Where Sleeping Dragons Lie by Cristina Rayne, skeleton key Pages: 150
Published by Createspace Independent Pub on June 15, 2016
Series: Skeleton Key
Genres: adult, Fantasy & Magic, Romance, shifter
Source: eARC from Author
Skeleton Key Book Series
One Skeleton Key. Endless Adventures.
https://skeletonkeybookseries.comSome doors can only be unlocked by the right hand…
It was in her friend’s rare books shop that Briana Wright first saw Taron Hildebrand, a too-gorgeous-to-be-real twenty-something Englishman dressed for a night at the opera rather than an obscure shop in midtown. Unnerved by his unusual orange-tinted hazel eyes and flustered by his intensity and charm, her initial alarm raises several notches with his immediate interest and offer of an obscene amount of money for the old hand-bound book written in a strange alphabet she had found in her recently deceased grandmother’s collection. Not keen on giving up such an intriguing mystery, she refuses his offer and is surprised when he leaves the shop without even a token fuss.
Briana should have known he would be back, but when Taron claims the book is a family heirloom he’s been searching for and is able to perfectly describe the sole drawing of a skeleton key contained within the book, her initial misgivings quickly turn to excitement when she realizes that she’s on the brink of solving the mystery of the book’s origins.
Unfortunately, she didn’t count on others being just as interested in learning the book’s secrets and that the price she has to pay for that knowledge is having to run for her life. She sure as hell didn’t count on suddenly learning that dragons are real and being dragged into a centuries-long dragon civil war by Taron, one of those dragons shifted into human form that insists she is the key to finally ending their stalemate.
Most of all, she didn’t count on falling in love…
Where Sleeping Dragons Lie by Cristina Rayne is part of the Skeleton Key book series. I really love the set up of this series. It is a group of almost 30 authors, each one writing a book featuring a skeleton key that unlocks a secret world. But all of the books are vastly different. Different themes, different age groups and different sub genres. I just love that idea. So whether you like young adult, new adult or adult, you will be able to find a book for you. If you want to know more information about the series you can check out the website dedicated to the books.
Skeleton Key Book Series
One Skeleton Key. Endless Adventures.
https://skeletonkeybookseries.com
Where Sleeping Dragons Lie is an interesting book in the Skeleton Key series. I liked how different it felt from the other 5 or so books I have read in the series. First of all, this one was very much an action adventure. Second, a lot of the book took place in our world. Whereas, with the other stories, the main character discovers the skeleton key and unlocks the door almost immediately, this one was a bit of a search to find the key and to find out what is going on, and hat she seemingly was roped into.
What I also thought was different (though it didn’t end up being too different, and that kind of bummed me out in and of itself.) was that I thought this book was not going to have any romance in it. I know that seems strange for me to say, but the plot was so focused on the adventure that I really didn’t see any development of feelings between the main characters. Add that in with the fact that this is a fairly short novella, and my interest was piqued. I thought it was book a cool addition to the series to have a straight action/adventure without a quickly developed romance. So I was really digging it. But then at about 65% into the story, the main characters very suddenly kissed and the romance was all of sudden there. People that very much want to have a romance in their novellas will appreciate this, but I thought it was too rushed. I would have preferred to have simply continued with the adventure aspect of the story. The romance felt like an afterthought, and as a result it was just kind of there for me. I would have preferred it to have been incorporated from the start or not at all.
Overall, this is a good installment to the Skeleton Key series, but it is not my favorite of the ones I have read. It would be good for fans of dragon/witch rivalry books, and fans of fantasy novellas. This would have been a 4 star read easily if it was just focused on the plot and not tried to make a romance happen with the characters.
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