Sandy M’s review of Hidden Embers (Dragon’s Heat, Book 2) by Tessa Adams
Paranormal Romance published by NAL Trade 5 Apr 11

Ah, dragons. What’s not to love about such creatures, especially when they’re written as alpha and sexy as Tessa Adams writes them. She paints a wonderful picture of the beautiful New Mexico desert and night skies, along with graceful, soaring dragons, all surrounded by an evil that is killing these magnificent creatures one at a time.

But the way this book starts out is how I wish more romances would, instead of stringing the reader along until the hero and heroine finally come together. Now, that’s not to say that being strung along isn’t the way to go. There’s just more of that out there than there is of bringing the characters together right off the bat and using sexual tension and conflict in a totally different way. In this case, it works like you wouldn’t believe.

Quinn is his clan’s healer, and he’s been fighting a sickness that’s getting the better of him with every death of friends and family. The most recent victim is his youngest brother, Michael, who always wore a smile, joked and laughed, made life bright and fun for those around him. Michael is the last of Quinn’s family to be taken by this unknown disease, and when Phoebe, the heroine from the first book and the clan’s soon-to-be queen, suggests bringing in another doctor to help, it’s just too much for him at this point in time. Shifting into his dragon, he takes to the skies at breakneck speeds, flying until he just can’t anymore. Finally coming down from his flight of grief, Quinn goes another route to drown his guilt and sadness, in the bottom of a glass at a bar who knows where. Quinn sure doesn’t.

Jazz is still recuperating from injuries suffered in a bombing that occurred at one of the sites she was working at in her capacity with the Center for Disease Control, but she’s going stir crazy. Jumping at the chance to do some kind of research and work, Jazz heads to New Mexico to help her friend Phoebe with an intriguing and dire problem. One last stop before her destination changes everything for her, however. Instant attraction to the handsome man in the bar where she goes for help when her car breaks down smacks her silly, and she ends up spending the night with him. One hot, sizzling, raw, and intense night. The likes of which she’s never experienced before.

What makes these first scenes between Quinn and Jasmine even more enjoyable to read is the fact they don’t know who each other is, not until it’s too late for Quinn when he realizes Jazz is his mate and too late for Jazz when she bugs out early the morning after, scared witless of her reaction to this man who pulls at her in more ways than one. Also scared to allow a man control over her ever again. That only leads to heartache and pain. Of course, once Jasmine reaches New Mexico and she’s thrown in the middle of the clan’s medical crisis, she learns her Quinn is the same as the healer who’s at the end of his rope, she’s flabbergasted, amazed, and turned on. And she pretty much stays that way most of the time when the man is near. But Jazz does have her moments, instigating a few lovemaking sessions of her own.

The mystery surrounding the lethal disease that’s hit the Dragonstar clan is insidious and everyone is stumped, having very few leads to conquer it. They do believe a rival clan is behind it all, but that theory is also at a standstill with no evidence to follow. The reader is lead through part of the story in a traitor’s POV, and finally Quinn and his dragon brothers realize the evil in their midst. When the clan is physically attacked by their enemy, the ensuing fight scenes are action packed and fatal, even to those in dragon form. I really love those scenes with dragons flying, claws slashing, and fire nearly scorching the sky.

This is one of the better dragon series I’ve read. Ms. Adams is almost as good at giving her human characters dragon/animal/beast characteristics as Nalini Singh is in her shifter books, and if you’ve read those, you know that’s not an easy fete. And the emotion coming from Quinn in his grief flows from the page right into you, baring his feelings from his core. Those scenes in which Jazz lets her guard down for Quinn and his grief are some of the best in the story.

I’m looking forward to every future book that comes along in this series.

Grade: A+

Summary:

Deep in the New Mexico desert there is a secret race on the brink of extinction—the pure-blood shapeshifters of the Dragonstar clan. And they have one last, desperate hope for survival…

Quinn Maguire is a powerful Dragonstar healer at a tragic loss, unable to cure the insidious disease killing off his people. Yet even in such dire circumstances the conservative Quinn is secretly disapproving of the alternative: Dr. Jasmine Kane, enlisted by the head of the Dragonstar clan to help abort the virus. She is a wild card. She is an outsider. She is human.

Decked out in black leather and a tough attitude, Jasmine clashes with Quinn in more ways than one. And when destiny chooses her for his Mate, he doesn’t know whether to rejoice or rebel. Because while Jasmine makes him burn hotter than any woman—dragon or human—ever has, their differences make a relationship impossible.

But when a rival infiltrates the clan and attacks Jasmine, Quinn becomes desperate. Jasmine is now the first human to be infected with the disease—and Quinn must do everything he can to find a cure, and save the woman he has grown to love.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series: