Last week there was a lot of Not Fun medical stuff, culminating in Saturday’s half day at the hospital getting my blood drawn every hour while I tried not to throw up the sugar solution I’d ingested, which would’ve meant having to start the test all over. What made my day bearable? I brought along Carrie Vaughn’s Voices of Dragons, a YA I’d wanted to read but hadn’t gotten around to. Turns out, it was the perfect length to read in between sitting in the chair to give the latest blood donation.

Voices of Dragons is set in today’s world, with one minor difference; World War II woke up the dragons and spawned yet another human/dragon war. That conflict ended in an uneasy truce both sides had maintained for 60 years. Until the human protagonist accidentally encounters a dragon in an unplanned border violation. It’s a story of laws and their consequences, friendships of all kinds, the price of peace, and, naturally, dragon voices. There’s a lot of depth here that an older reader can appreciate while younger readers simply enjoy the friendship between human and dragon. An excellent story that saved my day, and left me hoping for a sequel someday.

You can pick it up along with Carrie’s latest YA, Steel, and have yourself a whole lot of adventure, no matter where you’re reading.