Book Review of Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison

Title: Dragon Bound

Author: Thea Harrison

Release Date: May 3rd, 2011

Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance

Half-human and half-wyr, Pia Giovanni spent her life keeping a low profile among the wyrkind and avoiding the continuing conflict between them and their dark Fae enemies. But after being blackmailed into stealing a coin from the hoard of a dragon, Pia finds herself targeted by one of the most powerful-and passionate-of the Elder races.

Summary from Goodreads.com

My Review: The hardest reviews for me to write are often the books that I am absolutely crazy about.  Dragon Bound would be one of said books.  You would think it would be easier since I am so psyched, but I think the excitement just takes over and instead of words coming out of my mouth it is more like giddy squeals.  Sad I know, but true.  I am going to try and tone it down so I articulate the awesomeness of this book to you now.

Dragon Bound is the first book in what looks to be an extremely addictive adult paranormal romance series.  Thea Harrison introduces you to a world where paranormal creatures are not just prevalent they are also widely known about by humans and live among them.  Almost any paranormal creature you can think of is present in this book.  There are vampires, and fae and dragons, oh my!  For the purposes of this book though, we mostly focus in on the wyr, which are a form of shape shifters.  In essence each wyr has an animal, that can be either real or mythological, they can shift into or take human form to blend more easily into society.

Our leading male, Dragos, is a wyr whose base form is a dragon and his human form is hot!  I mean, an extremely wealthy businessman known for his ruthless and unforgiving personality.  He is also the most dominant alpha male I have read about in a long time.  Words like “please” and “thank you” do not exist in his vocabulary.  He does not ask you a question, he tells you your opinion and then just gives you an order.

Enter, Pia, our leading lady.  We know that she is a half wyr, half human, but her animal form is unknown.  You will eventually figure it out, but I will not be revealing that information here.  It is much more fun to try and riddle it out as you progress through the book and hints are dropped.  Pia has grown up living almost a half life since her mother past away.  She internalizes her problems and is very private.  She longs to find love and fill that hole her mothers death has left.  In an attempt to trust again, she let a couple of secrets about her identity slip to her now ex-boyfriend who uses the information to blackmail her. She is trying to learn from her mistakes and as a result she has put up a wall around her heart.  Pia definitely is not a girl who likes to take orders and watching her stand up to Dragos stubbornness is extremely entertaining.

The two get thrown together when Pia steals something from Dragos, who in turn hunts her down to take revenge.  Of course when he finds her, she intrigues him so much he deciedes to keep her around for a while instead of torturing her.  He does not have long to try and break down her walls though, because they are soon in a serious car crash, captured by goblins, beaten and left for dead to rot in prison.  And that is only the first part of their little adventure!

Dragos and Pia chemistry sparks immediately and it continues to burn throughout the length of the book.  While trying to escape immanent death, Pia attempts to teach Dragos some manners and introduce him to polite conversation, which is beyond amusing.  While he does not get the hang of it right away, the behavior does start to take hold and watching the progression of Dragos character throughout the book was fascinating.

Overall this book is just amazing.  I am going to go ahead and say it is the best book I have read this year.  I know that is a bold statement, but that is exactly how I feel about it.  I started the book when I got home from work one night and stayed up until one a.m. to finish.  I could not put the book down for a second!  I actually made myself slow down towards the end of reading it so I could draw out the experience.  The best part?   This is just book one, we still have more to come in the future!  The next book comes out in August and is titled Storm’s Heart.  I am really excited about it because if focuses on Tricks.  She had me cracking up in Dragon Bound, so a whole book about her is going to be a real treat.  If you have not discovered this series, you need to.  It is a captivating story that will grab a hold of you and demand your full, undivided attention.

FTC:  Big thank you to the publisher for sending me this ARC!