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2012 RITA Winner for Paranormal Romance
From Eloisa James's "READING ROMANCE" column on The Barnes & Noble Review
Many years ago I tried out for the cheerleading squad. Alas, I was plump, awkward, and couldn't manage a cartwheel. But I wanted to fit in so desperately that I convinced myself that a pleated mini-skirt would transform me into a perky, high-kicking member of the in-group.
When the cartwheel fairy didn't show, I decided I was doomed to be a pigeon in a sea of swans. We've all encountered -- and failed to join -- groups formed by the rich, talented, powerful, or beautiful. The five romances I discuss this month each feature a heroine who doesn't belong to the most powerful group in her particular milieu. But these aren't novels about women who succeed in joining the elites. Each of these heroines champions a different kind of group: a twosome.
The heroine in Rachel Gibson's Any Man of Mine is living on the edges of a very powerful social group: the super-rich professional hockey players, Stanley Cup winners who limit their friends to the rich and beautiful. Autumn Haven -- a single mom struggling to get her event planning business on an even keel -- definitely doesn't qualify. She doesn't have fake breasts, blonde hair, or the faintest interest in hockey. What she does have is the memory of a drunken Las Vegas weekend with hockey star Sam LeClaire that resulted in a divorce certificate and a 6-year-old son. Any Man of Mine is a fascinating look at how hard it is to bridge two dissimilar worlds -- cool and uncool, cheerleader and bystander. Yet both Sam and Autumn come to realize that they want one thing: to create ties between the three of them that are stronger than any ties between friends.
Pia Giovanni, the heroine of Thea Harrison's Dragon Bound, also has to deal with a powerful group of successful men: the Elder Races -- magical shape-shifters -- who surround Dragos Cuelere, the most powerful shape-shifter of them all. Dragos is a phenomenally rich dragon who keeps a hoard of treasure beneath his Manhattan skyscraper. In human form he is a muscled predator, a man who dominates any group. Pia is his opposite, a tiny woman whose mother taught her to be always inconspicuous. His magic is flashy and known the world over; hers is subtle and hidden, yet wildly powerful. When Pia steals a penny from Dragos's hoard, he erupts in fury, determined to kill the thief who managed to get through all his locks and magical wards. But after tracking Pia down, Dragos finds himself fascinated and falling in love. Pia is a peppery, funny heroine, and Dragos is a classic alpha, but what makes this romance so compelling is not only the brilliant world-building (which brings to mind J. R. Ward's Brotherhood series), nor the sexy appeal of both characters, but the way in which Dragos learns that being part of a couple is better than being the leader of an elite group. In the end, the two of them are the only group that matters, as Dragos puts it: "You're with me everywhere I go but I miss you when we're apart."
Sarah MacLean's Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart places the insider/outsider dilemma in one of the toughest societies of all: the English Regency. Simon Pearson, Duke of Leighton, is, like Dragos, a born leader, wielding power, money, and birth. Miss Juliana Fiori has no place in England's elite: she's the daughter of an Italian merchant and a dissolute English marchioness. Worse, she's a magnet for scandal. But Juliana has a clear understanding of the arbitrary fortune that puts men like Sam, Dragos, and Simon on the top of the social hierarchy: "The way you behave," she tells him, "one would think you'd actually done something to earn the respect these English fools afford you." This is one of the most wildly romantic books I've read in a long time, stemming directly from the moment when Simon decides to break every rule that kept him at the center of English aristocratic society. I defy you not to sigh with happiness when Simon throws away his reputation, and then tells Juliana "everything I had spent my life espousing -- all of it…it is wrong. I want your version of life."
