Review by Ian Keogh

Grace spends her early years in the USA, but when her father dies she moves to Hong Kong when her mother starts a new relationship. She’s enrolled in a prestigious school, and when bunking off during a school trip an elderly woman at the market is very insistent about giving her a petrified egg. Except it’s not as petrified as Grace assumes, and a day later she’s caring for a small blue dragon. The immediate problem is how to keep the dragon a secret at school.

Vivian Truong’s utterly charming cover isn’t quite matched by the internal art where there’s far less background detail. However, dragons are central, and when these appear Truong’s design skills are apparent, and she draws a great small dragon in Nate, frequently in motion, and also capable of turning into water. Friendship and personality are emphasised, but there are also a few places where it isn’t exactly clear what’s going on and others where it’s possible to confuse who someone’s speaking to.

Before he died Grace’s father told her a myth about dragons, and Jaimal Yogis implants this early as it has a present day relevance, and Grace’s preoccupation increasingly becomes how to avoid Nate being detected. As secondary plots Yogis has a major company working on a means of prolonging life, and someone sinister following Grace around and even attempting to attack her, and he surrounds Grace with similarly well intentioned friends with assorted talents. These are supplemented with eccentrics as The Awakening Storm develops, when it becomes clear there’s greater reality to the myths than most assumed.

There is a chief villain, and while not obvious from the start, smarter readers are likely to be empowered by guessing right, and the dragon myths aren’t the only foreshadowing on Yogis’ part. He builds the story efficiently, and while a lot of background needs to be explained, from roughly two-thirds of the way through The Awakening Storm becomes a rocket-paced, page turning thriller as the secrets come tumbling out.

While this is a story complete in itself, a few loose ends remain, and the final page opens the door to a sequel. Young adult readers ought to be pleased with this thriller involving an injection of fantasy and look forward to the continuation in Rise of the Shadowfire.