Member Reviews

Katie MacAlister has a few successful dragon shifter series under her belt. Her combination of sexy romance combined with action and laughs has made for some enjoyable reads for me in the past, and I’m happy to say that this new release, Day of the Dragon, delivers another equally entertaining escape.

Sibling rivalry is taken to extremes when it comes to brothers Archer and Hunter. A tragic family history resulted in the two brothers being separated at birth and now they’re arch-enemies leading rival outcast dragon clans. Archer leads the Storm Dragons and his ranks have been decimated lately. He blames Hunter and his Shadow Dragons and they have been unable to come to a truce.

Both brothers want to get their hands on a medieval manuscript that purports to describe an ancient dragon artefact, but in their way is Thaisa, a medieval scholar who works at the antique shop that has the treasure, and the only person who can decipher the encrypted text. Thaisa recently had a chance encounter at a bar with a man she’s dubbed ‘Mr. Tall, Dark and Infuriating’. When that man, who happens to be Archer, shows up after hours at the shop to steal the manuscript, Thaisa recognizes him. Suddenly she’s caught up in a supernatural struggle with dragons and demons and sprites – oh my! Can she solve the mystery of the manuscript and bring about a happy ending for the brothers, and an HEA of her own?

I know to expect a low angst, laugh-out-loud reading experience with Katie MacAlister and that’s exactly what you’ll get here, with some interesting world building and a mystery that gets solved over the course of the story. There are some fun twists and turns, some unexpected surprises and of course, a sexy romance for Archer and Thaisa. The existence of supernatural beings is a shock Thaisa gets over reasonably quickly considering she’s fully human. She doesn’t seem at all wigged out by being attracted to a dragon shifter, and once Archer believes her to be his mate, he’ll do anything to keep her safe and protected, a difficult task since there is more than one enemy after the manuscript – and Thaisa’s cryptography skills.

Thaisa has a condition, poliosis,that results in streaks of white through her hair, eyebrows and eyelashes. She knows she looks different and she has some self-esteem issues when it comes to her appearance, ones that Archer goes out of his way to dispel. He’s attracted to all of her – her looks, her brain, her fiery spirit. There’s plenty of banter between them that’ll make you smile, plus Thaisa’s internal dialogue is a hoot. The story is told in an interesting way, with Thaisa’s point of view being in first person, and Archer’s in third. The switch is a little jarring at first, but it makes a clear distinction between their thoughts.

Like any good story, there are secondary characters with important parts to play. Thaisa has a best friend, Laura, and Laura has recently introduced her to Bree. There’s something a little odd about Bree (though she’s very funny) and she turns out to have a significant role later on. Archer’s feud with Hunter heats up when both want Thaisa’s help, though Hunter will try to get it in more devious ways. Archer relies on his best friend and cousin Milo but Thaisa isn’t sure that Milo’s not up to something for his own benefit. Thaisa’s boss is a jerk, one who threatens Thaisa’s grandmother if she doesn’t get the manuscript back after it’s stolen. Thaisa will do anything to keep her grandmother from harm so she too has her own agenda. Everyone has secrets to be uncovered.

Solving the mystery of the manuscript takes some ingenuity, skill, and luck. There’s a lot of action scenes, even some sword fighting (!) and plenty of magic to get to the happy ending everyone deserves. Archer and Thaisa have a fun, sexy and exciting partnership and I plan to read more of the Dragon Hunter series in the future. One last note – the book available for purchase currently includes the novel Wolf’s Mate by Celia Kyle, a two for one special. They each take up approximately half of the total length of both the digital edition and the paperback.

This review has been posted at All About Romance and feedback updated with the link.

