⭐⭐⭐⭐ Was I hooked by that book? Yes. A unicorn and a dragon, a highly unlikely pair, manage the impossible and find love in the midst of a quest for vengeance.

Unicorns and Dragons never mix. For centuries, they’ve been bitter enemies and their kingdoms at war. But desperate times call for desperate measures. Tanis’s beloved older brother and heir to their throne has been slain by a human who continues to flaunt her brother’s death. To restore her family’s honor, she’s willing to make a deal with a Unicorn shapeshifter so that she can infiltrate the human kingdom and recapture what was so cruelly taken. But Dash Coeur de Noir isn’t just any Unicorn, as the High King he’s the most hated and feared of his breed and he’s on his own mission to reclaim his sister’s horn that was brutally taken when the Dragon, Tanis, crosses his path. In the wrong hands, that horn could destroy the fragile peace that has kept the Thirteen Kingdoms from destroying each other. In a world built on magic, blood, and betrayal no one can trust anyone. With a bounty on their heads and assassins and enemies out to claim them both, they must somehow learn to trust each other or watch their kingdoms burn.

MY THOUGTHS

Right from the start we are thrown into a whole new fantasy world where a unicorn shifter is the king of all, precarious as his position may be. I was very intrigued by the unicorns, dragons, and many other magical creatures that popped up as the story went on. The world building was fairly solid and did a good job of introducing the history and current state of affairs. It did get a teeny bit confusing sometimes to keep all these different characters straight. There wasn’t one specific villain, but rather an unrelated group all with the same nefarious plans to unseat Dash as High King.

Tanis and Dash set off together, each with their own agenda, that turned out to be chasing the same perpetrators. I liked the two of them together. They put aside centuries of mutual animosity and found that they really enjoyed each other’s company. The relationship development between these two and their interactions were done really well and I was very invested in them and their quest.

In most shifter stories, we get used to the shifters spending more time in their human forms and using their animal forms for specific purposes. Here, for example, Tanis’s dragon form is her natural form and she needed Dash’s magic to turn her human. It was a bit difficult to imagine these humungous dragons going about their day-to-day business, which was set up very similar to what a human’s environment would look like, just bigger to accommodate their size. The same went for Dash (and by extension all unicorns), though he was able to change forms at will.

Despite some gaps, this was an exciting read and I couldn’t put it down. I can highly recommend this if you like fantasy romance with thrilling action and betrayal around every corner, and I hope there will be more. See what other readers are saying on Goodreads.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Were you hooked by that book? Let me know in the comments below.

Genre: Fantasy Romance
Published: September 24, 2024
Sensuality Rating: Warm