Stunning!

Dancing with Dragons by Jenni Ogden   

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Starkly beautiful story set  on the Western Australian coastline, four hours drive north of Perth. 

It’s 1977 and Gaia and her brother Bron are having dance lessons with their mother in the studio.

Gaia’s mother Margot had been a famous ballet dancer with the American Ballet Theatre company in New York. She’d married an Australian and they’d settled back here at Goshawk Gardens.

Gaia and Bron had been trained by their mother in dance from a young age. Their mother’s long term vision was that eventually Gaia and Bron would go back to the States to take up dancing careers. 

Theirs was an idyllic life spent off grid, on a pristine bay, growing enough food for themselves and to sell. Their nearest neighbours were on an adjoining plot of land.

Gaia had been out snorkelling when she’d spotted two sea dragons involved in their courtship dance. It was stunning. Gaia was overcome by the beauty of it.

That all faded when tragedy struck, Gaia was badly burned, her parents dead and her brother Bron disappeared

Then came the hard part. At sixteen Gaia returns from Perth to survive on their land, living in the old barn.

Her journey will encompass struggling to be with people, fighting to save the reef from developers, and fighting to save herself.

Ogden has crafted a beautiful novel, poetic in voice, and anguished in the injustices.

I adore the cover, bright yet serene, almost mystical!

A Sea Dragon Press ARC via NetGalley.                                              

Many thanks to the author and publisher.