KISS OF FIRE

Kiss Of Fire by Deborah Cooke
Book 1 of the Dragonfire series.

Genre: urban fantasy romance

Caption At The Back Cover:

For millennia, the shape shifting dragon warriors known as the Pyr have lived peacefully as guardians of both the four elements and the earth’s treasures. But now the final reckoning between the Pyr, who count humans among these treasures, and the Slayers, who would eradicate humans and the Pyr who protect them, is about to begin…

When ace accountant Sara Keegan decides to settle down and run her quirky aunt’s New Age bookstore, she’s not looking for adventure. She doesn’t believe in fate or the magic of tarot cards, but when she’s saved from a vicious attack by a man who has the ability to turn into a fire-breathing dragon, she questions whether she’s losing her mind – or about to lose her heart.

Self-reliant loner Quinn Tyrrell has long been distrustful of his fellow Pyr. When he feels the firestorm that signals his destined mate, he’s determined to protect and possess Sara, regardless of the cost. Then Sara’s true destiny is revealed and Quinn realizes that he must risk everything – even Sara’s love – to fulfill their entwined fates.

My Take:
I find that my love for fantasy changes over time. Two years ago I had a “vampire phase” where I was absolutely gaga about anything and everything vampire! The most memorable aspect of that time was that I was crazy about the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by JR Ward and Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter series. Then that was followed by the “wolf phase” where most of the books I bought were about shape-shifting wolves. Sometimes I don’t even read the caption about the book, if it got a shape-shifting wolf in it I buy and read it! Nuts, I tell you!! Now, I think I’m into a “dragon phase”… probably one of the reasons why I bought Kiss Of Fire by Deborah Cooke.

I started reading this book not only wanting to “suspend disbelief” but wanting to “like” the story as well. Just because it got dragons in it. The “wanting” is in itself is a powerful motivational springboard to start off anything. It almost always ends with a positive five out of five feedback. But, I just hate inconsistent characters… It drives me up the wall! Flippin’ heck, in the beginning chapters Character A is said to divulge a very, very valuable info to the bad guys when they tortured her for it, because “she has to live” for the good guys to win the fight of good against evil seeing that she is their “prophetess”. Character A is even said to have major guilt issues for having done that. Fine, I’ll swallow that. Then in the last chapters, Character A informed Character B that she has the means to escape but purposely stayed captive to provide the protagonists a purpose to get together?!? I can't wrap my head around that… Inconsistent behaviour once is forgivable. Twice is pushing it. Several times along the story… makes the book an irritating read.

The premise of the story is very good. Shape-shifting dragons which lives for centuries to fight for the good against evil. Absolutely wonderful!! Honourable hero and feisty heroine. Magic. Airborne action. Firestorm attraction and romance. Then the story-telling quality tries to make the book quite boring... I’d give the story-telling quality a 1.5 out of 5. Despite the good fantasy elements, I had to force myself to finish the book! That’s how bad the story-telling quality is. But, I did finish the book so can’t give it a zero. I’d give the story itself a 1.5 out of 5. The cover art… a 4 out of 5. I have to say that the covers of this series are quite attractive to fantasy buffs like me. It was one of the persuading points for me to buy this book.

Overall I’d give this book a 2 out of 5. So, would I read another Deborah Cooke? Probably. But, I'll most likely not buy another Deborah Cooke!

Cherry's Rating: 2 out of 5 cherries