Book Spotlight (and a Giveaway!): Raising Dragons by Bryan Davis

RAISING DRAGONS
SERIES: Dragons In Our Midst #1
GENRE: Inspirational Teen/Young Adult Fantasy
PUBLISHER: Wander
RELEASE DATE: October 5, 2021 (re-release)
PAGES: 368

“Bryan Davis writes with the scope of Tolkien, the focus of Lewis, the grandeur of Verne, and most of all the heart of Christ.” ―Jeremiah F., reader

A boy with fiery breath . . . a girl with dragon wings . . .

Outcasts Billy and Bonnie must come together to preserve a secret legacy more than a millennium in the making. They find their lives turned upside down when they are thrust into a war against evil, a war they didn’t even know was being waged. Their newly formed friendship is tested and shaped as they are forced to fight a malevolent slayer who wields a powerful, medieval weapon and is intent on exterminating their dragon heritage forever. Raising Dragons is a hair-raising, modern-day Arthurian adventure and a glimpse into another world filled with knights, dragons, and fair maidens fighting to destroy evil.

“Halt, foul dragon!”

Billy stared at the tall stranger, a ghostly figure draped in dark chain mail. He appeared to be a knight of some kind, like a toy box action figure come to life. But what was he so mad about? Why was he yelling?

The knight swung a sword. Its brilliant blade flashed in the sun, and his armor jingled across his body, echoing his swift, skillful moves. With a wave of his shield he barked a challenge. “I fear you not, fiend, nor your hellish fire. Come to battle, and we shall see whom the Creator will protect.”

Billy opened his mouth to answer, but his throat burned, raw and sizzling, and acid bubbled up from his boiling stomach. With a convulsive shudder, he belched a plume of hot, steamy gases, blistering his tongue and scorching his lips. A second later, a raging river of fire blasted through his gaping mouth and hurtled toward the knight.

He jerked his shield up and tucked his body behind its protective armor. The flaming torrent splashed around the shield’s edges, tearing the sword from his hand and enveloping his sleeve. He flapped his blazing arm. “Cursed lizard!”

Billy clamped a hand over his mouth and sucked cool air between his fingers to soothe his swollen tongue. Where did that fire come from? And does that knight think I’m the dragon?

Billy looked at his hands. They were normal, no scales or claws. But something was different. A ring glittered on his right index finger.

Somehow it looked familiar.

In the ring’s center, a dark red stone stared at him like a bloody luminescent eye, the prophetic eye of a mysterious old man peering at him from a deep cauldron of swirling scarlet. The cyclonic vision drew Billy closer and closer, and his mind swam in the dizzying whirlpool. The stone reflected everything, even his worried face. As the eye’s red glow deepened, Billy’s features morphed. His ears grew long and pointed, and his mouth stretched out wide and toothy.

Within seconds the transformation was complete. “I am a dragon!” The knight appeared again from behind the shield, holding his bare arm away from his body. His sleeve had been scorched to ashes.

An angry, reddish brown welt on his forearm oozed curling strings of smoke.

“Of course you’re a dragon,” he bellowed. “Do you think me a fool?” He raised his sword again. This time it cast a laser-like beam through its point, shooting high into the sky, and the knight tightened his jaw with renewed strength. “I still fear you not, neither your fire from hell nor your demon wings!”

Wings? Did he say wings? Billy twisted his neck and looked at his back. Wings! He tried flapping them. They worked! As he flapped harder, his body lifted from the ground. Ten feet. Twenty feet. Below, the shrinking knight waved his sword, but his shouts grew garbled, and his words scattered in the wind, becoming a ringing sound, more like an alarm clock than a bellowing knight.

As he flew higher and higher, light melted away, leaving him floating through calm blackness. The air thinned to a bitter cold vacuum.

His wings collapsed and shrank to the size of butterfly wings.

He dropped through the vacuum, flailing his arms, desperately trying to grab something, anything, to stop his fall. He tried to scream, but his voice died in the hollow void. At any second he would crash into trees or rocks below, breaking every bone in his body. He closed his eyes. He was falling, falling . . .

Taken from Raising Dragons by Bryan Davis. Copyright © 2021. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved.

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Bryan Davis is the author of several fantasy/science-fiction novels for youth and adults, including the bestselling series Dragons in Our Midst. He and his wife, Susie, have seven adult children, and they work together as an author/editor team.

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Tyndale is offering a print copy of Raising Dragons by Bryan Davis to one of my readers! (US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

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What about you? What makes you want to read Raising Dragons by Bryan Davis? Do you have a teen or young adult reader who would love this book as a gift?