Thursday, October 4, 2012

Dragonswan by Sherrilyn Kenyon


Scholar Channon MacRea has spent years studying the legendary Dragon Tapestry, devoting days and nights to deciphering the impenetrable Old English symbolism.

Then one evening the mysterious Sebastian appears. He claims to hold the key to solving the tapestry’s mysteries… He also claims to be a dragon slayer trapped between two worlds.

For Channon there’s only one way to finally uncover the secrets of the intricate embroidery-- by following this stranger into a fantastic alternate world of magic, danger, and adventure.


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This book was quite enjoyable, though it did seem a bit rushed at times, and skimped a bit on some details and character/story developments. Such is largely to be expected in a work this short, however, since the author simply doesn't have time to develop characters and situations as fully as they might otherwise. Still, I think this one might have benefited from being given a bit larger scope and higher word count.



Channon would seem at first glance to be the stereotypical female professor type, consumed with her research and work and not paying much attention to anything outside of it. She proves fairly quickly that such is only one facet of her personality and that behind the mis-buttoned shirt and rather prim jumper she is really quite passionate in many ways and not afraid to take a few risks or embark upon an adventure. She agrees fairly readily to having dinner with Sebastian at the beginning, and later in the evening only has a slight hesitation about inviting him in to her hotel room for the night. She shows that she's also quite resilient, for When she wakes up the next day 1000 years or so in the past she takes it quite well really and decides to take a "this will be a fun adventure" attitude about it rather than just freaking out and refusing to deal. With such a "seize the day" sort of attitude, her choices later on don't come as much of a surprise, even if they are somewhat influenced by the fact that she seriously has the hots for Sebastian.

In contrast to Channon, Sebastian is a bit less developed really, mostly just fitting the usual sort of alpha-male shifter/magic-worker mold. He has the requisite self-assuredness along with the equally requisite tortured psyche due to tragic events in his past that he of course blames himself for and refuses to forgive himself for. He's not anywhere near as overbearing as the alpha-male types usually are though, firmly believing that Channon deserves better than to be manipulated by him. From the beginning, he treats her very much as an equal and not just as a woman who must be protected, however much he might feel he does need to protect her. This easily sets him apart and makes him not just another shifter type.

It would have been nice to get to know both of these characters a bit better before being thrown into the meat of the story, and it would have been nice to get to see more of the background to it rather than just the quick situation summaries that we're given. Still, to flesh it out more like that might have just been putting extra icing on the cake, for the story stands up just fine as it is, and while a few things might seem underdeveloped, nothing seems to truly be lacking here. I'm uncertain as yet how much this fits in with or ties in with the other Dark-Hunter books, but hopefully we'll at least catch glimpses of these two again at some point.

A good, quick read that I'd recommend to anyone who likes paranormal romance, shifters, and a bit of mythology thrown in. Maybe this isn't quite a 4 star read, but I'd certainly put it at 3.75 at least.

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