Book Review

Deven and the Dragon by Eliot Grayson

Deven and the Dragon is an adorable novella that is as sweet and light as the best meringue. This fairy tale-like story has clear Beauty and the Beast influences but without the coercion. It’s a m/m romance involving a rogue and a dragon shifter, both of whom love books. It warmed my cranky heart.

The plot is thus: Deven is the local hottie. He works in the stables and enjoys consensually casual sexual relationships with pretty much everyone who is interested, men and women alike, single or married. Unfortunately this creates some bad feeling among certain townspeople. So when a dragon moves into the town castle, the town council decides that the dragon will inevitably require the sacrifice of a virgin (as dragons do), and they nominate the very non-virginal Deven to play the part. They want Deven to seduce the dragon and to come back with one of the dragon’s scales (scales have magical powers) and if Deven gets eaten instead, well, c’est la vie.

As it turns out, the dragon is not interested in a sacrifice, virginal or otherwise. The dragon is actually a shifter named Fiora who attempts in vain to look imposing in human form. Alas, Fiora is under a rather complicated curse that prevents him from having any kind of romantic relationship. As conflicts go, “sex will literally kill at least one of us” is a pretty compelling one.

The plot of this book is ok, but not great. I hate poor communication in life and in fiction, and since Deven and Fiora both have secrets (as does the town council, as does Fiora’s loyal and protective sidekick) the book is rife with poor communication. I spent an awful lot of this book yelling “Spit it out!” at the characters, which was frustrating. The book is short and yet the plot seemed long because of course all these secrets would eventually come to light; it was just a question of when, which doesn’t make for terrific tension or compelling story.

The book achieves fabulousness because of the characters and their interactions with each other. The tone is pure fairy tale and the individuals, the arcs of the characters, and the dialogue is impeccable. How I love Fiora’s attempts to be menacing (I’ve abridged this considerably and still can’t resist quoting an enormous chunk of it):

“Lord Fiora.” Deven didn’t roll the consonants in Fiora’s name the way his own countrymen did, and somehow those three syllables became something foreign and exciting in Deven’s clipped accent. “Does it mean something? I mean, other than being a name.”

Oh bother. With the moon shining down and gilding the tips of Deven’s brown waves of hair and lighting his smile, it was impossible to think clearly. “It means-it means-” Oh, fuck. “It means ‘born of darkness,’” Fiora said, in a burst of inspiration. It wasn’t as if Deven would know any different-he couldn’t read Fiora’s native language.

“Your parents must have, um, they had quite the imagination? Or were you born in the middle of the night? Are they the sorts to take things very literally, and not imaginative at all? Because I’d think a name like that would be difficult to give a newborn babe, wouldn’t you?”

Bother, bother, he had to get it together. “It references my destiny,” he said, as loftily as possible, with a wave of his hand he hoped appeared suitably mystical. “My destiny lies in darkness. Now, if you will walk with me-”

“No, hold up a moment, I’m sorry, but were you born in darkness or meant to go into darkness somehow?” What? What was wrong with this man? He sounded honestly curious and perfectly calm, as if he were discussing the weather! “How’s it a destiny if you started there?”

“You’d have to ask my mother! Which you won’t do. Ever,” he added hastily, panic bubbling up in his throat at the thought. “It doesn’t matter. My name is of no importance, only that my destiny is…is dark. You don’t need to know any more than that. And anyway, I’d rather not talk about it.”

It’s no spoiler to say that Fiora is neither menacing nor destined for darkness, although he does make an impressive dragon. He is a sweet, shy bookwyrm (see what I did there?). And while Deven doesn’t have a shy bone in his body, he is also a sweet bookworm. Once you throw in a ferociously protective butler, two sets of protective parents, and a lot of mutual lust (between Deven and Fiora, that is) and the fact that Deven and Fiora have the same favorite book, and you have a lot of laugh out loud scenes plus a really lovely romance.

I’ve read a lot of long, thoughtful, deep, weighty books lately and none of them brought me half as much joy as this tiny novella of fun. It reminded me of why I started reading romance in the first place – for joy, for hope, for that gloriously happy ending. This isn’t the best book I’ve ever read (as I mentioned above, I yelled at the characters a lot), but it is one of the most fun and by golly, this year I need all the fun I can get.

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Deven and the Dragon by Eliot Grayson

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  1. JoanneBB says:

    So torn… poor communication is becoming one of my peeves, but I love stories featuring books. And a quick check shows me that while it’s on the high end for a novella, it’s still not expensive AND I haven’t spent book budget in September yet. I’ll give it a try!

  2. Wub says:

    Sounds great!

    BTW, your italics are askew in the last part of the italicised section, which should be part of the review.

  3. SB Sarah says:

    Thanks for the heads up! All fixed.

  4. Arijo says:

    Overbearing parents! Fluffy hero! Overprotective entourage! Pointless secrets! Sounds like a please-don’t-take-me-seriously-just-enjoy-yourself story. I’m in. 🙂

  5. cleo says:

    This sounds like fun.

    If anyone’s interested in another m/m Beauty and the Beast retelling with a dragon, I can’t say enough good things about Briarley by Aster Glenn Gray – a retelling set in wartime England.

    It’s true to the basic outline (father takes shelter in seemingly empty mansion with sumptuous hospitality, picks a rose for his daughter and is attacked by a beast / dragon who demands he send his daughter to stay) but tweaks it in several delightful (and consensual) ways. I like that it’s queered in a way that makes sense and enhances the story – not every queer retelling of a fairytale does that.

  6. Qualisign says:

    @JoanneBB, all your statements! It’s in KU for those of us who still indulge.

  7. Todd says:

    I have a memory from years ago a short story in which a village had … an ogre? troll? … that would demand a tribute of a virgin. A young woman was chosen and left for the whatever to collect. One of the young men was trying to get her to have sex with him, which would make her ineligible … but it turns out that the whatever was female and collected him instead.

  8. hng23 says:

    I’ve read this. It’s charming & sweet & very funny in parts. If you’re looking for a story to put a smile on your face, this is it.

  9. Lauren says:

    Sounds like my kind of book.
    For a f/f Beauty and the Beast with a dragon, try the very excellent (but slightly dark) In the Vanisher’s Palace by Aliette de Bodard.

  10. chacha1 says:

    Sounds like fun, which the last slightly-high-priced novella by a new-to-me author wasn’t. Will indulge for the weekend.

  11. chacha1 says:

    Okay, I read this last night and it’s a solid A from me. Funny, well-edited, well-constructed, sexy, and takes its time getting to a resolution of the very real issues. I didn’t have a problem with the ‘why can’t you just talk to each other;’ I thought the reasons they didn’t were fair. Was actually surprised by the way the author chose to precipitate the crisis: NOT what I expected. Will happily re-read.

    Also read ‘Briarley,’ rec’d above. A very different treatment of the same fairy-tale story. Less well-edited, a bit too brief (I like a little more ending with my happy endings), but well worth reading especially as a companion to ‘Deven.’

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