Tag: Deborah Cooke

Throwback Thursday Guest Review: Darkfire Kiss by Deborah Cooke

Posted April 29, 2021 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Throwback Thursday Guest Review: Darkfire Kiss by Deborah CookeReviewer: Tracy
Darkfire Kiss by Deborah Cooke
Series: Dragonfire #6
Also in this series: Kiss of Fate
Publisher: Signet Eclipse
Publication Date: April 29, 2011
Format: eBook
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 419
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four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

For one woman, he will risk more than his life...

Rafferty Powell has exchanged challenge coins with his arch-nemesis Magnus Montmorency, and their next battle will be their last. But Rafferty never expected to meet a woman whose desire for Magnus’ downfall matches his own—and whose presence sparks Rafferty’s long-awaited firestorm.

Since facing her own mortality, investigative reporter Melissa Smith has resolved to live without fear. She’s determined to make the seemingly untouchable Magnus pay for his role in ending her friend’s life – no matter the price to herself.

When her quest entwines with Rafferty’s, Melissa finds herself risking more than she ever thought possible. Because the heat between them unleashes the darkfire—an awesome force of Pyr legend, one that won’t be sated until everything they know has been tested and remade.

This review was originally posted on April 28, 2011.

Rafferty is outside the home of his enemy, Magnus, when he spies a thief. She is trying to get into the house and doing a surprisingly easy job of it. He follows her and ends up saving her from Magnus’s fury. Rafferty eventually tracks the woman down while in his dragon form with the intent of getting information from her. Not only does he not get the info he needs but the woman, an out of work journalist, takes pictures of Rafferty fighting another dragon and posts them on her blog.

Needless to say this is horrifying for the Pyr who pride themselves on secrecy but that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the shit hitting the fan. You see, Rafferty and the woman, Melissa, are mates and during the eclipse their firestorm begins. But their firestorm contains darkfire and because of extenuating circumstances the firestorm cannot be sated. Darkfire means that life is changing for the Pyr and not everyone is happy about it – especially Erik who is the leader of the Pyr. While Erik deals with his thoughts on the discovery of the Pyr and what that will mean for their kind, Rafferty and Melissa work together to find a solution to not only deal with the discovery but how to deal with Magnus as well as the legacy that was left to Rafferty by his grandfather.

This was a really great book in the Dragonfire series. I was very much looking forward to Rafferty’s firestorm after reading the first five books but wasn’t sure what to expect. I loved that Cooke gave us another view into not only the Pyr but to Rafferty himself. With the firestorm not being able to be sated in the usual way – via conception – Rafferty and Melissa worked together to find a solution. Working so closely with each other and not depending strictly on sex to further their relationship really worked for me. I think showing the reader the intellectual side of the couple during the firestorm was a great idea and was done very well.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens next with the Pyr. We’ve been set up with some stories and I think they’ll be great. There was also an excerpt in the back of the book for Cooke’s spin off series of the kids of the Pyr that were, in this book, toddlers, that was quite good. I’m not sure how that will work with the kids being teens so my curiosity is definitely piqued.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5

