I love fantasy, losing myself in a world that is so different from my present reality is soothing to me. I love letting my imagination run wild in a new dimension. But there is something I love about fantasy set in “reality” that makes me love it even more. This book is that kind of novel, dragons and spies and magic and a hidden history all wrapped up and undercover in our real world. When I first realized it was about dragons in part I was very skeptical but it caught my interest early on and ended up being a fun and engaging read.

Denae Lacroix is on a mission from her spy agency MI5. She and her partner Matt are meant to retrieve something from the private land owned by a group called Dreagan. When things go awry and Denae is betrayed and caught by Dreagan she learns that Dreagan is in fact a group of shape shifting dragons. In centuries past these dragons were meant to protect humans, but humans rebelled against them forcing them to go into hiding in another realm. The remaining dragons are at Dreagan and they are the Dragon Kings. Our sultry and tortured hero, Kellan, is a Dragon King who chose to sleep away the centuries rather than be involved with humans that caused him so much pain.

Kellan is ordered by the King of Kings, Constantine, to keep watch over Denae and learn more about MI5. Kellan’s hatred of humans makes the idea repellant, but his body is attracted to Denae and the idea of spending time with her. War is brewing between the Dragon Kings and forces of Darkness, threatening the human race but also the creatures of another realm as well.

I genuinely enjoyed this book; the magic and fantasy was really fun. Denae is a sassy, independent woman who obviously crushes on Kellan from the beginning, but can totally fend for herself. Kellan is super sexy and another typical tortured hero, but his desire to protect Denae and his fellow dragons is admirable. The sexual tension between the two of them builds in a realistic way and their ultimate coming together will make you want to turn on the air conditioning – it’s that hot.

One of the only things that irritated me is that the Dragon Kings all had an accent that was emphasized in the text that may have been Scottish. For example they would say, “I doona” instead of “I do not.” It wouldn’t have irritated me as much if one of our dragons wasn’t a main character but reading their accents got old really quickly. Also, you’d be surprised how often it occurred.

It was a fun read and definitely unusual – but in a good way, I’d read the rest of the series definitely. If you like fantasy with a bit of mystery and action this is definitely for you.

Buy it at A/iB/BN/K