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Archer Andras is the Dragon Master of the Storm Dragons. He suspects his twin brother is responsible for his clansmen’s suspicious deaths. At his cousin’s urging, Archer purchases an ancient manuscript rumored to have a certain artifact’s whereabouts. The last thing he expects is to encounter his destined mate. When his brother shows interest in her too, Archer braves everything to protect her. Will Archer learn who is murdering his clansmen? Can he keep Thaisia from falling into his brother’s hands?
Thaisa Moore works as a researcher for a bookstore that specializes in rare books and antiquities. She does not believe in the supernatural; however, Thaisa finds herself deeply immersed in that world. Twin brothers, Archer and Hunter, seek her out to translate an old manuscript. Flames literally erupt between Archer and Thaisa. What secrets will Thaisa find in the ancient script?
I am on the fence about Archer. Sometimes, he came off as too overbearing and sex-crazed for my tastes. I love how Archer disliked the way Thaisa disparaged her appearance. He sees the beauty in her genetic deformity, something that she could never do. What I adore the most about Archer is his thoughtfulness towards Thaisa and her family members. Without asking, he includes her grandmother in his protection.
I adore the uniqueness of Thaisa’s name. It is not a common name seen in romance books. Thaisa is an intelligent woman, one who is confident in her scholarly abilities. I empathize over her self-consciousness of her genetic abnormality and people’s reaction towards it. I feel she dwells on it a bit excessively. What I like most about Thaisa is how she stands up to Archer. She refuses to let him boss her around or dictate her life.
DAY OF THE DRAGON is book two in Katie MacAlister’s paranormal series, DRAGON HUNTER. Unfortunately, I have not read the prior book, yet that did not hinder my ability to follow the story’s plot and characters. I love Bree. For a secondary character, she made the story humorous. Bree’s spacy personality and quirks kind of reminds me of Nix from Kresley Cole’s IMMORTALS AFTER DARK series.
DAY OF THE DRAGON is a fun and quirky read. I love the humor Katie MacAlister wove into this tale.

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She is the specialist at all things ancient especially artifacts she has immersed herself in her studies as everyone shuns her due to her looks Now Archer has come to her to try to end the war between him and his twin brother which has been reigning for years. Thaisa has no confidence in herself and even when Archer states they are mates sh still continually questions herself As for Archer for god sake get a room this was one sex addicted dragon shifter. The plot of this story dragged a lot in the middle and tended to jump around a bit so it wouldn't be one of the better ones I have read

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This is the second book in this series and it did not disappoint. I really like it when an author has humor in her books. I love the romance here too it gets off to a slow start but I did not put it down.

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I have liked Katie McAlisters books in the past, and I was really hoping to like this one more than I did. I would give it 3 1/2 stars, but for me this felt more like a it should have been great, but it wasn’t book.

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Just as with all of Katie's stories, I absolutely adored the characters and their banter. I had so much fun and really enjoyed reading this story. I can't wait for more.

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Day of the Dragon by Katie MacAlister is a paranormal romance about a dragon shifter who is the leader of his clan and a female scholar in ancient languages.
I enjoyed this book. There is action, romance and and big dose of humor. Although the humor probably exasperated the dragons around her at first, it gave more actual human reactions to some parts with Thaisa. Some of the situations she found herself in would have made me say pfft, suuuuure. As if. - insert eyeroll.
Thaisa and Archer were a good match, but I did not enjoy how much attention was paid to Thaisa's looks or lack of. It was almost like she had two heads with unibrows on both. Geez, guys, different isn't always hideous.

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An entertaining, action packed, emotional and engaging adventure filled with danger, mistrust, secrets and passion.... This struggle between the brothers was exciting and heart pounding, the witty banter and comical situations with Archer and Thaisa made this a very enjoyable read.

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This is a two book deal. The first story is Day of the Dragon by Katie MacAlister. Archer Andras is head of the Storm dragons and at war with his twin brother Hunter who is head of the demons. They a both looking for an ancient manuscript leaf which once translated will change the balance between the two clans. Archer purchases the leaf and hires Thaisa, a scholar of ancient texts to translate it. Archer must protect Thaisa as his brother tries to get both the manuscript and Thasia. Along the way, Archer realizes that Thasia is his mate. She translates the leaf and realizes that both brothers must come together to create a balance.
I liked this story. I especially loved Bree. She was a riot throughout the story constantly confusing Thasia with the things she says. There are other secondary characters that add to this story and make it interesting. There is a twist towards the end of the story that explains the conflict between the brothers. This story can be read without having read the other Dragon books. I look forward to more books in this series.
Wolf’s Mate by Celia Kyle is the second story in this book. Abby Carter is a cougar shifter who is an accountant. While doing the books, she stumbles on information that the corporation is supplying funds to an anti-human organization. Now her life is at risk as they try to get back the information she downloaded and how much does she know. Declan Reed is a werewolf who works for the Shifter Operations Command. They too are watching the corporation. Declan realizes that Abby is his mate and does everything he can to protect her from the organization.
I enjoyed this story. It was suspenseful and the characters interesting. It was a quick read and I look forward to reading the other books in the series.

