Derek Agons Slays a Dragon by Samuel Tucker Young (Great)

I have recently received a book to review, Derek Agons Slays a Dragon by Samuel Tucker Young. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by it.

The cover:

The cover shows 15-year-old Derek holding the book that seems to glow.  He is in front of a dragon's lair, accompanied by a cat whom has a mysterious air and a rebellious attitude.  Honestly, I like the cover.  The artist did a nice job.

Brief Description: 

Derek finds a special book that everyone wants to take from him.  Right when he has no where to turn, a cat comes to him with a special message: Derek must save the world by slaying a dragon.  Derek and the cat voyage to complete what Derek assumes is his destiny.  But things are more complicated than they seem.  The cat has a mysterious and dark past, the previous owner of the book will do anything to get it back, and the entire world rests into the balance of Derek's actions.

This book kept getting better and better the further into it I got.  Nothing was as it seemed, and the conclusions made did not seem forced at all.  While at first, I was skeptical about having talking animals in the book, they connected to the story and made sense in the context.  That is a problem that many authors face when they try to use talking animals, but Samuel Young made it work well.  Another great feature of this book was that the main character, Derek Agons, did not fit perfectly into the stereotypical mold of a teenage boy (a pet peeve of mine is when a book is completely stereotypical).  It was very interesting and intense, especially in the last third of the book.  I couldn't put it down.

I had assumed it would be a single book, but the ending made me think there would be a sequel.  If there is one, I will read it without question.

I would definitely suggest reading Derek Agons Slays a Dragon if you are looking for something to read.

Phrase: The whole nine lives thing.