I am, without a doubt, a very easy sell when it comes to Dragon Shifter Romances. I am not easily swayed by the pretty. I've been let down in the past and that makes me a little wary, not enough to forgo the genre, but enough so that I don't immediately say 'My precious!'.

Harrison however wrote a Dragon Shifter Romance I very much enjoyed.

On the one hand you have what I like least about Dragon Shifter Romances--the author takes the fact that because he's a dragon, Dragos is going to be an arrogant, overbearing and often times domineering human. He's going to bark his orders, likely have a short temper and everybody will be in some sort of feared awe of him. Or else. Then the heroine is going to be scared of him, deathly afraid, walk on eggshells and immediately resentful if she snaps at him (justifiably or otherwise).

Pia does not do this! She does not take any crap from Dragos! She begins scared, but to be fair she was stealing from him so I'd be scared too. She doesn't let him push her around; she doesn't just jump into bed with him because he does the cave-dragon thing and declares her 'his mate'. Even after they go to bed together she's like 'Wait. What does this mean to you exactly?' and then calls him on his BS.

In short Pia cracked me up. And Dragos had no clue how to deal with her. She didn't fall to his charms, to his blustering, to his 'I'm a scary Dragon!' routine. I loved her plain and simple, not that her awesomeness is contained with just handling Dragos. Later, when facing against the Dark Elf King, she's very blas‚ are-we-done-here-yet.with him. Pia spins a highly plausible, if slightly skewed accounting of the events all the while plotting her escape. Is she scared? Yes.terrified even. But she doesn't let that faze her.

Honestly if Pia wasn't so awesome, and Dragos didn't immediately recognize her as special, I'd probably not like him as much as I do. Since he does, I forgive him his little personality quirks. When he caves in to Pia's logic--reluctantly and manfully as he does--he gets this adorable look of resignation. And I find his complete lack of remorse for his bloodthirsty ways amusing (he has a point, he's not going to be top dog by sending cards and flowers to everyone).

I am, without a doubt, looking forward to the next book of the Elder Races. Some interesting developments crop up at the ending and judging from Dragos' reaction, things are going to get mighty interesting in the future! ( )

Great start to a series ( )

Prendete un maschione Alpha con problemi di gelosia, possessività e disposofobia. Poi prendete una ladra improvvisata con l'abitudine di scappare dai guai (cosa che la fa finire in guai ancora più grandi). Mischiate a avrete un romance superficiale e prevedibile.

E davvero la parte sulla relazione Dragos/Pia è la peggiore del romanzo. Ripensate a qualunque romanzo abbiate letto dove lui è iperpossessivo e lei archivia il suo cervello non appena lo vede e avrete lo svolgimento della loro storia d'amore con una buona approssimazione.

Non si capisce nemmeno bene come si sviluppi la loro storia: lui è tutto un "sei mia" qui, "sei mia" là; lei passa da "aiuto, aiuto mi mangia" a "oddio, ma la sua è la coda più lunga del pianeta!" (sic).

Un vero peccato, perché la parte fantasy non era affatto male. Il mondo costruito dalla Harrison è un mondo alternativo dove creature magiche vivono al fianco degli esseri umani. Abbiamo mutaforma (come i protagonisti), elfi, e così via. Certo, è una parte che avrebbe meritato uno sviluppo maggiore, ma è pur sempre il primo volume di una serie, quindi confido molto nei prossimi libri (anche perché i personaggi secondari spesso erano più interessanti dei protagonisti).

Altra pecca è stata la fine del cattivo. Seriamente. Non si può descrivere un cattivo come terribile, pericoloso, senza scrupoli e chi più ne più ne metta per poi farlo "sparire" in un battito di ciglia. Per la serie: oh cavoli, siamo arrivati alla fine del romanzo, devo liberarmi dell'antagonista! Altrimenti come si fa ad arrivare al dolce happy end? ( )

I don't have a review for this book. Re: my cozy rating… There’s some high-stakes drama, but the main focus is on the romance, and nothing too graphic happens. ( )

A female protagonist who is half human/mythological creature, a martial arts expert and a freaking badass vegan - hell yes!!!
As a mature adult, I'm also all for the adult sex scenes. ( )