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Escaping Peril by Tui T. Sutherland is the eighth Wings of Fire book, a fiery dragon story for 10 year olds told by the most dangerous dragon around.
Peril has firescales. Anything she touches burns. For years she was a queen's champion in a palace arena, and she's killed a lot of dragons (she'd rather not count how many).
Now she's trying very hard to be good, mostly because one dragon told her he could see good in her. The trouble is that hardly anyone else agrees.
She's been banished from her home kingdom. Dragons scream or faint or throw things when she flies past (once a dead crocodile!). At Jade Mountain the students are terrified of her, yet they keep forgetting to get out of her way.
Then she meets Turtle, a SeaWing who doesn't scream or run. He just says sorry. She asks him who he is, tries to sound friendly and ends up promising she definitely doesn't have a murder list.
Being inside Peril's head is a wild ride. She's jealous and blunt and often very funny. One minute she wants to set someone on fire, the next she's worrying what her one friend would think if she did.
And then her old queen turns up at the mountain, furious and wanting revenge. Peril feels it's her job to deal with her.
The prologue is grim. A queen shows off her new weapon, a tiny dragonet, by making her touch a row of eggs until the dragonets inside them die. Later an enemy flings a severed head at a crowd, and it's caught, handled and looked at closely. A sensitive reader could find those bits hard going. If they've followed the series this far, they'll find Peril's voice keeps the opening from feeling bleak.
It's book eight and builds on everything before it, so if your reader is new to the series, start them with The Dragonet Prophecy and work forwards.
If it's a hero with fire inside them that your reader loves, try Buried Fire. Michael wakes up on a hilltop with his eyes burning, and when he cries, his tears hiss and steam.
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