Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Review: Claimed by Dragons


Claimed By Dragons
Bag Of Tricks Book 2
Amber Skyze and Katalina Leon

Genre: Erotic-romance, paranormal, dragon-shifters, ménage & polyamory.
Publisher: Loose Id Publishing
Pages: 286
Cover Artist: Valerie Tibbs

Buy LinksLoose Id   ARe   Amazon (Kindle)

Book Description:

In an odd Wiccan shop in Salem, Jael pulls an unusual stone from a witch’s wish bag. Little does she know her wildest dreams of adventure and a torrid affair with two gorgeous co-workers are about to come true—in spades.

Jael’s dreamy boss, Roarke offers her the assignment of a lifetime: a photo safari to Mount Kilimanjaro. The African scenery is stunning but the unexpected arrival of her two office crushes, Roarke and Kypton ignites her passion. Just as the trio is getting steamy at a beautiful waterfall, danger intervenes forcing the men to reveal their secret. They're dragons. And now, to save her life, they have no choice but to abduct a startled Jael to their mountain lair on Kilimanjaro.

In the dragons' love nest, Jael learns the truth about their origins and explores all the erotic possibilities two eager lovers can offer. Love awakens, but the guys are being stalked by a covert group of dragon hunters and withholding a life or death secret that will push Jael’s courageous heart and commitment to the limits.

Note: This book contains explicit sexual situations, graphic language, and material that some readers may find objectionable: anal play/intercourse, male/male sexual practices, menage (m/m/f).

Excerpt
(In this excerpt Jael has just pulled a stone from the wish bag in an odd Salem Wiccan shop.) “Oh, Jael, that is an odd-looking stone.” Arcona reached for Jael’s hand to tip the sparkling stone toward the light. “It’s beautiful when things you’d never think would fuse together mix.” She stared at the stone in wonder. “The world is full of weird stuff, isn’t it?”

Jael looked from the two-sided stone to her friend. “It is different.” She glanced at Witch Casey to see if she had any advice as to why she’d chosen such a stone.

“Interesting, but not surprising.” Witch Casey shook her head with her lips firmly pinched together.

Jael couldn’t read the woman’s eccentric gesture.

“A dual stone is often attracted to an undecided person,” Witch Casey spoke tersely.

“Undecided?” Jael stiffened and crossed her arms in a defensive manner. She’d been often accused of being indecisive in the past, and it hurt. Obviously Witch Casey had been eavesdropping. “Are you referring to me?”

“Of course I’m referring to you.” Witch Casey planted her fist firmly on her hip as she confronted Jael. “You’re the one holding the dual stone, not me.”

“What do you mean by undecided?” Jael knew where this was going. Witch Casey would now deliver a trite and highly predictable forecast about her future love life. She braced for the safe little clichés she knew were headed her way.

Witch Casey arced her hands dramatically through the air. “Your heart is always in two places at once and refuses to choose a lasting home. Am I right?” Jael slightly recoiled. Witch Casey was right. The way the woman spoke with utter authority sent a shiver up her spine.

All her life she’d rushed toward one goal when secretly desiring another. She longed for a stable relationship, even a family, but another rogue part of her soul wanted to ditch her responsibilities, pick up a camera, and flee to the exotic wilds of Africa to fulfill her creative dreams. The same went for men. She could never make up her mind. Variety was the spice of life.

“There might be some truth in what you’re saying,” Jael sheepishly answered Witch Casey. Witch Casey’s eyes flashed. “Might?”

Arcona leaned close to Jael’s ear. “I remember our last semester. You were always dating at least two guys at once and trying to keep it a secret. It never stayed secret.”

Jael silently admitted her love life was a disaster of indecision. She’d never met a man who fulfilled all her needs. Okay, maybe one man—Roarke, the gorgeous guy at her office, was a thrilling date for a friends-with-benefits type of evening, but a more solid relationship never quite gelled. Deep down she knew why.

They were two of a kind. Roarke was almost as undecided and commitment shy as she was. He would pant after her with lustful looks, coax and almost beg her to visit his apartment. When she gave in, the sex was always hot. Roarke was a total turn-on. Her hopes would rise that maybe Roarke was the one, and then nothing would happen for weeks at a time. No pursuit, no invitations back to his bed. It was as if Roarke would deny himself her company until he couldn’t stand it a moment longer; then he would call.

