Generally, I don't enjoy allegory, fantasy, or the young adult genre. This series made me a believer and reader of all three. Although set in a mythical country with dragons and other creatures - some sweet (baby dragons are darling) and many not-so-sweet, I found God, the Biblical wisdom, and hope woven all through the pages of this book. I fell in love with the female protagonist, a young slave girl named, Kale, and her coming-of-age story told in the five books that make up the series. She is known as a "dragon keeper" although at the beginning she does not know that's what she is. (Dragon keepers are drawn to unhatched dragon eggs which they recover, keep in safety, and raise from birth.) I won't tell much more for fear of leaving spoilers but I'll add two things. First of all, the world Ms. Paul has imagined is very complex so I was appreciative to find a detailed glossary of terms in each book. Surprisingly, at least for me, having to pause occasionally to check out a detail in the glossary didn't slow me down, it somehow added to the pleasure of the book...perhaps like reading about a foreign country in a travel guide as you're making your way from one end of the land to another? The other thing is that I NEVER read books or a series more than once. I took these five books with me on vacation last year and devoured them. When I returned I gave them back to the woman who had so graciously let me borrow them and promptly bought the entire series to reread on this year's vacation. Can't wait!