113. How to Date Your Dragon by Molly Harper

listened on Audible

2018

200 estimated pgs. 6 hrs+ audible only)
Adult Fant/Romance
Finished 12/14/2021
Goodreads rating: 3.94
My rating: 2
Setting: supposedly contemporary Louisiana bayou town

My comments: Absolutely ridiculous story, why do I waste my time with such trite trash?  An anthropologist goes to Louisiana bayou town to discover how all the shape-shifters there get along with each other so well.  Of course, as soon as she arrives, murders begin to happen.  The story skips around a lot and develops weirdly.  I'm not a big fan of the southern accents that were used, either, though I'm sure they depicted what people who live there might sound like. Just not good.

Goodreads synopsis:  Anthropologist Jillian Ramsay's career has taken a turn south.

Concerned that technology is about to chase mythological creatures out into the open (how long can Sasquatch stay hidden from Google maps?), the League for Interspecies Cooperation is sending Jillian to Louisiana on a fact-finding mission. While the League hopes to hold on to secrecy for a little bit longer, they're preparing for the worst in terms of human reactions. They need a plan, so they look to Mystic Bayou, a tiny town hidden in the swamp where humans and supernatural residents have been living in harmony for generations. Mermaids and gator shifters swim in the bayou. Spirit bottles light the front porches after twilight. Dragons light the fires under crayfish pots.

Jillian's first assignment for the League could be her last. Mystic Bayou is wary of outsiders, and she has difficulty getting locals to talk to her. And she can't get the gruff town sheriff, Bael Boone, off of her back or out of her mind. Bael is the finest male specimen she's seen in a long time, even though he might not be human. Soon their flirtation is hotter than a dragon's breath, which Bael just might turn out to be.... 

91. Veronica's Dragon by Ruby Dixon

#2 Icehome
listened to audio on AudEsc
narrated by Sean Crisden & Felicity Monroe
Unabridged audio (8:01)
2018
280 pgs.
Adult steamy sci-fi
Finished 6/6/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.22 - 3569 ratings
My rating: blah!

First line/s: "When I awaken a variety of smells assaults my senses."

My comments: Okay, it's seriously time to stop reading these.  They're becoming repetitious...incredibly repetitious ... slow and way too much of the steamy stuff!  I love the basic outline of the si-fi story, but not much else.

Goodreads synopsis:  Resonance.
          It’s a given on the ice planet, forced upon you by the parasitic symbiont called the ‘khui’. With resonance, a guy and a girl are paired up because they’ll make great babies. It’s a survival mechanism necessary for this sparsely-populated world we’re stranded on… and romantic, in a weird, alien way.
          Everyone expects resonance to happen when twenty newcomers are dropped onto the frosty world. I doubt anyone expects the gorgeous, golden god named Ashtar to resonate to someone like me, though. He’s fierce. Flirty. Powerful. Disgustingly handsome.
          I’m… not any of those things. I’m bland. Boring. Clumsy.
          But resonance seems to think we’d be great together. And Ashtar does, too…___
          The Icehome series features all of the adventure, humor and community you’ve come to expect in the Ice Planet Barbarians series, but it stands on its own. You do not need to read the other series (or be caught up) in order to read VERONICA’S DRAGON. I do recommend reading LAUREN’S BARBARIAN to get the full experience. Enjoy!

65. Fire in His Blood - Ruby Dixon

Listened to on Audible Escape
narrated by  Noelle Bridges and Jeremy York
Unabridged audio (11:28)
2017
331 pgs.
Adult Steamy SciFi Dystopia
Finished 4/15/2020
Goodreads rating:  3.80 - 7928 ratings
My rating: 3
Setting:  Dystopian Dallas TX

First line/s:  "As far as jail cells go, this one's pretty decent."

My comments:  This 12-hour book could've easily been told in six, there was so much repetition of the same old anxieties and worries and passionate scenes.  The story itself was quite fascinating: shape shifting dragons who have come through a crack in the world, and in that span unable to return to their world, have more or less gone mad.  Therefore they attack with mighty fire everything in their path.  The world as humans know it is now forever changed and that's where the story starts, in the desolate poverty-stricken area that is left of Dallas.  The story is mostly told by Claudia, with a few chapters in the dragon-man's voice.  Not a bad story all-in-all, jut too much of it!

