Dragon King: A Dark Kings Novella by Donna Grant - Review

While I was off on holiday a few weeks back I purchased this novella only to find it wouldn’t update to my Kindle until I actually got home.  Not the Novella’s fault of course, nor the Kindle’s just my own for having a really old one that wouldn’t log on to any other internet provider than my own.

Anyway, needless to say I was viewing this read with great anticipation, this being the first read focused solely on Dragons.  The thought of them quite intrigued me after having my fill of vamps and werewolves, shifters and demons.

Unfortunately for me, I was in for a bit of a disappointment.  Oh, the premise held promise and the Dragons were fine.  They seemed sufficiently regal and dangerous, brooding and, of course, gorgeously handsome.  There was just something a little lacking in the telling.

The heroine, Grace, after suffering writers block for months, suddenly finding her nirvana on the Dragon’s mountain spits out page after page of perfect prose which just seemed to me to be a little unbelievable.  I know it’s a story about magical creatures so you might just say, “So, it’s magic!”  Well no, because she’s human.  Dragons are magic, humans are not.  I know the story goes that Robert James Waller apparently wrote ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ in two weeks which is a pretty amazing feat, but a book in two days?  Yeah, just not buying it.

And then for Arian, the Dragon King in question, to go from suspicion to desire to love all without real transition smacked – dear I say it - of author manipulation rather than being character driven.

This was, of course, a novella, so the author had to cram a whole lot of feeling into a small amount of words.  She just didn’t hit the mark for me.  I have, however, read some authors who are amazing when given the freedom of a full length novel who find the restrictions of a book only 30,000 words long a little difficult and aren’t performing at their best.  So what I’m saying is that the writing wasn’t so awful that I won’t give this author the chance to wow me with a further full length story about the Dragon Kings in her series (and there is a shit ton to choose from - Donna Grant seems to be as prolific with the prose as Grace it would seem), because I actually quite liked the idea of them  - and that they were Scottish and had a sexy accent (I know, call me shallow).

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Sydney Whyte

Rating Chart

«……………….A no goer

««……………Alright, but not a re-read

«««………..Liked it

««««…….Loved it

«««««…Amaze-balls – ticks all the boxes!!!

Germany and some Cake

In Dresden we all got taken out for coffee and cake - I had tea, of course, coz I'm not a coffee person...  The 'cake' was more like dessert, I thought, as it had berries and a custardy middle but I guess as it had a spongy/cake base & crumble on top, it could be called 'cake'.  It was yum by the way - went down in about five seconds flat.

Having finished rummaging through Neuschwanstein's fairytale castle, I had to have 'cake' for lunch just to top off the event... so I had cheese 'cake' - again it could be construed as dessert - but as it has 'cake' in the name, it's definitely cake. Right?  This piece was huge but the filling was so light and fluffy it was melt in the mouth delicious.  What a treat.

Black Forest Cake - so iconic!  So of course we had to have Black Forest Cake when travelling through Germany's Black Forest.  I actually ate my scrumptious portion so quickly, I was too fast on the uptake to remember to take a picture.  The nice gentleman who gave us the cake for free, kindly shared the recipe with all of us so if I want it again I can make it myself... (If I do I promise to share a picture, although I bet it won't look anything like this one).

New Haven Series by Nicholas Bella - Review

Before heading out on my holiday, I took a risk and read the entire series of New Haven (that is out so far) by Nicholas Bella (Genre: Horror, LGBT etc).  I must say that if you are at all of a sensitive nature, don’t touch it with a barge pole.  There are warnings enough in the description to know what you’re getting into, so it’s not like it’s going to hit you between the eyes were you to come across something you might consider a bit distasteful.  A lot of it could be construed as distasteful.

Apparently, I’m not of a sensitive nature, or at least, not as sensitive as I thought.  As I said, I read the whole thing (three seasons, between four and seven novelettes – 25,000 words or so – per novelette) so I can’t be.  It was both appalling, titillating, raunchy, gory - and hot.  I shall never judge Ancient Roman’s again for their addiction to the blood-thirsty goings on in the Colosseum, or their flagrant taste for orgies.  Apparently if I’d been around at that time I’d undoubtedly have been one of those salivating, screaming members of the audience, high on blood-lust and death.  Eek, hard thing to admit.

These are books like no other that I have read before, and seriously other than for this foray into this genre, I probably won’t read  Horror-LGBT again (although I will probably read straight - haha- LGBT because somehow guy on guy action is hot), but this story has me a little bit hooked even though some of it actually is a bit stomach churning.  Weird, aye?

Some premises espoused in the story seem to be pure gay fantasy, at least it appears that way to me (not being gay, and not being a guy, I really couldn’t say how close to reality this fantasy line would prove, but it doesn’t seem to be borne out by statistics so it’s anybody’s guess).  I’m also not much into how there is an undercurrent of disdain for women in general.  But, these characters are vampires, and they really are arseholes to humanity (which is how it should be – no sparkling in the sun for these dudes).  By the end you both love and hate them, root for them and want to see them overthrown.  What starts out as loathing for Theoden (Head of the vampire family in question) is morphed into uncomfortable allegiance by the end of Season three and you find yourself really disliking Deacon (Alpha werewolf and total asshat).

My curiosity is piqued, I want to know how it ends (I can tell you already though – humanity ain’t gona win, so no holding my breath for that outcome).

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Sydney Whyte

Rating Chart

«……………….A no goer

««……………Alright, but not a re-read

«««………..Liked it

««««…….Loved it

«««««…Amaze-balls – ticks all the boxes!!!

Nice Butt BTW!