Early Review: Dragon Awakened by Jaime Rush
After a slow and shaky start, Dragon Awakened hit its stride and became quite the enjoyable read for me. I had a little difficulty getting my bearings at first – the lingo was a little different from what I am used to in paranormal romance and urban fantasy. As soon as I figured it out, (and this could just be me) I was captivated by the story.
The author builds an intriguing world that is hidden from the Mundanes (that would be us regular folks). Dragon Awakened has a population of Crescents who are people with magickal abilities. The Crescents originated from a sunken island in the Devil’s Triangle. They must live close to the Devil’s Triangle in order to replenish their magick through the Deus Vis. Conveniently, most of this magickal population lives near Miami.
The magickal people are called Deuces. Think sorcerers or mages. There are also all kinds of dragon shifters as well. To further complicate things, a bunch of deadly demons have been summoned to Miami in order to kill off one of our main characters.
The story begins as Ruby Salazaar witnesses the murder of her uncle and guardian by magickal means. Ruby has no idea that she possesses any magickal abilities and is surprised to find out that she needs to awaken her dragon. Cyn Valeron takes Ruby under his wing to mentor her in all things dragon. Only this relationship is about to get complicated. It seems that dragons are a lusty lot, especially newly awakened dragons. Ruby’s dragon is very much attracted to Cyn. Cyn feels as if he has found his soul mate, however there is a little complication to the relationship.
The story is told with excerpts in between chapters from the Book of the Hidden. The Book of the Hidden is a kind of history book which tells the story of the Princess Garnet and her Dragon prince. The events in The Book of the Hidden mirror the events in real life and it follows the progression of Garnet’s (Ruby’s) and the Dragon prince’s (Cyn’s) relationship.
I loved the main characters. Cyn was so strong and tough, yet he had feelings of remorse for the events of his past. Cyn’s dragon was magnificent and lethal, a real fighter. Ruby was a quick learner, embracing her dragon and running with her. I loved Ruby’s fiercely independent side and how she fought alongside Cyn. Cyn and Ruby’s relationship was nicely done. No insta-love, mated pair, soul mate moments. Rather, a yearning by their dragons for each other while their human sides got to know each other. And whoa, when they do get together, it’s pretty hot.
Dragon Awakened is a solid start to Jaime Rush’s new Hidden series. I’m looking forward to reading more books in this series. (And I just found out that there are 2 prequels which I need to go back and read!).
Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for a review copy of this book.
Review posted on Badass Book Reviews.
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