Eight Simple Rules for Dating a Dragon by Kerrelyn Sparks 5 ✭

Title:	Eight Simple Rules for Dating a Dragon
Author:	Kerrelyn Sparks
Publisher:	St. Martin's Paperback
Series:	The Embraced
Genre:	Romance, Fantasy, Gothic
Publish Date:	March 27, 2018
Sold by:	Macmillan
Pages:	435
Ages:	18 +

Rating: ✭✭✭✭✭

Got an ARC for a Kerrelyn Sparks book. So excited!!! Thank you publishers & NetGalley.

I truly loved this book. I wish that I had gotten to it sooner. Kerrelyn Sparks continues her Embraced series with the same humorous and hot magical fantasy theme here. I reviewed the prior book, So I Married a Sorcerer, and I am up to date on the current events in the series. I don't think it would be hard to pick this up if you haven't read any of the other books. It picks up and rolls with it. It isn't a high fantasy novel, so if fantasy isn't your thing, I would still pick this up if you are a historical person. It has a little of that feel to it. Don't get me wrong, there are dragons, and Gwennore is an elf.

Gwennore is an elf and the countries her "sisters" rule overlook down on her. The Elves are seen as violent creatures. So when her two married sisters try to play matchmaker with the three single sisters, it leaves Gwennore feeling desperately lonely. All the men sneer at her and make fun of her appearance. She is constantly being talked about through the whole book. They're calling her names, constantly saying she is going to kill everyone. So Gwen is constantly doubting her self-worth. She has mastered all the languages, she is extremely loving to her adopted family, she even has a good sense of humor that you only see with Silas.

Silas reminds me of my husband. No seriously!!! He really has that same rotten but funny humor. He makes you smile when you want to be mad. When you're serious he knows just the way to frustrate you but make you happy. Silas is much like a teenage boy too. He is from one of the three cursed clans. So women would adore them from afar, but never risk actually dating them. They fear the curse that makes them go mad or lose any children they would bear. 

I loved their relationship. I love the development of the story, the world, and where it is going. I am excited to see what the deal with the elves is. Damn... I don't want to say anything because I don't want to spoil anything. I will say you don't see much of the elves. You only hear them being mentioned. So it really has piqued my interest. I think Sorcha gets her book next, and I think we get to see the elves. The only thing that bothered me truly, was that I could not wrap my mind around how to pronounce Gwennore. So every time I would read her name, my mind would stutter. It would take me out of the rhythm of reading, and take me out of the book world for a minute. 

You should skip the free preview below and just get the book. 

In my opinion, I will be continuing this series 100%.

Darkest Night by Tara Thomas 3 ✭

Title:	Darkest Night
Author:	Tara Thomas
Publisher:	St. Martin's Paperbacks
Series:	Sons of Broad
Genre:	Romantic Suspense, Thriller
Publish Date:	February 27, 2018
Sold by:	Macmillan
Pages:	352
Ages:	18+

Rating: ✭✭✭

Now, I am still trying to catch up on all the books I have requested from NetGalley. I love that site. I love getting copies of books to read. I love reading. This, as you can see, was released a while ago but I am going to continue to read through what I requested.

Darkest Night is the start of a romantic suspense series by Tara Thomas that takes place in Charleston. The series features one of three brothers romance in each of the books. While I am writing this, there are only three books in the series, and I haven’t researched to see if there are plans to go beyond that. Their family is being targeted by someone trying to destroy the Benedicts. 

The first book is the introduction. So you usually try to give it a little to help build up the story, but they rushed the first 25% of this book. It is all murder chaos, rushed character introductions, and few descriptions of what's going on. Most of it feels like just conversations.  

