Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier

TL;DR: A surprisingly light and lovely YA fantasy, I highly recommend. It has notes of ‘cozy fantasy’ vibes in the later half – so if you’re wanting that this could be a pick up for you.
Source: NetGalley, thank you to the publisher!

Plot: Hana returns home to lost friends and family in the search for the eggs of seadragons to save a queen trapped in a long sleep.
Characters: The characters in the later 3/4s especially are fantastic. Instead of a focus on toxic or unhappy people, these are genuinely kind and hopeful folks.
Setting: I was able to see and felt the world around the characters, I felt it was well drawn and beautiful.
Magic: Light and very much just a question of folklore and unknown science.

Thoughts:

I think this is a great example of the fact that I’m easily pleased if something stays true to it’s source and attempts to be unique. Is Dragonfruit a perfect book? Absolutely not! Is it a fun right and well worth the read? Absolutely yes!

This fantasy follows Hana, who believes herself to be exiled from her home islands as she studies seadragons. She interrupts the hunt of a man she has had previous dealings with (not of the good variety) and is trapped on his boat as he chases a pregnant seadragon, using Hana to track her. Eventually the chase leads them to Hana’s home islands and the story truly unfolds.

I am genuinely so tired of the character vs. the world that so many so many fantasy books use, that when Hana finally reaches her home and discovers/reconnects with friends and family it was seriously like a splash of cool water. This book is lovely, I adored so much about it. Again, it wasn’t perfect but it actually shows healthy, real relationships and not antagonizing, hateful ones.

5 Magical Markings out of 5 (I pre-ordered this y’all. I loved it)