Dragonfire

four-stars

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What I Read Last Week

Posted March 5, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 8 Comments

Hello there!
How the heck are ya? I’m good. Tired. I’ve been all over my city at what seems like a gajillian appliance stores looking at refrigerators. Our fridge died back on Feb. 20 (luckily we had one in the garage so saved most of the food) and this is the first weekend we’ve had to really start the hunt. Going to places, seeing what we like, then going home to check out reviews and consumer reports, etc. My God it’s exhausting. Then after all of that my brain is so fried I just want to say, “point to one and we’ll get it.” lol Besides finding one we like that doesn’t have a crappy rep, we currently have what’s called a counter depth fridge because of the way the previous owners of our house remodeled it. It looks great but with counter depth models you get less refrigerator for more money. It’s completely asinine but there it is. So then we have to decide do we want to pay the money or do we not care if it sticks out farther. There’s room for it but will it bug the crap out of me? IDK. (and this after the furnace broke down 2 weeks before that!)
And now YOU know more about fridges than you ever wanted to learn! lol
The girls were gone all weekend at different friends’ houses and I should have had a relaxing weekend and lots of reading done. Not. lol
This is what I read last week:
Wedded in Scandal by Jade Lee was my first read of the week and I read this one for The Book Binge. The story follows a woman who is an Earl’s daughter but because of a huge scandal with the father the daughter and mother are left penniless. The daughter, Helaine, starts her own dress shop and is trying to get it off the ground. One of her clients is sister to a Viscount and he falls in lust with Helaine. It was a good book with some great dialogue. I loved the banter between Helaine and Robert but I did have some issues with it. You can read my full review here. 3.5 out of 5
Next up was Winging It by Deborah Cooke. This is book 2 in the Dragon Diaries series and it was really good. The series is YA and involves the children (who are now teens) of the dragon shifters from Cooke’s Dragonfire series. I really enjoy how Cooke really makes this about the kids and doesn’t involve the adults. Would regular adults normally have stepped in after everything that goes on in the book? Probably but this IS fiction! lol The story is again told from Zoe Sorensson’s point of view. She’s having issues with secrecy. She can’t tell her best friend about her dragon side and it’s causing problems with her friend. Then there’s the problem with her powers that seem to be non-existent and she’s supposed to be the Wyvern who is supposed to have special powers. The story follows Zoe and her dragon friends as they try desperately to save themselves and other shifters against evil mages. The book was so much more than I expected and I really liked it. I can’t wait for the next book. Do I really have to wait til June? I know it doesn’t seem that far off but still… lol 4.5 out of 5
The Price of Innocence by Susan Sizemore was the story of a woman who was kidnapped and kept as a slave or sorts but she fell in love with her captor and never wanted to be released. When she meets up with him 9 years later her anger is driving her and she wants nothing to do with him. Or does she? You can read my review here. 4 out of 5
Hair of the Dog by Ashlyn Kane and Morgan James was my next read. This is about Ezra who was bitten by a werewolf….they prefer Lycans…on his way home from his father’s wake. He is then visited by the pack alpha, Callum, told he is a werewolf and then shuffled from his home. He is then inserted into pack society and he’s fumbling a bit. The alpha is trying to find out what is making they Lycan’s go a bit crazed and thinks it’s a disease until they discover that it’s really someone making them this way. Then there’s the lust between Callum and Ezra that’s almost out of control. I liked the writing in the story but I wasn’t sure about the story. I liked the suspense part but it definitely took over the book. The relationship portion of it wasn’t told as in depth as I thought it should be and I was a bit let down. I’ll be reviewing this one so I’ll let you know when that review posts. 3 out of 5
Last for the week was Taking the Shot by Jaci Burton. This is the 3rd book in the Play by Play series and it’s about the Riley sister, Jenna, and hockey player Ty Anderson. Wow. Hot. lol I’ll review it this week. 🙂
My Book Binge reviews that have posted since last week:

Happy Reading!

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Guest Review: Flying Blind by Deborah Cooke

Posted July 15, 2011 by Tracy in Reviews | 1 Comment

Genres: Paranormal Romance

Tracy’s review of Flying Blind (Dragon Diaries #1) by Deborah Cooke

Zoë Sorensson is perfectly normal, except she’s been told she’s destined for great things. Zoë’s the one female dragon shapeshifter of her kind. But Zoë is at the bottom of the class when it comes to being Pyr and her powers are AWOL, so she’s sent to a Pyr boot camp.

Zoë quickly realizes that she has to master her powers yesterday, because the Pyr are in danger and boot camp is a trap. The Mages want to eliminate all shifters and the Pyr are next in line-unless Zoë and her friends can work together and save their own kind.

Zoe is a little distressed. Here she is at the ripe old age of 15 and she still doesn’t have either boobs or her period. She’d love to get the boobs more than the period but with puberty comes the ability to turn into a dragon. You see she is the only female Pyr (Pyr are shape shifting dragons) and since the male offspring of the older Pyr started getting their abilities when they hit puberty she assumes she will too.

