Dragon Heat (Dragon Heat #1) by Ella J. Phoenix 
Series: Dragon Heat #1
Published by Cobblestone Press on April 6th 2012
Genres: Paranormal/Urban Fantasy
Pages: 165
Format: eBook
I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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[box style=”rounded” border=”full”]This book is only 170 pages and it is attempting to do a lot in those 170 pages. The author is setting up the world building. She is introducing all the characters. She is giving us a villain and a conspiracy to be solved. She is also giving us a romance for our main characters. It is a lot to accomplish in just a few pages. While in some respects if fails, in the most important aspect, she succeeded. Simply put, I want to read more. [/box]
Dragon demi-goddess Zoricah has been tasked with finding a missing senator’s daughter. Someone has been kidnapping dragons, vampire, and fae women and experimenting on them. Each time Zoricah gets close, all she finds are the remaining mass graves. This time Zoricah has a secret weapon, the missing woman’s twin. Everyone knows that dragon twins share a special bond and can feel each other through that bond. Zoricah might just be able to find the women before it is too late but she needs help. Two hundred years ago during the dragon/vampire war, she saved the vampire prince, Tardieh. Now she hopes he will return the favor and help her. Tardieh is now the vampire king and he is hard to locate. He is always elusive, hiding from assassination attempts. Zoricah and her friends will need to be tricky to finally set up a meeting.
A reluctant Tardieh agrees to look into these kidnappings that Zoricah claims are happening, but after meeting the dragon twin, he starts to become a believer. Tracking down the missing women is hard enough. Getting through the defenses and actually finding out who is experimenting on these women and what they are trying to accomplish is something else.
As Zoricah and Tardieh work together, the spark from long ago starts to simmer into something more but not everyone is happy about it. There are those who are unhappy about the truce between the vampires and dragons, nor are they happy that the vampire king is cozying up with the dragon demi-goddess. Now that Tardieh has come out of hiding, they believe it is a perfect time to strike and take out both the vampire and the dragon and hopefully re-start the war they want to win this time.
THOUGHTS:
I was given a copy of this book by the author so that I could catch up for her upcoming Book 5 release. I read the descriptions for the four books in the series so far and was interested enough to give it a try.
As I mentioned, the author is trying to do a lot in only 170 pages, and the last few are part of the lure for book 2. So in approximately 160 pages, she is trying to accomplish a great deal. She introduces us to the first time Tardieh and Zoricah first meet, 200 years ago, when dragons and vampires were at war, which is still an underlying theme since not everyone is happy about the peace. She has to set the foundation for the continuing “conspiracy” that is being investigated by Zoricah and her friends and Tardieh and his friends since it is bigger than just one story. First Zoricah needs to find Tardieh and convince him to join her investigation. She also gives us a little bit of an introduction to the secondary characters who will each be featured in the next stories, enough so that we will be interested in seeing more.
So we have unrest between dragons and vampires. We also know there are fae and shifters in the world. We have a conspiracy which needs to be solved. Bad guys to be introduced to. Main characters that need to be introduce and loved. We also have Zoricah and Tardieh who need to fall madly in love and have HEA. Did the author accomplish it? Yeah. Was it fabulous? Meh. It’s a romance and I didn’t feel as connected as Zoricah and Tardieh as I should have and their romance was too expected with not enough passion behind it.
Although I won’t be putting this book on my best re-read shelf, I will tell you that it accomplished its most important goal — I am interested and invested in the characters. I want to see what happens in Book 2 (and after reading 2, I want to see what happens in book 3). Dragon’s Heat tried to accomplish a lot in very little time and while it might have lacked in certain aspects, it has me wanting more and that is what you want most if you are creating a series.
Dragon Heat is only $.99 at Amazon and certainly worth the dollar investment to see if it grabs you too. I’ll be back soon to discuss book 2, Vampire Thirst.
Received a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.
