I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Ancient Enemy by Katie Reus Series: Ancients Rising #2
Published by KR Press on August 25, 2020
Genres: PNR
Pages: 248
Format: eBook
Source: NetGalley
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She should be his mortal enemy.
Ancient dragon shifter Rhys awoke from his slumber hungry for revenge against the witch who killed his sister. When his hunt takes him to the rebuilding city of New Orleans, he finds a woman he can’t keep his eyes off—but she’s a witch. While Rhys wants to despise all of Dallas’s kind, even he can’t deny that she's beautiful, kind and…adorable. And her pet baby dragon only increases his fascination with the sexy woman. Protective instincts he never knew he had take over him as they hunt powerful monsters. He’s forced to confront everything he thought he knew about witches as his life is turned upside down.
But he wants her anyway.
Dallas Kinley is used to being hated because of what she is. Witches have always been the pariahs of the supernatural community. Until now, when the world needs rebuilding. Even though she wants to keep her distance from Rhys, vampires and humans are dying in New Orleans, so she vows to help him hunt down those responsible. But finding the enemy comes at a heavy price, because Dallas is hiding a terrible secret. As they race against the clock to find the murderers, she can only hope his need for revenge won’t rip them apart. Especially when he finds out what she’s been hiding from him.
Author note: Book can be read as a stand-alone complete with HEA.
This is the second book in Ms. Reus’ Ancients Rising, and while you can definitely read it as a standalone book, you miss out on what created the new world they’re living in. I mean it’s explained, but I do recommend reading book 1 first.
This is an enemies to lovers trope, and boy do I love a good enemies to lovers story. Our hero is a dragon shifter who is millennia old. Like thousands of thousands of years old. And his sister was killed way back then by a powerful dark witch. This witch used his sister’s life to extend her own, and Rhys has been searching for her ever since.
Dallas is a witch, but she’s not…normal, or whatever passes for normal for a witch. Her mother is a very powerful and very bad witch. And Dallas has run from her and created a peaceful and calm life. A life with no blood magic, and no black magic. And during the fall of, well everything, when dragons burned down the world, she wound up with a baby dragon. A real dragon, not a shifter. And when the alpha in charge of the New Orleans area where everyone is pitching in to rebuild shows up with a dragon shifter, Dallas freaks out. She thinks they’ve come for her pet Willow and she traps everyone in some vines and she flies Willow to a place she feels will be safe. But they all show up like 20 minutes later. The good news is that no one minds her pet dragon. The bad news is that she’s been assigned a dragon shifter partner for a while and has to stay in New Orleans away from her land.
Her land is where she’s strongest.
Rhys is fascinated by the kind witch. She’s not what he expected when he was partnered with his sworn enemy. In fact, he has zero enemy thoughts about her. None, zip. He definitely has other types of thoughts about Dallas, as in non-enemy type thoughts. But he doesn’t want to get distracted from his mission which is to find the witch who killed his sister all those millennia ago, and he will kill her, even if it means he goes down with her.
Dallas and Rhys are each just trying to complete their mission, so they can move on, but after a few days, they realize they probably won’t be able to move on from each other. But there’s a storm brewing, and this one will turn everything upside down. Rhys doesn’t know everything about Dallas, and she isn’t ready to tell him yet. It isn’t that she doesn’t trust him, but rather, she knows he’ll hate her when he finds out her secret. And she wants to enjoy their time together as long as possible.
I’m really loving this series. It’s connected to one of this authors’ other series, and I like the direction she taking. It’s fun to see some of the cross-over characters (you do not need to have read the previous series. This series fully stands on its own). These Scottish dragons are such sexy heroes, and the heroines are all clever, smart, and capable. I really love this world the author has created, and I love the characters. Like all of them. I can’t get over how great this series is. I think I should spend next weekend binging the next few books. Broody hero, clever heroine, tons of chemistry, and no miscommunications or Big Misunderstandings. This book is fantastic, the characters are relatable and likeable, and the plot will keep you wanting more. Luckily, there is more. A lot more. There are at least 5 books in this series right now. Enjoy!
***ARC courtesy of the author via Netgalley
