Wyvern's Mate by Deborah Cooke

By: Unknown on Friday, June 03, 2016

Title:  Wyvern's Mate
Series:  The Dragons of Incendium #1 (Includes #1.5 - Nero's Dream)
Author:  Deborah Cooke
Publication Date:   June 14/16
Length:  188pgs
Genre:  paranormal romance
Shelf:  own
My Rating: ★★★★★
Book Links: Goodreads – Amazon(US) – Amazon(CA) - B&N - Kobo - Indigo - Google Play

Back Cover Blurb:

Once, in the Kingdom of Incendium, there were twelve princesses of the realm, each a dragon shifter. Each fiery and passionate. Each possessed of an appetite for pleasure that only her destined mate can satisfy. Twelve men are expected in Incendium, each with special powers of his own, each with the gift to claim one dragon princess’s heart forever.

Troy will do whatever is necessary to earn his freedom from solitary confinement on the penal colony of Xanto, even assassinate a princess of Incendium. Being a MindBender, he has a serious advantage as a predator and thinks the princess in question doesn’t have a chance. Only one of them can survive and Troy knows who it will be—until he meets Drakina.

Royal dragon shifter Drakina has a quest of her own, to seduce her destined mate and conceive the crown prince of Incendium. Her father will free her from all other responsibilities if she completes this one task. Drakina craves her independence enough to seduce the unattractive Terran who is the Carrier of the Seed. She’s sure it will be a quick seduction—until she meets Troy.

Worlds collide when Troy and Drakina meet, and passion flares. The attraction is so powerful that they both choose to put their goals aside for one night of passion together. When their respective secrets are revealed, will the truth turn one against the other? Or will destiny allow this star-crossed pair to save each other and their unborn son?

Minibook edition, which includes Nero's Dream.

My Review:

This novel was fun, funny, and endlessly hot. Cooke has taken an out of this world idea and woven it together with a rewarding relationship and some quite surprising twists to create a plot that kept me glued to the pages (or thinking about them when I had to get back to work). She left me a little broken inside at times, but the heartbreak was well worth the fantastic tale that I journeyed. Cooke’s world building was perfect. She allowed readers to picture the world and the events surrounding her characters, without taking away their ability to use their imagination. The history and politics of Incendium are presented without bogging down the plot. This was a fantastic start to hot new series. The relationship between the main characters sizzles while the action kept me on my toes.

And don’t even get me started on the characters. I’ve never met a character who could make me laugh while breaking my heart before. Cooke has developed the main characters of this tale so well and subtly that I felt as if I knew them personally without ever actually having to stop my journey to get to know them. They were the type of character that I could laugh & cry with, but also the type that I wanted to be. I love how strong they both were, but still with vulnerability. I also enjoyed the peek that we got at the royal house of Incendium, hinting towards future novels and placing our heroine into a greater context.

This may have been my first novel by this talented author, but it’s definitely sparked me to pop more of her work to the top of my TBR pile. I can’t wait for the sequel to this series or to delve further into other worlds that she’s created. If this novel is any indication, she will be quickly becoming a ‘go-to’ author for me.