Thursday 21 April 2016

Audio/Book Review of Sacrificed to the Dragon (Stonefire British Dragons Book 1) by Jessie Donovan



Book Title: Sacrificed to the Dragon (Stonefire Dragons #1)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 258
Audio Run Time: 6 Hrs 29 Mins
Author: Jessie Donovan
Date Published: 22 September 2014 (E-Book)
5 November 2015 (Audio Book)

Synopsis:

In exchange for a vial of dragon's blood to save her brother's life, Melanie Hall offers herself up as a sacrifice to one of the British dragon-shifter clans. Being a sacrifice means signing a contract to live with the dragon-shifters for six months to try to conceive a child. Her assigned dragonman, however, is anything but easy. He's tall, broody, and alpha to the core. There's only one problem - he hates humans.

Due to human dragon hunters killing his mother, Tristan MacLeod despises humans. Unfortunately, his clan is in desperate need of offspring to repopulate their numbers and it's his turn to service a human female. Despite his plans to have sex with her and walk away, his inner dragon has other ideas. The curvy human female tempts his inner beast like no other.

Review:


Sacrificed to the Dragon (Stonefire Dragons, #1)Sacrificed to the Dragon by Jessie Donovan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the first book in the Stonefire British Dragon series.

I saw an advert on one of my social network newsfeeds about this book. Intrigued, I looked it up and decided to listen to the audiobook sample. After listening to it, I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did, as I really enjoyed it.

This audiobook is narrated by Matthew Lloyd Davies, who did a wonderful job in bringing the characters to life. He definitely got the growl-y voice of Tristan down, as well as the Yorkshire accent of the Peak District. I would consider listening to other books read by him.

Melanie Hall is a wonderful character. I really liked her. She is incredibly brave and determined. In order to save her ill brother with a vial of dragon's blood, she sacrifices her old life to become a surrogate mother to the dragon-shifter clan. When she meets Tristan, she is not impressed with his attitude. However, she is determined to make the best of it. The question is: Can she survive with her heart intact?

Tristan MacLeod is a character I really liked. His dragon side, on the other hand, not so much. Tristan is the typical over-protective alpha type, dangerous and a little mysterious, but his dragon came across as a whiny two year old throwing a temper tantrum when he didn't get his way - I wanted to give him a time out!

This is a wonderful paranormal romance. Unfortunately, I read another paranormal romance with a slightly similar storyline a few books before (although there were some differences too), so this book gave me a feeling of de ja vu. Nevertheless, I really liked the way the story unfolded.

It is not easy for an author to come up with something new and fresh in the romance genre, as most situations have already been explored or flipped on its head to satisfy the readers' appetite for romance. Nevertheless, I love how the author shows the reader Tristan's softer side, which makes him more approachable. Melanie has a stubborn, steely side that clashes with Tristan's arrogance. This creates sparks and heat, which is almost palpable.

What wasn't really explored (in my opinion) is the reason why the dragons had to find human females to mate with. There are female dragons born, but are they sterile? Or are there not enough of them? Another thing that bugged me about the story is that the dragons are basically exhorting the human population for females in return for vials of blood. Granted, the blood has healing properties and the human dragon hunters have virtually decimated the dragon population in order to get it. However, this just didn't sit right with me. Maybe I am reading more into this than I should since it's a romance book but, that's my opinion. Other readers may disagree with me.

I reached the end of the book with mixed feelings. Although I enjoyed the audiobook, which had me on a roller coaster ride of emotion, I am not sure I will continue with the series in audio format. I may enjoy it more if I read the books rather than listen to them.

Jessie Donovan has written a wonderful paranormal romance that caught my imagination. I love her fast paced writing style and the flow was wonderful. I look forward to reading more of her books in future.

Due to scenes of an explicit nature, I do not recommend this book to younger readers. I do, however, recommend this book if you love paranormal romance or books with sexy dragon-shifters. - Lynn Worton

View all my reviews


             

About The Author:





Jessie Donovan wrote her first story at age five, and after discovering the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey in junior high, realized that people actually wanted to read stories like those floating around inside her head. From there on out, she was determined to tap into her over-active imagination and write a book someday.

After living abroad for five years and earning degrees in Japanese, Anthropology, and Secondary Education, she buckled down and finally wrote her first full-length book. While that story will never see the light of day, it laid the world-building groundwork of what would become her debut paranormal romance, Blaze of Secrets. In late 2014, she became a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author.

Jessie loves to interact with readers. When not reading a book or traipsing around some foreign country on a shoestring, can often be found on Facebook.

===================
Series by Jessie:
Stonefire Dragons, Lochguard Highland Dragons, Cascade Shifters, Asylums for Magical Threats

Author Links:





No comments:

Post a Comment