There was nothing that I liked about Dark Heat, a collection of four short stories about dragon shifting men who live in the Scottish Highlands. Not the characters nor the world building nor the plot nor the romances. Nothing. Oh, wait. I did like that the stories were short.

It’s normal procedure when reviewing a collection of short stories to summarize and assign a grade to each one. In the case of Dark Heat, I don’t really need to do that because three of the four stories were basically carbon copies of each other, with the fourth story as sort of an extended epilogue that neatly ties the other three up in a pretty, plaid bow. And I didn’t like any one of them more or less than any other.

Dark Craving

In the first story, Dark Craving, American sad-sack Cassie Hunter has had a sad-sack day. Unemployed and broke, she arrives at the airport to discover her luggage has been lost. Her brother, who she’s traveled overseas in order to live with, has ditched her, leaving her a car and a note with instructions on how to get to his cottage and a request for her to pick up his dog from the kennel, while she’s at it. Traveling the treacherous Highland roads, the girl gets a flat tire, and when she finally manages to arrive at the house, she finds she’s locked out. She resigns herself to freezing to death.

Luckily, Hal, an immortal dragon/human shifter, finds her hypothermic and unconscious in her car. He rescues her, and in the process, the magic that keeps him from ever feeling love for a human woman for some reason begins to malfunction. He’s instantly drawn to Cassie. But he’s forbidden to ever have a relationship with a human woman. Plus, he’s a man who can shift into a dragon, so there’s that. Grade: D Sensuality: Hot

Night’s Awakening

In the second story, Night’s Awakening…well, the circumstances are slightly different but the story is basically the same. Too-stupid-to-live Elena Griffin (an American) agrees to go caving with her new British boss, Sloan, despite the fact that Elena has zero training in the dangerous sport and Sloan breaks every safety rule ever implemented.

Sloan experiences a tragic fall, leaving Elena lost deep in a cave with a sprained ankle and no hope of ever making it out alive. Enter Dragon King Guy, who swoops in to save Elena. After just one look at Elena’s fragile beauty and sage green eyes, his anti-love magic begins to malfunction as well.

But in addition to the problem of his big dragon secret, Guy finds himself protecting Elena against his fellow dragon kings when they suspect her of spying on them. Because she and Sloan trespassed on Dreagan land (that’s the Dragon King’s private property) to go caving, they believe she must be up to no good. Grade: D Sensuality: Hot

Dawn’s Desire 

In the third story, Dawn’s Desire, klutzy, plain Jane Holden (who isn’t really so plain with “…eyes too large, her lips too full. Her hair was an awful shade of auburn that couldn’t decide whether to be brown or red.”) needs a little more time before she requires rescuing.

Dragon King Banan is posing as a driver for PureGems, the company that Elena and Jane both work for, in order to get to the bottom of who is spying on the Dragon Kings and why. When Banan gives Jane a ride to the airport to pick up an important PureGems client who proves to be a no-show, the attraction he feels for her is instantaneous. Naturally, Jane is also overcome by insta-lust, and after a torrid night together, Jane is kidnapped by a bad guys and requires rescuing.

Oh, and did I mention that Jane is an American woman working in London? Are you surprised? I wasn’t. Through all three stories runs the common thread that something is disturbing the silver dragons, which have been sleeping for centuries, a mysterious new Dragon King has arrived with no memory, and someone in the human world is more interested in the Dragon Kings than they would like. Personally, I never cared enough about any of these subplots to pay much attention. Grade: D Sensuality: Hot

Passion’s Claim

Finally, we end with Passion’s Claim, in which Jane’s certainty that Banan has grown sick of her already is quickly discredited, and Elena’s fears that Guy doesn’t really want to make an immortal commitment are put to rest. In all cases, the lust is instantaneous and a bit nauseating, and the love is of the high insta-brand. After one conversation with their respective Dragon King, Cassie/Elena/Jane is completely smitten. It takes Hal/Guy/Banan a mere look at their particular woman to inspire the mental lusting, no words necessary.

In all three cases, millennia of dragon magic that has kept these immortals from feeling love has been broken, leaving these dragon men to fall head over heels with practically the first female they encounter. Each story features a couple of steamy consummation scenes within a day or so of the couple’s first meeting. And the final wrap up story reminded me an awful lot of another brotherhood of warriors whose way of bonding with their females involved cave rituals and permanent skin marking.

Sadly, I can’t even recommend the writing as I found there to be a not much show but rather a lot of tell and a bunch of Scottish Highland romance novel clichés strung together. If Scottish brogue written like this doona bother ya, you’ll no’ be verra annoyed like I was. Aye, lassie, after a page of this shite, I didna know if I could take it. Too, if I never read the phrases “balls tightened” or “my/his woman” again, I’ll be grateful. Grade: D Sensuality: Hot