As a child, Hanalei was Lady Hanalei, page to Princess Oliana of Tamarind. When the princess and Hanalei were poisoned, Hanalei’s father stole a seadragon’s egg, making a wish upon it to save his daughter. But legend says every wish upon a dragon’s egg demands a price, and Hanalei’s father died horribly in the exile he brought upon them both. Orphaned Hanalei lived a hard life, but now she’s a young adult helping protect seadragons from the dragoners who hunt them for their precious dragonfruit, the eggs. When she’s captured by a dragoner, Hanalei makes a daring escape off the coast of Tamarind. She’s welcomed home by the Queen and Prince Samahtitamahenele—Sam, her childhood friend. The princess remains in a comalike state, and Sam, her son, continues to seek another egg to heal her, hoping two of the dragons in his menagerie will breed in captivity, even as Hanalie warns about the price. When the wild female seadragon that the ship she escaped from was pursuing is killed on the beach after a violent attack, Hanalei knows the seadragon recently laid eggs. She also knows that the male seadragon will be guarding them somewhere nearby, and she, Sam, and others set off to find the male dragon and the eggs before the dragoners do. A wonderfully realized setting inspired by the Pacific Islands, creative details, complex characters, and a romance that refrains from predictable tropes all distinguish this richly imagined fantasy.