Three Stars

Man, I was really hoping I would enjoy this book more than I did. For a while, in the middle of the book, I really thought this was going to be a four star read, but the convoluted beginning and mess of a climax pushed this book into the, “it should have been great, but it wasn’t” range.

I read the first book in this series, MEMOIRS OF A DRAGON HUNTER, and thought the paranormal world MacAlister started building was confusing. I know creating a whole paranormal world is difficult, so I was really excited to get more clarity in book two. Weirdly, DAY OF THE DRAGON not only stood completely alone, but it also had basically no correlation with book one, at all. So, good news, you can totally start the series with this book, bad news, this book seemed more like a spinoff or an origin story of the first book rather than the next book in a correlated series.

This story is about a relatively normal woman with unique hair and eye pigmentation (I couldn’t really picture what she looked like in my head, which bugged me) and a dragon master at odds with his brother, trying to stop the murders occurring in his territory. This book gave me so many mixed feelings because I really enjoyed parts of the story, but other parts didn’t work at all.

What I liked: I appreciated the heroine’s character development. Thaisa (the heroine) started as a relatively insecure and seemingly timid character, but her relationship with Archer (the hero) bolstered her strength and self-confidence. I also appreciated Thaisa and Archer’s chemistry, especially their sexual chemistry, that was fun! Archer was sweet and considerate of Thaisa and some of their banter was top notch. This book really had all the makings of a good read. Especially in the middle of the book when Thaisa and Archer were getting to know each other as mates.

Here were my biggest hang-ups: There were SO MANY dangling plot lines. The heroine’s daily journaling habit? Mentioned just enough to intrigue the reader, then never mentioned again. (It almost seemed like the author got her books confused because journaling was a big part of book one) The big, bad boss, who doles out verbal abuse and death threats? He just walked out the door, left, and that was the last of him. The nerdy yet adorable shop assistant Jamie? Where did he go? I have no idea. The heroine’s best friend? Never calls her bestie back and is out of the story. The heroine’s profession? She is now jobless, which is fine, I guess, but her talent was such a large part of her characterization, I wanted to know what she was going to do next.

The ending, where I was hoping to get all of my burning questions answered, felt rushed and I wasn’t satisfied at all. I thought the villain came out of nowhere and the weird prophecy like storyline lacked lead up.

Overall, I honestly really enjoyed parts of this book because I love Katie MacAlister’s voice as a writer. She’s witty and hilarious, but this paranormal world needs major work to become a cohesive series. I am still hopeful this will all lead to a fantastic, five-star, book three so I am going to keep my fingers crossed.

**I received an ARC of this book in order to provide an honest review**

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