Julianne MacLean's Claimed by the Highlander puts her heroine, Gwendolen MacEwen, on the fringes of a very different -- but equally rigid -- social group: that of a Scottish clan. Gwendolen is a MacEwen, at least until she's stolen by Angus the Lion, the head of the MacDonald clan. For sheer brawn, power, and elite status, you can't get more leader-of-the-pack than Angus, and Gwendolen finds herself fascinated by the laird. Still, she fights back, betraying Angus to the British in an effort to save her own clan. By the time she realizes that she desperately wants to be a MacDonald -- to be trusted by Angus -- it's too late. Angus too must learn that the strongest bonds are between two people who love each other, and that trust between man and wife means more than kinship or family loyalty. Claimed by the Highlander reminded me of Julie Garwood's early, wonderful Scottish novels about warring clans and feisty girls: novels in which love triumphs over the strongest of clan bonds.
Jacquie D'Alessandro's Summer at Seaside Cove appears to reverse the paradigm. Jamie Newman is the kind of girl who would have aced that cheerleading try-out. She has brains, honey-colored hair, and the ability to make friends wherever she goes. The novel opens when she rents a cottage for the summer on a North Carolina island, hoping to heal a broken heart. Unfortunately, that cottage turns out to be a broken-down mess, and its owner, Nick Trent, isn't much better. He's a scruffy, gorgeous bad boy. He certainly doesn't fit in on the island: he's a loner who disappears for days at a time, leading the community to think he's keeping secrets. This is the kind of novel that will make you nostalgic for sand and suntan oil, and might even have you singing "Summer Lovin'" in the shower. But the novel is not just a story of opposites. The secrets Nick is keeping have everything to do with his status as a loner, without friends or relationships. Like all the heroes in these novels, Nick has a lot to learn. The novel's sweetness springs from its understanding that material possessions and the power they bring can never guarantee happiness. None of the elite groups -- Rich, Ivy League, Handsome -- matter when it comes to the smallest and the most important group of all.
I never made the cheerleading team, and some part of me still wants to vet my friends and make sure they didn't either. But reading novels like these assuages any lingering tinge of bitterness. In the end, it doesn't matter how rich and popular a person may be -- or how successful he or she is in building up connections to peers. These novels promise that a happy relationship is better than cartwheels or cash.
Have you ever started a book and immediately thought to yourself about the heroine, "Oh. Oh, I am going to like HER" - And then, if you are lucky, you move on to the hero and immediately think to yourself, "Oh. Oh yeah, I LIKE this guy. oh yes." Well, that pretty much sums up my initial reaction to the heroine Pia Giovanni and the hero Dragos Cuelebre in Dragon Bound. And it all got even better from there.
In Thea Harrison's debut novel of her new Elder Races series, she mastered the art of developing the heroine Pia in a perfect combination of vulnerability and moxy. She had me at Twizzlers and Cherry Coke Slushees. And oh my, Dragos. The most ancient of Others, he is a fierce alpha dragon and also the multibillionaire of Cuelebre Enterprise who has seen everything, been everywhere, and yet has found himself in a state of boring complacency. Pia's ex-boyfriend has blackmailed her in to doing the unthinkable. stealing a coin from Dragos's hoard. When he discovers the violation he blasts off in to a dragon-sized rage that costs him a good hundreds of millions $ in damage to New York City. As a unique half-wyr, living cautiously and on the run is nothing new to Pia to keep her heritage a secret, so immediately going on the run again to escape Dragos and the crime of theft she has commited is not unfamiliar to her. Except that Dragos is the most Powerful creature in the Universe, so she is pretty sure she's done for. Dragos makes it his mission to hunt her down, and he does just that thanks to the note she wrote and left for him in chicken-scratch on the back of a 7-11 receipt.
The chase, the capture, the journey, it was all filled with entertaining action, beautiful world building and steamy tension. Turns out that Pia was just a pawn in a much larger scale Power play and Dragos learns just how unique she truly is to the magical world, but also to him. They find themselves completely enamored with one another and Dragos vows to protect Pia at all costs.
