Review: How to Date Your Dragon

How to Date Your Dragon by Molly Harper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


you can see all my goodreads reviews here: 
View all my reviews

Today's Book is How to Date My Dragon
*don't put too much weight in that name before reading below.*

So I did an audio book of this. The run time is just over 6 hours. Making this good for a quicker story that you want to listen to but maybe cause / don’t want to devote days to. Because of this though I can not speak to how it was written in the digital or paperback.

This book I found by accident and it really caught my attention in multiple ways. First, the title itself is interesting. 2nd it was free audio with prime membership (HECK YEAH!) **still is, I just checked.** And the 3rd reason was more to do with the subject matter. This book is about an anthropologist being sent on field research, in Louisiana. Yes, in the audio you do get some southern twang. You do specifically get a little bit of a feel of a more specific Louisiana cajun accent, however it’s not strong and you can fully understand it. It is more just slightly enough to give you a vibe. The author did her research for giving it the middle of nowhere swamp feels. I didn’t realize it while reading/listening to the book. It is actually a part of a series and is the first of 8 books.

So for my thoughts on the story.

Overall star review: 3.5 which rounds up to a 4 on the places you rate books. This is due to, I feel like this book may have taken me a while to get through had I read vice audio. There was definitely some stereotype plot that happened throughout. Though the book was set up to surprise you on some stuff, which depending how close attention you were paying would depend on if it was glaringly obvious or if it actually surprises you. I had a few moments where I became easily distracted while I was listening to this book. So I am not sure if that would have happened had I read it. I would call this book that is plot driven with some smut.

The smut: 2 stars on a 5 star scale. (it wasn’t supposed to be the focus of the book and you can tell that as you go.)

This book set the foundation of good world building, to draw you into the series. The book was given closure, sooo you get a HEA for this book, but you can tell the story can keep going (which it does being in a series.)

You get in this book, murder mystery, PNR, CR, based in the outskirts of Louisiana.

Would I read/ listen to the other books in this series? So considering at least from a glance they are free with my prime membership as audio. I will likely grab them in that audio form. I did like the general plot of the story. I would definitely at least get the second book of this series. However if it suddenly switched to a smut with plot from the plot with smut the series started with that may be where I end.

The narration I would give 5 stars. There were multiple people narrating this book, and it really helped to bring out the personality of the characters more. While the narrators were for specific chapters that meant the female narrator had to deepen her voice for the male characters in her chapters and vice versa. They did great with this. I also enjoyed the use of accents with this book.

Blurbage from the description of the book:
Anthropologist Jillian Ramsay's career has taken a turn south.

Concerned that technology is about to chase mythological creatures out into the open (how long can Sasquatch stay hidden from Google maps?), the League for Interspecies Cooperation is sending Jillian to Louisiana on a fact-finding mission. While the League hopes to hold on to secrecy for a little bit longer, they're preparing for the worst in terms of human reactions. They need a plan, so they look to Mystic Bayou, a tiny town hidden in the swamp where humans and supernatural residents have been living in harmony for generations. Mermaids and gator shifters swim in the bayou. Spirit bottles light the front porches after twilight. Dragons light the fires under crayfish pots.

Jillian's first assignment for the League could be her last. Mystic Bayou is wary of outsiders, and she has difficulty getting locals to talk to her. And she can't get the gruff town sheriff, Bael Boone, off of her back or out of her mind. Bael is the finest male specimen she's seen in a long time, even though he might not be human. Soon their flirtation is hotter than a dragon's breath, which Bael just might turn out to be....

You can get this book here: https://amzn.to/3LjVuda

Finding your Book Friday - Zodiac Academy book 1

 Finding your book Friday! 

This is my first entry for this theme. The purpose behind this theme is to share my reviews on books. I do like all sorts of genres. So I do appologize now if after several weeks it is all coming from the same type of genre. I am a mood reader so I will book hop from time to time till I find something that catches my eye. 

