Reviewed by stacey_is_sassy on
I was in the mood for a good paranormal and put the call out to my friends. Candace Blevins heard the call and gifted me a copy of The Dragon King. Thanks Candace my lovely it definitely was interesting.
Aaron, the Dragon King, has been a tutor and educator to the Swan Princess, Sophia, since she was a baby. He plays a vital role in her understanding of their culture and rules. Sophia has lived a very sheltered existence with her father putting her in a castle that was more like a cage. The Swan King, Raul, lost his wife when she was murdered and decided he couldn’t face it if anything happened to Sophia. When her father plans to marry Sophia off to the horrible Cyrano, she decides that escape is the better option. She heads straight to Aaron knowing that he will protect her.
I liked seeing Sophia and Aaron’s love for each other grow and develop. It is obvious that Aaron only wants Sophia, but it takes a while for Sophia to trust him. She forms some wonderful friendships in the people that she meets and I loved watching Sophia mature and take on her role as Queen.
The story is full of action and adventure. We get to meet shifters including owls, eagles, hawks, rabbits (turns out they do live up to their name when it comes to sex) and the usual lions, leopards, tigers and wolves. Vampires and Faerie also play a pivotal role in getting Sophia placed as Queen to the swans.
There were things that annoyed me and made me a little uncomfortable in this story. My main issue was Aaron’s past conquests. I know he is thousands of years old and never been mated, but Sophia was confronted by numerous ex-lovers and some of them were people close to her. I don’t think Aaron handled it well. Secondly, the scene when Sophia changes to a swan was absolutely gruesome. They do not just change like in other paranormal stories I’ve read, it is graphically explained what she must do to her skin to transform. The explanations were “original” but for the first time in any reading of a paranormal, I was bloody glad I wasn’t one. There were also a few BDSM scenes with humiliation, pain and exhibitionism. I don’t mind an erotic read, but I’m not a huge fan of humiliation as part of it.
I did enjoy their love story and their fight to gain and hold their place as King and Queen of the Dragons and Swans. My overall enjoyment was reduced by the way Aaron’s previous relationships were portrayed and explained. I did not like that Sophia met Aaron’s previous lovers and was exposed to what sort of “play” he got up to…especially that he had been dominated. Those things should have been explained in private so she could deal with it without an audience.
The Dragon King was an interesting story and I have no hesitations on reading more of Candace Blevins paranormal world.
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Reading updates
- Started reading
- 17 June, 2015: Finished reading
- 17 June, 2015: Reviewed