The Dragon at Midnight - Bella Blair

 

If the Allied forces had dragons amongst their troops, I would imagine WW2 would have been a tad different, but alas, in this story they stay hidden and fly planes instead of scorching evil nazis and saving the world. 

The Dragon at Midnight takes place in the aftermath of WW2, occupied Berlin. Gideon, our heroic dragon pilot meets Inga, a half starved eighteen year old who lives in a pile of rubble with her brother and some stray orphans. It’s love at first sight for him, she’s the only one he could ever possibly love. She is, understandably, very wary of all these occupying forces and tries to stay out of his way. Guess how well that works out for her. 

After quite a bit of white knighting/love bombing (hey he’s an American pilot, he knows how to bomb) Inga falls hard and Gideon works out how to get her and the kids to safety (aka out of war torn Germany and back to the billionaire dragon ranch in the US). With some mild peril to get through first, you’re guaranteed a happy ever after.

While a sweet story, The Dragon at Midnight is uncomfortable to read. It's very rose tinted glasses wearing even rosier tinted glasses regarding the American occupation of Germany in the aftermath of the Second World War. The reality is a stark contrast to what the author describes in her book, and while I am aware this is primarily a romanticised fantasy version of events, it still feels inherently wrong. If a 1940’s propagandist got a hold of this, they’d be doing a little happy dance. I’m all for historical monster romance. Throw some ogres in the Napoleonic Wars, A unicorn dude can go a-viking, just don’t sugar coat it so much that the true horrors fade away in favour of your idealised daydream. 

My other gripe with the book is the lack of monsters. Don’t go waving the monster botherer flag if your shifter spends about 10 minutes real time in his dragon form and the rest as what can only be described as a poster boy for the Nazis. I am promised a somewhat weird looking lizard dude on the cover, so why am I getting the American Adonis instead. If it weren’t for the quick shift, I would have thought this was just a wartime romance novel, and that was a massive let down, not exactly what I signed up for. 

Now let me get to the spice. Obviously there was nothing monstrous about that, unless you count occupying forces giving food, supplies and comfort to an impoverished victim and then sleeping with her (but it’s ok because his intentions are pure), and it was fairly generic, even by human/human standards. It’s telling that I was more invested in the little kids getting pizza and toys then I was about the actual romance and saucy bits, and I’ve made my name on dragon dongs and minotaur meat. 

Ok so the whole book was a disappointment. A sugar coated version of what was a pretty awful time in history, written by an incredibly biased author. I think there’s a responsibility to be had when you come up with a project such as this one. You want to write a fluffy, lovey-dovey story with dragons set in a tumultuous time in history? That’s great, write it, but don’t hide the reality. The Americans were not the saviours, not the only good guys, and don’t get me started on the idea that lots of poor orphaned children were adopted by American families. If anything, I suppose this book prompted a deep dive into what went on during the occupied period. I learned quite a lot, so for that I thank Bella. It’s a bit disconcerting reading this, while also watching the news. You know what I’m referring to and American glory and praise right now feels like a bit of a red flag.

However, in the grand scheme of things, I actually enjoyed it. When I was little I read stories in a magazine my grandmother bought called “People’s Friend”. They were all wholesome love stories (no smut to offend our british sensibilities) usually centred around war-time. Reading this brought me back to that time, and despite all the many many complaints I have, I had fun. It didn’t have anything I look for in a  monster romance or any type of book to be honest, but it was cosy, it was heartwarming and well written. I cared so much about those wee orphans, but at the same time my heart broke a little. I wish the actual children could have had the happy ever after that the fictional ones did (note, they didn’t, they were forced into child slavery). If you can bear to put on the rose tinted glasses yourself, and like your spice on the same level as mayonnaise, I would bother, but I don’t see myself returning to this author despite devouring the book. Star spangled banners and apple pie don’t appeal when the world is all “gestures”.