Funny (read: strange) things do start to happen when she wakes up one morning but she really has no idea what to make of it. Since she’s the only female Pyr she’s supposedly this “all-knowing” being called the Wyvern but frankly Zoe doubts that she is since she just feels like a regular girl. When she partially turns into a dragon in front of her classmates at school not only does she get suspended but her father (who is the leader of the Pyr) sends her off to Pyr boot camp which is a kind of training session for the younger Pyr.

Zoe’s actually pretty excited to be at boot camp. She gets to see the other Pyr that are more around her age but most importantly Nick, fellow Pyr and the boy she likes. Unfortunately when she arrives so does Isabelle who is not Pyr but is the adopted daughter of one. Nick’s interest is fully on Isabelle and that pisses Zoe right off. She does meet a hunky guy named Jared but she’s not exactly sure what to make of him.

When all the teens get to boot camp there’s a new enrollee that they’re not familiar with but that’s the least of their problems – or so they think. Donovan, who normally runs the boot camp, isn’t around and they’re not sure what they should do with themselves. When the truth comes out about why the new enrollee, Adrian, is there and that the Pyr are in trouble with Mages Zoe needs to prove that she is not only a capable and smart dragon but also the Wyvern and can hump in to help when needed.

If you have been reading the Dragonfire series by Cooke then you’ll recognize the names in this book as these are the teen children of the Pyr from that series. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started the book – especially since I don’t normally read YA books but this one delivered.

The book has a teensy bit of a romantic element but this is not a romance. This is a book about Zoe coming of age and discovering not only her abilities but her limitations. Most of the limitations were set up by Zoe’s own lack of confidence in who she was but when she finally believed in herself she really became a shining star.

Cooke did a fabulous job of giving us characters that were so very normal in their teenage lives while still being these incredible beings. I loved how she brought in the older Pyr that we’d been reading about in the Dragonfire series in a way that was more in line with teaching the younger Pyr about their strengths. Also, so many YA books that I’ve read have teens that have been abandoned, abused, neglected or raised by grandparents that didn’t quite know what to do with them. I thought it was great that we could read about a girl who was incredibly loved, had two parents as well as a huge support system and had rules and limitations, just like normal teens should. I think this is a series that I’m very much going to enjoy and I’m definitely looking forward to the next installment in the Dragon Diaries.


Rating: 4 out of 5

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

This book is available from NAL Trade. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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What I Read Last Week

Posted July 4, 2011 by Tracy in Features | 7 Comments

Happy 4th of July! (For those of you celebrating!)  I hope you’re having a wonderful holiday.  The girls and I headed over this morning to a local parade – over in the town where my parents live. Very small town but cute.

This week begins some early morning rising for me.  You see my oldest starts summer school tomorrow for the month of July – from 7:00am until Noon.  The school where it will take place is near my work – and a distance from my home – so my boss told me I could work 7:00am-3:30 pm for the month of July.  While I know I’ll love getting out of work early (I usually work 8:30am-5:00pm) the getting up at the butt crack of dawn every day is going to kill me, I just know it.  My reading will suffer. I know that I’ll have to go to bed earlier and not have as much time to read in the evenings after the chicklets go to bed.  Maybe I can make up for it in the afternoons?  I’ll have to see how that pans out.

Diet and Exercise – I’ve been bad about updating this – I don’t think I have for a couple of weeks – sorry.  I’m at a stand still at the same weight from my last weigh in – so only a total of 2.4 pounds lost.  I’m happy I haven’t gained – so that’s a plus.  I think I have my hubby talked into moving our treadmill into the living room. Yes it will be completely unsightly but with it currently in the garage I just never use it.  It’s hotter than hell out there right now (it’s been in the 100’s this past week) and moving it inside would be a much bigger motivator for me.

So what did I read this past week?

