The Dragon Princess by E.D. Baker

Millie is the daughter of Princess Emma and Prince Eadric of Greater Greensward. Her mother is the Green Witch, the nicest and most powerful witch in Greater Greensward. But because her mother enjoys the form of a dragon, which is most useful for getting around in the Kingdom, she wore it while she was pregnant with Millie, and as a result, there were some... side-effects.

When Millie gets angry, she turns into a dragon. Not a cute pink dragon, but a fairly menacing-looking green one. She isn't very large, either, for she is still a young girl, but because of her problem, there isn't any prince that wants to marry her. Who would want to marry a woman who turns into a dragon when she gets annoyed or angry? A variety of Princes have turned up at her parents' door, but all have ridden off when they found out her problem. And her mother's magic, powerful as it is, doesn't work right on Millie. At least, it can't prevent her from turning into a dragon, but usually has a much less helpful effect.

And when another Prince shows up, Millie finally holds out a little hope in her heart. Atwood is handsome and athletic and accomplished... but he's also a dragonslayer, and hopes to kill the green dragon he saw flying overhead, and present it to Millie as a token of his esteem. Her parents practically ride him out of the country on a rail, but Millie is once more downhearted. Even the presence of her good friend Zoë can't draw her out of her funk.

But when she learns that her birthday won't be held at her home castle, but in her father's former home of Upper Montevista, she's furious. Her paternal grandmother has a hatred of magic that can't be denied, even if her paternal grandfather is slowly adopting using witch magic for his army. When she finally calms down, she learns that Zoë and her cousin Frankie (a witch who wants to become a Knight) are going along for the party. That makes her finally assent, and they take off for Upper Montevista.

Millie certainly doesn't like her cousins, who seem to spend most of their time betting on things or poking their noses where they don't belong. They look down on those beneath them (which is just about everyone, or so they think), and make fun of Frankie and Zoë. That. Millie is willing to overlook, but when her grandmother tells her the reason why she insisted that Millie had to come to Upper Montevista for her birthday is because the Queen wanted to see fairies and that is they only way they would come to the castle. Millie is livid, but her Grandmother doesn't think she matters.

Her parents have been called away to fight sea-serpents, so Millie has no one who can do magic to prevent her from transforming. And her rage is so complete that she transforms right then and there. Thinking that her mother is right, that she needs to learn to control her temper, she asks one of the witches at the castle for help, and Mudine steers her to the Blue Witch of the North, whose frozen home can teach even Millie to control her temper.

But is her temper the real problem, or is she just getting angry at things she should be angry for? Millie, Zoë, Frankie and a Two-Headed Troll named Simon and Leo head north to find the Blue Witch and hope that she can help Millie stop changing into a dragon. But is changing into the dragon the problem, or only changing when she doesn't want to? And will Millie find her love amongst humans or dragons? An encounter with a northern poison-gas breathing dragon provides her with a tantalizing new choice that may end up changing the whole way she percieves her "Problem"!

I love E.D. Baker's books, and this one was no exception. Millie is a girl who feels hemmed in by her problem. She wants to live a life that's more normal, but with her problem, every Prince who has come to woo her has ended up fearing her, and her ability to breathe fire. I had hopes during the novel that she might end up falling for Frankie, as he had magic of his own, knew of her curse, and was certainly jealous of her showing an interest in one of the Poison-breathing Northern Dragons, but Millie seems to feel that Frankie is like a brother to her.

And she doesn't feel the type of attraction she has for the dragon with any human of her acquaintance. Which makes it a shock and a surprise, but in a good way. It remains to be seen if she'll end up with a dragon, because she knows she can decide not to change, even if she is angry, by the end of the book, but a dragon may be a better match for her than any human.

We also get to see what it must be like, being a member of one of the most enlightened Kingdoms with so many others around who have such a bad attitude towards magic and "monsters". But many of the so-called "Monstrous" races are really no different than humans in their wants, needs and attitudes, while others are just like animals, usually the less-intelligent ones.

Each book in this series gives readers a lot to think about after they have finished enjoying the story that the goodness just keeps on giving long after the last page is turned. I highly recommend these books. They may seem like fluff, or marshmallows, but they are deeper than they seem, and extremely readable.