Hola! Welcome back to a new week in Bookworm Express on Scribbler Alliance! This week’s book had me wondering whether to review it for you or not, but in the end, I thought why not? So here goes …
Today’s featured book is titled, Sacrificed to the Dragon, the first book in Jessie Donovan’s Stonefire Dragons series. In a book majorly categorized as Fantasy, Jessie Donovan gives us a peek into another society outside ours … the dragon society.
First we meet Melanie Hall—intelligent, brave, stubborn as a mule– and above all, a human. With her only brother fatally ill, Melanie has no option but to look for the ultimate cure – dragon’s blood. However, every magic has its price. And dragon’s blood only comes with sacrifice … of a human female. In order to obtain one vial of dragon blood, Melanie has to barter herself to bed a dragon-shifter and bear his child in the next six months.
Enter Tristan MacLeod, dragon-shifter, teacher of young dragons and hater of humans. Tristan has hated humans since his mother lost her life in hands of dragon hunters. To him, all humans are the same—vicious and cruel. In order to perform his duty to his clan and its dwindling population, Tristan has to agree to accept the new human sacrifice as his.
While Melanie fights to prove to the dragon-shifters that not all humans are bad, Tristan struggles against his baser dragon which identifies Melanie as its mate. With their undeniable attraction for each other, Melanie’s being pregnant with Tristan’s dragon offspring seems inevitable. But what happens after she gives birth? Will Tristan recognize her goodness and decide to keep her with him? Or will his hatred for humans drive her away?
Here’s an excerpt from the book to entice you:
As soon as the smell of roasted meat had hit her nose, Mel’s stomach had started churning right before the nausea hit her. Apparently, her early morning sickness had decided to rear its ugly head in front of Tristan of all people.
To avoid embarrassing herself by getting sick all over him, she rushed away from Tristan and the children to a spot near the wall of rock. She dry-heaved for about thirty seconds before her breakfast finally came up, burning her throat. At some point, a warm hand caressed her back, and the reassuring, warm touch made her feel a little better.
When she had nothing left to vomit, she stood up and a blue reusable water bottle was thrust in front of her face. Tristan said, “Here. Take it.”
Wanting to get rid of the awful taste in her mouth, she took it without a word, rinsed out her mouth, and spit out the water. After a few sips of water, she started to feel somewhat normal again.
And to think, she had months of this to look forward to. At least she had Samira and Liam to help her through the worst of it.
After one more deep breath, she looked up to thank Tristan for the water, but her words died in her throat at the fierce look in his eyes. The look kicked her temper into gear, and before she could stop herself, she said, “What have I done now to deserve that look? Is my vomit, caused by your baby by the way, offending your sensitive dragon nose?”
He growled. “No. You’re ill and my dragon doesn’t like it.”
She’d been civil in front of the children, but she decided to let loose in a quiet, steely voice. “Oh, that’s right. Only your dragon cares about me because I’m breeding. You are perfectly all right to ditch me at the first scent of pregnancy.” She waved toward the students. “Go eat your lunch, Tristan. My time is up, so I’ll leave you alone for today.”
She moved to leave when Tristan’s hands clamped around her upper arms. “I will see you home.”
She gave a pointed look at the grip on her arm and back to his face. “Why? I can walk, and you made it clear that I’m on my own. I fulfilled my end of the sacrifice contract by conceiving and I don’t need your protection. If something happens, Samira or Liam will help me.”
As soon as she mentioned Liam’s name, Tristan’s pupils flashed to slits and back again. “You shouldn’t be asking another male to look after you.”
Aware of the children, Melanie kept her anger to a restrained whisper. “You gave up any claim as to what I do or who I ask for help the instant you snuck out and left me alone in that bed.”
Men will be men, even if they’re half-dragon, eh? Now, my verdict: first off, the novel has an interesting and engaging storyline. The flow of events is good and doesn’t bore the readers. However, I did feel a bit uneasy when the dragon took charge of Tristan while having sex with Melanie. Aside from the slight brush with bestiality, this book is a pleasant read with lots of sexual tension. In Anne’s scale this book gets 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. Do read it if you can because reading about how flying feels to a dragon … now THAT’s fantasy!
Thank you for visiting. If there’s any book you’d like us to review, let us know in your comments.
Love,
A
Image Source: jessiedonovan.com
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