10 years ago eight-year-old royal page Hanalei and Queen Oliana of Tamarind ingested poison and fell into a stasis. It was said that a dragonfruit (the egg of a sea dragon) has the power to undue a person's greatest sorrow - not without a price of course. After the poisoning three eggs were secured, but two were broken. The third egg was stolen by Hanalei's father, who used it to wake his daughter then escape into the night, leaving the queen.
For a decade Hana has made her way on her own, working for a cruel dragoner and eventually finding herself at a school that studies sea dragons. Sam, the Queen's son and Hana's former friend, is trying to stand in for his mother, while searching for more eggs. As luck would have it - some good and some bad - Hana is captured by her former dragoner boss and in eventually trying to escape falls right into Sam's boat. Back on Tamarind Hana is facing her and her father's past, using her knowledge to help Sam track down dragonfuit, and pushing those to see the trade-offs in using an egg to grant wishes.
An almost - but not quite - cozy, Pacific Islands inspired, fantasy adventure, that blends mystical creatures and magical tattoos, with scientific observations. There is a hint of romance in the air between Hana and Sam, but it never overpowers the story or gets in the way of either character doing what they think they need to do. While magic and luck play a large part in Dragonfruit it is ultimately a story about making choices and what ripples and consequences come from them.