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authorrubyduvall's Reviews (154)
Another excellent installment in McCollum's Campbells series. I loved the chemistry between Cat and Nathaniel (the card game he teaches her was great). There were a few places where I thought there was too much navel-gazing, and a couple of times where Cat found the clues she needed a little too conveniently, but overall the book was quite satisfying.
I want to like this series (and wanted to like this book), but several elements of Heart of a Dragon really turned me off.
1) Lucian's attempts to ignore/destroy his love for Arabella went deep into Deal-Breaker territory, including making out with and grinding on another woman as well as allowing a nest of vampires to slowly drain him while he's naked and writhing with a huge (magic-induced) hard-on.
2) Despite copious, glaringly obvious evidence throughout the book, it's not until the climax that Arabella realizes that the fae prince Zephan is trying to break her and Lucian up. There's literally a part that reads, "...suddenly, she could see it—that was the core of all this. [Zephan] wanted to pull [Arabella] away from Lucian." I can think of no other reason for those sentences to be there. (Also, italics were overused.)
3) I hated Arabella's friend Rachel. She was more caricature than character. I don't mind cussing or orneriness or straight lady characters being into no-strings sex, but Rachel was constantly dialed up to 11. The worst part is, when Rachel disagrees with Arabella's decision to be with Lucian, her concerns are all valid! But from the way she speaks to Arabella, you'd think that she has zero experience talking people down, and isn't she supposed to be Arabella's only partner in her law practice helping abused women?
Lastly, I want to speak to the series overall. Now, the product pages for the individual books don't categorize these books (or their boxed sets) into the Romance genre, but a lot of Goodreads users have them shelved as Romance, and the author's bio uses the words "paranormal romance" more than once. It's no wonder, then, that one can find 1-star reviews on the first book in the series, which definitely doesn't end on an HEA (happily ever after) or HFN (happy for now), which is pretty much the only thing a Romance is required to have. The second book isn't as bad about this, but whether Arabella survives her supernatural pregnancy is still very much up in the air at the end, which leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
All that to say I think this trilogy should've been heavily reworked into a single, standalone book (emphasis on reworked). But then, three books with iffy Romance qualifications might net more sales than a single book that checks the HEA box.
1) Lucian's attempts to ignore/destroy his love for Arabella went deep into Deal-Breaker territory, including making out with and grinding on another woman as well as allowing a nest of vampires to slowly drain him while he's naked and writhing with a huge (magic-induced) hard-on.
2) Despite copious, glaringly obvious evidence throughout the book, it's not until the climax that Arabella realizes that the fae prince Zephan is trying to break her and Lucian up. There's literally a part that reads, "...suddenly, she could see it—that was the core of all this. [Zephan] wanted to pull [Arabella] away from Lucian." I can think of no other reason for those sentences to be there. (Also, italics were overused.)
3) I hated Arabella's friend Rachel. She was more caricature than character. I don't mind cussing or orneriness or straight lady characters being into no-strings sex, but Rachel was constantly dialed up to 11. The worst part is, when Rachel disagrees with Arabella's decision to be with Lucian, her concerns are all valid! But from the way she speaks to Arabella, you'd think that she has zero experience talking people down, and isn't she supposed to be Arabella's only partner in her law practice helping abused women?
Lastly, I want to speak to the series overall. Now, the product pages for the individual books don't categorize these books (or their boxed sets) into the Romance genre, but a lot of Goodreads users have them shelved as Romance, and the author's bio uses the words "paranormal romance" more than once. It's no wonder, then, that one can find 1-star reviews on the first book in the series, which definitely doesn't end on an HEA (happily ever after) or HFN (happy for now), which is pretty much the only thing a Romance is required to have. The second book isn't as bad about this, but whether Arabella survives her supernatural pregnancy is still very much up in the air at the end, which leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
All that to say I think this trilogy should've been heavily reworked into a single, standalone book (emphasis on reworked). But then, three books with iffy Romance qualifications might net more sales than a single book that checks the HEA box.
Would've liked to see writing with more depth. (At one point, I counted four uses of "cheek" across two paragraphs.) And the conversations post-reveal were tedious. Claire has seen plenty of solid evidence that Jacob has no attachment to his title and still wants to marry her, and yet she's hung up on his nice clothes? Worse was when he told her a scene or two earlier that he'd purchased her family home "as a bridal gift" and she didn't instantly understand that it was for her. /facepalm