It starts with Tilly Brock and Keaton Benedict. They were best friends throughout childhood and first loves until they charged her father with embezzling funds from the Benedict‘s family company. At that point, it gets weird with the writing style. Keaton’s mother told him Tilly and her family moved to Texas, and he never contacted Tilly again. She was even hinting for him to date another family’s daughter, Elise, right after. There is only a handful of mentions about the embezzlement scandal and it leads you to believe it was a mistake. It doesn’t touch that plotline at all after those few sentences. Then Elise moving in and practically promised to Keaton because her father worked with his father. Apparently, marriage is all business then. That character felt odd, because she was angry and vindictive, but turns out to be a throwaway character in a bizarre turn of events. It felt clunky and thrown in for some hopeful intrigue. Not to mention there is a murderer who is targeting Tilly specifically. Why because she knew the Benedicts almost 10 years ago…. what… like she is from the deep past childhood, why is she a lynchpin to taking the boys down? It is written like the killer intended for Tilly and Keaton to meet, but they wrote the scene like a random meeting. There are so many random plot things in the book. The murders, a family affair with a half-sister, there is a mastermind with minions who murder. I think there is a human trafficking element.

I want to touch beyond the story and hit the characters a little here too. Keaton is supposed to be this “notorious bachelor” but he feels like just some random college kid in a rich family. The family doesn’t feel like they are as famous as that label suggests. Maybe one of the other brothers would fit that description better, but beyond their own household, they don‘t feel like they are that renown to the community. They really could just be any slightly rich people. It just added to the rough feeling of the story.

There is a lot of unanswered questions left in this book. The writing got better as the story progressed. It ends well to lead you into the next book(s) I feel. I just don‘t know if it is a strong enough start to pull people in for the whole series. I almost quit myself at the start. There are issues with the story I have, but again, that will hopefully be resolved in the future books. I’m just not sure if I am interested enough to try and finish it. I try to push through tough points in books. I am glad I did it with this book. I appreciate this story, but I wasn’t completely sold on it. 

If you would like to take a look at the start of Tara Thomas' Darkest Night, you can click below to read a sample without leaving the page. 

Heat by Donna Grant 4 ✭

Title: Heat

Author: Donna Grant

Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks

Series: Dark Kings

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

Publish Date: January 30, 2018

Sold by: Macmillan

Pages: 330

Ages: 18 +

Rating: ✭✭✭✭

I received a free E-galley of Heat from St. Martin's Paperback to review and I am very thankful for the opportunity to read Donna Grant's book. I have not read any of the previous books in the series. It is totally something that I would be interested in reading, and I am definitely adding them to my "need to pick up" list. I will say that this book is very busy and I wouldn't recommend picking it up alone. You can read it as a stand-alone, I did, but you miss a lot of the family connections that you are supposed to be feeling amongst everyone. This is totally a series that you could easily eat up. It reminds me of Lara Adrian's Midnight Breed series, except with dragon kings, druids, and the fae.

Without reading the previous books you miss all the intricacies in the relationships. You get a few references to previous events and a few other characters pop up here and there, but you don't feel any connection to them. If you had read the 11 books prior it would totally be different. You would know what Nikolai was like before the book, where it feels like when you start they're already in love with each other. Stuff like that. It isn't bad at all though. This is a great way to get yourself connected to the world and then continue from here on out. I think you would be able to get a good feel for the rest of the stories progression and want to continue.

Esther is a fun character in this book. She is haunted by the fact she doesn't remember events in her life since her memory has been erased. That's where you pick up, so you have to piece what's been going on from there. You make this discovery that she is a part of this magical world with Dragon shifters and the fae in more ways than one. Once her issues are resolved the book really comes together in a sweet way. I feel like Esther and Nikolai's connection was a fun and sweet one. After that, I was invested in Esther's character. I liked who she was after everything she has gone through, and I didn't even know half of what she went through because it was written earlier in the series. That just makes me more interested in the series.

I went with a 4-star rating because I think whether you have or haven't read the earlier books the characters are interesting and all the different side plots are interesting enough that it felt worthy of a four star.

If you would like to read a free sample of Heat by Donna Grant you can check it out below without leaving the page!

*Editted to fix post formatting issues.