Renee’s review of Day of the Dragon
Beautiful archaeologist Madison Dartmoor unearths an astonishing find, one of vast importance to a handsome stranger—a man who is not human, and who holds a dangerous secret that may break her heart.
I was really excited to read Day of the Dragon. I love me some dragons—and dragon shifters— and I’ve been meaning to read more of Rebecca York’s Moon series, after enjoying Night Season a couple of years ago. Yet, as optimistic as I was starting the book, I had to put the book down after 100 pages.
The plot itself was interesting: Madison discovers something on an archaeological dig that mysterious bad guys are determined to get their hands on; a brooding and wounded Ramsay, a dragon shifter, is drawn to Madison and wants to find out more about her discovery.
Yet, unfortunately, I never could fully like either Madison or Ramsay.
Ramsay’s high-handed ways came across less as Alpha-ness, and more like creepiness. When they go to his hotel room after he averts a kidnap attempt on Madison, he begins to glamour her to find out more about her discovery. Once he begins to get information from her, he continues to work his mojo:
“I’m so sorry,” he said, sliding closer, moving slowly. When he reached for her, she stiffened for a moment, and he sent her calming thoughts.
It’s ok. You like me. You trust me. You want me to hold you. You want to be in my arms.
She made a small sighing sound, then relaxed.
“It feels like we’ve know each other for a long time,” he murmured.
“Yes.” ……He had taken her in his arms because he wanted information from her, but holding her was interfering with his ability to think clearly as lust clouded his brain. Or maybe “need” was a more polite word. He’d left himself unfulfilled last night. He knew that was part of the problem. The fragmenting of his abilities was another.
The Ramsay Gallagher of old would have been in complete control of this situation. Now he couldn’t even tell exactly what she was feeling.
She raised her head, staring at him, the mixture of intense heat and confusion on her face making his throat tighten.
“What are we doing? she whispered.
“Getting to know each other better.”
“We can’t…do this.”
“Why not?”
“I just met you.”
“We won’t do anything you don’t want to do.” How many times had he used that line, knowing he was a master of swaying a woman’s decision?
He later goes on to think that if she recoils, he would pull away (she doesn’t), but given how much he’s already glamored her, her judgment was already impaired. For me, even though they didn’t end up having sex due to an interruption, this smacked more of coercion and less of romance.
As for Madison, she was passive to the point of inertia. This was partly due to Ramsay’s “glamouring” of her to make her go along with his plans. But, it was also that she repeatedly had this thought process of: “Oh, I shouldn’t do this.” Then, “Well, ok, I’ll do it” without any real motivation other than that was where the plot needed to go.
In an effort to escape the bad guys, they run to his remote lair, which is outfitted with security cameras (he creepily watches her while she sleeps, of course) and a secret bomb shelter/underground cave/Indian ceremonial chamber. No, seriously. The book hit the wall when he suggests that they will learn more if she puts on a Native American leather shift he just happened to have around (he has a matching loincloth), they inhale ceremonial herbs to “open (their) minds”, and go on a “visionquest”. And, her reaction? She doesn’t even question him on the out-there randomness of this suggestion. She just says, “Okay, let’s do it.”
At this point, I found that I couldn’t go on, even trying to read it as a light, campy, wtf kind of read.
DNF. For what I did read 2 out of 5
Have any of you read books by Rebecca York? Are there ones that you’d recommend?
Read more from Renee at Renee’s Book Addiction
This book is available from Berkley Sensation. You can buy it here
