Title: The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart
(Tales from the Chocolate Heart #1)
Author: Stephanie Burgis
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Format: Hardcover
Length: 256 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Publish Date: May 30, 2017
Rating: ★★★★
Recommend: Yes!

“I had to erase that memory of helplessness and fear. I had to make something new to replace it before it could rise up and break my spirit again, the way I’d felt broken and hollow over the past few days. I had to fill myself with the unshakable certainty of something true. Something undeniable. Something powerful. Me.

Aventurine

That’s my girl! Or, dragon, I mean!

This story is all about a young dragon named Aventurine who gets tricked by a food mage by drinking enchanted hot chocolate and turns into a human girl. Crazy, right? While I’m still a little peeved at her burning some of her brother’s books in the beginning – major side eye, Aventurine – she has grown into a character that I am immensely proud of for her strength, tenacity, and determination to never forget who she really is.

Even though she had no idea how to become human again, she found out that she did have a passion in life, something that her parents told her she would find eventually. She just never thought that it would be chocolate. So she set out into the human world – after being mistaken for a human by her own grandfather, can’t blame him though since she looked like one – and was determined to become an apprentice chocolatier. That would be her new hoard, and hopefully she would be able to find a new family since she could never go back to her old family until she found a way to turn into a dragon again.

She may not have been that tiny when she turned, and those may not have been her scale pattern, but this was all I could think of when I would see Aventurine trying her hardest to do well in the human world. We all know that it is a tough thing to be a human, so imagine a dragon trying to be one of us when that’s not even something they know how to do! She did an amazing job though, and even made some new friends and family along the way.

Sometimes you just need a good MG Fantasy to bring you back into good spirits, and this was one of those that just melted your heart and taught you that you need to be strong and believe in yourself. It’s okay to make a mistake, as long as you don’t allow it to debilitate you and your progress. Sometimes you just need to remind your inner dragon that you are the fiercest thing on this planet, and you’re ready to take on the world.

I think that’s what this book reminded me of.

I’m just so happy with this book! Go read it. It is such a great novel and has an awesome story.