Dragon and Damsel is a paranormal teen romance novel, featuring a budding romance between a dragon and a human. It was published as an eBook in July of 2020 by Ashley Kat, and can be found here: Dragon and Damsel
Bernadette Blaumeer is a young woman living in the small, rainy town of Edmonton. Her days seem to blend together: working, reading, and getting nagged about why she isn't making any art anymore.
But one day, her younger sister Celia goes missing, and she has to travel to the “haunted” castle nearby and bring her back. But once they make it home, the occupant of the castle—a real, living dragon—reveals that he followed them, and that Celia has taken something from him. Bernadette agrees to take Celia’s punishment and travels with the dragon back to the castle. Though she's now imprisoned in the old castle, could she perhaps find happiness here...and maybe even romance?
Tropes:
- Alliterative Name: Bernadette Blaumeer
- Alliterative Title
- Asshole Victim: Edward. He gets hit by lightning, falls down a tower, and is sent to the hospital…after he rallied the town to raid the castle and kill a creature he was told was intelligent.
- Beast and Beauty: Azrael the Third, a large, dark male dragon with a bad temper, and Bernadette, a human female with a slightly less bad temper.
- Berserk Button: Azrael’s is bringing up other dragons—specifically that he’s the only one in the castle.
- Bookworm: Azrael and Bernadette are both this.
- Breath Weapon: Being a dragon, Azrael is able to breathe fire. The hidden painting implies that some subspecies of dragon have different breath weapons, with frost coming out of the white dragon's mouth and lightning coming from the yellow dragon's.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Dragons come or came in a variety of colors. The color of their scales indicates what types of magic they specialize in.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Azrael the Third has dark green, almost black scales, and is proficient in shadow magic. He might seem like a cold-hearted jerk, but he’s also a decent healer, doesn’t like to see Bernadette in pain, and shares his library and his life with her.
- Dragon Hoard: Azrael has piles of gold, silver, and gems in the castle, mostly kept in his Treasure Room and under his bed...and collects other shiny things.
- Dragon Rider: Later in the story, Azrael allows Bernadette to ride on his back.
- Hanging by the Fingers: Bernadette ends up in this position after nearly slipping and falling down one of the castle towers. She loses her grip, but is rescued before hitting the bottom.
- Improvised Lightning Rod: Edward's rifle and armor unintentionally become this at the climax, leading to his defeat.
- Interspecies Romance: Develops between Azrael and Bernadette.
- Haunted Castle: The children in Edmonton believe the castle in the hills is this. There aren’t actually any ghosts—just a dragon who scares out visitors.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Azrael the Third is temperamental, and gets angry if Bernadette brings up certain topics or investigates things personal to him. But he never attacks her, saves her life even after she entered his family tomb, and heals her wounds.
- Last of His Kind: Azrael isn’t sure whether or not he’s the last of the dragons. At the end of the book, there’s a sign he might not be
- Limited-Use Magical Device: Shed dragon scales can act as this, having some residue of magic inside them...enough for even humans without magic to cast one or two spells, or be used for alchemy.
- Bernadette manages to cast two spells with one scale—one to blend into shadows, and a healing spell.
- Mirror Character: Azrael and Bernadette find out they’re this. They can both be snarky, both love books, and both know the pain of losing their parents.
- Noodle Incident: Apparently, Bernadette worked a cash register once in the bookstore. Edward came by...and whatever happened, Azrael thinks is funny, while she is still slightly embarrassed and annoyed about it.
- Promotion to Parent: Alice, Bernadette’s older sister, takes on this role for Bernadette and Celia after their parents die in a car crash.
- Saved by the Platform Below: Subverted. Bernadette flails and tries to grab another platform as she falls down a tower, but just gets her hand scratched for her efforts.
- Soft Water: Subverted. Bernadette almost slips and falls a great distance into an underground lake, and both she and Azrael realize that hitting the water from that height would be deadly.
- Starving Artist: Julie has shades of this.
- Stepford Snarker: Bernadette has shades of this. After her parents die in a car crash, she becomes numb and pained. One of her reactions to this is to become snarky about pretty much everything.
- Transmutation: Azrael can use magic to transform his shed scales into large gold, silver, and bronze coins.
- Treasure Room: One is in the castle and is where Azrael keeps most of his gold and valuables. It's hidden behind a wall that only allows dragons to pass through.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Edward goes temporarily mad after trying to read a spell from a spellbook (without having any magic to use).
- Bernadette is able to use a dragon scale to power a spell she's casting, preventing insanity...but does get trapped in a loop, repeating the spell over and over as the magic is used up.
- Written by the Winners: The school play in the prologue. Sir Edmond didn't act alone, and his actions to get into the castle and slay the dragon weren't exactly heroic, except in maybe the village's eyes.
