Kiss of Fury (Dragonfire Series #2) Book

These books are really not for me. Kiss of Fury reads a lot like a contemporary novel that stumbled into the paranormal aisle.

Author Deborah Cooke sets up an interesting race of dragon-men and even the gurgling, babyish beginnings of a mythology (The Great Wyvern as a mother goddess), but like her characters, this world's undeveloped beyond the bare bones. She's established the "firestorm," a literal spark of flame () that indicates a dragon's found the mate who will make him vulnerable, kind of like a "You've Got Mate!" message. She's also decided the colors of the dragons, and that's it, apparently relying on pop culture and our imaginations to fill in the rest of the details.

Likewise the main character Donovan, whose Irish background isn't even spared ten seconds, even though we're led to believe that this long-lived man was born during the European Renaissance and has some interesting stories to tell, to judge from his claim about immortality: "There's always something to do." Some two hundred pages into the book, we discover he has an Irish brogue. Huh?

At any rate, our man Donovan's a player, and his entire conflict stands on two shaky pillars of romance angst, the fascinating combo of "I don't trust myself," and "I don't trust you."

Donovan's not sure which, but dagnabit, he knows he doesn't want our heroine. He would rather continue as a player, as he repeatedly reminds the heroine. He'd prefer to sleep around. How can she resist that, eh? He believes this because of a] an old flame and b] his daddy. These lines are reinforced ad nauseum in the exposition as the author tells, without any kind of deeper exploration, to shore up Hero's resistance and power the plot. Not until Donovan caves and gives her that ring will our hero and heroine surmount all obstacles and consummate their love. Then and only then will Donovan shift in front of Alex-- but he's already done that. So the last hurdle to their relationship is that he shifts slowly in front of the heroine.

To be honest, I've read the whole "skittish guy whom woman ropes with her love" before, and I've seen it done better.

Our heroine, on the other hand, has less baggage. Naturally. She's smart, even intellectual, the first such heroine I've read in a good long while. She's not bookish or aloof, as the stereotypes claim, but she is an engineer...? We never learn, but we are told she builds stuff. Cool.

When she's not oogling the hero's butt, Alex Madison is pretty useful.

Unfortunately, most of the novel is full of these moments where the hero and heroine eye each others' bodies like filet mignon- and still... resist. For some reason. 300 pages, folks, I kid you not. In case the message isn't clear, their feelings are laid out in point-blank, "tell, don't show" fashion. "He liked X and Y about her. Also Z and Q and..." Thanks, Hero.

The rest is fighting, which admittedly saves the book, and one scene of lukewarm hanky panky interrupted by small talk. Actually, there's a lot of small talk after that. I started to skim. Needless to say, nothing bad really happens. People go up in flames (it's dragons- what do you want?) and it's still somehow light, still PG-13.

Read Kiss of Fury for light action paranormal, and I don't mean the funny Mary Janice kind. I don't think I'll be reading the next one except as a filler between series. I wish I had known Deborah Cooke also wrote as Claire Delacroix. I've read her before.

"Kiss of Fury" is the second book in Deborah Cooke's 'Dragonfire' series. Here's a little of the backstory. Pyr are good dragons who protect the Earth and its treasures including humans. Slayers are dragons who have chosen personal gain and selfish pleasures; they kill both humans and Pyr. The only way for dragons to procreate is via the miracle of the 'firestorm'. The firestorm is a signal that a human woman exists who can be the mate of a dragon and bear him a son who will become a dragon. If the dragon comes into contact with his human, there's heat...and a whole lot of it!! The sex scenes are hot, but still don't cross the erotica threshold.

There's lots of mysticism, magic, and Green Earth messages throughout this series so if those things irritate you--don't blame me 'cause I warned you! The world created by Cooke is still being fleshed out in this second book and I'll be waiting for the release of the third book "Kiss of Fate" in February 2009.

Alexandra is a scientist and she's about the reveal her invention, one that will revolutionize the auto industry...a Green car that runs on salt water. When her lab is trashed and her research partner killed in front of her just days before they were to demo the car, she's heartbroken. She's also pretty sure she must be going nuts, because she could have sworn she saw her partner being tortured and eaten by DRAGONS! Next thing you know, she can't get away from them...they're everywhere...and one of them is the sexiest thing she's ever seen on two legs...well, on two legs most of the time!

Donovan has no intention of giving in to the firestorm. Sure, his human is smart. And gorgeous. And sexy. And brave. And WAIT a minute. NOT giving in. Nope, no way, no how. Um...did he mention sexy?

"Kiss of Fury" has humor, romance, sex, suspense, epic battles, and all those things that mark a very inventive author. My only gripe about this book is that I wanted to smack Alexandra MANY times. Hello...you're human, they're dragons...exactly how do you expect to win alone? Anyhow, she finally smartens up about 1/2 way through the book and then it was just pure enjoyment to read about her and Donovan.