Dragan by D.B. Reynolds

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-- One sexy stone warrior for me --

An evil curse locked four warriors in stone. Statues for centuries, only a pure woman who could see beyond the physical could free them. One such woman was Maeve Collins. She approached Dragan's statue with compassion and spoke to it as if it were a real person. How was she to know that he was real, wings and all? Once freed, Dragan needs to connect with his brotherhood - the great sorcerer, Nicodemus, and the others who were now free from their stone prisons. However, the wicked sorcerer who cursed them in the first place won't make their reunion so easy. He's desperate to take over the world, by any means necessary, and Nico and his warriors are the only beings standing in his way. Luckily, Dragan and his friends never shy away from a fight. With a hot and sexy romance developing and an encroaching battle on the horizon, Dragan is a read not to be missed!

Some of the things I liked were:
⚔️ Dragan of course. Who can resist an incredibly chiseled wall of muscle with a glorious face and a personality to match? He was strong and kind and passionate and fearsome and courageous and... I could definitely go on, but you should really read the book to find out why he was so easy to love.
⚔️ the magical elements. I love the idea of curses and legends and the like. I'm eager to read Nico's story because I'm sure even more magic will be found in it.
⚔️ Dragan's back story. My heart broke for the hero that no one cared for. He risked his life, day after day, to keep people safe because 'that was his job', but there was no appreciation. No kindness. No sincerity. Then he finds fellow warriors, creates a family, only to be cursed for millenia and end up in another world. His luck sucked! I believe the author did an amazing job of developing this character. He had a vulnerability to him that I really appreciated, despite his overwhelming strength, making him a hero in every sense of the word.

If you are a lover of the unrealistic and yet fantastic, you won't want to pass on this story. It's got magic out the ying yang, an inevitable love story, interesting characters, and a segue into what comes next. That epilogue really got my attention!!

• ────── ✾ ────── •

So if I loved it so much, why not 5 stars? There's this line:

"I'm as capable as you are of defending both of us."

What?

I can't even count the amount of times this character, Maeve, went on about how she was unprepared for real life. She's a self-admitted computer geek who likes antiques and is a decent shot. Okay, so you own a gun and know how to shoot it. Probably learned at a gun range or something. And your fighting skills were received from some self-defense courses you received in college. Sooo... not elite martial arts or anything. How does that prepare you for taking on actual bad guys who are INTENT on KILLING YOU?! That's all I'm saying. You're telling a man who lived to kill. Who has killed. Who will kill again and feel NO WAYS about it because it needs to be done and you want to say that you're equally as capable?

Nope.
No.
Cut. It. Out.

I'm all for women feeling and believing that they can do everything that a man can do, but I'm not down with feeding into your delusion. If a man is say... someone who was in black ops and you teach art classes, YOU ARE NOT in his league when it comes down to a fight.

So yeah. That's one point off right there.

-- About the Book --

Dragan Fiachna, heir to the curse of royal blood, a horror hiding behind a beautiful face . . . you shall remain locked in stone until a maiden, untested and pure, shall find grace in your beast and safety in your nightmare.

Dragan Fiachna, born to a life of loneliness, cast into stone by a sorcerer’s curse and imprisoned forever in darkness. He is freed at last, only to discover his enemy still lives and is plotting the death of millions in his quest to rule this new world.

Maeve Collins, brilliant, courageous, and compassionate enough to believe a stone statue can have a soul. Shocked when her beautiful winged man breaks free, horrified at the torment he’s endured, she dedicates herself to reuniting him with the warriors he calls family.

But she never planned on falling in love.

Racing across half the country in search of the only man who can stop their foe from fulfilling his merciless scheme, Dragan and Maeve discover they’ve unwittingly stolen the one artifact that can defeat their enemy. And he wants it back. Pursued by assassins, they fight their way to Dragan’s brothers, only to discover the war for this world has already begun...

-- Who is D.B. Reynolds? --

D. B. Reynolds is the RT and EPIC Award-Winning author of several Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy stories, including the very popular Vampires in America. An Emmy-nominated television sound editor, she lives in a flammable canyon near Los Angeles, and when she's not writing her own books, she can usually be found reading someone else's. Visit her blog at www.dbreynolds.com for details on all of her books, free stories, and more.

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