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Sunday, November 04, 2012

How To Drive a Dragon Crazy by G.A. Aiken

g.a. aiken how to drive a dragon crazyHow To Drive a Dragon Crazy by G.A. Aiken

Book Stats:
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Reading level: Adult
Paperback: 481 pages
Publisher: Kensington
Release date: September 4, 2012

Series: Dragon Kin #6

Source: ARC from publisher

Reviewed by: Stéphanie

Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository

Some things never go away, like vile enemies, bad ale, and annoying kin. But I thought I was finished with the one dragon I'd have done anything for: Eibhear the Blue, a big, gorgeous, blue-haired beast who thinks the world belongs to him. The world and, apparently, me.

So if Eibhear wants to play the caring hero and travel into the most forsaken of Gods forsaken lands to protect the one woman who doesn't need it - namely me - I'll let him. Because while I'm trying to fulfill a ridiculous quest for a pushy god, I'm going to draw this over confident warlord much too close, rekindle his fires, and enjoy every minute of his delicious defeat...

In my review of Dragon Actually, I told you I had a thing for dragons. Let me just say, that hasn’t changed since reading HOW TO DRIVE A DRAGON CRAZY. Actually, I might be a little more gaga about dragon shifters, now that I’ve read this book. Where the first novel in the series lacked story and action, this book has a whole lot more of everything. It’s filled with action, fantasy adventure, fights, dragon humor, great dialogue, great characters and lets not forget the awesome romance!

I think what makes this book a success is the great interaction between the two main characters. Izzy and Eibhear are a great combo and have that type of chemistry that keeps you interested in the book. Eibhear the Blue is a blue dragon that has always been hard to control, and as part of the Mì-runach, an elite group of warrior outcasts, no woman before Izzy had dared to try. For Izzy, the blue dragon stole her human heart when she was only a teenager and after healing from a broken heart, she rose up in the ranks of Queen Annwyl’s army, became a general and was made the chosen champion of a dragon god. Now, as a strong female warrior, little can hurt her emotionally—except maybe if something bad were to happened to her dog. Obviously, the two characters together make a strong (but obstinate) team and they’re more or less forced to work together throughout the novel. Verbally, Izzy is not too happy about this, but mentally she’s quite actually enjoying her time around her favorite blue dragon.

The story offers a lot of adventure and Izzy and Eibhear embark on a quest to find someone to help Izzy’s younger sister in her ability to control of magical power. Obviously, since the two characters are so head-strong, they can’t agree on many things. For example, where the dog should sleep. But little by little, they find a way to work together and I loved how the author made every step of the journey hilarious.

However, one thing that I wasn’t to fond of, is the crazy amount of point of views. At first, it was very hard to follow the story, and the break in the flow had me close the book multiple times. Eventually, the shift in perspectives became less frequent as the story began to center around Izzy and Eibhear. I’ve probably said it many times before that I’m not a huge fan of shifting POV, but I completely understand that it was necessary to tell the whole story. I just think instead of having POV that sometimes only lasted about half a page, the author could have committed a bit more to each character.

Now that I’ve read the first and the latest book of this series, I’ll have to go back and read the rest! More books are obviously already on the way and I can see at least three more stories that need to be told. This series has definitively gotten me out of my YA reading funk. It reminded me why I enjoy reading paranormal romance so much. Because I love the romance! The Dragon Kin series is hot, steamy and will definitively have you laughing. Especially if you love brazen and smart-alecky humor. G.A. Aiken obviously writes books to entertain her audience and not to pen out literary masterpieces. Personally, I think that’s a good thing because it makes her books so much more entertaining and easy to read. If this sounds like something for you, then you should really give her books a try if you haven’t already. You can also check out the books she writes as Shelly Laurenston, which are very similar but concentrate on packs of animal shapeshifters.

Read an excerpt

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3 People left their mark' :

  1. I hate when POV's are hard to follow. I read a book recently where that happened and it took me a while to really get into the book.

    Great review!

    Colletta

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  2. Awesome review. Love that cover and like the synopsis.

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  3. Nice review Jenn. Have you read the Dragon series by Allyson James? Those are great as well.

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