I received this ebook from NetGalley and Entangled Teen in exchange for an honest review.
16-year-old Kitty Lung isn’t exactly your normal teen. Not only does she work for a secret government agency, but she’s a were-dragon. Her people’s existence has been kept secret, but when a junior operative accidentally changes form in public, the entire world knows about dragons and the Draconic Intelligence Command (DIC). Now the government has been pressured into imprisoning dragons in order to allay the public’s fears. Kitty and her best friend Builsani are the only ones who are still free, and when the president’ s son is kidnapped, they’ll have to rescue him if there’s to be any hope of liberating their fellow dragons.
Were-dragons have always been one of my favorite types of shapeshifters since I first read the Jennifer Scales series by Maryjanice Davidson. I’m happy to say that, this is a fun and original take on dragons and shapeshifters. Kitty is an interesting character and once you get to know her, you’ll understand why a 16-year-old would be working undercover for the government. The daughter of two highly respected commanders, she’s been in training since she was four. She’s highly intelligent, and conversant in several different languages. Now for the bad part. For all her training, Kitty is incredibly self-absorbed and spends the majority of the book swooning over her best friend Sani. I understand she’s young, but to be perfectly honest, it got a bit annoying. Otherwise, I really liked her. She’s funny, brave, and determined to do the right thing. Despite her precociousness, she makes mistakes which saves her from being too perfect. I got the sense while reading that she’s not quite sure where she fits in which makes her quite empathetic. Except for the aforementioned swooning, the budding romance between Kitty and Sani is very sweet. Sani is an ideal partner for her because he’s much more level-headed, although I wish he wasn’t quite so passive. Starting with the descriptions of the were-dragons, the world-building is phenomenal. The dragons physical appearance and powers are all different depending on which country they’ve originated from. English dragons are large and breathe fire, while their Chinese counterparts are smaller and able to manipulate magnetic fields. Sani is an African were-dragon, but there’s not a lot of description regarding his powers, so hopefully that will be explored more in the next book. There’s other shapeshifters as well, which I assume we’ll learn even more about as the series progresses. You have to suspend disbelief at not only the actions of the government, but also how Kitty and Sani are the only dragons not captured, but as the action immediately starts on the very first page and never lets up it’s not difficult to do so. Overall, Dragons Are People Too is a worthwhile and enjoyable read as long as you don’t take it too seriously.
