My rating: 3.5 of 5 flames
***Some Spoilers ahead-ye be warned***
I really enjoy Donna Grant’s Dark Sword series (paranormal druid Highlander series, folks, it’s pretty good), so I was excited when I saw this one for only 99 cents. Sadly the editing was crap. Normally I don’t mention editing unless it’s bad, and this was not good, that’s for sure. AND it’s from St. Martin’s Press! They are much better than this. Sentences that weren’t finished, missing words. It was sad, really.
I love the idea of the plot, but I’m not sure I loved the delivery. If this is a prelude to a series of novels, I think it works really well. But if it’s a bunch of novellas, I’m not sure how it will work.
A quick little summary is that Cassie is leaving the States and moving to Scotland to a property her brother owns but never uses. Her trip there is horrible—lost luggage, brother doesn’t show, 3 days with no sleep—you name it, it happened to Cassie.
Well, her brother Dan isn’t there to pick her up, but he’s left a car for her. She also has to get his dog. There are several mentions of no one being able to get ahold of her brother, she sort of hints that he might be with his wife in England. But no one really knows. Seriously, the amount of attention drawn to his being gone, I was really mad that at the end, we still don’t know what the crap happened to her brother!
So Cassie makes the harrowing drive to her brother’s cottage, and gets that far just to not be able to get into the house. The hide-a-key has a code, and she doesn’t have a code. She nearly freezes to death, but a neighbor, Hal, finds her and gets her in. The two of them have some sparks, but go on their way. I thought that Donna Grant did a great job at creating the insta-lust and molding it into attraction between the H/h.
But Hal can’t let himself get too close because he’s a Dragon King. He and a couple of his brethren (also Dragon Kings-each rules over a color of dragon) are stuck on earth guarding the Silvers (also dragons). They can’t share their secrets with humans, but meanwhile, their old enemy is supposedly harmless (but is he really?) and a new dragon is created. The man literally falls from the sky.
There’s a lot of plot packed into this novella, which is why I felt that this series needs to be full-length to really shine.
I didn’t care for the heroine too much, which is odd, since there’s nothing not to like about her. But maybe that’s my problem? There was nothing to dislike, or to like, or anything. She was very bland.
The hero was good, but I wanted to know more, and I think that’s my biggest complaint about this novella. I just wanted to know more than what was hinted at. We never found out what happened with Dan, we never found out why the Silvers moved, we never found out what happened with the knew dragon king, and we never found out why Cassie can see the tattoos move.
The dragons are a fantastic addition to highlander books, the heroine was a little too perfect, the hero was cool, and the story that we did get about the dragons was awesome. I hope the next story is longer and more in-depth.
This was my first book by Donna Grant and I pretty much agree with your whole review. I definitely wanted it to be longer and needed more information. I noticed the editing issues and they drive me crazy at times, especially the half sentences or wrong words (then you have to figure out what they were trying to say). Overall I enjoyed it and I love Highlanders and dragons! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. 🙂
thanks! I’m glad it wasn’t just me! 🙂