Acne, Asthma, And Other Signs You Might Be Half Dragon

As a fan of silliness and romps, I enjoyed this one from the beginning. The narrator is high-energy, flippant, and breezy. A few pages into the book, this "ordinary" teen Allyson accidentally breathes fire, leading to the revelation that she's half dragon. Too bad Allyson's Mom never had The Talk with her -- all she got was the "use a condom" part but nothing about blue scales and molting... But she takes it all in stride, to some extent. We soon find out her lanky friend Beth is half troll... and in fact there are a lot of "Kin" around if you know how to look... They're not all nice guys.

The action is pretty much non-stop all the way through with Beth's wad of cash, a "borrowed" sports car, and a mad road trip from Albuquerque to San show more Francisco. (Oh, I liked the author's touch of putting in some real places, like that state park in Utah and the mothball fleet near Vallejo. Nice!)

The only down-side for me... Well, OK, here's where I have a side-bar telling you that I'm one of those people who find long fight scenes sort of annoying, so when I have to watch action movies, I've been known to fast forward through all the carnage, mayhem, and special effects. But if you like that sort of thing, there's a good one in here, complete with magic and the literary equivalent of advanced CGI. show less

I was first attracted Acne, Asthma and OtherSigns You Might be a Half Dragon by the lovely cover; the title then “sealed the deal” for me. I was looking for some light fun reading and hoped that based on the title I’d get that and hopefully some sassy, quirky one-liners as well.

Rochford’s book did provide all that – it was fun and a bit sassy, though there were parts that I felt needed to be fleshed out a little more.

The protagonist of Rochford’s novel, Allyson, has never known her father and her mother moves them around the country a great deal with each new job offer and promotion. She’s always the new kid and outsider, without many friends.

In the town she currently lives in she has finally made a friend – Beth. show more Allyson dreads hearing that her mother will move them yet again. Events rapidly unfold that make this the least of Allyson’s worries. She discovers an entire supernatural community lives around her and that her recurrent acne is really one of the signs that she is a half dragon – everybody else seems to know what’s going on except Allyson. Allyson and Beth get caught up in territorial wars between various supernatural races and find themselves prey to those involved in an evil plot which they must try and foil.

What I loved about this book was that the unicorns were not squeaky clean – they were just as prone to hatred and the desire for revenge as any other race. They had suffered years of persecution only to adopt a “shoot first” policy in their dealings with others. Also the political intrigue between races was rife in this novel and I felt the world building and history in this regard was good. The pace was generally excellent.

I would like to have seen this story fleshed out a little more, particularly in terms of the initial set up. The book immersed the reader straight into the action, but at the expense of setting up the main character. It was clear from the title that Allyson was going to discover she was a dragon, that’s not the type of set up I’m referring to. Rochford revealed too little about Allyson’s character, her desires and her past early on. We learnt more about this as the story progressed, but the result was that I didn’t empathise with or care about Allyson until over half way through the book. I did, however, like her best friend from the beginning.

Overall I really enjoyed it. I’d definitely read the next one. So if you’re after a light fun read give this one a try. show less

Acne, Asthma, and Other Signs You Might Be Half Dragon by Rena Rocford is such a great fantasy book I had to stay up all night to finish. It has a wonderful cast of creatures such as trolls, unicorns, griffins, dragons, goblins and more. A fun ride across the road with Allyson and Beth as they try to prove the innocence of Beth in a kidnapping. Meanwhile, everyone, creatures too, are after them. Allyson is also changing into a dragon, her best friend has secrets of her own, and more. It is a hoot! This book has action, adventure, suspense, touch of romance, humor, and fantasy. What more do you want? Loved this book! Can't wait for book 2! Please tell me there will be, please!!! I received this book for a honest review and it in no way show more effected my rating or review content. show less

Acne, Asthma, and Other Signs You Might Be Half Dragon is an entertaining enough YA fantasy novel that has trouble with general thinness when it comes to plotting, world building, and characterization.

Allyson Takata is having an ordinary day at the mall with her best friend Beth when some strangers try to kidnap them and Allyson suddenly… spits fire? Allyson soon finds out that she’s half dragon and that other descendants of mythical creatures live secretly among the regular humans, including Beth who’s part troll. When Beth is blamed for the kidnapping of a unicorn, Allyson and Beth go on an adventurous road trip to try and clear her name.

