Set in the mysterious, alluring Arctic,
Dragon Fire is a mesmerizing debut novel about a girl torn between the shape-shifting dragon she loves and the best friend she must stay loyal to.
When Rakan is sent to Tromso high school by his mother in order to restore their family’s honor and destroy their enemy dragon Jing Mei, he never thought his attraction to Anna, a human, would complicate matters. But, for one thing, Jing Mei — aka June — is none other than Anna’s best friend, and to make things worse, Rakan’s mother expects him to seduce and deceive Anna to get information.
In fact, she expects him to stop at nothing and to stay loyal to the dragon code, which includes disregarding humans and using them as pawns. Yet, something different about Anna touches a deep core within him, and even though loving a human is punishable by death, he can’t stop.
When Anna first sees Rakan, she immediately senses the strange animal-like energy emanating from him. He seems to like her, but his mood swings leave her hurt and frustrated. What is going on between him and her best friend June? Do they share a past? If yes, is it a romantic one? What, in fact, does Rakan want from Anna? Does he really care about her, or is he only using her for his own ends?
Dina Von Lowenkraft’s world-building is rich, original, and fascinating. The setting is vividly laid out, transporting the reader into a genuinely different world. There are also an array of intriguing, interesting characters, such as Rakan’s wilful half-sister Dvara, and Anna’s predator-like soon-to-be-stepfather Ulf.
The prose is beautifully clean and the dialogue sparkles. Filled with intrigue, romantic tension, and sensual imagery, this is a must-read for fans of dragon stories and young adult paranormal!
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Guess the Plot
Working Ghoul
1. The zombie apocalypse was supposed to be the stuff of blockbusters. So why does Jeff still need to report to his cubicle by eight to get brains on the table for his family? At least his zombified state makes the drudgery of data entry easier to bear. For him. For the reader, not so much.
2. Since she can remember, Sandra has wanted to be only one thing; a gravedigger. Sandra's parents are already horrified when she lands a dig-gig right after high school instead of going to college, but when she starts bringing her work home with her...
3. A zombie sidles into Tombstone with nary an idear the newspaper misspelled "ghoul" for "girl" in the help wanteds. He gets so upset he upchucks his last meal of brains and cream gravy, which the newspaper terms "White Erp" in its next edition ... and a legend is borned.
4. The hookers on Fremont's Wharf are all long dead. Some of them got their start lifting their hoopskirts for Civil War soldiers. But now some one is murdering them for real.
5. The residents of Darkmoon City are undead, and they don't want humans encroaching on their homeland. It's a territorial thing. Of course, when the person doing the encroaching is gorgeous, all bets are off. Also, an unemployed drummer.
6. Charlie Lester just loves her job in the city morgue. Death fascinates her. Especially violent death. But now a murderer is stalking the morgue workers, and it's up to Charlie to solve the crime. If she wants to.
Original Version
What happens when an undead agent goes to investigate a haunted house?
Sharmayne is an Awakened, an undead who lives and works in the underground realm of Darkmoon City. [Are you saying only those undead who live and work in Darkmoon City are "Awakened?" Or are you saying all Awakened are undead, and some of them live in Darkmoon City? If the latter, I'm not crazy about defining Awakened as undead. If they're called Awakened in this world, just call them Awakened. We'll have no trouble figuring out what Awakened are, namely mindless animated corpses who feed on our brains.] [True, we refer to zombies as undead, but to us they're fictional. In fictional worlds, where they're real, they're called Ghouls or Walkers or Unconsecrated etc.] As an Awakened, she has no memory of her former life as a human. She's become an agent, one of the people sent to investigate claims of human encroachment on their world. [If an investigator finds that a human has encroached, does she immediately report back, or does she first eat the encroacher's brain?]
But when she gets to the troubled Stanton farm, she learns that things are more complicated than she first thought. [Based on the opening (see previous post), five agents have been killed trying to investigate the Stanton farm. Thus it seems odd to imply that she wasn't expecting a com
Guess the Plot
Soldier, Sage and Vagabond
1. Partners Izzy Schlepworth, Herman Schwein, and Fred Bronowsky tire of their law firm's name, so they change it--and start attracting some unusual clients, like the small, chubby man with goat's feet who owns a mysterious import business and pays them in ancient Roman coinage.
2. The nation of Mosar is on the verge of falling to the powerful Kjallan empire. Praying to their gods, Soldier, Sage, and Vagabond, hasn't helped. But Janto has a plan involving a homicidal ferret that just might save his country.
3. Blackmailed into dealing sage, the hottest hallucinogen on the market, Lenna looks for a way to escape her dangerous life. But will handsome Lieutenant Madison marry a vagabond?
4. When a nomad accidentally breaks a fortuneteller’s crystal ball, she casts a spell on him that makes him an infantryman by day and a savory herb by night. He races to find the cure while a few friendly locals help him avoid being killed in battle or stuffed into a turkey.
5. 1863. Jesse Samuels deserts from the Union army and makes his way back to Quincy, posing as a vagrant. Will the lovely Miss Ada Parker help him--or turn him in for a reward?
6. A single heroic soul is split into three and grows in three separate people, who have talents which if combined may thwart a seemingly unstoppable evil sorcerer. But can a powerful wizard be defeated by the alliance of a mere . . . soldier, sage and vagabond?
Original Version
Janto, Crown Prince of the seafaring nation of Mosar, knows he's a disappointment to his people. Bookish and obsessed with languages, he doesn't fit the profile of a charismatic leader. It doesn't help that every time he sets foot on a ship, he becomes violently ill. Or that his choice of soulsharer--his magical link to the spirit world--is a ferret, which grants him the disreputable shroud-magic of spies.
But Mosar, under attack by the powerful Kjallan Empire, is about to fall, and an unconventional leader may be just what the country needs.
Janto, desperate to prove himself, is trying to rescue a fellow soldier [Why is the crown prince acting as a soldier? Shouldn't he be ordering his generals around or negotiating a complete surrender?] when a Kjallan arrow buries itself in his shoulder. [Try saying "soldier's shoulder" three times fast.] The Kjallans capture him. Unaware he's the prince, they send him as a slave to Kjall. There he must outwit a jealous overseer [Jealous of Janto?] determined to ruin him and a Kjallan spy who knows he's hiding something. [This empire seems to pay inordinate attention to individual slaves.] [Can't he just use his shroud-magic of spies to escape? The whole point of choosing the ferret as his soulsharer was to get the shroud-magic, and fat lot of good it does him. He's a slave.] But not everyone is an enemy. Janto finds aid, friendship, and ultimately love from a Kjallan princess who, he discovers, is as much a slave as he is. [The only difference being
Set in the mysterious, alluring Arctic, Dragon Fire is a mesmerizing debut novel about a girl torn between the shape-shifting dragon she loves and the best friend she must stay loyal to.
I am always amazed by the ability of fantasy authors to build believable worlds in their books. Thanks for the review.