceWing crown? Animus magic (hence, why Jerboa destroyed it, pretty much)? Maybe the animus bit.

Ahhhh yet again I am reminded that Wings of Fire is The Best book series!!

I guess I did find the beginning a bit boring, since Snowfall was very unlikeable, although I guess that's the point. But over the course of the book, helped along by the visions, which I definitely enjoyed (the one with Blue broke my heart! I miss him so muchh), Snowfall becomes a much better and kinder character. This book also introduces us to Sky, and gives us the rather horrifying backstory of Jerboa (how are these books for preteens???) as well as that awesome scene where Snowfall begins to destroys the Great Ice Cliff. So cool!!
I also really liked the criticism of meritocracy through the Seven Circle system, this book is full of tearing down messed up systems and I love it! Extremely excited for the next book, back on Pantala :D

I couldn't STAND Snowfall for a good chunk of the book. Quite a bit of the plot was overly simplistic and utterly unrealistic.

However, this had such a good redemption arc that I forgive everything else. (Also, laugh-out-loud writing moments. Those also make me more magnanimous.)