If I had to sum up this book in a single word, it would be….unconvincing.
Look, on the surface this book has a lot of terrific things going for it. Shape-shifting seems to be a popular romantic tool these days, and I confess that I like the idea. It’s sort of that strip-away-the-veneer-of-civilization thing. Alphba male. Dominant. Predator. Mate. Yeah, it’s sexy.
In this book, the shape-shifting male is a DRAGON! Talk about king of the beasts. I was so excited and hopeful when I started reading this book. Immortal dragon with coveted hoard…woman steals from him…dragon ROARS loudly enough to shake the city…woman runs…dragon catches her…
What could go wrong?
First of all, the dragon was a total wuss. I didn’t believe for the tiniest fraction of a second that Pia was in danger. And worse…I didn’t buy into his immortality. He was too civilized. Too much a modern man. He didn’t seem particularly dragonlike in human form, and then when he switched to a dragon form, he didn’t seem very dragonlike either. He seemed more like a pet. A very large pet. Even when he ripped some attackers apart, I didn’t feel it. Maybe that’s because we were in Pia’s point of view at the time, and she averted her eyes, so it was, essentially, a missed opportunity to truly convince me of his…anything…danger, predator instincts….
In short, he lacked all those things that make a shape shifter cool to read about in romance.
Moving on…Pia was the typical sassy heroine. She insults the uber-powerful dominant male who, of course, likes it because she “isn’t boring.” I disagreed. I thought she was kind of boring. Or at least, she said all the same things I’ve seen romance heroines say for so long that I couldn’t buy into her as a real person. She had a complicated past, learning from her mother how to hide who she really was, but I didn’t feel like that past shaped her nearly as much as urban fantasy genre expectations did.
The world building was also a problem. Then again, I’ve spotted this particular error in world building before, and it still seems to fly so maybe it’s just me. The thing is, according to the book magic became a known force in the world in the Elizabethan era. The kingdoms of magical creatures — elves, fae, wyr, etc. have been “out” for centuries. So WHY OH WHY is everything basically the same in 20?? except for the presence of these creatures? Are you seriously telling me that all this magic, and all these powerful creatures controlling everything, didn’t make SOME difference around about the onset of the industrial age? Or maybe during the tech boom? Or with ANYTHING AT ALL? It’s so completely unbelievable…New York is the same down to the Empire State Building. Cars are the same. Warring magical factions are going on about clean energy and nuclear power. They apparently invest in these mundane technologies, but their magic hasn’t changed them in any way. The same actors play on screen and in television. Ziploc is still a brand name.
I don’t buy it. When you make a FUNDAMENTAL change to our known timeline, FUNDAMENTAL things have to be different today.
I think this is why I prefer urban fantasy in which the magic has been outed more recently. Or magical realism in which the magic is hidden. (There is a fine line sometimes.) It just makes more sense to me. It’s more convincing.
But wait, there’s more! The plot wasn’t that engaging. The romance didn’t do anything for me because there wasn’t anything keeping these two apart. (That’s the problem when you find your “mate”. Come on, is it really going to end any other way?) I didn’t feel any romantic tension at all. The suspense plot, meanwhile, lacked depth or substance and ultimately didn’t seem that difficult to overcome.
Finally, the heroine kept her identity a secret from both the hero and the reader, though we were in her point of view. This is something I’ve harped on before, although honestly it didn’t bug me quite as much in this book as in others…maybe because I simply wasn’t engaged enough? Her true identity was a surprise to me, and it explained a lot, although as always, I wonder if having had a better understanding of her from the start would have made her a more convincing character.
I feel like a humbug on this book…so many others have really enjoyed it…but I can’t recommend it for all the reasons I mentioned above.
Rating: 2/5
Title: Dragon Bound
Author: Thea Harrison
ISBN: 0425241505
Published May 3, 2011