Reviews for La Marca del Dragon : The Dragon's Mark

The average rating for La Marca del Dragon : The Dragon's Mark based on 1 review is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-08-08 00:00:00 Jackson Nash Setting : Hongkong, Malaysia, France, Vietnam, England. Same cover was recycled for Susan Napier = Price of passion (that came out 3 yrs after TMBM). Globe-trotting, workaholic millionaire Anton Zell is a multi-tasker. Petrochemical industry is his bread & butter. He dabbles in developing new tech to recycle used oil. Amy Worthington is a high achiever, has won scholarships all the way since orphaned @ a young age. When the book opens, she�s 1 day late for the most important job interview of her life due to the delayed flight to Hongkong & thinks she must�ve blown her chance �cuz Anton is scheduled to fly to Malaysia. To her shock, as part of her qualification process, the hands-on boss performs the mandatory Physical Exam on his P.A. candidate himself �cuz his medical officer happens to be on leave. If it were an erotica, it�s a safe bet this job screening woulda led to all sorts of kinky hanky panky, like � �Hike up your skirt & bend over, so I can take your temperature w/ my Qing Dong & initiate U into our office routines, just 1 of the perks of this job�. Sorry, I digress. I haven�t been to a legit job interview in 16 yrs, but methinks only in HPlandia a CEO can get away w/ asking unethical interview questions like he does here, �cuz in RL he woulda been slapped w/ discrimination lawsuits, to say the least. The more he tries to penetrate Amy�s armor, the more she retreats. He gets a vibe that she�s been badly hurt by her previous luver & it frustrates him that she won�t confide in him. Amy�s scared by the lightning speed their relationship evolves. Thru� office grapevine, she labels Anton as a ruthless tycoon who discarded his previous P.A. after she got preggers. She sets boundaries between their professional & personal life. She refuses his expensive gifts & tries to slow things down when Anton wants to buy a pricey mansion in Hongkong so they can move in together. H/h have gone thru� a wretched childhood, deprived of genuine familial luv. He�s been thrown into 1 foster home after another, while Amy grew up w/ her cousins� petty taunting. Both of �em are outsiders, always looking in, but never part of family circle. Amy is wary �cuz she doesn�t want history to repeat itself by getting involved in a doomed luv affair w/ her boss. The shit hits the fan when her painful secret is gleefully revealed by a venomous, fork-tongued viper who also owns a significant share in Anton�s company stocks & has the hawts for him. The vicious cycle goes on as Anton thinks the worst of her. I�ve always liked his writing (MK is an alias for Marius Gabriel). He writes interesting locales & he knows how to paint vivid imagery, not just faint background where the H/H eats & sleeps. Even tho� the book has lotsa shop talk, U don�t need to be an avid environmentalist to appreciate it. I noticed that he often incorporates li�l info-nuggets of art in his books. I liked both H/h, they�re flawed, make boo-boos along the way but they�re not deliberately cruel. They talk, tease 1 another & there�s a mutual liking, not just lust. Amy�s insecurities were believable, but I gotta say that I woulda liked more psychological depth to the trauma Amy�s been thru� in her past. I felt that the harrowing experience of losing a child was glossed over & I wanted the douchebag, her ex, to get his comeuppance for being a wimpy liar. I dunno, mayhap I was just PMS-ing, hence the bloodthirsty mood. Altho� It�s sensible that it�s delicate balance for Anton, to play his cards right or the witchy stockholder will tip the scales in her favors, I wanted him to man up a bit on 2 occasions when the bitch bares her claws on Amy. I guess he�s just not over-protective enuff 4 my taste. From the get-go, thru� Amy�s view, we know Anton�s more laid back than the usual self-made, gutter-to-riches gazillionaires. He lives & breathes �work�, but he�s a shrewd bargainer. He doesn�t just whip out his CCs �cuz he�s loaded. He doesn�t let peeps rip him off if it�s not worth the price. No melodramatic blackmail / forced marriage plot device, no insultfest, it�s more mellow than the average but still effective, esp as I was craving for a light, boardroom romance.