Dragon Fire by Dina von Lowenkraft

I think the last time I read a dragon-themed book would be the Starlighter series (link leads to the first book in the series). While Dragon Fire is nothing alike Starlighter, it's a very interesting first book to what seems to be an interesting series.

To me, the main characters of this book are Pemba/Rakan (the dragon) and his love interest Anna (a human who's isn't that ordinary). Pemba is on earth to kill a dragon named Paliaq (check sp), who may or may not be Anna's good friend June. So half the story revolves around that, and the other half revolves around Anna and Pemba.

Since I'm not a very big fan of instalove, I'm not a huge Anna/Pemba fan. Their love seems to happen too fast, and comes on too strong, and is a bit too perfect (except for one quarrel). Actually, I think I just don't believe in insta-love. But if you do like this type of romance, you'll probably enjoy this part.

What I liked was the dragon world. They're really hierarchical, and I enjoyed reading about the inter-cairn (cairn is like a clan) relations. It seems very interesting and complex. In fact, my only complaint about this part was that too many new words were introduced without explanation. I know too much explanation drags a story, but in this case, I wasn't sure what was going on because of too many unknown words (for example, I didn't know what a Roc was for quite some time).

Oh, and a word of caution - while there is nothing explicit in the book, it does veer towards the sexual side sometimes. I'm not sure how I feel about this since Anna is only 17 years old (and *spoiler alert* mentions that she wants Pemba's baby). I have a feeling that it might get more explicit in future books.

So in conclusion, this book has a wonderfully intricate world with a fast-paced romance. It's probably more suited towards older readers too.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for a free and honest review.