The premise of the world building is that there’s different types of mythical creatures show more (dragons, unicorns, trolls, and griffins being the most prominent) who have their own communities and have in some cases interbreed with humans. I would have liked more from the world building, especially when it comes to a sense of the different groups having history and culture. There was a bit of that, but I didn’t think there was enough.

While You Might Be Half Dragon had a plot, I felt like it could have been better developed. For a lot of the novel the characters seem to just be moving from scene to scene, plot point to plot point. Also, the plotting felt light and this is only a 230 page novel.

The biggest plot hole is a common one in YA fiction – refusal to tell the parents anything because… reasons. When you find out that you’re a half dragon, what do you think the logical next step is? Ask your mother about it? Show her your scales? Maybe at least start up a conversation to fish for family history? Or you could just not indicate to her in any way that you’ve suddenly grown scales and started spouting fire. Also, why did Allyson treat her mom so despicably when she ran off on a road trip with Beth? She was a super jerk on that phone call.

The only character who was at all memorable was Beth, and that’s mainly because Beth is one of the only teenage girl characters I’ve ever seen who’s large and muscular. Everyone else is completely forgettable. I’d read this book only a week ago, and I’d already forgotten Allyson’s name by the time I’m writing this review. She’s basically a carbon clone of all the other generic YA female protagonists.

All of that said, I did really like the friendship between Beth and Allyson. It can be pretty rare to see female friendship get this amount of page time or focus on a fantasy novel, so I really appreciated it. There was also a romance with the stock “hot male love interest” character, but it wasn’t too overwhelming.

Acne, Asthma, and Other Signs You Might Be Part Dragon was all right if not spectacular. I mean, there’s nothing about it that I really hate. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, but I wouldn’t discourage you from reading it either. It might actually be a pretty good book for when you’re sick and just want something fluffy and mindless.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.

I received a free ARC copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. show less

When I found this on NetGalley, I immediately fell in love with the title, the cover, and the synopsis of the story. I remember reading somewhere that books with long titles are usually a huge "if" when it comes to readers choosing their next book, but, this title proves that's only so if it's not as compelling as Acne, Asthma, and Other Signs You Might Be Half Dragon. I was really excited to start reading this book because it had a character you would see in everyday life; she wasn't some insanely gorgeous person, she was a normal teenager battling acne and asthma, which could help with readers relating to the main character. I don't read enough books with characters like that.

I know I should stop expecting things of books I take on to show more read, but I never learn my lesson. With the promise of realism in the story, I expected amazing things, but unfortunately, there were more flaws than anything.

When first starting the book, you expect the first few chapters to help you get to know the characters of the story as well as the very beginning of a building plot (the reveal, as I like to call it). However, the book... (more via website) show less

I requested a copy of this book for review based on the title and the cover. The cover caught my eye immediately and the title was intriguing to me. So I started reading away once I got my copy from Curiosity Quills Press and I have to say it was a bit of a rough beginning. Before I get into my review, I will start off my saying I did actually end up really liking this book.

I say it was a rough beginning because the first chapter had me feeling rushed, confused, shocked, and annoyed, and not in a good way.

Within the first few pages of the story, Allyson's Half-Dragon heritage is revealed by her best friend just blurting it out to her in 'duh, didn't you know?' sort of way after their random mall trip is interrupted by trolls.

I was show more hoping for a bit more mystery leading up to the revelation to the character instead of just having it spat out at her. Also, she seemed to take it a little too well. For a teenager who just had an earth shattering revelation, she didn't seem too phased. The whole discovery scenario felt way too rushed.

What I liked: This story was completely unique in its own way. Sure it had familiar YA themes but most of our books do. I can honestly say I have never read a book quite like this one. Instead of your typical Vampires, Werewolves story we had Dragons, Trolls, Goblins and Unicorns hiding in our everyday life.

Read the full review: http://yafangirlreviews.blogspot.ca/2015/12/acne-asthma-and-other-signs-you-migh... show less

I received a galley of this work from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a cute story of a teen girl who finds out that she has been uninformed for her entire life about her true identity. It all comes crashing down on her in, of all places, a mall. She is swept up in a whirlwind adventure that takes her away from her overbearing, overprotective mother and into the arms of an evil magician. The characters are enjoyable if somewhat shallow. It all comes together well and makes for an enjoyable read.