Review: Day of the Dragon by Rebecca York
December 21, 2010 
15 Comments
Day of the Dragon by Rebecca York
Paperback: 323 pages
December 7th 2010 by Berkley
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Source: Publisher
The hero didn’t start off on the right foot for me. Within the first five pages he screws with a prostitute’s mind while he takes her blood, and then after he was finished he generously decided to let her give him the blow job she initially offered. What a prince. Of course they were interrupted, so he didn’t actually end up doing that, but it was still creepy. I was willing to brush it off, but then 20 pages later he’s screwing with the heroine’s mind and groping her into giving him information. Yuck.
I was extremely unhappy with the relationship between Ramsay and Madison. There was no chemistry or tension between them. The only reason I knew they were attracted to each other was because the author told me. When Ramsay came to the conclusion that he loved Madison I was honestly shocked. I hadn’t seen any build up for that yet.
The sex scenes were weird and came out of nowhere. The reader never really got a chance to feel the mood coming, it was just like BAM! random sex scene. Especially the first one. Of course, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by that. We don’t even get a chance to see if Madison really wants Ramsay or wants to go with him. Ramsay screws with her mind so much that she never really gets the chance. It was extremely creepy considering the first two sex scenes occur directly because of Ramsay altering her mindset.
I know the author was aware of how this was coming off, because she had the heroine reassure herself that she hadn’t really felt drugged and she was attracted to him too, deep inside. Right… It’s still creepy.
The heroine was incredibly passive and pretty stupid for someone who’s supposedly an archaeologist who has worked in the field in dangerous situations. Honestly, if this hadn’t been a romance novel and the hero hadn’t actually been the hero, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Madison captured and chopped up by a serial killer. Even when she was suspicious of something she just went along with it anyway. Also, she never really stayed suspicious. There was one part that had me seriously questioning whether or not she was on drugs.
Pg. 228
“I wanted to keep you safe, is that so bad?”
“You tried to influence me.”
He could have denied it. Instead he nodded. “And when the cop took you into the parlor, I tried to connect with you. I didn’t know if I could reach you, but it seems I did.”
“Unless you tell me what’s going on with you, I’m going to walk out of here.”
The defiant look in her eyes made his chest tighten.
“How did you do it?” she demanded.
“I thought about the two of us. Of us making love, of how wonderful it was having you in my arms, with no barriers between us,”he said in a thick voice.
“A nice story.”
The next words came from deep in his soul. “Then I thought about how much I love you.”
He felt his breath catch. He hadn’t meant to say that. Not at all. But the words had tumbled out of his mouth.
Her expression turned from wariness to joy.
“You love me?”
He had said it. He couldn’t take it back, although he didn’t share her joy. He might love her, but that wasn’t going to solve any of his problems.
Still, when she rushed across the room, he held out his arms and gathered her close.
Closing his eyes, he held on to her, because she felt like the only point of stability in a wildly titling universe.
She tipped her head up, her mouth meeting his for a long, passionate kiss.
“Ramsay. Oh, Ramsay. I’m so happy. I love you. I kept fighting it because I was afraid to trust you. Now I know we’re going to work it out.”
This book is presented as a standalone, but it didn’t feel like it. I felt that I was missing huge chunks of Ramsay’s backstory. It’s like the author assumed I should know and care about him already. I didn’t, so his lack of development really irritated me. At the very end we finally got a four page info dump of his history. It was an Ah hah! moment for me, but it was too little too late. I finally looked on the author’s website and saw that yes, Ramsay was originally seen in another series. This must be a spinoff.
Random things occurred in this story that really had me scratching my head. The hero asks the heroine if she wants to share a “Native American vision quest” completely out of the blue. It was bizarre. Plus the author had the hero throw in a bit of Cockney rhyming slang once and had the villain refer to the hero as a “buttinsky.” It was all just so random.
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Agree Agree Agree. Nice review Catherine! And that quote…I actually laughed out loud when I read it then proceeded to read it to my husband and email it to my friend because it just seemed that funny/wrong to me.
Thanks, Julie. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one taken aback by that quote. I was completely flabbergasted and irritated that his saying “I love you” fixed everything for her.
So, what did your friend and husband have to say about it?
Nice review Catherine. This doesn’t sound like my kind of read.
Thanks, Tori.
Wow, I saw Julie’s review on this a while back and now reading your review it confirms for me that I do not want to pick this book up. I am not a fan of choppy books that do not have a good flow to them and then random things thrown in it to try to make it have a plot line…blah! That quote is really weird to me even though I haven’t even read the book…
Deanna – I’m glad I’m not the only one taken aback by that quote.
I agree with what you said about the “I love you” making everything ok. How do you go from not trusting someone to being completely in love with them and the world is just a better more peaceful place??!! I know novels are supposed to have fantacy in them but they also need to have a little dash of reality…I like women characters that are strong and don’t turn into complete putty when a guy says those three words!
Exactly. I like fantastical events, but the characters and their reasoning need to make sense for me to really get behind them. Even if I don’t like a choice the character made I’ll still enjoy the story because the character’s response made sense. (unless it’s a TSTL choice)
I appreciate the words, and feel a bit of a lack without them, but the words are hollow to me if your actions don’t back it up.
Catherine – Hubs laughed a forced “I’m laughing to humor you” laugh. Friend had it and decided not to read it…
It’s always fun to poll the husbands. I particularly like the faces mine makes.
Thank you for the honest. I’ve been looking for a good dragon paranormal… looks like I’ll keep looking
PS. I LOVE the new look! Not sure if I’ve been to the site since you’ve changed it up (I should step out of GoogleReader more…)
Tara – Have you tried The Smoke Thief by Shana Abe? It’s a dragon series which has a more serious tone, or if you enjoy campy fun you can check out G.A. Aiken‘s Dragon Kin series.
I like the new look as well!
Haven’t read this one yet. It sounds suuuuper creepy. Maybe I should just snark the hell out of it.
heidenkind – Maybe you’ll surprise yourself and end up liking it. Or even if you don’t you might enjoy your snarking.