Iron-Hearted Violet / Kelly Rega Barnhill / 424 pages / Fairy Tale

Iron-Hearted Violet wishes to be a fairy tale princess - beautiful.  Instead she is plain.  She and her friend ,Demetrius, are captivated by the power of the stories told by the ancient storyteller.  (It is, in fact, the storyteller himself who tells us the story of Iron-Hearted Violet.)  He cautions them not to mention the thirteenth god.  It is a name never utterted.  The multiverse would not approve.  Unfortunately, the thirteenth god is wiley and cunning, and Violet nearly destroys her kingdom with her desire for beauty.  This is a clever story about the value of stories, and listening and heeding good advice.  It is also a story of the last dragon, friendship, self-sacrifice, forgiveness and love.