The world building Ms. Harrison has created is very complex and vivid. The world of Other has gryphons and gargoyles, dark and light fae, goblins and witches. There are some demesnes that stay topside, such as Dragos in New York City and the Light Fae in Charleston. There are other species such as the Goblins who are unable to glamor and therefor stay on the Other side because they look really ugly and stinky really bad. The inter-Elder politics are very well-thought out and executed, and the secondary characters are just as awesome as the primary. The next book, Storm's Heart, will center around Cuelebre Enterprise's former PR fae, Thistle Periwinkle, aka Tricks, who is just a riot.
This is a romance story, but a romance story with major plottage that will leave you yelling at your friends and family to quit interrupting you so that you can freaking read already. I was enamored from start to finish. Go forth and read! And have no fear, the second and third books of this series will be out later this year in 2011! I have them both marked on my calendar and they will be auto-buys. A quick thank-you-you-were-right!! goes to Mandi of Smexy Books who convincingly brought this book to my immediate attention!
- Reviewed as "Spaz" at wickedlilpixie(dot)com
14 out of 16 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.From the first sentence on I was hooked. I could not put this down, the world building was first rate, the characters were well thought out, and the editing was spot on. The mixture of magic and technology made sense. The supporting characters were also well thought out. Each of them I felt could star in their own stories. A different take on shape changers, unlike any I've read before and yet completely logical.
10 out of 11 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.In the New York Magic District, known locally as the Cauldron, hybrid human-Wyr Pia Giovanni knows her mission is fatal, but feels she has few options. Her slimy ex blackmails her into stealing a penny from Dragos Cuelebre, a powerful Elder Race dragon. Though she left a penny behind and an apology note, Pia knows he will find her with the only question being when. She is so desperate she buys a binding spell from Adela the witch owner of Divinus.
Dragos tracks down the thief, but instead of killing Pia as she expects, he is attracted to her. Soon after their first in person encounter, Goblins attack them and capture them. Dragos realizes a very powerful adversary the Dark Fae King Urien wants him dead and that Pia could be caught in the crossfire if his ancient enemy learns who she is to him.
This is an entertaining romantic urban fantasy starring two intriguing individuals as the heroine is Manhattan shtick and the hero is alpha male. The story line roars out of the gate like the express train under the streets as the irate Dragos, known for dining on humans, seeks the thief while Pia seeks her fifteen minutes of fame. Although his possessiveness of his mate is overkill (even if he has an ancient lifetime), sub-genre fans will enjoy the denizen of the Cauldron as like much of the Big Apple light and dark energies flow freely, just more eerier there as a paranormal hangout for dragons, wyr, witches and fae, etc.
Harriet Klausner
7 out of 10 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I stumbled onto this one and truly enjoyed it. Broadly, the main relationship reminded me of Angel's Blood by Nalini Siingh, but not enough to keep me from liking it. The supporting cast was strong, and I wasn't surprised to see who the next book will focus on. Strong first installment.
6 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.NJYardy
Posted November 3, 2011
I was wary of reading this. I'm normally a Christine Feehan, J.R Ward & Sherrilyn Kenyon reader & I haven't found a lot of other writers who are as good as they are.
I was pleasantly surprised and ended up loving this book: the stroy held my attention from the moment I started reading and I only put it down when I had to tend to my 2 month old. Loved the main characters and the "supporting cast" as well. Now I'm onto the 2nd book in the series and can't wait to read the rest!!!
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 11, 2012
The book started slow and i constantly felt like i was missing something BUT once it got going MY GOD it was good. It did remind me of the guild hunter series (which i have no clue what came first) but very different all together. I loved it the dragon was so HOT!!!!!
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I borrowed this book twice from the library before buying my own copy. What can I say? The characters are engaging, the storyline is perfect and there is a perfect balance between suspense, humor and love.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.emeraldlaw
Posted February 2, 2012
Characters were easy to follow, storyline definite fantasy, great for kicking back and just escaping. Will definitely pick up the next in the series.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted February 4, 2012
Read it in one sitting and turned right around and reread it again. Great book.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 9, 2011
I just saw that this book made Eloisa James list of 6 favorite romances she's re-read this year. As I was scrolling down the list, I thought, "I wonder if Dragon Bound made it?" and there it was! Really a fun book...my daughter and I are hooked on this series!
