Book Review: Fire Rising by Donna Grant
The story wasn't predictable. It had numerous twists that had me wondering what would happen next. The love story between Sammi and Tristan was very entertaining.
There were some details that weren't as clear as I would have preferred.
Fire Rising is the third book in the series Dark Kings, written by paranormal romance author, Donna Grant. It was published on June 3, 2014 under St. Martin’s Paperbacks.
Samantha had been living a relatively normal, non-eventful life. She had a pub that she ran with her business partner David. He knew their suppliers and managed to cut a lot of cost thereby making the pub some decent profit. When David storms in their pub and frantically asks her to run with him, she was staggered by his revelation. He had used the pub as a front for laundering money. Since he had skimmed some cash, the Mob was now after both of them. Before they could escape, David gets killed and while she was getting away, they manage to blow up the pub. With hardly any money, a wound on her arm and no chance of escaping the Mob; she decided to just keep hiding. When circumstances forced her to visit her half-sister Jane, she knew she had to hurry. She was just going to reassure her and move on. Yet when she saw Tristan, it was as if there was something between them. It was something more than just attraction. She felt safe with him, but she has no idea why.
Tristan knew nothing of his past. The last thing she remembered was crashing on a mountain and waking up as a Dragon King. Since then he had worked hard on being a good one. At the same time, he was doing his best to avoid his twin, Ian, who he doesn’t remember. He felt like he wasn’t ready for all of it. As far as he was concerned, he was Tristan and his life started when he crashed on earth. He never expected someone like Sammi. She walked into Draeger and turned his life upside down. His need to protect her and be close to her was overwhelming. He wanted to taste her badly. Is she the key to unlocking his past memories? Did he want her to be?
The story started off a bit sketchy. Sammi was on the run from people who were going to hurt her because her partner and ex-boyfriend had skimmed money from their operation. After a month of running around, she stops at Draeger to see her sister. This is the point where the real story starts. I’m not going to reveal it all! I’ll only reveal snippets and my thoughts.
The character of Sammi in this book is distrustful but loyal. After losing her mother, she is afraid of getting hurt by someone she loved. So she had cold feet when it comes to commitment. Tristan was a protective character with a strong sense of denial. He wanted Sammi to be safe almost as much as he wanted her body. Throughout the story, he kept denying his past, his feelings for Sammi and what they meant. It was only when I was in the last quarter of the book that there were changes. My favorite character in this book is Rhi. She was mysterious and I really, truly want to know her story. Her cool traits included her nail polish collection, kick-ass fighting skills and wit.
Not all of it was amazing. There were some areas that I wasn’t quite clear on. It wasn’t elaborated in this book, but maybe it will be revealed in the other books of the series. As a stand-alone book, it would leave a lot of questions.
I did love the book overall. Dragons are fascinating and the story wasn’t really predictable. Although, I do think they took the impossible situation into a whole new level. I would definitely recommend this to other readers. This is not erotica and the love scenes are pretty tame. So they wouldn’t be the target readers. For those who are more into the love story than the sex scenes then you will get a good one in this book.
