I think my job writing book reviews for B&N is to try to entice the reader to read. No big surprise there. Given that unvoiced mandate, I would say that 99% of the time I write reviews for books I can whole heartedly stand behind. Books that have either taken me to a place I have never been, or have struck an emotional chord, or perhaps kept me on the edge of my seat, made me smile, made me cry or just made me think. So when I read the book Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison I said halleluiah! and an amen!  because this one did all that and more.

Reading this book was like living in the land of perpetual Fourth of July where the fireworks are not only beautiful and bright, but exciting and surprising.  Dragon Bound is the first book of Ms. Harrison’s new paranormal/urban fantasy series the Elder Races, and it grabbed my imagination and my emotions for an exciting ride into a world where creativity rules, characters amaze and storytelling has an imaginative command on both. I love the first book of a new series. I especially love one that hits all the right guideposts along the way, gently, subtly, and keenly letting you in on what the world is about and who the characters are. When done right, it’s like reading in HiDef and Dolby stereo.

When the hero of a book is a dragon, one who was ‘born along with the solar system’… well you gonna’ have to sit up and take notice. Particularly when he’s a Wyr (a shapeshifter), a multi-billionaire, a CEO of a corporate empire and head of all Wyrkind; then some attention must be paid! This not your typical hero, after all he’s been around since the dawn of time, taught himself to speak the language of humans, progressed intellectually and technologically with each passing millennia and has brought together all Wrykind to become a force that is not only recognized, accepted and politically powerful, but also one to be reckoned with. He is not only an A type personality and the only living dragon in existence, he is an Alpha in the truest sense of the word; and he is our hero Dragos Cuelebre. What kind of heroine do you give to a hero like that? Well if you are Thea Harrison you give him Pia Giovanni.

Pia is the half human/half Wyr who must be able to make sense of a relationship with a hero whose word is law and whose life, for thousands of years, has been all about… him.  And Pia is, in so many ways, the perfect counter point to our hero. She has spent her life trying not to be noticed by other Wyr, but when she is black mailed into stealing from Dragos and is eventually successful in breaching his hoard and stealing from him, she not only breaks through his physical barriers but also his emotional defenses. She does the one thing no one has done for centuries, she throws him off balance. And after spending her life trying to go unnoticed she now needs to forget about keeping a low profile, and instead start running for her life. But how do you run from one of the most powerful beings on the planet?  Not very far, I can tell you that. Soon the theft is the least of Dragos and Pia’s worry. Instead they need to find out why she was blackmailed and who‘s behind it.  

The beauty of this book is in the intricacy of the storytelling. An intricacy that allows this fantastical world, the mythology, the myriad number of characters, and the action packed adventure to gracefully unfold page by page eventually revealing an alpha male who falls in love with a heroine who has much to teach him. Dragon Bound is an adventurous ride that revealed secrets and mysteries that surprised, enchanted and excited this reader leaving me both satisfied and wanting more. Thank goodness it’s the first book in a series.  

Please mark your calendars and join us on May 6th - we'll be posting a guest blog from author Thea Harrison.