Reviewer: Jen Drakon's Past (Blood of the Drakon, #4) by N.J. Walters
Series: Blood of the Drakon #4
Also in this series: Drakon's Promise, Drakon's Prey, Drakon's Plunder
Publisher: Entangled, Entangled: Amara
Publication Date: January 29th 2018
Point-of-View: Third Person
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 306
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Series Rating:
Constance Owens has a gift for finding unique items in the most unlikely places, which comes in handy since she buys and sells artifacts and antiques for a living. When she purchases a set of four dragon statues, she has no idea just how unique they are, or that finding them will thrust her into a world of secret societies, men who think nothing of kidnapping and murder to get what they want, and dragon shifters.
Nic hasn’t survived for four thousand years by letting his guard down, and he doesn’t trust anyone except his drakon brothers. The loneliness haunting him has been getting worse since all his brothers have found their mates. And when he finds the woman his drakon recognizes instantly as his fated mate, he doubts he’ll ever have what his brothers have, because it seems she’s involved with the secret society of hunters who have been hunting and capturing his kind for hundreds of years.
Nic has been a bit on the outskirts of the previous books in this series. Unlike the other brothers who tend to keep to themselves, Nic seems to spend a lot of time with regular humans. He loves to party and act the playboy, particularly in Vegas. What his brothers don’t know, though, is that he’s doing it in a desperate attempt to stave off the Big Sleep. Apparently, when drakons eventually get bored with the world, they lay down and sleep forever. (Everyone implies this is just “sleep” and not death, but I don’t know, that sure sounds like dying to me.) Nic’s been feeling the urge to just lay down and give up, so he leads a wild lifestyle in an attempt to keep up his interest in living. When he hears about a woman selling highly unusual dragon statues, he goes to investigate and finds Constance. She sells antiques and other collectibles to support herself and her teenage sister. When her sister gets kidnapped by the Knights of the Dragon, she knows the statues are more important than she thought. She doesn’t trust Nic and doesn’t know how he’s involved, but she doesn’t have a lot of options for getting her sister back. She and Nic circle each other and do what they can to rescue her sister.
I have to be honest, I was pretty disappointed in this book. I didn’t like Nic or Constance much. I didn’t really feel much of a deep connection between them, just plain and simple lust. I didn’t like that Nic takes advantage of Constance’s vulnerability and worry about her sister. Constance too is wishy washy. I got why she wouldn’t trust Nic, but then she keeps getting all horny for him and letting him come around. I just never felt much there.
There were too many loose threads in the book, too. This idea of the Big Sleep is never properly explored. Why do drakons do this? How does Nic avoid it? It’s kind of plopped there and then never referred to again. There is no resolution to the larger story arc of the Knights of the Dragon. Sure one villain gets beaten here, but what about the rest of them? How come the drakons don’t put a stop to the group once and for all? What happened to Karina Azarov (the head of the Knights)? Now all four of the drakon brothers have gotten their stories. We’re told there are more drakons out there but we haven’t met or even heard the name of any others. So, is the series going to continue with a drakon we’ve never met, or is it over, leaving tons of unresolved story lines? I don’t know what to think.
Even worse, the one thread that IS resolved is Nic’s mommy issues. Thousands of years ago, when he was a child, his mom threw him out and let the villagers chase him away. He’s had a huge chip on his shoulder since then and doesn’t trust anyone, particularly women, because he’s sure they’re all rotten. Of course, it’s a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because he doesn’t trust Constance he doesn’t tell her the truth, and because she doesn’t know the truth she has to betray him in order to save her sister. And then in the end, Nic gets a resolution of his issues that was so trite and unbelievable. It was just silly.
It’s always a bummer when a book you’ve been waiting for lets you down. If the author continues the series, however, I’ll continue reading.
Grade: 2.5 out of 5
Blood of the Drakon Series
Read the first book and found the heroine to be wimpy – hate it when the hero picks up the heroine and carries her around for no reason other than he wants to and they have only just met. And she let’s him! Grrrr.
As an aside the authors website is a 1980’s pink/lots of neon buttons eyesore! shudders
The first heroine was the wimpiest of them all, I think. Normally that totally bothers me too, but I was only mildly annoyed…maybe because they’re dragons? I don’t know. TBH this series kind of defied my usual tastes, haha. I don’t know what it was but I loved me some hot man-dragons. 😉
You told me about the website before I think! Yes, it is…not good, ahem.
Okay – just checked and you are right, I am repeating myself! BUT it is soooo bad it deserves another mention ! And now that I have refreshed my memory I can blame you for getting me to read the first wimpy book!
Got any RS reviews coming up?
Willa, I am…not very caught up on my reviews. Soon hopefully. 😉
I was thinking of picking up this book. I think I’ll pass for now. Does this series needs to be read in order though?
Sue, here’s what I’d say. You probably should read the rest of the series in order, but I also don’t think you’d have a problem picking up a book out of order. This world isn’t so complex that you couldn’t easily get the gist! I enjoyed the other books much more than this one. Then again, I’m a bit of dragon junkie, haha.