Dragon Heat by Allyson James

I picked up Dragon Heat which is the first book in a new series by Allyson James aka Jennifer Ashley because I enjoyed her contribution to the Immortals series. Well... that and the fact that there aren't NEARLY enough dragon romances. How can you not love a dragon?

Here's the blurb from Jennifer Ashley's website:

Lisa Singleton has an unusual roomate, a golden dragon, a sexy warrior who has been sent to earth to protect Lisa from harm. Lisa comes from a long line of very special women with very special powers. Witches, black dragons, and demons will do anything to get their hands on her magic and the secret the women of her family have protected through the centuries.

My thoughts:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I didn't LOVE it, but I really liked it. I should come up with a rating system, I guess. If I were to use an letter 'grade' for this book I'd give it a B-.

The first few chapters are a bit rocky... they just didn't flow as smoothly and the main characters do some things that don't seem to fit with their personalities. Once past the beginning chapters it gets much better and the author has done an excellent job of world-building for this new series. I found the powers, classifications, and stereotypes about the different types of dragons to be very unique, as well as entertaining. It created opportunities for amusing barbs and exchanges between the hero (a golden dragon) and a black dragon, who is portrayed as sort-of a bad guy in the beginning but ends up being more neutral.

The 'heat' level wasn't as hot as the Allyson James books normally are but it was definitely steamy. I couldn't really get into the love-scenes in this book because they felt a bit rushed but I'm a bit cranky today so I'll have to say it's possible that I just 'wasn't in the mood'. LOL! Also, I don't want to give away any spoilers but there was a scene of them mating in Dragonspace that was both intriguing and confusing.

This wasn't a 'dark' paranormal romance but neither was it 'light'... I guess I'd have to call it gray. Suspense and danger were a part of the story but there was also playfulness and humor.

The next book in the series, The Black Dragon is due out in November.