Book review: The Dragon Master
Sunday, March 29th, 2009 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tsaikoYesterday at the airport I decided to buy a couple of books to read on the flight. I'd brought three books to entertain me on the trip, but given the 3 hour flight delay, I wound up going through two of them and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
miome told me the third was depressing. I didn't want to read depressing. That meant stopping at the Borders in the Las Vegas airport and picking up a book.
I like trashy romance novels. I don't read them as much as I use to, but I especially like picking them up when I'm going to be flying. Why? Because they are usually easy reads that don't require a lot of deep thought and I can get through them in one plane ride. This meant that besides getting Terry Pratchett's latest (Making Money) I also checked out the romance section.
Oh god, I think the publisher's have been scanning my brain. Since it's not on the Amazon site, let me type up the blurb on the back of The Dragon Master.
Carol Juan never really believed in her grandmother's old world tales of dragons and legends until she was set upon by a wildly sensual man sporting a blazing red mane -- and nothing else. He is Seth, a fire dragon summonded into this world by a dangerous mage who is seeking to ignite his own evil ends by devouring Seth's fiery powers. What the fire dragon seeks is a life mate, a human female who can help him to explore the pleasures of the flesh.
Seth inflames more in Carol than the untapped magic surging inside her -- and only she can save him from the mysterious mage who is guarded by an equally sinister cabal. Arousing Carol's latent Dragon Master powers is only the beginning. Now she must risk her own life to save the fire dragon lost in her world -- the man she has come to love and desire.
Seriously, did anyone think I was going to be able to pass up a book with that on the back?
The book itself, alas, does not live up to the promise of the blurb. The writing is okay, but the character's reactions to situations are totally unbelievable. I mean really unbelievable. So much so that they have all the depth of a parking lot puddle at times. There moralistic debates are laughable at times. The pacing is off in that I felt that most of the book the characters were blindly moving from one disaster to the other for no other reason than the author needed something to move the plot forward. Which half the time, it didn't even succeed at doing. There were times I was wondering why the scene I'd just read had happened at all.
Also, the author was obviously in love with the characters she created in the previous two books set in this world, because she used every opportunity to have them appear. Worse of all, I felt like the sex scenes were being used as filler. Seriously, the two main characters had sex at the most random moments. Moments when normal people would be doing stuff like, oh I don't know, trying to save the world or panicking because they suddenly had powers they couldn't control.
I do have to admit though, I kind of want to read the other books in the series (which includes Dragon Heat and The Black Dragon). But the best (at least description wise) has got to be Dragon Actually. Read that description and tell me you are not desperately curious. I dare you.
It's still not good enough for me to want to buy them though. Anyone have them or want to buy them out of morbid curiosity? I'm willing to mail my copy off in trade if you'll send me the one you have. Maybe a bunch of us can do a book swap of them? ^_^
miome told me the third was depressing. I didn't want to read depressing. That meant stopping at the Borders in the Las Vegas airport and picking up a book.I like trashy romance novels. I don't read them as much as I use to, but I especially like picking them up when I'm going to be flying. Why? Because they are usually easy reads that don't require a lot of deep thought and I can get through them in one plane ride. This meant that besides getting Terry Pratchett's latest (Making Money) I also checked out the romance section.
Oh god, I think the publisher's have been scanning my brain. Since it's not on the Amazon site, let me type up the blurb on the back of The Dragon Master.
Carol Juan never really believed in her grandmother's old world tales of dragons and legends until she was set upon by a wildly sensual man sporting a blazing red mane -- and nothing else. He is Seth, a fire dragon summonded into this world by a dangerous mage who is seeking to ignite his own evil ends by devouring Seth's fiery powers. What the fire dragon seeks is a life mate, a human female who can help him to explore the pleasures of the flesh.
Seth inflames more in Carol than the untapped magic surging inside her -- and only she can save him from the mysterious mage who is guarded by an equally sinister cabal. Arousing Carol's latent Dragon Master powers is only the beginning. Now she must risk her own life to save the fire dragon lost in her world -- the man she has come to love and desire.
Seriously, did anyone think I was going to be able to pass up a book with that on the back?
The book itself, alas, does not live up to the promise of the blurb. The writing is okay, but the character's reactions to situations are totally unbelievable. I mean really unbelievable. So much so that they have all the depth of a parking lot puddle at times. There moralistic debates are laughable at times. The pacing is off in that I felt that most of the book the characters were blindly moving from one disaster to the other for no other reason than the author needed something to move the plot forward. Which half the time, it didn't even succeed at doing. There were times I was wondering why the scene I'd just read had happened at all.
Also, the author was obviously in love with the characters she created in the previous two books set in this world, because she used every opportunity to have them appear. Worse of all, I felt like the sex scenes were being used as filler. Seriously, the two main characters had sex at the most random moments. Moments when normal people would be doing stuff like, oh I don't know, trying to save the world or panicking because they suddenly had powers they couldn't control.
I do have to admit though, I kind of want to read the other books in the series (which includes Dragon Heat and The Black Dragon). But the best (at least description wise) has got to be Dragon Actually. Read that description and tell me you are not desperately curious. I dare you.
It's still not good enough for me to want to buy them though. Anyone have them or want to buy them out of morbid curiosity? I'm willing to mail my copy off in trade if you'll send me the one you have. Maybe a bunch of us can do a book swap of them? ^_^
(no subject)
Date: 3/30/09 01:14 am (UTC)I dunno, though, as it is, I have tons of books and whatnot to read/watch that I've had to put down because school is just too insane at the moment. Glad to hear the trip and the presentation went well, even though you had adventures in landings.
(no subject)
Date: 3/30/09 01:17 am (UTC)Yeah school is so crazy that the only time I can read books is when I'm flying somewhere. It's kind of sad because I use to read books all the time. Now when I get home, I just want to veg. Though for some reason, reading on the internet doesn't count as "real" reading to me so I have no problem doing it every day. XD
(no subject)
Date: 3/30/09 05:02 am (UTC)*reads description of 'Dragon Actually'*
Okay yes, I am curious, but I think I'm too scared to actually buy and read the book, how about you read it and tell us about it afterward? ;)
(no subject)
Date: 3/30/09 05:17 am (UTC)Also if you're looking for fairly good Regency romance, Julia Quinn's series about the Bridgerton family (http://www.juliaquinn.com/books/tree.htm) is good.
(no subject)
Date: 3/30/09 09:51 am (UTC)Thanks for the reviews!
(no subject)
Date: 3/30/09 12:55 pm (UTC)(*Contemplates quitting job and living off writing wereporcupine romance.*)
(no subject)
Date: 4/1/09 01:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 4/1/09 07:07 pm (UTC)