Title: The Dragon’s Bride
Author(s): Katee Robert
Genre: Romance
Format: Audiobook
Would I Recommend it? hmm…. with a few caveats
Book Rating:
Spice Rating:
Synopsis
Prince Charming isn’t going to save every damsel in distress. Sometimes, you have to save yourself.
Briar Rose was too late to try an safe herself. She thought marrying her husband would help her; instead he was terrifyingly horrible. Trapped in an impossible situation she tries one more thing, a Hail Mary call, to save herself. To do this, it meant making a deal, freedom for seven years of service. As she is transported to a new realm, she did not realize that she would go to the highest bidder. Who you might ask was the highest bidder? Sol, a dragon in charge of his realm.
While not uncommon for dragon’s and human’s to intermingle, there is a lot more to this contract than meets the eye. Does she really know what she has gotten herself into?
Thoughts?
First of all, check the content warnings on this book.
- domestic abuse (historical, off-page, but the heroine is dealing with the aftermath of getting out of that relationship)
- murder (off-page)
- human/non-human sex
- size difference
- explicit sex
- breeding
- pregnancy (epilogue)
Second, check the content warnings on this blog/post.
- discussion of explicit sex
- discussion of content warnings
- discussion of human/non-human sex
Now that all the warnings have been covered… This book is not for everyone. It is 100% a monster romance. This book included dragon (Sol)/Human (Briar Rose) sex. How does that work, you may ask? Great question because I had no idea either.
This was my first technical monster romance. I have read books with fae, werewolves, or vampire relations, but not while they were in their “true” form. The idea of a dragon/human relationship was out of my comfort zone, and I was unsure how I felt about it. I haven’t written this post yet, but I am a huge advocate of understanding your boundaries while reading romance. Everyone has hard lines they need to discover; some are easier to determine than others. It can be difficult to figure it out without testing the waters. Hence where we are now.
I tried a monster romance; in this case, it was not a hard pass. I enjoyed it, but it was not what I expected either.
In my opinion, this was pretty tame, considering. There were numerous avenues that I think Katee could have taken this book, but she decided to focus on the idea that Briar Rose has a lot of trauma and dragons are typically scary. Instead of Sol being scary, aggressive, and dangerous, she worked to make him kind, considerate, and gentle (unless the sex conversation/actions dictated otherwise). Hence the relatively tame sexual relations. I should state the caveat that while the sexual actions performed were more on the tame side in my opinion (we are talking about a giant dragon with 2 very large d**cks), the content is 100% explicit.
One thing I like about Katee’s writing of sex scenes is that she has enough detail to discuss what’s happening but not too much that it feels dragged out. There is usually enough plot to balance out the sex. As far as the plot goes for this story, it was fine. I wasn’t blown away by Briar Rose and Sol’s relationship, but I was intrigued by the backstory of the realms and the demon. Those stories are ones that I want to know what is truly happening in the background. The plot wasn’t surprising or amazing, but it did its job and intrigued me.
Typically I choose to read Katee’s books rather than listen to the audiobook. In this case, I decided on the audiobook. It is a short book/audiobook and did not take long to get through. The narrators were wonderful to listen to. No complaints on that front.
Let’s talk covers. I am not really a huge fan of the classic clinch cover that romance novels use. Not really my cup of tea, but I absolutely appreciate the artwork. I personally prefer the more discrete special edition paperback of this book.
Final Review
Do I think this is a good book?
It is not my favorite Katee Robert book, but I thought it was pretty good.
Was it weird that the main character was a dragon?
Kind of. With the audiobook, I zoned out and forgot that he was a dragon until there were descriptors used that could only describe a dragon. It wasn’t my favorite thing when it did occur, but it also wasn’t bad. I won’t lie and say that I didn’t try to logically figure out the mechanics of how this relationship would have worked because it seemed like a lot of effort.
Would I recommend this to anyone and everyone?
Absolutely not. This is 100% a book for people who are (A) know that they like monster romance or (b) are interested in trying something a little different.
The Dragon’s Bride was my first monster romance and likely won’t be my last (I want to know the backstory of some of these other characters). It does not set any strong boundary lines for me, but it is not something I will naturally gravitate towards. I probably would have never read it if it wasn’t for Katee Robert’s writing it.