She’d noticed Roarke’s nightstand was fully stocked with condoms and every exotic brand of lube on the market, so she had to suspect he enjoyed other lovers as well, which hurt. She wanted to be someone special to him, and apparently she wasn’t. Obviously there was another.

“Would you like me to do a card reading for you?” Witch Casey interrupted the silence. “It might clarify a few of those undecided thoughts.”

“I don’t know…” Jael’s gaze darted anxiously between her friends. Their visit was nearly at an end. She wondered if her friends would willingly wait while Witch Casey sorted through the confusing details of her elusive love life. Probably not.

“You should do it.” Arcona shot Jael an encouraging smile. “Accept the card reading. Isn’t that why we walked in here in the first place—to get a little insight?”


Review

I liked this book. I don't like shape shifters, but something about dragons entice me.

I love the plot of this story. A stone chose Jael and two of her co-workers started acting weird around her. Next thing she knew, she was on a plane to Africa for a safari photography expedition. She was very passionate about taking photographs. One thing I noticed about her was that she did not care for danger when she was in the zone. In the beginning of the book, there were times when she wanted to get up close and personal with the wildlife, not realizing the same wildlife could kill her.

Jael's mission besides taking photograph was to bury the stone that she got from the excerpt above. The stone was incredibly special - it gave her intense orgasms and branded her hand with a dragon tattoo. Basically, she needed to bury the stone somewhere to find true love.

Lastly, I was curious about the lavender result of the pregnancy test in this story. I wonder what it meant! Anyway, I don't want to spoil anything so I'll stop here. Just trust me that it is worth the read :D

Check out my favorite scenes!
"Is there where you want to be?" she addressed the stone in a whisper.

As if the stone meant to provide a silent answer, it gently rolled in her pocket.

"I don't blame you." Her gaze drank in the beauty of this special spot. "If I were a stone, I'd want to be here too."

She stopped herself when she realized she was talking to a rock. That was just freaky. Why was she doing it? If she was going to talk to rocks and have orgasms with them, admittedly she might not survive this trip with her sanity and dignity intact.

"You see, it's not fair to seduce a woman and make her fall in love and then ask her to share her heart with two men. The Marduko do things differently. He wanted to establish intimacy with you without a pact of exclusivity. He wanted to make sure you had a strong attraction to us both and waited for you to show it. By the way, your stubborn comments about not getting involved with coworkers actually made us consider quitting our jobs."

"Just to be sure, no one comes near me unless they're already tearing a condom open with their teeth, okay?"

"Okay." [K] tore the condom open with his teeth. He glanced at [R]. "I'm not saying no to a beautiful woman."

"Neither am I." [R] tore a condom open too. "I'm going to give her whatever she wants."


About the Authors:

Katalina Leon

I’m an artist, an author, mother and wife. I write for Loose Id Publishing and Ellora’s Cave. I try to bring a touch of the mystical and a big sense of adventure to everything I write because I believe there’s a bold, kick-ass heroine inside all of us who wants to take a wild ride with a strong worthy hero.






Amber Skyze

From a very young age, Amber Skyze began making up stories–the only child syndrome. Telling tall tales to all her friends she never dreamed of putting words on paper. In fact if anyone asked her if she would write when she grew up, she’d have laughed.

It wasn’t until raising children and reading all those romances that she decided–hey, I can write these. HA! Easier said than done.

When not crafting hot, steamy tales, this New York transplant now resides in Rhode Island with her husband, four children (who force her to work a day job), and three dogs.

She currently writes for Ellora’s Cave, Loose Id and is self-published.




Arianne

4 comments:

  1. Arianne thank you for a terrific review. This means so much!
    (I didn't want to be too obvious about the "lavender" but do you remember Roarke's reaction to Jael's new scent when they are reunited? It means she's physically changed. She's their mate now.)

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  2. Arianne, thank you so much for taking the time to read a story containing shifters. I realize you normally don't like them. Thanks so much for providing a great review and hope we've changed your mind about shifters. :)

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  3. Awesome, Kat and Amber - and well-deserved! :)

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