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I love fantasy and this one a new author for me, but I'd heard of her, so I thought I would give it a try.

Unfortunately, I found this one to be kind of slow moving and the plot jumped all over the place. The female protagonist was on the annoying side, and her love interest was a bossy jerk that I just did not like.

I just couldn't make myself finish the first story, and completely skipped the second.

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Great read and I love that we got two different stories in one! I admire both authors and highly recommend this awesome book deal!

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Day of the Dragon is the second book in a series but can easily be read as a stand alone (I purposely read the first book just to be sure). There is a novella from Celia Kyle as well.

Day of the Dragon was an enjoyable fun read. I like MacAlister's books are always like this. If you have ever picked up one of her books you know the females are going to be kick but and the males will be antiquated and have to adopt to their modern woman.

Celia Kyle's book was okay I remember reading one of her past books and enjoying it. This was okay. I was bored and really didn't care for the relationships.

Three stars from me. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

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Received in exchange for a honest review.

So I like the concept of the book and I enjoyed the book overall but there were some things that got me going meh.

character development: good and twisty at times. I say this for the fact that Archer’s brother was just a twisty character period tor me so his character development is twisty. Thaisa goes from self conscious and not as confident as she could be to strong and a good match for Archer. Archer I enjoyed from the beginning. He shows us his strong understanding side and his tough as nails side as well.

Plot: many many side plots that kind of sit like dangling participles. The concept of the Diary that Thaisa was doing-what happened? The different feuds and why kind of got tangled together. The boss not boss of Thaisa and his sister (her BFF) what happened there? What about Thaisa’s loved one? What about all the side characters that showed some prominence in the story what happened?

Entertainment value: Good. I enjoyed watching the natural progression of Thaisa and Archer’s romance. I enjoyed the main plot and how it progressed. Seeing the feud come to the twisting turns and the riddles be revealed as Archer and his brother find out the truth of their past is great. The ending leaves you hanging and wonder what is next.

Overall: good story. Love Archer and how he is protective, strong, bad ass dragon and caring as well. Him and Thaisa give some sexy moments and some entertaining ones in their interactions and how she frustrates him and vice versa at times. The feud is given good background to have understand the basics but not bog you down with too much detail and the ending has you wanting more.

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Archer started the Storm dragons while his brother, Hunter had started the Shadow dragons.

Archer and his cousin go after the Raisa Medallion, not knowing if it's real or not and not knowing if what they think about only a demon hunter or a demon being able to wield it is true. They break into the place and leave the money for their item only to get caught by Thaisa who works there. Thaisa and Archer have an intense first meeting and then he leaves with his item.

Thaisa works at a place that sells off antiques but her boss is a total ass. So when she sells off something and even gets a great price for it, her boss completely freaks out and threatens her with bodily harm if she doesn't get it back. Before Thaisa knows what's happening, she and her friend are kidnapped for only for a short period of time and Archer comes to her rescue. After that she and Archer get a lot closer. Watching Archer try and figure out what his brother is doing, going after the Medallion and get closer to Thaisa was a lot of fun. There's so much going on that I never got bored even for a few pages which was nice and kept the story going for me.

When they finally do find the medallion, it wasn't anything like I thought it would be but it was good and surprising. I really liked all the secrets that came to life at the end of this book and there were quite a few of them but it all made sense. It was a fun ride waiting to see if Thaisa could decipher the text, find the medallion and fall for Archer. Archer's brother, Hunter is also a big part of this story and he turned out to be so much more than I thought he was in the beginning. This entire story was fun to read.

But wait, there's more!

This eBook came with a second novel, Wolf's Mate by Celia Kyle. So here's that review as well.

My Review

Abby is an accountant and a cougar shifter, she enjoys her quiet life until she uncovers something shady going on in an anti-shifter organization. She planned to bring proof about Unified Humanitarian to the shifter council but then all hell breaks loose and she finds herself in danger.

