Customer Reviews

Heart of the Dragon (Atlantis)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While running for her life through the Amazon jungle, Grace Carlyle accidently finds herself running through a portal that leads to another world. She soon discovers that Atlantis is more than just a myth. Plus, it's inhabited by shape-shifting dragons. Darius en Kragin is the leader of this people and the Guardian of this particular portal. His duty is to kill any traveler who comes through the gate, a duty that he has never failed at, until he sees Grace.

For some reason he can't bring himself to kill her. Instead, he imprisons her in his palace. Darius tells himself that it's only because he needs to find out where Grace got the dragon

necklace that she's wearing. When Grace manages to escape, Darius goes after her. In the process of getting her back, he discovers that there is a conspiracy between humans and vampires to take over Atlantis and steal it's wealth. A conspiracy which has already claimed the life of Darius's mentor, leaving control of the other portal in human and vampire hands. Now Darius has to come to grips with his feelings for Grace and wrest control of the portal from the invaders.

Heart of the Dragon is a paranormal romance lovers dream. It has it all: vampires, shape-shifting dragons, Atlantis, sexy love scenes, and emotional intensity. Within the first 3 pages, I cared about Darius and wanted his happiness. I didn't stop rooting for him until the story was over. Grace is spunky without being grating, and was the perfect heroine for

Darius. Add to this a cliffhanger for a future story featuring Atlantis and the Dragons. Gena Showalter delivers another winner with Heart of the Dragon!

Melissa

Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

I actually liked this one more than The Stone Prince, even though this one was not nearly as funny. It was way more serious, but had a dry funny undertone here and there. Grace is lost in the Amazon jungle where she had gone to find her brother. Her guide attempted to steal her things and abandon her (tried--since she loaded his running butt with bullets.) Then she stumbles into a fog and cave and comes out in the hidden world of Atlantis. Yep, Atlantis. Only to face a the swinging sword of its guardian.

Fortunately for her its Gardian, Darius, decides not to kill her. I mean, how can he? For over two centuries he had been unable to see color, smell scents, taste anything. Yet, he can see the red of this beautiful woman's hair. He can smell her body, and boy does she taste good.

Very sexually heated story, but it's not all about sex. Darius' world is under attack by greedy humans and vampires that want to take control. Grace's brother is a prisoner of same said people and it is up to the two of them to join forces and find the answers to defeat the threat.

Very fast pace. Loved it!

Extra crispy love story but a little soggy when it comes to the plot. Now don't get me wrong, I love alternate beauty meets the beast/sexy dragon shape shifter as much as any other girl but I found major flaws when it came to the main characters. Grace, our spunky heroin needed to get her priorities striate. She's searching for her lost brother and yet through out the book it seems all she wants to do is get laid. How could anyone think about sex when their only brother has disappeared? It kind of bothered me how one minute she's a proud, sassy, resourceful female and then the next she turns into a weak lovesick puppy who lust over a man who pretty much tells her `I`m going to do what I want to you when I want whether you like it or not.' and she answers by saying `Well okay'. Come on, show some dignity girl!

And then there's Darius, your average tragic hero. For three hundred years he shows no emotions whatsoever then suddenly in walks Grace then BAM! He's angry, sad, smiles and gets a hard-on all within the first five minutes of seeing her! Where's the development? The suspense? I know 90% of paranormal romance novels center around sex but come on! Give them a little time to develop their relationship first. By chapter four they were already all over each other so by the time their big love scenes came around the reward wasn't as gratifying as it should of been.

Ms. Showalter continues to turn out fantastical pleasers! In her latest sci-fi romance she builds a believable Atlantis and a world full of mythical creatures that inhabit it. The dominant creatures in this lush land are the dragons, changlings that normally appear human but can change to their more reptillian self in an instant. King of the dragons is Darius. 300 years ago his family was slaughtered by travelers from the rest of the world and before he could even morn their loss he was installed as the Guardian of the Mist, forced to slaughter any who came through the portal into their world.

Staggering haphazardly through the wilds of the rain forest is Grace, a twenty something looking for life...though she can't even find her brother. He's some where out here, but before she has time to search the funny necklace he gave her pulls her to some glowing mist- which leads to a crazy,although yummy, man with a sword!

While Darius knows he has to thrust his sword into Grace for the sake of his people, he really feels like stabbing her with something else and can't keep his lips off her! Denied color, smell, & taste for three centurys, Grace is a sensory explosion. Darius will do anything to save her AND his world. If that means traveling to her world or fighting off a deadly menace of vampires, so be it.

I thought the idea of this book was really unique, but when it came to the actual story, certain things were a little off. Actually, just one thing was off and that was the heroine. In fact, I wouldn't really even call her a heroine because she kind of missed the whole being a hero part. She didn't really do anything. She just kept making everything worse. For example, when she's trying to get information about her brother and tells Darius to "leave the questioning to her", she failed terribly. While reading, I was thinking to myself, "why are asking these questions. These questions aren't going to get you anywhere." Eventually Darius has to take over for her and get the information they needed. After reading the scene I felt like her questioning was just a waste of time. Of course later Darius makes a comment on how proud he was with her in that situation and that she did well. I thought to myself "you're a liar, you just want to get in her pants."

