Title: Dragon Bound (The Elder Races Book One)
Publisher: Berkley
Author: Thea Harrison
Pages: 312 pp
Price: $7.99 US
ISBN:  978-0-425-24150-9

In general, I do not read romances any more.  They tend to bore me as the storyline is always infuriatingly the same:  boy meets girl, they eventually have spectacular sex, one or the other struggles with the relationship or someone causes mistrust, blah, blah, blah.  Yet this book caught my eye.  It is a “paranormal” or fantasy romance involving “the Elder Races” which includes Wyrkind, aka shape-shifters.

The book starts out with the half-human, half-Wyr Pia Giovanni, trying to cover her ass after being blackmailed into stealing from the hoard of the most feared Wyr, Dragos Cuelebre.  She left behind a note apologizing for the theft and a replacement for what she stole.  Dragos, in a dragonly rage, puts all his manpower and money into catching the thief and finds that for the first time in his very long life, he isn’t bored.  He finds Pia fascinating, puzzling, desirable and above all nothing like anyone he’s ever met.  Dragos claims her as his own in a rather caveman-like fashion, yet Pia manages to never lose her humor or her inner strength.  She even manages to teach the “big guy” a few things that he had never learned despite his longevity.  The book takes Pia through the ups and downs of having a relationship with a shape-shifting, possessive, powerful dragon until she not only finds peace with the relationship, but also is finally able to set free the wild creature that resides within herself.

I found this book very enjoyable and was sorry to see it end.  The world that Ms. Harrison creates in her first book of “The Elder Races” series is alive and enthralling.  Her characters are interesting and humorous individuals.  This is definitely not a young adult series as her sex scenes are vivid and erotic.  The only disappointment for me was the ending.  It was a tad bit flat compared to the rest of the tale.  I can’t wait to dive back into her world as I continue to read the rest of the series.

[Melia Suez makes her home in the high Rockies. She is the editor of From Cave to Sky: A Devotional Anthology in Honor of Zeus (Bibliotheca Alexandrina).]