My first book for the week was Waking Up With the Duke by Lorraine Heath.   A good book and I loved the hero!  You can read my review here. 3.75 out of 5

Next up was Pushed to the Limit by Nico Rosso.  This is book 2 in the Limit War series and it was good.  I really liked the characters and the romance.  You can read my review here. 3.75 out of 5

Smashed Into Pieces by Scarlet Blackwell was a book that I read for The Book Binge.  I didn’t care for this book for the most part.  There were a few things about it I liked but only a few.  The male hero seemed like a stalker and the other male hero just wanted to be left alone and kept telling man 1 that, but did he listen?  No.  I have been told by Chris that there are a couple of books that she liked by Blackwell so I’ll check those out in the future and not give up on the author. You can read my review here if you’re interested. 1.5 out of 5

Next was another Book Binge book called Loving the Beast by Naima Simone.  This was a erotic version of a beauty and the beast tale.  While I liked the story there just wasn’t enough of it.  Too much sex for me and not enough story  2 out of 5  You can read my review here if you’re interested.

My next read, another one for The Book Binge, was called Flying Blind by Deborah Cooke.  If you’ve been reading the Dragonfire series by Cooke you might be interested in this one.  This is a YA book that is told in 1st person POV by Zoe Sorensson, daughter of Erik, leader of the Pyr (whose book is Kiss of Fate).  This is the first book in a trilogy called the Dragon Diaries and in this book Zoe is frustrated by her lack of puberty as well as her lack of dragon powers.  Supposedly she is the new Wyvern of the Pyr but so far she’s not seeing anything that shows she’s this amazing dragon.  It was a good story and I can’t wait to read what happens next in Zoe’s life.  4 out of 5

My next read was Sno Ho by Ethan Day.  This is a novella about man, Boone, who’s visiting Colorado supposedly to have a romantic time with his boyfriend.  But his boyfriend breaks up with him over the phone and he goes and gets drunk.  He picks up a guy, Wade, but has no idea what happened.  Turns out that it just might be the best thing that’s ever happened to him.  The two spend some time together but the getting to that point is fun and funny.  I really liked both Wade and Boone and enjoyed the story a lot.  4 out of 5 (I did pick up Life in Fusion with is a novel that is the continuing story of Wade and Boone but put it down after about 100 pages.  It just wasn’t capturing my attention so I’ll have to come back to it at a later time.)

My last book for the week was Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn.  This is the first book in a 4 books series about the Smythe-Smith family.  If you’ve read the Bridgerton series then you know that the Smythe-Smith’s are the family that put on the yearly musicale that is horrific.  Honoria is one of the instrumentalists and though she loathes the fact that she has to do the musicale she loves her family so perseveres.  Honoria and Marcus have known each other for 15 years and Marcus is Honoria’s brother’s best friend.  They end up falling in love.  This was a cute book.  The romance could have been fleshed out more and yes, the characters could have been explored more fully but in the end I really liked the book.  Quinn’s always sucks me in and with the emotion and the humor mixed into her stories I end up really loving her work. 4 out of 5

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Smashed Into Pieces by Scarlet Blackwell
Loving the Beast by Naima Simone

Happy Reading!

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What I Read Last Week

Posted April 25, 2011 by Tracy in Features | 8 Comments

Happy Monday!
I hope that you all had a great weekend and a wonderful Easter – if you celebrate it. We do and we went to a lovely service followed by an egg hunt. Unfortunately it was lightly raining off and on so they had to have the egg hunt indoors but it was still fun. 🙂
You can hear her thoughts by the look on her face…really, mom? You HAVE to take a picture?

