Book Review of Fury of Fire by Coreene Callahan

Title: Fury of Fire

Author: Coreene Callahan

Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance

Release Date: February 7th, 2012

Commander of the Nightfury dragons, BASTIAN leads by example and expects his warriors to follow Dragonkind’s code. Honor is everything, duty no option, but when both dictate he be the first to take a mate and sire a son, Bastian falters. For the woman given into his care is most the extraordinary he’s ever met and even as she steals his heart, he knows birthing his child will take her life.Nurse practitioner, MYST MUNROE puts herself on the line everyday, pushing past the limits of endurance to bring medical expertise to her patients when they cannot come to her. When a late night home visit turns deadly, she lands in the middle of a battle between two warring factions, dragon-shifters living in secret among humankind. Taken to the Nightfury’s lair, she must decide: return to the life she loves or risk everything to stay with the dragon-shifter who holds her heart.IVAR, leader of the Razorbacks, hates humankind and the band of warrior dragons who protect them. To break the spell that ties Dragonkind’s fate to that of the humans, every Nightfury must die. When the last one falls, he will have what he needs to wipe the planet clean of an inferior race, and once again be free to roam the earth in dragon form.

Summary from Goodreads.com

My Review: I you follow my blog or reviews at all you know that I have a serious weakness for dragons. I am fascinated by them and will read pretty much anything that involves them. I am also a member of the Amazon Vine program and when scrolling though the newsletter one day I saw this book. There was no cover, but the summary sounded awesome. Plus, it had my favorite paranormal creatures, that’s right, dragons! So I immediately requested it and could not wait to dive into the world Coreene created.

In Fury of Fire we get a great overview of the mythology, but are not bogged down by details. In some first books of a series, the author can take a lot of time to world build and it drags down the pace of the novel. In this book, Coreene gives us just enough information so we know what is going on and understand how the world works, but the plot continues to move forward. As for the paranormal elements, the dragon-shifters are men who can transform from human to dragon as they please. They can materialize clothing, have some level of magic and the only one I had not seen before was their sensitivity to light. That little attribute took me by surprise, but it did make it interesting when people needed help during the day and the dragons were stuck indoors. I would be interested to see where this sensitivity came from in the first place, but maybe Coreene will cover that more in future installments.

Bastian is the leader of the Nightfury’s and because of this he feels he must help carry on the dragon species. He needs to find a woman in order to do this, the only problem is no woman ever survives birthing a dragon child. His guilt over finding a woman just to lose her has him hesitating, but the second he sees Myst he knows he is in trouble. Myst is a nurse practitioner who feels the same pull toward Bastian when she meets him. She is human, but there is a lot more going on with her than what we see on the surface. She is an enigma to us and to Bastian for quite a while and I am interested to learn more about her. We do get quite a few answers about her in Fury of Fire, but there are some questions still left unanswered at the end that I am hoping will be looked into more in the next book. Bastian and Myst however, were great together. Coreene took the time to let us get to know them and grow attached to them. I was invested in these two characters and really wanted to see things work out for them. They have quite a few obstacles in their way, but I enjoyed watching them work through them together.

We also meet many interesting secondary characters in the ranks of the Nightfury’s. My personal favorite was Bastian’s best friend Rikar. He is Bastian’s right hand man and has no idea how Bastian has fallen for Myst so quickly. He thinks humans are just good for letting off a little steam with a one night stand, but he too meets someone later in the book that spins his world off its axis. I am so glad that he will be the focus of the next book because I loved getting little snippets of what was going on in his head and want to see more. There are other dragons that are not part of the Nightfury rank that are mentioned, but we do not get to explore them in detail. It does however, peak my interest and gives Coreene plenty of opportunity to expand this series.

As for the action, Fury of Fire did not have a dull moment in it! Since the rivalry between the Nightfury’s and the Razorbacks has been going strong for quite some time, the two groups come together multiple times throughout the novel. Thankfully, Coreene did not add in any extra fluff or erroneous details just to fill pages. Every word drove the plot moving forward and I appreciated her getting straight to the point. It kept the fight scenes exciting because they were not bogged down with unnecessary descriptions of the setting. She did use description when needed, but it was just the right amount. Coreene was creative with the action and each battle was different and invigorating. The romantic scenes were not any different. Bastian and Myst were fighting off their attraction for one another from their very first meeting and once they finally come together they burn up the pages. Coreene definitely knows how to write some steamy moments and I relished those just as much as the action.

Overall, I loved this book! It has all the elements I have come to adore in the paranormal romance genre and the dragons were a huge bonus. Luckily, there are still two more installments coming out this year so I don’t have to wait long to dive back into this world again. I highly recommend this book to any fan of paranormal romance!

FTC: I received this ARC for review as part of the Amazon Vine Program.