I was intrigued by the premise of a heroine finding her way accidentally into Atlantis and meet this sexy uber-warrior who stood as sentinel to protect Atlantis from infection through contact with our world.

However, while the character of Darius en Kragin is certainly dishy, as well as his dragon-brothers who will doubtlessly all have their own spinoff tales in the coming months, the heroine is a complete disappointment.

Does she speak to most every woman who stares at her own reflection with chagrin to find freckles where flawless skin should be? Sure.

Does she resemble alot of us ladies who know we carry a few extra pounds and want to be desired in spite of this society reinforced 8th deadly sin? Sure.

My problem with Grace's character is that she's an idiot. Her attempts to escape her imprisonment in Darius' lair is meant to show courage and tenacity, but all it shows is that she's a moron who can't think through a problem, all she can do is crawl the walls like spastic chimp.

All throughout this drudging plot she looks to Darius to make things right, to help her find her brother and unravel the mystery of what happened to the other sentinel and his dragon-stud army, and instead of truly being a help, she's a bungling idiot. She causes him more trouble than she helps him out, which, if I am not mistaken, is the antithesis of what a courageous heroine is supposed to do.

Sure, she gives Darius plenty of opportunity to pull her freckled, pudgy butt out of the proverbial fire, but I thought the whole idea of writing a fantasy romance was to transport the reader with a great story, not annoy them with how lame the heroine is.

Overall, while there were a rare few moments of genuine originality in the premise, the hero was a winner while his lady fair was a loser, and since I'm the first one to root for the chubby, freckled heroine to get the hot, gorgeous hero, this was a dreadful disappointment.

This author is capable of much better. The characters are cookie cutter cut outs, the whole atlantean male 'dragon' deal is too pat, and the 'mystery' is really, really badly done. If I can figure out the mystery practically as soon as the problem is mentioned, as well as predict much of the plot (not kidding) it is way too predictable a book. And I found it uninteresting in teh world building, which will usually carry me through to the next page. Nope, sorry, this is not worth even the price I paid for it used.

First I'll say I enjoyed the book and I read the whole thing. I am intrigued by the premise of a real Atlantis, and I definitely enjoyed the novel as an exploration of shape-shifting.

I'm giving it three stars because it was a good way to pass an afternoon and I'm not sorry I read it. However, I'm a big one for re-reading books I enjoyed and I'm not sure that Heart of the Dragon merits a re-reading. I was never engrossed enough that I was desperate to know what happens next and wanted to skip ahead to make sure everything turned out ok before returning to my skip point able to read at a normal pace.

This is billed as the first Atlantis book, but as far as the explanations about other races and how the culture of Atlantis worked, it felt like I was stepping into the middle of a series - I felt like I was missing some information.

I liked the hero and the heroine, but the heroine was something of a disappointment in that she didn't seem able to help solve the novel's conflict. I felt like she kept getting in the way and making more problems, needing to be rescued by the super-capable Darius.

And finally, there's the eye roll factor... almost any romance story will make me roll my eyes at some point, usually due to the choice of descriptive language or to sappiness of dialogue, but this one merited four or five different eye rolls.

**SPOILERS BELOW**

I was a little surprised when the lustful pair decided they loved each other; I mean, I knew that was going to happen, but I didn't see enough build up that it seemed natural and appropriate. There was lust lust lust and overpowering attraction, then suddenly after a bit of kissing and a day of being tethered to each other they're in love. I wasn't sold that they had seen enough of each other to go so far as getting married. A woman of this modern day and age being so willing to jump into marriage and a whole new world with a man she barely knew? I wasn't convinced. And for Grace and Alex to blithely declare they will transplant their mother and aunt to Atlantis, I thought, was awfully cavalier, and somewhat unrealistic. (Yes, I know, complaining about realism in a paranormal story may seem absurd, yet I do expect realism in regard to human emotions.) Grace's mother was depicted as being cold and not open to change, yet her children thought to uproot her and move her permanently to a new world? Of course, their mother's transition to and discovery of purpose in a new life could be the subject of a whole novel on it's own...

I liked the stuff about the brother, but the addition of the subplot of the romance between him and a female dragon was not as fleshed out as I would have liked. It felt unfinished.

This is a prequel to Jewel of Atlantis, although I think this book came after Jewel...regardless, Heart of the Dragon is the first I read. I was very impressed with the Lords of the Underworld series by the same author. Lords deals with mythology, and those characters have a depth, and the writing has many unique layers, with a hefty amount of romance...I figured this series might compare.

It didn't for me...sort of fluff? Can I say that. Not sure how to put it into words, the book wasn't terrible, but certainly nothing unique. I will not continue with the rest of this series, but do look forward to her next installment of LOU in May 09.

This book was so good and I couldn't put it down. I actually stayed up until 4am in the morning to finish it. It was funny, passionate and fast moving. Definitely, worth buying. The Chemistry between Darius and Grace is sizzling. What makes it so touching is that you see conflict of emotions between what his mind (duty as a guardian) is telling him to do and what he heart is telling him. There is also a secondary story in there about Grace's brother Alex. I love the fact that it has an Atlantis twist with Greek mythology but also brings in other mythic creatures. I would love to see Gena do something with the other King who fought with Darius in the end. Not to give way anything to the people who haven't read this book...