"Great heroine and a great fantasy romance!"
Finding out that one of the women taken in LOVE'S
CAPTIVE
had a brother, our story goes back to Earth, were our hero,
Eric, a Green Beret, has been captured by the enemy.
Instead of dying from getting tortured, he is rescued (and
healed) by aliens and taken to Volarn, where Eric is
reunited with his sister Olga. Now what? Return to Earth?
Princess Kasha can't stand the fact that women are
brought
to their world to try and boost their flagging population
growth, but more so because she know she will never be able
to have her own mate. When the earthman catches her fancy,
she see's him as a way too have a romantic distraction.
Only Eric won't settle for anything less than marriage when
all she wants is an affair. Myra Nour takes us back to the planet of Volarn where
even
a crown princess can be in the military. HEART OF THE
DRAGON, to me, moves quickly, however, there are long
passages with very little dialogue. While this lets the
reader see more of the sights, I did find myself wishing
that the characters would tell me what they were seeing.
But don't plan on skipping paragraphs because a lot really
does happen. I really like Kasha as a heroine. She is in the Getra
(military) where it is her skills and abilities as a
warrior that she is admired for not awarded to her because
of her status. At the same time she is still a woman and
even though a little stuck up (she is a princess), she is
able to realize she wants more than the lonely existence
she has allowed herself (she has an interesting secret!).
It was fun to watch her grow emotionally and in the end
fight for the chance to love Eric. There is a dragon in this story that Kasha and Eric find
while out trying to track down an animal that is killing
small children. Eric finds the dragon as a baby and names
him Puff (after Puff the magic dragon...) however rather
than
being magical, Puff slobbers quite a bit, takes control of
the story (for a little while) and had me laughing my head
off. HEART OF THE DRAGON, while actually referring to
Eric, is worth reading, if for any other reason, Puff. The people of Volarn have a Tarthra joining (which is
initiated by the men) and will insure a love match. Because
Eric is from Earth he cannot initiate the Tarthra, so in
Kashas' eyes how could they suit? The romance between
Kasha and Eric is sweet as Eric really tries to teach her
that how two people feel about each other is very
important, that there is more to a relationship than a
physical joining. I got more than a few chuckles as Kasha
tried to sway Eric into having casual sex, and Eric grouped
with Jarvic, her cousin, quite frequently to avoid her. It
was a roll reversal of a sort which I thoroughly enjoy in
stories! Fast paced and witty, HEART OF THE DRAGON is a wonderful
story that I really enjoyed. While you can read the story
alone, it takes place after LOVE'S CAPTIVE and Serena and
Rhamus are in this story; so if you are like me you'll want
to read them in order so you won't spoil the first story by
seeing the happily ever after. And what is going on with Jarvic? So I'm anticipating
the
third book in this series!
Reviewed by Cynthia Eckert
Posted November 10, 2006
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