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 21, 2011
I have fallen in love this story and her writing style! I have read this book twice in a row, read the last page then turned to the first to start it all over again! I have not done that with a book before! I just love this book soo much. Thank you Thea Harrison for writing and having the strength to risk rejection in order to get Dragon Bound published. Thank You!!!!!!!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Pia is blackmailed by her ex-boyfriend to steal something from the wyr-dragon, Dragos.. Determined not to give her ex anything valuable, she grabs a penny from a jar and replaces it with another one and writes a note saying that she is sorry. Easy peasy, right? NOPE! Dragos quickly finds the impostor penny and freaks out. He puts a tracking spell on Pia so that he can hunt her down and make her pay. The only problem is, when he finds her he no longer wants to rend her limb from limb but instead wants to keep her as his new treasure.
The story is written half in Pia's head and half in Dragos'. So you pretty much always know what the other character is thinking. This made for some interesting dialogue. Speaking of dialogue, that was pretty much my favorite part of the book. Not that the steamy scenes weren't good and all but I loved the way they talked to each other. You see, Dragos is used to being the highest on the food chain. He isn't used to having to be nice to people to get his way, he just tells them what to do and they do it. So when Pia comes along and she tells him when people ask for something they say please, he quickly catches on and uses that to his advantage to get what he wants from her.
The pace of the book ran along smoothly. The story doesn't just contain Pia and Dragos. You see when Pia ran to hide from Dragos after stealing the penny, she hid on elven territory which is land forbidden to Dragos. Although he doesn't care and goes there anyway to find his thief which causes a little bit of trouble. Which sort of snowballs into more trouble after that.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.arikae
Posted October 13, 2011
These guys are as awesome as the BDB! Tough on the outside but mush on the inside. Beautiful writing, very descriptive and emotional. A whole new world to explore as well, Looking forward to more books in the series.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 13, 2011
Can not wait to read more of the series! A real feel good read!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 15, 2013
Loved it!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted January 23, 2013
I am not wordy but after 40 years of ready this is the best book I have read in a long time. Right at the beginning she helps you understand the world she is bring you into. I cried, laughed, and got horney.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Pia Giovanni has done the stupidest thing possible, steal from a dragon. Now she is on the run for her life. Dragos Cuelebre is a dragon that has been around since the dawn of time. He is rather upset with the thief but when he catches her he is challenged by her. He realizes that he has been bored for a very long time and there is something about Pia that interests him and makes him want her.
But hunting Pia down starts a war with the Dark Elves and Cuelebre finds himself trying to figure out what Pia really is along with trying to kill the Dark Elves king. Pia has feeling for Cuelebre but is also battling the teachings of her mother, which has been run and hide.
I really liked this book. I was instantly drawn to Pia. Cuelebre does get overbearing with the whole commanding streak, but he does take a look at how others react around him. I cannot wait to read the next book in this series and see what happens next. This is one paranormal romance that you simply must read.
Anonymous
Posted January 15, 2013
I was looking for new material to tide me over. I read this in one sitting and have purchased the other 4 books! I highly recommend this series if you like paranormal steamy romance.
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Posted January 6, 2013
Dragon Bound had me from the very first sentence, and has become the book I pickup over and over to revisit. The banter and chemistry between the main characters keep me delighted and entertained. The whirlwind pacing and clever plot keeps you engaged and guessing, and the love scenes will have you squirming in the best kind of way. I love everything about this book, and the entire series is a masterpiece of breathless paranormal adventures.
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Posted January 6, 2013
This dook is a must read
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Overview
2012 RITA Winner for Paranormal Romance