Review: Eight Simple Rules for Dating a Dragon by Kerrelyn Sparks

Reviewer: Holly
Eight Simple Rules for Dating a Dragon (The Embraced, #3) by Kerrelyn Sparks
Series: The Embraced #3
Also in this series: How to Tame a Beast in Seven Days (The Embraced, #1), So I Married a Sorcerer (The Embraced, #2), So I Married a Sorcerer (The Embraced, #2), Eight Simple Rules for Dating a Dragon (The Embraced, #3)
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: March 27, 2018
Point-of-View: Third
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 448
Add It: Goodreads
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Series Rating:

From the brilliant imagination of Kerrelyn Sparks comes a bold new fantasy romance series in which passion and magic collide. Behold the Embraced…

Gwennore has a talent. An Elf able to track down the cause of an illness and heal it, she’s a valuable asset to her people. When the kidnapping of a young girl thrusts Gwennore into the very heart of the realm of the dragons, she discovers not only a place of power and magic, but also a haunted land, plagued by an ancient curse that all but ensures extinction to the royal family. But when she meets the smoldering General Silas Dravenko, they strike a bargain—save the country from its cursed illness, and he will return the kidnapped girl. She’s been raised never to trust a dragon, but never did making a deal with the devil feel so good…

Silas has no way of curing the family he’s loyally served for years. But when a beautiful elf, long considered the enemy of the dragons, comes bursting into his world, Silas is awakened to passion and desire in a way he’s never felt before. But can he trust a sworn enemy to save the very existence he holds dear? And can their love survive those that threaten to tear them apart?

Gwennore was raised with 5 other women – her adopted sisters – in a convent on the Island of Moon. They were abandoned by their family’s because they were born Embraced (with magical powers). Gwennore is an Elf who can magically sense illness in others. She’s been training as a healer, but she isn’t as knowledgeable as she’d like to be. Still, when she’s accidentally kidnapped and realizes the realm is suffering under a curse, she agrees to help figure out the cause. General Silas Dravenko, aka General Gorgeous – has nothing to do with that. Really.

Silas is immediately attracted to Gwennore. He’s willing to do whatever he has to do to keep her close. The truth is, he needs her help. His Queen is being poisoned and his family is living under a curse. If Gwennore can help him figure out what’s really going on, he can’t pass that up. If he gets to spend time with her in the meantime? All the better.

I really liked Silas. He was such a great character. His jealousy was cute and I loved how he kept trying to get Gwennore to admit he was just as awesome as her favorite dragon. I also really liked the 8 rules for dating a dragon.

I wanted to like Gwennore just as much, but I didn’t really connect with her the way I did the previous heroine. She rarely used her talent and not much was explained about it. She constantly waffled, suffering from major bouts of self-doubt and angst, then standing up for herself. Her constant back-and-forthing got old, fast. The romance between them moved very slow. I wanted to see them get together, but honestly by the end I wasn’t very invested in them.

The end was too rushed and I really struggled with a lot of inconsistencies in the story. None of the major conflicts of the books were resolved to my satisfaction. I don’t want to include spoilers, but I will say I was highly dissatisfied with the brief paragraph in the epilogue that magically fixed everything. There wasn’t enough dragon in this for me, either. I’d have loved to see more.

There were parts I enjoyed (mostly Silas and his struggle with Gwennore’s love for the dragon), but overall I was underwhelmed. I definitely didn’t enjoy it as much as the previous book.

3 out of 5

The Embraced Series

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