Waterfall Blog Tour: guest post, review & giveaway

Waterfall (A Dragon’s Fate Novella, Book 1) by Lacy Danes

Paranormal romance*e-book, 138 pages

Publisher: Samhain Publishing 

Cover Artist: Kanaza http://www.kanaxa.com/

It’s easy to fall in love. Destiny requires tooth and claw. 

Curses are designed to be cruel, but the one afflicting Jordan and his brothers is almost beyond bearing. A dragon born by blood magic, he is an immortal trapped in human form, with only one hope of finding his eternal mate. He must bite her—and pray she lives. 

One dark night, he senses the wounded heartbeat of a woman in the shadows, begging him to end her life. Ever the gentleman, he chivalrously obliges her wish. Only to discover three days later that she lives. And has married another. 

Celeste always dreamed of marrying for love, but the nightmare of living in her father’s home drives her to wed the Duke of Hudson. Yet on her wedding eve, she is compelled to follow a mysterious man who professes to know her secret. A man with curious blue scales on his muscular arms—whose shadowed eyes reflect a dangerous mix of destiny and desire… 

GUEST POST:
The allure of dragons and curses 

I have always loved dragons and have contemplated even getting a dragon tattoo on my calf. I did a research in the early 2000’s and decided to create a dragon story for my novella in the Sexy Beast Anthology. I loved that story and wanted to write more dragons.

I also knew that I wanted to write a story about 4 dragon brothers. I decided to mix my Zir with myths from different cultures. I chose to write Water, Fire, Air, Metal. I also decided to make how they took human form a curse.

The curse was by Magic. Magic brought about from greed, and revenge. I can’t say more or it would spoil the series. J

I do research. I have several Wicca books and paranormal research books ranging from books on myths, D&D, fantasy and others. I love creating other worldly creatures and placing them in time periods that are not as easy as present day.

Some of my favorite dragons have come from movies. I love Reign of Fire, Dragon Slayer, Eragon, and Dragon Heart. I also love the new kids show Riders of Berk.

I did a full dragon inspiration blog post for Reading and Writing Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance here.

About the Author: 

Lacy Danes: Website | Twitter | Facebook

Lacy Danes made a New Year's resolution to write a hot, historical romance. 

A year and a half later, she achieved her goal. She lives in Portland, Oregon, where besides writing she enjoys playing cards, chasing her kids around, and savoring a great martini with the man of her dreams all while watching the world go by.

I will say right off the bat that author Lucy Danes certainly drew my interest from Waterfall's blurb and from the story's opening scene. Two brothers arrive at a shore and use magic to find out what happened, put someone out of their misery, and to cover the scene up from the eyes of others. Cool with a capital "C". 

Reading more of Waterfall, I continued to be amazed by the author's unique mythology. Four brothers called the Zir are a type of hybrid dragon cross vampire and each has an elemental affinity (water, air, earth, metal). The brothers--Hudson, Ilmir, Ferrous and Ilmir--have lived for five hundred years and these immortals have been cursed. None has found their one true mate. Their power begin to weaken over time. This story centers on Hudson, the brother with a water elemental, and I so enjoyed his scenes where he was able to unleash his powers. 

Hudson does something he thinks he will help an injured person, only to discover said person quite alive a few days later. A nice twist and it was interesting watching Hudson fall to his knees as he meets the Duchess Celeste, new wife of family friend, Hudson. As he realizes exactly whom this woman is to him, we are privy to her thoughts and reactions as well which   increased my my interest in their tale.

Waterfall is 153 pages and could have easily been added onto to answers the questions raised as I completed my reading. As much as I enjoyed reading the first half and reveling over the newness of this material (dragon hybrids are probably in other novels I haven't read), as soon as Hudson attempts to take his wife away and run away from the Zir, the tale became a bit rushed. There wasn't any backstory on trusted family ally Hudson. As he did a complete Jekyll and Hyde, I questioned his motives, not fully understanding where he was coming from. Since the story spotlighted Hudson, when the other brothers exhibited powers, I didn't always get what was going on, though I liked their interactions. 

What happened to Celeste's Grandmum also seemed tacked on, coming out of the blue (though I laughed trying to picture the piglet) and put in a curious place. Also, I would have liked some more information on the mansion and island itself. Is Astrid the only one there when the brothers are gone? Who tends to the animals? I do like romantic scenes but in this case there were a bit too much--some scenes felt clinical and cold (the Victorian terminology raised my eyebrows a couple times) and the romantic scene seemed to lack the 'romance' Celeste wanted. 

Blood magic, eggs bearing dragons cursed to human form, the four elements, an island home, mates to discover and share powers with, telepathic bonds, and hot romance abound in Waterfall, the first of the Dragon's Fate series. I liked the Victorian setting of the 17th century, the use of Nordic language and especially delighted in this new world of magical otherworldly creatures author Lucy Danes has created. Needless to say, I will be reading the rest of this series to find out that happens to the rest of the Zir, Carmen, and to see who Havanis is. I recommend this to fans of otherworldly tales with adult content.

Rating: 3.5

Cover comment: From Celeste's descriptions of her mate, I expected Hudson to be larger in the chest area but I like the cover. The darkness, the deep blue like the ocean, work for me.

Book source: I received a promotional copy from the author in return for my honest review during a blog tour.

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