I Can’t Wait For…Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine

This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier!

Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Pacific Island-coded setting and cast
Published on: 9th April 2024
Goodreads

From acclaimed author Makiia Lucier, a dazzling, romantic fantasy inspired by Pacific Island mythology.


In the old tales, it is written that the egg of a seadragon, dragonfruit, holds within it the power to undo a person’s greatest sorrow. An unwanted marriage, a painful illness, and unpaid debt ... gone. But as with all things that promise the moon and the stars and offer hope when hope has gone, the tale comes with a warning.


Every wish demands a price.


Hanalei of Tamarind is the cherished daughter of an old island family. But when her father steals a seadragon egg meant for an ailing princess, she is forced into a life of exile. In the years that follow, Hanalei finds solace in studying the majestic seadragons that roam the Nominomi Sea. Until, one day, an encounter with a female dragon offers her what she desires most. A chance to return home, and to right a terrible wrong.


Samahtitamahenele, Sam, is the last remaining prince of Tamarind. But he can never inherit the throne, for Tamarind is a matriarchal society. With his mother ill and his grandmother nearing the end of her reign. Sam is left with two choices: to marry, or to find a cure for the sickness that has plagued his mother for ten long years. When a childhood companion returns from exile, she brings with her something he has not felt in a very long time - hope.


But Hanalei and Sam are not the only ones searching for the dragonfruit. And as they battle enemies both near and far, there is another danger they cannot escape…that of the dragonfruit itself.  


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Pacific Island mythology!!! I know so little about that, and getting to dive into mythos’ (or things inspired by mythos’) that I don’t know is THE BEST THING for my myth-nerd little heart!

Plus, even aside from that, this sounds amazing??? Seadragons and stolen eggs and a prince struggling in a matriarchal queendom! Wishes! Unseen enemies! Seriously, from the blurb we have no clue who else is looking for the egg, I have no idea what to expect there. Also, question: do the dragons want the egg back?

For that matter, can dragons wish on dragon eggs??? That seems unlikely, but who knows!

I’m so excited to have a MC who studies seadragons (I so badly crave naturalists-who-study-magical-beasties, and before you say it, I tried so hard to love Marie Brennan’s Memoirs of Lady Trent series, but I simply Do Not) – I love scholarly characters, characters who have passionate interests. They’re so much more interesting than those who don’t! But I’m wondering – if her dad stole an egg meant for ‘an ailing princess’, could that princess have been Sam’s mother? And – what did her dad wish for instead? Did he get to make a wish at all before he was exiled?

Matriarchal societies are something I want to see much more often in the stories I read, and I don’t think I’ve ever come across a story where the perspective is from a prince who can’t inherit a matriarchal throne. That’s just – extremely cool? I do wonder how that issue can be resolved, though – will they try and get the dragonfruit/egg to cure his mother, so she can have more children, presumably some of which will be girls? Or might they use the egg to transform Sam into a girl? (I swear there was some fantasy novel where the prince was turned into a princess by a magic sword or something, but that’s the only time I remember seeing anything like that.) Or will the endgame be Sam proving himself so hard they let him inherit anyway, turning their matriarchy into something more gender-equal?

As you can see, I HAVE QUESTIONS!

And gods, there are so many incredible details in this cover! (Art by the incredible .) The little bat! The ships in her hair! The egg she’s holding (which does share some resemblance with a dragon fruit, aka a pitaya)! Something that might be some kind of seashell horn? The tattoos! The tiny (sea?)birds, the mussel-shell earring, the cord woven all over the image that ends in a hook – a fishing line, maybe? I AM BLOWN AWAY. (And also especially excited for the bat!)

I am MASSIVELY looking forward to this one, and if it’s not on your radar, it definitely should be!!!

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Published on March 20, 2024 05:36
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