Such a ham!
Today I will start an exercise program. Yes, I’ve said this a couple of times in the past few years and have fallen down on the job each time. So what made me make the decision to start and stick to it this time? A mirror. lol The story: my sister was so nice and bought my girls dresses for Easter and had them sent. On Friday I got the package and when I opened it I realized that she had also sent a dress for me. She’s so sweet! I went to try it on and….it was too small. So I went to the store to exchange it and was trying on several different dresses. Besides the fact that one size was too small and the next looked like a big sack on me, there were strategically placed mirrors in the fitting rooms so that you could easily see the back and the front of yourself at the same time. Confession: I don’t look at the back of myself – ever. There’s just nothin’ back there I care to look at, thank you very much. I couldn’t help but look though and while I was changing I caught a glimpse of myself and let’s just say I didn’t like what I saw. So – today I start back to eating healthy and I’m also going to begin an exercise program that I have called Slim in 6. I’ve tried this program before and it’s not worked. Ok, it’s never worked. Not that the program itself doesn’t work (I wouldn’t know since I’ve never gotten through the entire thing…or even close to it) but it goes something like this. The program contains 3 dvd’s which you’re supposed to do every day, 6 days a week. The program consists of doing the beginning dvd for a week or 2…dvd 2 for about a week or so and then dvd 3 for the remainder of the 6 weeks. In the past I have done 1 day of the 1st dvd and not gotten any further because I’ve not been able to walk or move for about a week afterwards! lol I shit you not. Even though it’s the beginners dvd it’s a lot of work and I’m really out of shape! So…I’m attempting to do the Slim in 6 but it will probably be more like Slim in Six…teen hundred. I’m going to power through and see what I can do because I really need to get fit. I’m not in a hurry but I need to do something. I’ll keep you updated.
So let’s get back to books…what did I read this past week?
I started the week with a Tracy’s TBR Challenge read called Fantasies: New Year’s Eve by Cassandra Gold. This was the story of Eric who is the manager of a resort in Hawaii. He’s trying to recover from the pain of finding out that his lover was married and has decided that he will never again date one of the customers of the resort. That’s until Dexter shows up. Dex wants Eric almost immediately but Eric is determined to stay away. This was a pretty short book and things happened pretty darned quickly – which I expect in such a short format but it still didn’t set well with me. Eric seemed so extremely immature and I almost felt like I was reading about a high schooler rather than someone in his 20’s. Then there was the Big Mis that didn’t work for me and overall it was just ok. 2 out of 5
Another Tracy’s TBR Challenge read for the week was Kissing Orion by Amber Kell. This was another short that had a cop, Aaron, who is trying to investigate a drug issue in the area and goes to a club to see its vampire owner, Orion. Orion knows immediately that Aaron is his mate. He’s extremely possessive – to the extreme imho – and very demanding of Aaron’s time. The investigation continues but it comes to a highly unsatisfying conclusion that really sets us up for the next book. IDK, it just wasn’t working for me on the whole. 2 out of 5
Speaking of Amber Kell – Kris has an interesting post up about guilty pleasures.  Check it out.
My next read was for my monthly TBR Challenge and that book was A Texan’s Lucky by Jodi Thomas. This was a great western historical. I really love Thomas’s writing and this was no different – she really knows how to pull the whole cast together in her books. You can read my review here. 4 out of 5
Next up was Darkfire Kiss by Deborah Cooke. This was one I read for The Book Binge. Rafferty’s story was a little different from the others as his firestorm (mating) consisted of darkfire and it really was wreaking havoc on the Pyr in general. A really great book that takes us in a whole new direction for the dragon shifters. 4.25 out of 5 I’ll let you know when my review posts.
Next up was Semi-Sweet: A Novel of Love and Cupcakes by Roisin Meaney. This was the story of several different couples and people who live and/or visit the small town of Clongarvin, Ireland. Hannah and her friend Adam are really the main characters but we get into the lives of everyone and how everybody’s story intersects. You can read my review here. I’m also giving away 2 copies so be sure and leave a comment on that post if you’re interested (you have until Friday the 26th at 7pm pacific). 3.25 out of 5
Out of the Pocket by Bill Konigsberg was the YA coming out story of star quarterback Bobby Framingham. His team is ready for the playoffs and he’s getting scouted by colleges but his life is in turmoil. He finally comes out to his best friend about the fact that he’s gay and instead of keeping his word and keeping quiet the friend tells two other friends. Not only that but someone Bobby trusts to keep his secret ends up writing a newspaper article about Bobby being gay and the cat is out of the bag. Bobby has some hard times but he has the support of his family and most of his friends. It was a good book that I very much enjoyed. 4 out of 5
Last for the week was The Vampire Dimitri by Colleen Gleason. This is book 2 in the Regency Draculia story and as you can guess, it was Dimitri’s story. He, though he will deny it for what seems forever, has got a thing for his ward, Maia. They are both stubborn and argumentative but they have a very strong attraction to the other. I’ll be reviewing this one this week so I’ll write more about the book then. 🙂
My Book Binge reviews that posted this past week:
Happy Reading!

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