Tag: Dragons

Review: Aris by Sarah J. Stone

Posted October 21, 2019 by Holly in Reviews | 1 Comment

Caution: This book may include potentially sensitive content, including but not limited to: Sexual Violence or Abuse.
Review: Aris by Sarah J. StoneReviewer: Holly
Aris by Sarah J. Stone
Narrator: Connor Brown
Series: Stratham Dragons #1
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: January 19, 2017
Format: Audiobook
Source: Audible Escape
Point-of-View: Alternating Third
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
Content Warning: View Spoiler »
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Length: 3 hours and 17 minutes
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Reading Challenges: Holly's 2019 GoodReads Challenge, Holly's 2019 New to Me Challenge
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one-star
Series Rating: one-star

Aris and his brothers have been sick their entire lives. Every day Aris comes closer to finding a cure. One day his visions show him that the key is a human woman in need of help. He must find her.

Sophie has spent the last seven years of her life locked away and abused by a man who promised to always take care of her. She’s nearly given up hope on ever getting free until she makes contact with the man of her dreams. Is he actually real or is she going crazy?

Can Aris save her from herself and help her heal before it’s too late for both of them?

Content Warning: Explicit love scenes, and piles of sexy shifters. Intended for mature audiences only.

I like how the content warning in the blurb doesn’t mention the massive amounts of on page abuse and sexual assault the female MC suffers.

Content Warning: Explicit love scenes, and piles of sexy shifters. Intended for mature audiences only.

TRIGGER WARNING! Sexual assault and abuse galore.

I found this while browsing the Audible Escape package and thought I’d give it a try. The narration, blurb and cover made me think this would be a lighter PNR, but that wasn’t the case. The book opens with the heroine trapped in a basement being sore abused by her step-father. She mentally connects with our hero, Aris, who turns out to be a dragon shifter suffering from some sort of illness.

He and his brothers-of-the-heart – five boys who banded together – are all suffering from the same thing, yet none of them know why or how to fix it. Aris connects with his biological mother in a dream and learns he’s a half-breed dragon – half Black dragon and half Golden. According to dream mom, until he accepts both halves of himself and finds the missing third part of his soul (the heroine, natch), he – and all his “brothers” – will die.

Sophie has been a captive for 7 years, since she was 14 (so it says in the beginning of the book) or 15 (end of the book). She’s been plotting her escape and trying to keep hope, but she’s almost at the end of her rope. She’s been dreaming of Aris (though she didn’t know his name) for years, but didn’t think he was real until they connect in a dream and he sees her as well. Now she’s determined to hang on until he can rescue her.

I liked the premise of this story, but honestly it was a hot mess. Inconsistencies galore. At first she was raped, then not. She was in the basement for 5 years, then 7. She was severely traumatized by her abuse (understandably so!), then she was strong so it didn’t matter. Things were glossed over or hinted at. Honestly, I could have let a lot of that go, but about halfway through we suddenly switched to the step-dad’s POV and that was just too much. I ended up finishing it, because I was curious to see what would happen with Aris’ illness, but I’m sorry I wasted my time.

At first the narrator bothered me, because he’d occasionally stumble or pause in strange ways/places, but after reading some of the reviews on GR, I’m convinced it was the poor writing in the book. Needless to say, I won’t be continuing with the series.

Rating: 1.0 out of 5

Stratham Dragons

one-star


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Guest Review: Dragon Lesson by Mell Eight

Posted October 26, 2017 by Tracy in Reviews | 3 Comments

Guest Review: Dragon Lesson by Mell EightReviewer: Tracy
Dragon Lesson by Mell Eight
Series: Supernatural Consultant #6
Also in this series: Dragon Consultant, Dragon Deception, Dragon Dilemma, Dragon Detective, Dragon Soldier, Dragon Adventure, Dragon Home
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Publication Date: October 11th 2017
Genres: M/M, New Adult, Paranormal Romance
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four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

All Lumie wants is Goldie's beautiful smile, but the only expression he ever shows Lumie is tears. When Goldie asks him for a favor, Lumie leaps at the chance to finally see Goldie happy.

Goldie wants to live a life free of the fear that has chained him for so long, but breaking free of them once and for all may come with a higher price than he and Lumie are prepared to pay.

Lumie wants nothing more than for Goldie to be happy.  He loves him and in a vision he saw Goldie smile.  He wants that to happen in real life.  As Lumie has special powers besides his normal dragon powers, he is contacted by the government as they want him to work for him.  They will pay for his college and then he’ll work for them for 6 years. Lumie isn’t all that excited about college but he knows his brother Alloy is.  When Lumie talks to Goldie about it, he asks if he can come too.  While Lumie hates school he’ll do anything to be close to Goldie – including go to college.  Lumie makes a deal so that he as well as Alloy and Goldie get the same college education and work as he does. Unfortunately the first case that Lumie and Goldie are assigned ends up being one that even Lumie and his special powers can’t deal with.