And since I am a mood reader, sometimes I may have a hard time picking up a book, So because of this I will be sharing past reviews I have done as well as book I have just finished. If you can't wait till the next friday post and you just really want to follow with what I have read and my reviews more closely you can friend me on GoodReads. 

All Fridays after today will also just go straight in to my book choice for that day. So don't sweat it thinking I will be treating this like a food recipe you can find on the internet that requires a whole long story and 5 minutes of scrolling before you get to the meat..... cause that won't be this! 

 Suprise!! Double Review!

I figured I would start off with 2 books that I read at the same time, so it is only proper their reviews go up at once. 

Review for Zodiac Academy The Awakening

I started this book before as my first book by the twisted sisters. I couldn’t get into it.. So I tried audio and failed (at that point I didn't typically do audio) … After some time passed I had picked up the Ruthless boys of the Zodiac by the twisted sisters… ABSOLUTELY LOVED LOVED the series and couldn’t put it down.. Was sad that it ended but realized it happened 5 years before this book. So I decided I would give it another go, but was going to make sure I went in order and the most logical way possible to get through this first book.

I highly recommend if you are looking to start this series to at least pick up the prequel novella and read it before this if you don’t want to read Ruthless fae of the zodiac first. Understand the characters in that series are in the same world as this book and will make appearances throughout this series.

** second recommendation. If you are not big on bullying.. Or sometimes it can sour a book for you, OR you are a mood reader.. Get this book along with Zodiac Academy As told by the boys and read them in Tandem. The prequel and this doesn’t justify the bullying you will face, however it will put more logic behind what you are seeing. And because this is a vicious Fae world you will take that bullying is done differently and looked at differently because everything is based on seeing where you sit in the power ranking.

I am personally glad that I was not able to get into this book at first and chose to read the other series first. It definitely helped me to enjoy this book more and understand why we see this bullying like the power game was shown in, but in the case for the throne and ruling this land it is more in your face in this book. Now this book does break down things in the world for you to see how it all works as though you just landed in the world of solaria because of the Twins, so you will come out of this book with an even better understanding of the mechanics of the world.

Regardless with how you read this book, it is worth the time. This story has been wonderfully written and the world building is top notch! These authors are great at character building and leaving you on a cliff hanger. So maybe just be prepared to want the next book immediately.

Grab your copy here: https://amzn.to/3Pl3V9v

Review for Zodiac Academy The Awakening, As Told By The Boys

  

This isn’t one that you have to read to get through the series HOWEVER! This is perspective that really changes how this series goes, and how you look at these guys when your first reading the series.
Will you have some anger/ hate for them? Sure… will it be less so for a few of them? Yup!

I read this in Tandem with The Awakening… so bonus because it gave more depth and perspective in those first days… HOWEVER, downfall to doing it that way, you run into moments that you feel it is all redundant because it is 2 books about the same time frame, just different POV.. So I ended up at the moment instead of going by my in tandem chapter list, if I was really digging one of the 2 books at a moment I would just keep going for another chapter or two then flip back to the other. So it wasn't perfect in tandem but didn’t effect the reading of the story any.

Just like the other books written by the Twisted Sisters, this book did not disappoint. It was wonderfully written, and I feel that those POV were really needed for getting into this series. If this is a series you plan to read all the way through, definitely give this book time to read to get the other side of what was happening during Zodiac Academy The Awakening. You also learn a lot about the other things happening in the background during this time that you don’t see in The Awakening. There are also plenty of snippets that made my heart happy that were showing the Ruthless boys of the Zodiac, and what they were up to.

Grab your copy here: https://amzn.to/3PEHgWI

Last Thoughts

Please understand this series when you go to the Twisted Sister's Facebook page will have more than 1 way to read the books in the world of Solaria. I chose the way that best fit me, and I will talk more on that in my next blog post. The point behind this is, you should not feel like you need to read these books side by side as I did, because most people don't. 

**So next book focused post will discuss the way I have read the world of solaria up to this point, and plan to continue, and an alternative way that is very popular amongst fans.**