I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. I expected way more romance, mindless female-worshipping, sickly obsessions, (not so) dreamy male antagonists, and a brainless flirt of of a woman for a protagonist. Oh, and not to mention I’m aware that most ‘romance’ novels are like porn in book form for women. Instead, this is an awesome story about a woman named Natiya who is incubating a dragon egg to try to get revenge on the evil emperor, Dag Racho, since he killed her entire family. With that being said, it still sounds like a really mediocre book. But the back cover really intrigued me. It reads:

One Protector

When dragon power flows through your veins, when dragon thoughts burn in your mind, you can accomplish anything. Natiya knows, for she carries one of the last egs in the land disguised as a jewel in her navel. Day by day the Unhatched grows, and when at last it births they will be joined in a sacred and eternal bond. Gone will be the barmaid forced to dance for pennies; born will be Dag Natiya, revered Queen. Taker her body or her soul; nothing will stop them.

One Slayer

When dragon power flows through your veins, when dragon emotions trample your soul, you become a monster. So knows Kiril, for one destroyed his cousin. No matter how kind or joyful, all beings must succumb to the power of the wyrm. That is why Kiril vowed to destroy dragonkind – and he has almost succeeded. Only one egg remains. But there is an obstacle he did not foresee: love.

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So, as this states, Natiya and Kiril fall in love. The only obstacle is she is incubating a dragon egg, and he is the emperor’s prized dragon killer. Rather than the both of them being lovesick fools who fall into each other’s arms the entire time and do nothing but shag and the plot magically unfolds itself, there is a race with time before the egg hatches, and before they are caught by Dag Racho and killed.

I found the plot to be highly captivating, and the characters to be well fleshed out and interactions between them were well thought out and in sync with their emotions, back stories, and personalities. The only part I am mildly annoyed with is the overt lust and the (few) sex scenes in the book. I enjoyed that the focus was not on the romance, but I’m still not sure I like any romance in my books at all. I mean, sure the plot twist of them falling in love is great and all, but does Kiril really have to be fondling her every chance he gets? Natiya is portrayed as an intelligent but hard up woman, who has a stash of books underneath her bed, and spurns every man who tries to flirt with her. Now here comes Kiril and she’s squirming up against him. In my honest opinion, this was a great book until the lust and sex came into it. I skimmed through those parts. I think it would have been better as a love story, not a smut story in other words.

Still, the book was good. One of my favorite parts was the interaction between the dragon and the person incubating it, and the time and effort that went into creating and describing the bond that they share. The bond the dragonborn share is my absolute favorite part of the book.

I am both slightly appalled that I enjoyed a romance, and proud of myself for giving it a chance. I’m not sure it’s a whole new genre I want to jump into, but hey, it was a good read (and it only took me 2 days to finish!)