Firestorm is definitely someone’s catnip. There are dragon shifters. There is epic love. The word “eons” is used unironically. The hero has “azure eyes.” The heroine has “sherry eyes.” The sides of an ancient conflict are helpfully labeled “the Dark” and “the Light.” This is some epic shit, y’all, and while it’s a bit too epic for me I have the distinct feeling that several readers I know would eat this up with a spoon, so to speak.
Essentially, the story is that dragons live among us disguised as humans. Eons ago, humans tried to kill the dragons, who couldn’t fight back because of an ancient vow not to hurt mortals (dragons are immortal unless fatally injured). Dr. Faith Reynolds, an archeologist, finds what she thinks is a dragon skeleton. Let us pause here and reflect that archeologists focus on the study of people. Surely at some point Faith would turn over the dig to a paleontologist? This is not the least of my problems with the methodology of this dig, and I am neither a paleontologist nor an archeologist, and the book is about immortal dragon shifters, so maybe I should just chill out and suspend disbelief.
Anyway, Faith finds the skeleton. Con, the King of the Dragon Kings (no, really, that’s his title) tells Dmitri to go destroy the skeleton before everyone figures out that dragon shifters live on some Scottish island and make whiskey for a living. Dmitri is the king of the White Dragons. All the dudes in this book (all the dragon dudes, that is) are the kings of something. Before he knows it, Dmitri has had mad passionate sex with Faith, shifted into his dragon form in front of her, and promised to keep the skeleton safe. So, pretty much the exact opposite of what he was supposed to do.
In return, Faith works patiently and somewhat obsessively on excavating the skeleton, falls madly in love with Dmitri, kills a bad guy with a trowel, nicknames Dmitri “Muscles,” and smacks him playfully on the butt. I like her. The rest of the plot involves getting Faith accepted by the dragon community, saving the skeleton and figuring out how that dragon died, and fighting off a bad magical attack on the dragon community. There’s a complicated side plot that feeds into the main plot eventually and that probably makes a lot of sense if you’ve read book 1-9, which I haven’t. I strongly suggest that the reader start at the beginning of this series, as I was completely lost.
Generally speaking, I thought that the writing was fine in technical terms except that sometimes there were lines like, “At first glance, she seemed almost ditzy since her mind ran a million miles a second, but her intelligence and zest for life were apparent with one look.” Well, which is it?
I found this book to be ridiculously over the top, what with the sherry eyes and everyone being a king and one couple being described as having love that “had shone brighter than the sun, burned hotter than the brightest star.” I’ve been married for 19 years y’all, and I still think my husband is hot, and he can still make my heart go pitter-pat, but eventually one of us has to do the goddamn dishes. You can’t run around burning like the brightest star all the time. It’s exhausting.
To be fair, I recently read a book that was equally ridiculous (Song of the Sea). It had AMNESIA! and a heroine who, I shit you not, fell off a boat while singing to a seagull. I knew it was ridiculous, but it was the kind of ridiculous that makes me very happy. I was not crazy about Firestorm, but I have no doubt at all that it is the perfect kind of ridiculous for some other reader. This is a long series and it’s a spin-off of two other long series, so you have plenty of brighter than the sun love stories to spend the summer with. Happy journeys!
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“shifters live on some Scottish island and make whiskey for a living.”
Whisky!
It’s a silly little thing I know, but it bugs me. Whisky is made in Scotland – Whiskey is made elsewhere.
This sounds like my kind of crazy, ha. And indeed I realized when I tried to add it to goodreads that I’d already added it previously. I know my reading tastes!
You had one job, Dmitri!
You had me at “The word ‘eons’ is used unironically.” Love this review 🙂
no actual desire to read the book but I love the tattoo design on the cover model.
@Fi Thank you! That bugs me so much it’s disturbing.
No ‘E’ in the country name, no ‘E’ in the whisky.
This sounds like a fun-ish series, but my TBR’s already a couple hundred deep and it’s a long series…
I need to MST this.
Of course everyone is a king. Are you going to tell a dragon he can’t be a king?
King of the Dragon Kings. Yeesh. Or maaaayybe “High King of Dragons”? Sister needs to read some Chronicles of Narnia or Lloyd Alexander.
This sounds like just my kind of ridiculous. *adds to TBR pile*
Am I the only one who wonders what cover cocktail would be appropriate for this? Obviously including whisky and some kind of zest.
King of Kings! and Lord of Dragons! For eons and eons! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! And he shall bur-ur-ur-ur-ur-urn hotter than the sun, forever and ever. Forever and ever, forever and ever, until it’s time to do the dishes.
Back in May this, was in the Book Sale. I apparently picked it up for $2.99. My TBR is so out of control that I don’t even remember half of what I own. I have learned to check Goodreads because I have purchased Kindle books I already own. I didn’t do it often but it was irritating when I didn’t catch it in time to return it.
If someone’s love is still burning hotter than the brightest star, clearly they haven’t been a couple long enough to have the septic tank back up at the start of a 3 day holiday weekend. Or to remodel the basement.
Love just smolders after that & that’s okay
To be fair, I’ve returned my copy to the library but it’s probable that I autocorrected whisky to whiskey, having no idea that “whisky” was a word. Hopefully the author got it right.
Yes, it’s spelled whisky in the sample.
I feel like I enjoyed the review more than I would enjoy the book. Every time amnesia is used as a plot device in a review it should be all caps with an exclamation mark. I’m here for it.
dragons are immortal unless fatally injured
I love this. They’re immortal unless they die.