Declan works for Shifter Operations Command and is going to help keep Abby safe with the help of the other members of his team.

Abby and Declan are really great together and I liked getting to know the other members of Declan's team but they seem to put Abby in dangerous situations all the time which I found strange since they are supposed to be keeping her safe and she's a mate to one of their own.

Abby isn't used to all the action and drama like Declan and the others are and so compared to them she seems weak and fragile and because of her childhood being so rough I understood why she was a bit more introverted than the others.

There's a lot of action, a lot mystery and a couple of really good twists. It was a lot of fun and I'm really looking forward to some of these other team members getting their books.

Disclosure: I received this book for free via NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

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I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved the core story line going on this this book and I had no idea it was actually the second in a series. I feel pretty comfortable saying this can definitely be read as a standalone. The premise of the dragon hunters is really cool (and totally not what it initially sounds like). The different little spins the author put on dragons, hunters, demons, and pretty much just the rest of the supernatural world in general feel really fresh and interesting. However, some of the dialogue especially between Thaisa and Archer just felt really awkward to me. At times Thaisa's internal dialogue gave me "fifty shades" level cringe to be honest. Despite that, I love the rest of the story. Also, Thaisa's interactions with Bree were hilarious. Bree was probably my favorite character in the book!

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Day of the Dragon can easily be read as a standalone. Honestly, I didn't realize it was part of a series until after I was finished reading it. I really enjoyed the world that Katie built and hope in her next book she provides details about it. The lead female character Thaisa was not my favorite. She was really immature and has massive issues with peoples appearance but as soon as the "good looking" guys pay attention to her she jumps his bones. Yeah, I just was not into it. The lead male character Archer was swoon worthy.

The book was book and I would recommend it.

**I received this book from NetGalley In exchange for my honest opinion **

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This was a good book.

I just couldn't put it down because the story was so good.
I did like the main characters and even though I hadn't read the previous book I had no problems following the story.

I do highly recommend

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This is a voluntary review of an advanced copy.

While the book can be read as a stand alone there seems to be the back story that continues (I hope) as Archer and Hunter still have issues with their father.

Thaisa and Archer just seemed such an odd match and yet they work together. Add in Bree who makes things a little more interesting and you have a great story!

There is the romance along with the intrigue and drama along with a few surprises along the way! There some surprises that were not too unexpected but then there were a couple that I just did not see coming!

I loved how Thaisa just figured things out so quickly and was a real mate to Archer. The only thing that I did not see resolved and I hope it will be in a future book, is Archer's insistance that he would not need to love Thaisa.

Nice bonus book at the end, also!

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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.

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

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Ok so, this was my first time read by Katie MacAlister and I’m still trying to sum up thoughts towards this book. I’m such a sucker for dragon shifter reads, so it was a no brainer to give this one a try. I so, soooo wanted to like this, but there were some things that just wasn’t work for me.

For me, it started off a bit slow and it didn’t seem like it was going anywhere. Between Archer and Thaisa, I liked Archer slightly a bit more. I couldn’t quite pin down the kind of character that Thaisa was, she kind of read to me like a very young and sometimes immature heroine and other times, very much like an adult. However, I really loved what her job was and the fact that she knew many languages, which served up some hilarious moments with Archer was speaking a language he didn’t think she’d know!

Archer is every bit of an alpha and can’t take no for an answer. He’s bossy to a fault, which can be a hang up for some readers, but it wasn’t a huge issue for me.

There’s definitely a lot going on in this story and it constantly felt like I was being ping-ponged across a table and I wasn’t exactly sure what direction it was going. Things definitely pick up in the end, but I was hoping for a bit more fine tuning with the plot.

I thoroughly enjoyed the steamy scenes between them both, we see a different side to the both of them especially Thaisa. The way she was with him during these moments were very different from her everyday character.

Thaisa is every bit a quirky character, but her heavy doses of word vomit seemed to happen at the most inconvenient times. I wanted to connect with her more, but just couldn’t.

For the most part, I was enjoying some of what I was reading, but there were things here and there that just threw me off and found it hard to recover. I don’t want to give up on this series because it could definitely develop into something amazing!

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