Day of the Dragon (Dragon Hunter #2) by Katie MacAlister & Guest Review by Romance Reader Blog [arc review]

Day of the Dragon by Katie MacAlister

I feel about this book very close to how I felt towards the other book in this 'series': 

Memoirs of a Dragon Hunter. It was good in some parts, but some things just didn't work...

Blurb:

With dragons like him, who needs enemies?
Real scholars know that supernatural beings don't exist. But the moment I meet Archer Andras of the Storm Dragons, all my academic training goes out the window. Thanks to Mr. Tall, Dark, And Infuriating, I'm learning that I really should worry about those things that go bump in the night. . . and that dragons like Archer are 100 percent pure trouble.

Now I'm caught in the middle of a war. On one side is Archer. On the other is his twin brother. And I am the key to translating an ancient text that could bring balance-or deadly ruin-to our world. But none of that is as dangerous as the seriously sexy sparks between Archer and me. He's too tempting to be real. Too gorgeous to trust. And when it comes to dragons, there's no smoke without deadly fire.

I struggled to write the review for Memoirs of a Dragon Hunter and I found myself struggling to write this one too. For a while there I though it was going to be a 4 star read, and than things started to spiral in the wrong direction. 

I decided to go and read what some other romance lovers had to say about it and when I stumbled upon Teresa's review at Romance Reader Blog I just knew I had to have it here and share it with you all. Her review is flawless!

Thank you @reads_romance for letting me share it here!

(I highlighted in blue the things that really irked me)

Teresas's Review:

THREE STARS

Man, I was really hoping I would enjoy this book more than I did. For a while, in the middle of the book, I really thought this was going to be a four star read, but the convoluted beginning and mess of a climax pushed this book into the, “it should have been great, but it wasn’t” range.

I read the first book in this series, MEMOIRS OF A DRAGON HUNTER, and thought the paranormal world MacAlister started building was confusing. I know creating a whole paranormal world is difficult, so I was really excited to get more clarity in book two. Weirdly, DAY OF THE DRAGON not only stood completely alone, but it also had basically no correlation with book one, at all. So, good news, you can totally start the series with this book, bad news, this book seemed more like a spinoff or an origin story of the first book rather than the next book in a correlated series.

This story is about a relatively normal woman with unique hair and eye pigmentation (I couldn’t really picture what she looked like in my head, which bugged me) and a dragon master at odds with his brother, trying to stop the murders occurring in his territory. This book gave me so many mixed feelings because I really enjoyed parts of the story, but other parts didn’t work at all.

What I liked: I appreciated the heroine’s character development. Thaisa (the heroine) started as a relatively insecure and seemingly timid character, but her relationship with Archer (the hero) bolstered her strength and self-confidence. I also appreciated Thaisa and Archer’s chemistry, especially their sexual chemistry, that was fun! Archer was sweet and considerate of Thaisa and some of their banter was top notch. This book really had all the makings of a good read. Especially in the middle of the book when Thaisa and Archer were getting to know each other as mates.

Here were my biggest hang-ups: There were SO MANY dangling plot lines. The heroine’s daily journaling habit? Mentioned just enough to intrigue the reader, then never mentioned again. (It almost seemed like the author got her books confused because journaling was a big part of book one) The big, bad boss, who doles out verbal abuse and death threats? He just walked out the door, left, and that was the last of him. The nerdy yet adorable shop assistant Jamie? Where did he go? I have no idea. The heroine’s best friend? Never calls her bestie back and is out of the story. The heroine’s profession? She is now jobless, which is fine, I guess, but her talent was such a large part of her characterization, I wanted to know what she was going to do next.

The ending, where I was hoping to get all of my burning questions answered, felt rushed and I wasn’t satisfied at all. I thought the villain came out of nowhere and the weird prophecy like storyline lacked lead up.

Overall, I honestly really enjoyed parts of this book because I love Katie MacAlister’s voice as a writer. She’s witty and hilarious, but this paranormal world needs major work to become a cohesive series. I am still hopeful this will all lead to a fantastic, five-star, book three so I am going to keep my fingers crossed.

So... what to add? Not much really, Teresa's review is perfect. 

I feel the need to stress how annoying and disappointing it was that this did not in any way shape or form relate or continue the story from the first book though. I felt cheated out of what could have been a fantastic new world in paranormal romance. 

Archer and Thaisa had chemistry, and that was wonderful! (there was some severe lack of chemistry in book 1). But sadly that wasn't enough to salvage the story. Once Archer's brother came into the picture again things went down hill fast and the story made no sense. Specially the part with her abusive idiot of a boss. So so pointless. 

All in all not a bad book, it had a lot of potential, but the last 30% was badly executed and I can't forgive it did not relate to the first book at all.

Teresa still considering reading the next book. I however am done.

**I/we received an ARC of this book in order to provide an honest review**

Find the book at: GoodReads - Amazon