Angie
Proceed With Caution:
This book contains violence, death, gore, dubious consent, and mentions of rape and abuse.
The Basics:
Fire in His Kiss is the second book of this series, and it would be in your best interest to read the previous book as it sets up this one. Important events are recapped if you don't want to though. We're picking right up with Claudia after she was snatched out of the air by Dakh.
My Thoughts:
There are some parts of Fire in His Kiss that I enjoyed more than the first book, but then there are other parts that I didn't like so much. I was very iffy about this romance at the beginning, but the bigger plot really picked up in the last quarter and I couldn't get through it fast enough! That ending definitely left me wanting and needing the next book (which I luckily already had borrowed).
Fire in His Kiss begins with Dakh wanting to mate with Sasha, of course, but he needs to court her first and get her ready for mating. However, Sasha had been trading sex for survival back in Fort Dallas and has come to hate the act. She's learned to retreat into her mind to block out what's happening to her body. Needless to say, she does not want to start the cycle again with Dakh. Their first sex scene is extremely uncomfortable as Sasha is just resigned to doing it to get it over with. So, I'd stick this in the dubious consent category because she technically says yes to it, but not because she wants to.
When he's finished, Dakh does realize that his mate didn't want this. He is remorseful and doesn't want to do it again unless she's enjoying herself. That's good. I also appreciate that the author is bringing up consent in the context of physical arousal versus enthusiastic consent. Sasha was physically aroused which is why Dakh proceeded with the sex. But we knew that she didn't really want it. Like I said, it was uncomfortable.
Dakh and Sasha do talk about this later, but he essentially demands that she learns to enjoy sex with him. Which is not...just no. Sasha does come to the conclusion that one asshole shouldn't ruin all sex for her, and that Claudia seemed happy with her dragon lover, so maybe she can be too. Barbarian's Prize handles this subject matter much better.
As for the external plot, Fire in His Kiss had me hooked. We learn a lot more about the current situation, as well as the drakoni madness that's causing them to be hyper-aggressive. The last several chapters are a rescue mission full of world-building and plenty of set up for the next book. I need to know about Zohr!