Review: Dragon Bound

One million romance bloggers can't all be wrong. Honestly, I hardly ever read other people's reviews until after I finish a book. I'm always afraid it will color my opinions. But you would have had to be living under a rock to miss the huge response to this book when it came out. Reviewer after reviewer, gushed on how epic and awesome they thought it was. So by the time I finally got a copy of it in my hands, I was sure I was the last person on Earth who had not read it yet. And frankly, I was a little worried that it could not possibly live up to all the hype.

On the off-chance that there are actually other people left who haven't read this, let me give you a quick breakdown on the story.  Pia's ex-boyfriend is blackmailing her.  He knows some of the secrets about her half-Wyr heritage and is holding that over her head to force her to steal from Dragos... a billionaire businessman and bad-ass dragon shifter. Pia steals a small item and quickly goes on the run... knowing that Dragos will be quickly on her tail. What she has no way of knowing, is how the sight of him will make her go liquid inside.

Dragos is older than time, but has never felt about a woman the way he grows to feel for Pia. When he finds her, his rage at her crimes virtually disappears and transforms into an attraction he can't deny.  In short order, he decides to make her his own.  But his enemies have other plans. The Dark Fae king targets Dragos, and Pia gets wrapped up in it all.  The secrets she has worked to keep her whole life, are threatened; her identity is on the verge of exposure.  And while all this is happening, she and Dragos are being sucked deeper and deeper into a tangle of urges and emotions like none they've ever had.

OK.  First let me say, that this book is really hot.  Great sex.  Yum. 

Next, I want to acknowledge that this was much more than a romance.  Harrison sets up a great world in this book. There are so many ways she can develop future stories with the groundwork she lays here with the Elder Races.  (Though I have to acknowledge that I felt like a total idiot when, halfway through the book, I finally realized that the "Wyr" race were all shifters --or were-animals.  Duh, Jen.)

I really liked this book.  I think that if everyone hadn't told that I would LOVE it... I probably would have, well, loved it.  But expectations are a funny thing.  When you're waiting to be totally blown away, even great stories can be anticlimactic.  The bottom line is that I understand why there was so much hype.  It was sexy and smart with great characters and steamy sex.  And I'll be checking my mailbox daily, until Storm's Heart gets here. Almost 5 stars.

Dragon Bound

by Thea Harrison

Release Date: May 3, 2011

Publisher: Berkley