Goldie spent 5 years being experimented on by scientists before he was rescued.  He has never been far from the dragon town he lives in and while he’s excited about college he’s also very hesitant to go.  He never dreamed that talking to government agents would bring to light what his powers do to him but it changes his life.  Now if he can just get Lumie to love him, he’d have everything.

This was yet another great story in the Supernatural Consultant series.  The books are just so engaging and seeing the dragon kits that we were introduced to in book one grow into young men and women is awesome.  I love that Eight has moved the story along so that 13 or 14 years have passed since it all began.

In this book Lumie finally figures out his strange powers.  He also has found love and wants his mate to be happy.  The way Lumie was with Goldie was so very sweet I had a smile on my face for almost the entire book.  He’s such a caring young man!  I loved that Eight had Lumie grown up but still his mischievous self.

The book was highly entertaining and a wonderful addition to the series.

Rating: 4 out of 5

four-stars


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Guest Review: Bring the Heat by G.A. Aiken

Posted August 29, 2017 by Tracy in Reviews | 3 Comments

Guest Review: Bring the Heat by G.A. AikenReviewer: Tracy
Bring the Heat by G.A. Aiken
Series: Dragon Kin #9
Also in this series: Light My Fire, Dragon on Top, Bring the Heat, Dragon Actually (Dragon Kin, #1)
Publisher: Zebra
Publication Date: August 29th 2017
Pages: 416
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four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

HE SAYS . . .

I, Aidan the Divine, am . . . well, divine. My name was given to me by the Dragon Queen herself! I’m a delight! Cheerful. Charming. And a mighty warrior who is extremely handsome, with a very large and well-hidden hoard of gold. I am also royal-born, despite the fact that most in my family are horrendous beings who don’t deserve to live. And yet, Branwen the Awful—a low-born, no less—either tells me to shut up or, worse, ignores me completely.

SHE SAYS . . .

I’ll admit, I ignore Aidan the Divine because it annoys him. A lot. But we have so much to do right now, I can’t worry about why he keeps staring at me, or why he always sits so close, or why he keeps looking at me like he’s thinking about kissing me. We have our nations to save and no time for such bloody foolishness . . . no matter how good Aidan looks or how long his spiked tail is. Because if we’re going to win this war before it destroys everything we love, we’ll have to face our enemies together, side by side and without distractions. But if we make it out alive, who knows what the future will hold . . .

Our story takes us to the ongoing battle between the God Chramnesind’s followers/Zealots and the rest of the world.  They’ve been taking over/killing anyone who won’t claim Chramnesind as their God and that’s anyone who gets in their way.  Annwyl, her children aka The Abominations, her husband Fearghus and his entire family are fighting along with any nation they could get to fight with them.  Despite that it seems that the Zealots are winning the fight .  Things during the opening battle start to go all wrong…Annwyl is sucked into a well that suddenly disappears, mountains start collapsing and witches are singing spells all around them.

Branwen the Awful is fighting with members of the Mì-runach when the mountain they’re standing on collapses.  They manage to get away and plan to get back to their battalions but are intercepted by Brannie’s cousin Keita the Viper.  After being told by her aunt, Queen Rhiannon, and her mother that she must go with the Mì-runach and protect Keita while she heads to the Eastlands, Brannie is pissed.  She wants to get back to her men but ends up “protecting” Keita instead.

While they travel and run into trouble after trouble we read about what’s going on at the front, on the queen’s mountain, Annwyl who’s in hell, and with other characters. Brannie and Aidan, who are great friends decide that as a diversion they’ll sleep together but it means nothing and when Brannie is done, she’s done – no questions asked.  Of course Aidan is going to agree to anything he can in order to be with Brannie (we can tell he loves her).  But when it comes time to call it all off are either of them truly ready to say goodbye?

This was another fabulous story.  I loved how Aiken made this pretty much a fight for your life with a love story thrown in.  It’s tough and gritty and there’s not a lot of romance.  I don’t expect romance, however, as I know that most of the dragons in her stories aren’t the sweet, romantic types.  If she had tried to throw sappy romance into the story I would have been greatly confused. Lol.

The battle scenes as well as the behind the scenes plotting was awesome.  The dragons of Garbhan Isle, the Iron Dragons, the Daughters of the Steppes, the Eastlanders (whatever they are) added so much to the story and made it interesting, intriguing, humorous and sexy.  If you’ve loved the Dragon Kin series then you won’t want to miss this book.  If you haven’t read the series then I wouldn’t recommend starting with this book as you’ll be damned confused.

