Dragonborn by Jade Lee

Fantasy romance is rare, so I usually try to read them while I can. Of course, we've recently had C.L. Wilson's books which were fantastic, but mostly, I find these types of books to be rare. Kudos to Love Spell for being one to publish them.

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 eggs 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. Take 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.

Okay, I'm actually having trouble articulating what I thought of this book. On one hand, I love dragons and like how Jade Lee has incorporated them into the story. On the other hand, there are some inconsistencies that aren't spelled out in this story that are kinda spoilers, so I'm not going to mention them. And Kiril and Natiya's romance is a bit hard to believe. I would think that she'd be more horrified at him for all the dragon killing that he's done than she shows in the book. And his attraction to her is much more lust than love, although at least we are shown that she isn't a illiterate peasant and actually has a brain.

I did believe in Kiril's motivations for killing and his belief that dragons are evil was born of some pretty compelling evidence. But he's just not that deep a character.

Perhaps there's just too much going on in the book for it to quite work as well as it might. It tries to fit too much into a too small space. The storyline is more epic fantasy that fantasy romance and the romance definitely is hurt in the process. I admire what the author is trying to do and did find the book to read well and fast, but it doesn't really hold up after the fact.

Because I did enjoy it while I was reading it and like the idea of the story, I'm going to go with a C+ for this one. It's not bad, but it's not nearly as good as I'd hoped. And I will buy the next one in the series as I am interested enough to see where things will go.