This book is a combination of Victorian manners and high fantasy.  This is the first memoir of Lady Trent who is acknowledged as the leading expert on dragons.

She first got interested in them as a child but it was not acceptable for ladies.  She married a man who wasn’t ashamed to have an intellectual wife but even he wasn’t sure when she wanted to have them join an expedition to study dragons.

When they reach the remote village to set up their research station, their host is missing and the local dragon population has turned unexpectedly aggressive.

What is wrong with the dragons?  Why are they attacking humans all of a sudden?

This is the beginning of a series.  It was a cute mash up of genres.  I’m looking forward to reading more.

I loved this quote from page 189. It sounds like something I would say.

“I have long been accused of having no motherly instinct.  As near as I can tell, this instinct consists of attempting to wrap anyone below the age of eighteen in swaddling bands, so that they never learn anything about the world and its dangers.  I fail to see the use of this, especially from the point of view of species survival; but I do confess that one this occasion I may have let my intellectual excitement distract me from the peril of allowing a ten-year-old boy to wave a loaded rifle about.”