Review: Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison

Published Date: May 3rd, 2011
Finished Date: May 8th, 2011
Publishers: Berkeley
Format: Paperback
Pages: 312
Series: Elder Races book 1

Blurb from Goodreads: Half-human and half-wyr, Pia Giovanni spent her life keeping a low profile among the wyrkind and avoiding the continuing conflict between them and their dark Fae enemies. But after being blackmailed into stealing a coin from the hoard of a dragon, Pia finds herself targeted by one of the most powerful-and passionate-of the Elder races. -----------------------------------------------------------------

My Review: First of all, i have to say...Wow!...wow, an absolutely stunning debut novel. Seriously, the plot was well-developed, captivating, and...magical; The adventures were suspenseful and action-packed, the pace set was fast at some, but it slows down at the more romantic scenes-not slow slow, but comfortable slow, VERY satisfatory slow, if you get what i mean:). The ending was perfectly sweet and really, really romantic, and i liked it a lot.

It started off with Pia running away from Dragos after stealing from his secret hoard. And as we all know, dragons like to keep mountains of jewels and whatnot and are extremely possessive of their possessions. She tried to run, and as the cliche saying goes, but she can't hide, so Dragos caught her(with funny intermediate scenes like when Dragos, a crazy ancient dragon, tried eating Twizzlers and drinking cherry coke Slurpee cause Pia bought it and almost immediately spat everything out and his second-in-command, the hot Rune, took the Twizzlers and smuggled them out of the room). They fell in love, but because of the big difference in personalities and all the other power players getting involved, they got on a rocky start and could only satisfy their burning needs for physical intimacies in spurts and bursts wherever they could fit into their impromptu schedules-like when they're running away from a horde of angry Goblin captors and had gained some ground, they washed off at a creek and had their first "joinings":). I have to admit that that first love making was realy mindblowingly hot, ahha ok now i sound pervy. When things toned down and it seemed like a happy ever after, Pia got kidnapped by Dragos' archenemy. But during her kidnap, she definitely showed what a tough girl she was. Yeah and the ending was, as i've said already, really, really sweet.

OK, where to start...Pia is a really cool heroine, all independence and all action. I liked the front part where she outsmarted and kicked her delusional, crazy ex-boyfriend's butt. She's pretty(light god-blonde hair and all), she's smart, fast, and really brave and independent. She fights her own battles, and she doesn't back down when her dominant lover gets all bossy and intimidating, instead, she understands that it wasn't really his fault since it was all honed instincts ingrained into him for millenia, so yeah, it's hard for him too. She is really friendly and charismatic to those who were suspiscious of her at first. Oh and she is so sarcastically funny, definitely my type. She's cool, and she definitely hits my top charts of favourite heroines.

Dragos is the usual dominant, I-always-get-what-i-want, powerful, strickingly handsome hero of the book. He really reminds me of Raphael in Nalini Singh's Guild Hunter series and almost all the men in Jory Strong's erotica/romantica novels, all starkly possessive and protective. He does live up to his ancient ancient name, but sometimes his actions and words are too modern for me to continue with the ancient concept. One example is his, and his almost-as-ancient sentinels', continual usage of very modern crude/coarse language. Their use of vulgar words are like, abundant and already instilled into their daily conversations, which is not supposed to be(for me anyway)as...aren't ancient people supposed to be all prim and proper and all "let down your long hair, O Fair Maiden"? But there are parts where he seemed really old, and he's so innocently sweet and charming when he straightfowardly admitted that he didn't understand the concept of love that the humans are obsessed about. He doesn't know it, but he loves Pia just fine:).

The peripheral characters like Quentin, Rune, Tricks, etc were fun enough. Tricks especially. Oh how i loved the part where Tricks and Pia got drunk and Tricks started to write ont he restaurant's tablecloth all the gossips and connections of the people in Culeubre Tower(who are also the employee), and Rune and Graydon successfully wrested it from her after she got a good bite out of Rune(she was drunk).

Harrison has a really screwed sense of humor, in a good way, haha, which is with the use of sarcasm, which is totally my brand of jokes. So i really loved and adored the book when it got all snide comments and witty remarks. But there is some gore in it which i kinda appreciated..."...not after he was gelded, not after he was eviscerated, not after he was blinded. I didn't think that the boy had that kind of loyalty in him. I thought he would give you up in the first ten minutes." Wow, royal treatment much?

The passion play was awesome. Haha, real horny and all and illustrated detailed-ly with care and precision:). Tho i am kinda...um skeptical? that they(meaning Pia and Dragos) could've fell in love and willingly put their faith and trust in each other when they have only met for what, 3 or 4 days tops? That's a little extreme, man...

I am feeling rather speculative now cause Harrison didn't close the loops and gaps that appeared in the book. For example, what did Pia's mom do to/for the Elves that made her into such a revered persona in their society? I mean, this will be the only book which would focus on Pia(sad....TT) so i don't think Harrison would patch it all up after this book. And also of all the mythical creatures ever created, she chose to make Pia turn into a *******? I mean seriously? That's just weird...haha

Anyway, a really good book and i would definitely recommend it. Her writing style is scarily similar to Nalni Singh's. So if you loved the Guid Hunter series or the Psy-Changeling series(like i do), i think you'll love this one too.

My Rating: