Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Betrayed, Morric McShayne, a bloodline elemental witch, wakes during a lightning storm, bound to a post—the latest sacrifice to appease a dragon. He swears to survive as the last McShayne and there is no dragon until a powerful claw plucks him away from the precipice.
With every equinox, the dragon’s keeper, Xavier, pushes back the loneliness. The keeper holds a secret until magic flares. This sacrifice is different.
They battle desire and duty. When a single kiss changes everything, can the Fae help them answer more secrets and a legend’s promise? Do they fight against Fate’s choice
I can’t resist a dragon story of any sort so both the title and the cover drew me to Nicole Dennis’ story, McShayne’s Dragon, the first in a new series. A short story, one easily blown through, I thought Dennis did a good job with laying in some nice world building elements here along with an interesting storyline.
The idea and character of Morric McShayne, the elemental witch and his “family” territory is an intriguing one as well as frustrating. We get just enough neat details and scenes that make this character and then ones that proceed to wash those away. He’s smart, intelligent and wary. He distrusts the villagers and their awful “sacrifices” yet he falls prey to them easily? It made no sense. I even liked Xavier although there’s no real “secret” to him. Its blatantly obvious what Xavier is. And their first scenes together again held real promise, full of fire, obstacles, and tension.
But the author only gave herself 63 pages so everything collapses quickly. It has to in order for the story to go forward, more characters to be introduced and more groundwork laid for the next story. All of which is such a shame. There is a terrific story here along with characters that deserve to be fleshed out but we get the barest of outlines instead. Maybe the next story will be different. I will certainly be reading that one with higher hopes.
Cover art is terrific. Its an important scene from the story. Its dramatic and well done. Love it.
Sales Links MlrBooks |Amazon.com
Book Details:
Kindle Edition, 63 pages
Published May 26th 2017 by MLR Press
ASINB072C2M3YM
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 