I basically fell in love with this book as soon as I saw its cover. As a kid, I had very well-worn copies of Dragonology and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them that are probably to blame for my love of fictional memoirs, histories, and the like from fantastical settings. As such, I was pretty stoked about this book, and committed to it from the start.
Imagine my pleasant surprise when it exceeded even my own very biased expectations.