At 848 pages, Samatha Shannon’s fantasy epic The Priory of the Orange Tree is a beast of a book, and a beast of an achievement. The first half borders on perfection, and while the second half isn’t as strong, on the whole it’s a gripping read. Ead, a member of the religious order called the…
Shannon: Phoenix Unbound, the prequel to Dragon Unleashed was my first experience with Grace Draven’s writing, and I was beyond impressed by the novel. This, the second book in the series, is set in the same world, but has little noticeable carry-over from the first book. I think readers could easily start with Dragon Unleashed without…
I’ve been enjoying Jeffe Kennedy’s Uncharted Realms fantasy romance series since I picked up The Crown of the Queen, a bridging novel between the author’s Twelve Kingdoms series (which I’ve yet to read) and her Uncharted Realms series (which I’ve now read almost to completion). The end of that series is out now (The Fate…
Flamebringer is the richly imagined, lushly magical conclusion to the Heartstone trilogy, in which we join Aliza and Alistair almost immediately after the events in Dragonshadow. All of the world and character building take place in the first two novels, so potential readers will definitely want to begin with Heartstone. Having been warned of a…
Dragonshadow is the sequel to last year’s popular Pride and Prejudice inspired fantasy romance novel, Heartstone. Picking up shortly after the end of Heartstone, Dragonshadow offers a deeper look at the magical kingdom of Arle and their dangerous enemies: the vicious Tekari and the mysterious Els. I think this book would be confusing without the…
Paranormal plus historical. Yeah, I wasn’t sure what to think either, but I couldn’t resist the lure. Isabel Cooper creates a historical world based in fantasy with the elements of a more contemporary paranormal and kept me entertained for over 300 pages with it. It’s the fourteenth century, and Sophia Metzger seeks a dragon. Well,…
The world is full of reworkings of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, from story continuations to the inclusion of zombies. Well, now we have one with dragons. I wasn’t sure going in how well it would work – I was hopeful, but I’ve been let down before. Somehow though, Elle Katharine White has managed to…
Paranormal romance doesn’t have to be serious but I expect an author to take their work seriously. I Dream of Dragons never claims to be a dark and brooding story about dragons considering its too cute title; however the humor and the character quirks intended to keep the atmosphere light all fell flat. Add to…
Welcome to Noman, a planet colonized by humans, settled as an Old West series of towns, and overrun with dragons. Yeah, I wasn’t sure where the author was going with this either. But, as we’ve seen before, space cowboys are pretty interesting characters, and so I was willing to give it a go. I’m glad…
I’ve been reading Aiken’s Dragon Kin series for ages now, and one of my favorite romances is What a Dragon Should Know, the third book. But for some reason I’m not sure of – too many characters, a more and more complex series plot, I don’t know what – as the series progresses, I find…