Mary Kirkland
From This Day Forward
The Dragon Shifters of Derkesthai Academy, #2
by Mackenzie Lucas
Release Date: January 15, 2014
This is a contemporary paranormal romance novella with mystery and suspense elements. This is the second story in the Derkesthai Dragon Mage Academy series. Derkesthai Academy is Hogwarts for dragon shifters.
Noah Easton, a Special Forces dragon shifter, escapes the torture of a hoard thief bent on stealing dragon hoard stones and their elemental power from the mages who possess them, but the situation becomes personal when the hoard thief targets the woman he loves. He must return to his hometown of Mystic Springs to protect those he loves from a magickal threat he cannot identify before he loses everything.
April is a modern day oracle. She reads tea leaves and just about anything else that can predict coming events. However, past abandonment issues make her resistant to reading her own signs. But when evil comes to Mystic Springs, April must face her biggest fears of abandonment and betrayal in order to save what’s most important to her. Only by studying the past and owning her future can she stop a magickal criminal who threatens to steal everything she’s ever loved and destroy the dragon mage who holds her heart.
REVIEW
Special Forces officer and dragon shifter, Noah Easton sets off to find the hoard thief after escaping him and finds out the thief is now after his family. He's had to live apart from his family until their youngest child turns five years old for fear that his dragon might hurt the child but now that he's home maybe he can settle down and stay there.
April Easton owns a tea shop and can read tea leaves to tell a persons future because she's an oracle. But she doesn't like to see her own future even when mother nature is sending her every sign it can think of to get her attention that something bad is on its way.
If there's one lesson to be learned from this book it would be...Whatever you do, don't piss of a dragon shifter and don't go after his family. Especially one who is in the Special Forces. It's just not a good idea.
April has abandonment issues and with what she's gone through, it's no wonder. She's emotionally broken and doesn't let anyone see underneath the facade she's put up to shield herself from being hurt the way her father hurt her when he abandoned her. So she's hoping she can make her husband see it's time to leave the military and stay home with his family.
The mystery of who is stealing the hoard stones is revealed in this book and it's not the person anyone would have imagined. Secrets are revealed, surprises are thrown in their path and danger is lurking where they least expect it.
While this book can be read as a stand alone it might make more sense if you read the first book in the series first. Some of the characters blend from the first book into this one. I really hope to see more of the characters from this story in upcoming books, especially Morgana and David.
If you like dragons, magic, hot alpha males, hot steamy sex scenes and fight scenes full of action then you'll want to read this book.
I give this book 4 sheep.
Mary Kirkland
About the Author:
Mackenzie Lucas is a lover of story in any form. She’s an avid reader of genre fiction, she writes contemporary and paranormal romance, and she listens to an eclectic mix of music that spans from pop/rock to country to gospel. She loves a good story whether it’s an erotic short, a full-length romance novel, or the narrative slice-of-life found in country music. In any story, emotional integrity and authenticity are most important to her as well as a big dose of romping hot sexual tension. She enjoys smart-mouthed, sexy heroines, hunky alpha heroes who know how to take care of their women, and plot twists that surprise her, but most of all, she just wants to experience a satisfying emotional arc of a character falling in love and finding what he or she needs most in life.
Mac is a small-town country girl with a world-traveler’s soul. She grew up in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania and she’s lived in Dublin, Ireland, in Long Island for a summer, and now resides in the Washington, D.C. area. She obtained her undergraduate degree in English Literature from Dickinson College and received her M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She’s currently an author, writing coach, president of Washington Romance Writers, a mother, and a wife. Her latest contemporary romance, Essence, was published by Soul Mate Pulishing in January 2014.
With Mackenzie Lucas--whether you’re reading her light paranormal romance or her small-town-based contemporary romance--you’ll always get a story about connectedness, community, and emotional authenticity, and, at its core, love. No, and it doesn’t hurt that all her heroes are panty-melting gorgeous alphas and all their sexy, sensually aware heroines know how to stand up to them, give no quarter, and love them just as they are.
