Sacrificed to the Dragon

This is a trashy romance novel, but it's the kind of trashy romance novel I love - with headstrong characters that respect and love each other. I do feel like this book should come with a slight content warning because pregnancy is a strong theme in the book, and human/dragonshifter couplings only have a 50% survival rate for the human mother. Since it's a romance novel, the heroine and her offspring are fine, but it's a difficult birth and there's also a minor character who dies in childbirth offpage. I could easily see someone who's had issues with pregnancy/childbirth getting blindsided by these parts of the book.

Melanie lives in a world where dragons exist. Humans have hunted them for centuries and now their numbers are so low the dragons have made a pact with the humans. Since dragon blood has magical healing powers, the humans agree to give up their women (men, too, I think) who are genetically compatible to bear dragon offspring in exchange for dragon blood. It’s a win-win. Humans get the healing blood; dragons repopulate their race; there’s no more war. Too bad there are some evil humans (dragon hunters) who still attack and kill dragons to sell their blood and body parts on the black market.
Melanie agrees to live with the dragons and sleep with one of their eligible men continuously for at least six months, or until she gets pregnant. show more She just never expected her assigned dragon male to hate humans and take that anger and hatred out on her. She agreed to this to get the blood needed to save her brother’s life. She’s selfless and will do anything for her family.
Tristan is so consumed by his pain, rage and guilt over what his mother and sister suffered at the hands of humans that he can’t give Melanie a chance. He wants nothing to do with her, other than get her pregnant, but his attraction to her is wild and frenzied. She’s his dragon’s mate, and he hates it. He treats her horribly to begin with but she’s a strong one and doesn’t take any of his crap. They slowly start to trust one another and Tristan learns that not all humans are monsters.
The book is well-written but the POVs jumped back and forth multiple times in the same chapter. The jumps were properly marked, however, and I never became confused as to who POV I was reading. The pacing could be tighter but I liked the plot. The characters were believable. Tristan’s and Melanie’s love seemed real, not forced, and their sex was super hot. The side characters of Bram, Samira and Arabella were great additions. All the loose ends were tied up except for one (what happened to Cait’s baby?) but everything of importance between the main couple was taken care of.
4 Stars

Disclaimer – I downloaded this book for free on Amazon and volunteered to review it. I am not compensated in any way, shape or form for this honest review. I will not change or alter this review for any reason unless at my discretion. show less

In exchange for a vial of Dragon blood Melanie Hall offers herself up as a sacrifice to be with a dragon-shifter for at least six months with the risk of dying from giving birth to a dragon, all to save her brother. For her it's also a wonderful opportunity to see dragons close-up, having studied them academically for ages.

Her assigned dragon is Tristan MacLeod, who despises humans for what they did to his mother. She was killed by some hunters and ever since he's been against humans, but it's his turn to do this and he has to toe the line. He finds that she's not like others and maybe there's a few good humans, particularly this one.

It's fun, I wasn't expecting much more and I got what I expected, some pretty powerful sex scenes and show more some fun banter between characters. I like the sass the women in these give to their mates, they don't let them away with anything too possessive. I think she read the handbook on how not to write female characters and went with a lot of the ideas. I like the slow burn and the heat and how the characters get to be more themselves when they have their pair. show less

I thought this book would turn out to be more clever. I loved the idea of the department and our main character going to a governmental entity to "sacrifice" herself. I giggled out loud and had to tell my husband immediately about the name of the entity - which I won't name here if you wish to read. However, the character development was flat and one dimensional. We really don't get to know anyone in depth here. The best part of this book were the first few chapters. Great start!

I was left with so many questions: 1. family is of utmost importance, but we totally forget they exist 1/3 of the way in? 2. HOW does one conversation, hands on hips, with a ptsd victim going to pull her out of whatever dark hole she's in? 3. Why on earth would show more a teacher go on a rescue mission for a child who was taken by the biggest, baddest hunters of all time? Should he not have at lease taken someone trained to help?

Overall, it wasn't a terrible read, but will not be re-reading, nor will I be reading any other books in this series-unless I happen upon them in the wild and need a quick read. Fast read, mildly entertaining for a rainy afternoon. Don't expect rich plot or characters, not terrible, somewhat spicy. show less

So right off the bat let me admit to some trepidation. It sounds very PWP (plot what plot) erotica, not romance. But it won me over due to Melanie and later Arabella. Donovan builds the world and while it doesn't sound tremendously different then modern times, its fascinating how dragons were fit in.

I really liked this book. Be warned - there was some graphic sex in it. But it was a very interesting world that was revealed in this 1st of several in the series. This book was like a bonbon - sweet and tasty and gone very fast. Not a lot of nutrition in it, but mmm!

I wanted to like this one but I mostly struggled reading through it. I stuck with it b/c I was curious as to how the plot would turn out and I liked the characters (Tristan & Melanie). However, while their interaction with one another was good I never really fell for them as a couple.

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