Naked Dragon: A Works Like Magick Novel [Mass Market Paperback]

Annette Blair (Author)

Book Description

Series: A Works Like Magick Novel | Publication Date: January 5, 2010

This national bestselling sensation has some new tricks up her sleeve...

First in the Works like Magick series!

The Works like Magick Employment Agency has a reputation for perfectly matching clients with magical temps. So when McKenna Greylock requests a handyman, the gorgeous Bastian Dragonelli arrives to repair her B&B- and fire up her bedroom.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

McKenna Greylock, still mourning the deaths of her mother and grandmother, is trying to fulfill her mother’s dream of turning the old, rundown family home into a bed-and-breakfast. When she hires Bastian Dragonelli, a handyman whose rudimentary grasp of English is hilariously literal but who has rare qualities and abilities, she does not suspect that he is a dragon warrior on a mission to save his brothers. When told to paint a room, he creates a vivid, colorful mural featuring dragons, inadvertently establishing the theme for the B&B. Despite wanting to keep her distance, McKenna is curiously drawn to Bastian, who has a strange physical attribute. Blair’s unusual paranormal about a solitary witch and a dragon man features charming characters, rich relationships, an inviting community, and sensuous lovemaking, all rolled up in a rollicking good read. Readers will look forward to more fun with tales of Bastian’s brothers in future installments in Blair’s Works Like Magick series. --Diana Tixier Herald

About the Author

Annette Blair writes historical and contemporary romances, including My Favorite Witch and The Kitchen Witch.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Berkley; Original edition (January 5, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 042523200X
• ISBN-13: 978-0425232002
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #479,046 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dear Reader,

I finally became a full time writer in 2006 after retiring from my job as a Development Director. I didn't always know I wanted to be a writer, but I discovered Jane Eyre soon after I got my first library card. I was eleven and put a romantic spin on every story I read. I wrote romances about friends and their boyfriends. Racy stuff for which my friends' mother's did not thank me. I could title that time in my life 'THE FIRST TIME A GOODY TWO SHOES GETS IN TROUBLE-YAY!" When my children were young, I jotted plot ideas on corners of envelopes, recipe cards, and such, and threw them in my nightstand.

After discussing a romance novel with my high-school aged daughter, she challenged me to write a romance of my own. That day, I sorted through my plot ideas, picked one, and started. I didn't know what I was doing, but I had a good time. I made my first sale in 1998. I have since moved from Regency England and settled in twenty-first century Salem, Massachusetts; Newport, Rhode Island; Mystic, Connecticut; with mysteries and romances and a host of sassy, sexy witches who tantalize and torment the men in their lives. Hopefully those same characters will sprinkle some magic dust and get a laugh or three out of you.

I have recently seen the re-release of JACOB'S RETURN and BUTTERFLY GARDEN, both Amish Historicals set in Pensylvania & Ohio. Recently, my 4th Vintage Magic, a paranormal cozy mystery series, set in Mystic Connecticut, SKIRTING THE GRAVE followed the release of VAMPIRE DRAGON my 3rd Works Like Magick Novel set in Salem MA.

I'm currently working on my 6th Vintage Magic Mystery, OPERATION PETTICOAT, and the 1st SISTERS OF SPIRIT Anthology both due out next year (2012) along with CLOAKED IN MALICE, my 5th paranormal cozy mystery. Meanwhile, watch Kindle for a new series of magical books in the months to come.

Some of my favorite authors are: Ruth Cardello, Hannah Howell, Nora Roberts, Janet Evanovich, Linda Wisdom & Madelyn Alt.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Clumsy Dragon Tale, February 7, 2010

By 

Anne Fleming (Alexandria, Virginia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Naked Dragon: A Works Like Magick Novel (Kindle Edition)

I wish I had skipped this ham-handed attempt at a lighthearted dopey-dragon-rescues-prickly-damsel story. The plot was simplistic and the characters were inconsistant and outright silly. The villains were elusive and lacked any real meance at all.

Bastion Dragonelli is a dragon masquerading as a handyman in pursuit of his heart-mate, a struggling B&B owner, MacKenna, who's been targeted by an evil condo developer. (You see, Bastion was HIDING his dragon-nature. That's why he went with "Dragonelli.")

We know that Dragonelli has spent the last few thousand years banished with his brother dragons to a fairy island, and emerged in this world as an overlly-literal "alpha" male. We know this because the author takes every possible opportunity to allow Dragonelli to misunderstand the meaning of words to an extent impossible for those over the age of five and free of brain damage. For instance, Dragonelli moronically persists in believing "gay" means happy, despite a lot of context to the contrary. Sometimes Dragonelli has moments of amazing insight, however, like his instinctive understanding of the phrase "Special Ops." Perhaps Delta Force had an outpost on his fairy island. Or maybe Dragonelli's status as an "alpha male" automatically allowed him to understand manly terms like that. I wonder if all "alpha males" from Dragonelli's world also take so readily to interior design?

I could go on, but I already wasted enough time reading this book. For anyone still considering this purchase, one final fact: Dragonelli refers to his er ... package ... over and over again (sometimes out load) as his "man lance." Man. Lance. Enough said.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your time, May 13, 2010

By 

P. Fox (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Naked Dragon: A Works Like Magick Novel (Kindle Edition)

The people who gave this book a two-starred review basically had it right, but I was so irritated at having purchased it and then spent the time to read it, I did this review to bring the rating down.

The premise started off promising enough. There was some humor in the way the dragon/man was written. He hadn't been around for hundreds of years so obviously he didn't understand anything around him. There was a plot--the heroine is about to lose her family home to a bad guy, and interesting supporting characters. But the author didn't know how or couldn't weave an interesting story around the plot and characters.

And then she went overboard. ...the hero's man spear... You read it correctly...an ugly thing that kept poking out. Then it turns out to have scales and wraps itself around her wrist. I can't adequately describe the amount of eye rolling that I was doing while trying to read this.

I almost quit at the 80 percent mark on my Kindle--that's how uninteresting I found the book.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting premise...what happened?, April 12, 2010

By 

Lunataina "lunataina" (APO, AE, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Naked Dragon: A Works Like Magick Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

Naked Dragon...what happened to this story? It has a wonderful premise, and the characters have a lot of potential. But the writing in this book was just...wow...I can't even begin to describe it. But let me try anyway. The story moved extremely slowly. The dialog was cheesy, excesively so. The transitions between scenes were confusing. The story itself felt unfocused, as if it was headed in one direction but then it doesn't, and it doesn't really go anywhere else either. I felt like I was in a very badly organized dream, where you wake up and you still don't feel like you quite understood what happened. By the time the resolution comes, if you have not given up on the story before then, you can only say that it was about time and thank goodness the book is finished. The sad thing about it is that I really wanted to like the book. I truly liked the characters and their problems were definitely something that should have been interesting to resolve. But I just cannot recommend this book. There are too many other books which are really worth the money and to recommend this would just be irresponsible. I am sure some people will like it. I have read too many truly well written paranormal romance books to think highly of this one.