Dragon Mystics by Jaymin Eve
Supernatural Prison #2
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
When Jessa’s dragon mark is revealed, and she learns that she is a one-of-a-kind dual shifter, both wolf and dragon, she must flee from the Four, the powerful quads who hunt the dragon marked. The only safe place for her kind is a hidden sanctuary in Romania guarded by the dragon mystics, where other dragon marked are awaiting, or dreading, the resurrection of the dragon king, supposedly in one months time. With her impossibly gorgeous and infuriating best friends, the Compass quads, by her side, can Jessa find the answers she needs? Why is she special, can they trust the dragon mystics, and can they stop the dragon king from rising again to rule - or destroy - all supernaturals?
Overall I really enjoyed this next installment of the series, probably a little more than book 1 (go here if you haven’t read it). There is great character development and relationship building between Jessa and her friends and family. Things get a little more serious with some emotional ups and downs, but we still get the entertaining banter and interactions between Jessa and the boys. We get some good slow-burn romance in this one. I think the author does really well at building tension and chemistry between the main characters. I wish that Jessa and her long lost twin Mischa got to spend more bonding time together, but that would probably somewhat ruin the plot. The bad guys (actually girls) are creepy and mysterious and I was totally rooting for Jess to punch them in the face, but at least she gets some good snarky comments in;
“I’m going to stop you right there, because the crazy train has already left the station and I think you missed your seat.”
The world-building gets more interesting, but we are still only getting little tidbits of information about the dragon king and the curse which leads me to make up all sorts of crazy theories about what’s going to happen, only to be proven wrong in the next book. I actually found this a little frustrating - which I suppose is good writing because it builds suspense, and I’m just impatient - but don’t worry, all the questions get answered in book 3.
There are a couple of things which bothered me (mainly about Mischa) and some things which I think could have been given more attention, so only four stars. Oh yeah, and there’s a fun cliffhanger ending, don’t we all just love those? (It’s actually a pretty cool ending with a twist or two). I love reading about these characters and I went straight on to read book 3.
[Continue for more details; contains mild spoilers]
The world-building continues in this book at the sanctuary for the dragon marked, a magically hidden place inside a mountain, where the dragon mystics (who are supposed to be advisors to the evil dragon king) protect the dragon marked. There are also actual dragons here 😃, but they don’t feature much and I would have liked to learn more about them. We also travel to the dangerous, magical realm of Faerie, where the fey and demi-fey originally came from. We don’t know why they left - they are very secretive about their world, but luckily the seemingly all-powerful sorcerer Louis knows how to get there. He’s a pretty handy guy, he even manages to magic up some cake for Jess.
The slow burn really gets going in this one, if you like that kind of thing. Braxton quits pretending to be Jessa’s friend and starts acting more protective and “mate-like”. They get trapped in Faerie together and finally admit their feelings. I was chomping at the bit waiting for these two to finally hook up, which is a testament to the author’s skill at writing couples with good chemistry. Are we surprised by these two? No. But I’m happy we finally get some sexy action between Jessa and Braxton.
I enjoyed the character development in this. Jessa has to confront her fear of change. Her friendship pact with the quads gets severely tested (and broken) when Jessa admits her attraction to Braxton and realises that he wants her too. She is also afraid of how the dynamic of the group will change if/when any of them meets their true mate - which happens (won’t say who). Actually the phrase “the dynamic of our group” gets used a lot which is a little annoying, we get it, they have a dynamic. Anyway, Jessa has to learn to trust that her friends will always be there for her.
“Don’t you get it, Jessa babe? Next to our mates – which we don’t even have yet – you are the most important person to us. If we lose you, well … we lose everything.”
She also slowly develops a relationship with her mother, who was absent most of her life, but I would have liked to see this progress further.
Things go horribly wrong with Mischa who, feeling lost and alone because she doesn’t understand the supernatural world, falls in with the “fruit twins”, who are the baddies in this one. I did get frustrated with this, it’s not really Mischa’s fault, but she acts kinda dum (for reasons which we find out in book 3). I feel like in real life Jessa and her parents would have been able to help Mischa and make her realise she was being an idiot and getting manipulated, but it’s important for the plot, and I guess Jessa is kinda busy trying not to get killed and whatnot. Still, I found that part of the story a bit annoying.
There are still a lot of questions left unanswered about the dragon marked curse and the king, and why Jessa isn’t like the other dragon marked, which just makes me want to read the next book more. I need to know these things! There’s plenty of action and some emotional ups and downs as well as the ‘what will you sacrifice to save the world?’ trope, but I did enjoy this book and I’m looking forward to reading the next one to complete the series (actually I already did, review coming soon).
If you enjoyed this review, follow me on Instagram for updates @iwishiownedabookstore 💗
No comments:
Post a Comment