Rating: 4 out of 5

four-stars


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Guest Review: Dragon Home by Mell Eight

Posted July 18, 2017 by Tracy in Reviews | 2 Comments

Guest Review: Dragon Home by Mell EightReviewer: Tracy
Dragon Home by Mell Eight
Series: Supernatural Consultant #5.2
Also in this series: Dragon Consultant, Dragon Deception, Dragon Dilemma, Dragon Detective, Dragon Soldier, Dragon Adventure, Dragon Lesson
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Publication Date: June 21st 2017
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four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

With Rios happily mated and planning an entire future, Aqua can't help but feeling left out. The brother that was always been his chief playmate and best friend is going to leave him behind, which isn't at all acceptable. The obvious answer is to leave first, so Aqua packs a bag to go on an adventure. But this adventure isn't anything like his last one and the chances of him returning home alive dwindle every moment.

Aqua’s brother, Rios, found his mate and now he’s off every day with Nixie and Aqua is left with no one.  He shouldn’t be jealous of Nixie because Rios is so happy, but he is.  When Aqua is moping around the house one morning his Uncle Willy told him that he needed to make friends and he wasn’t going to meet any if he stayed at home moping.  Aqua immediately packs a bag, turns into his water dragon form and heads off on an air current to seek adventure.

Aqua doesn’t know where he is when he realizes that he’s hungry.  He stops in a desert to eat but he gets ready to leave he’s conked on the head.  A family of fire salamanders – led by the oldest brother – ties him up thinking he’s a spy.  Aqua tries to tell them he’s not but they don’t believe him.  When he thinks everyone is gone he meets a silent member of the family.  Ash is an albino salamander.  He can’t create fire and can’t go out in the sun or he’ll burn.  Ash explains that his sister Safara had dated a nearby dragon but when their older brother went to meet the dragon he had brought Safara back with him and they were then at war with the local dragons.

Aqua decides that the only way to work things out is to talk it over with the local dragons.  He takes Ash with him and heads off to play peacemaker.  Unfortunately, what he discovers is something he can’t fix jut by talking.

This was such an adorable story.  I just loved it and would have given it 5 stars had it been a little longer.

Aqua was a good kid/dragon kit and had such a good heart.  He just wanted to be loved and feel like he was a part of something.  Yes, he had his brother and Uncle Willy but he needed more.  Finding Ash and his family situation was a huge turning point in his life and it warmed my heart to see him so happy.

I don’t want to tell you too much about the story because the revelations are worth reading. Now I did put this under M/M but Aqua and Ash are young and the only thing they do is hold hands – just FYI.

As much as I want to get the stories of the other dragon kits from the first few books this was a wonderful interlude and definitely worth reading.

Rating: 4 out of 5

four-stars


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Guest Review: Dragon Adventure by Mell Eight

Posted May 30, 2017 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: Dragon Adventure by Mell EightReviewer: Tracy
Dragon Adventure by Mell Eight
Series: Supernatural Consultant #5.1
Also in this series: Dragon Consultant, Dragon Deception, Dragon Dilemma, Dragon Detective, Dragon Soldier, Dragon Home, Dragon Lesson
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Publication Date: May 17th 2017
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three-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Aqua and Rios are bored, which is always a recipe for disaster. They decide that taking a trip to visit Nickel would be a ton of fun, so they hop on a boat and go sailing down the river. Niagara Falls separates the two kits from their destination, not that they're aware of that fact, and their fun adventure quickly turns into a desperate fight for survival.

Aqua and Rios are water dragons, approximately 15 years old, and are the foster sons of William Armistead.  They are at the North American Territory Leader’s Conference in Canada and since their “Uncle” Willy controls all of Canada he brought them with him so that they could understand what’s going on – he’d been teaching them about his duties. Of course they’re bored out of their minds and as their Uncle Dane didn’t bring his son Nickel with him they have no one to play with.

When they’re dismissed they decide that they’re just going to go visit Nickel. They get out a map and figure it won’t take long at all to get to Nickel as it’s only a few inches of map space – by river…in a rowboat. Obviously it takes longer than expected even with their supernatural powers and they end up getting to shore so they can sleep that night.  Rios is awoken by a sound and finds a Nix, a water shape-shifter, who’s trying to save the waterways from drug dealers. Rios gets attached to the Nix – who he names Nixie – very quickly and decides to help.  The pair get into some trouble but Uncle Willy is there to save the day in more ways than one.

This was a very short but very cute read.  It’s set in the world of the other Supernatural Consultant books, and Dane is in it, but none of Dane’s dragon kits are in it.  Aqua and Rios were adorably rambunctious and I enjoyed reading about their antics.  The story is told with the thought that Rios and Nix will eventually mate but that’s just kind of implied.  They’re too young at the moment to go that far. 🙂  The only reason this story got a lower rating was because of length.   I just couldn’t get too into it all as it was super short.

If you’ve read and enjoyed all of the Supernatural Consultant books so far then I think you’ll enjoy this one as well.

Rating: 3 out of 5

three-stars


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