Goodreads synopsis:  Years ago, the skies ripped open and the world was destroyed in fire and ash. Dragons - once creatures of legend - are the enemy. Vicious and unpredictable, they rule the skies of the ruined cities, forcing humanity to huddle behind barricades for safety.
          Claudia's a survivor. She scrapes by as best as she can in a hard, dangerous world. When she runs afoul of the law, she's left as bait in dragon territory. She only has one chance to survive - to somehow 'tame' a dragon and get it to obey her.
          Except the dragon that finds her is as wild and brutal as any other...and he's not interested in obeying.
          What he is interested in is a mate. 

42. Sacrificed to the Dragon by Jessie Donovan

#1 Stonefire Dragons
Listened to Audible on Chirp
narrated by Matthew Lloyd Davies
Unabridged audio (6:29)
2014 Mythical Lake Press
258 pgs.
Adult Fantasy Steamy Romance
Finished 3/2/2020
Goodreads rating: 3.89 - 7062 ratings
My rating: 2.5
Setting:  United Kingdom

First line/s: "Melanie Hall sat in the reception area of the Manchester Dragon Affairs Office, tapping her finger against her arm, and wishing they'd hurry the hell up."

My comments:  (The interesting concept here is that a dragon lives INSIDE the shifter, not that the dragon and the person are one in the same.)  The narrator changed voices a lot, depending on the person he was speaking for, but he made Tristan's dragon sound like an imbecile.  Very offputting.  You got to know the two protagonists' characteristics pretty well, but all the others were pretty flat.  I woldn've also liked a bit more description of the setting.  Yes, there were steamy parts, but there was a lot otf talking, thinking, discussion about the same things over and over again.  It did seem to go on and on, there were absolutely no surprises, and everything seemed....well, flat.  Even the actufaal shape shifting couldn've used a lot more description.  Oh well, I did not expect much.

Goodreads synopsis:  In exchange for a vial of dragon’s blood to save her brother’s life, Melanie Hall offers herself up as a sacrifice to one of the British dragon-shifter clans. Being a sacrifice means signing a contract to live with the dragon-shifters for six months to try to conceive a child. Her assigned dragonman, however, is anything but easy. He’s tall, broody, and alpha to the core. There’s only one problem—he hates humans.
          Due to human dragon hunters killing his mother, Tristan MacLeod despises humans. Unfortunately, his clan is in desperate need of offspring to repopulate their numbers and it’s his turn to service a human female. Despite his plans to have sex with her and walk away, his inner dragon has other ideas. The curvy human female tempts his inner beast like no other.          
NOTE: This is the entire first story arc of the Stonefire Dragons, complete with a HEA and no cliffhangers.

MOVIE - How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World

PG (1:50)

Wide release 2/22/2019

Viewed after school on 2/25/29 with Tristan at Carlisle 8

RT Critic:  91  Audience:  87

Critic's Consensus:  The rare trilogy capper that really works, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World brings its saga to a visually dazzling and emotionally affecting conclusion.

Cag:  3.5 

Directed by Dean DeBlois

Universal Pictures

My comments:  Definitely better than some of the previous "animated" movies I've seen...kept me entertained and Tristan enthralled.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Now chief and ruler of Berk alongside Astrid, Hiccup has created a gloriously chaotic dragon utopia. When the sudden appearance of female Light Fury coincides with the darkest threat their village has ever faced, Hiccup and Toothless must leave the only home they've known and journey to a hidden world thought only to exist in myth. As their true destines are revealed, dragon and rider will fight together-to the very ends of the Earth-to protect everything they've grown to treasure.

The Pet Dragon - Christoph Niemann

A Story about Adventure, Friendship, and Chinese Characters
2008
Rating: 4
For: Kids and anyone wanting to learn Chinese characters
$16.99
Endpapers: pale teal with white Chinese characters and illustrations from the book

Simple folk-type story that introduces 33 Chinese characters, which are superimposed into the illustrations as well as shown at the bottom of the page. Lots of reds and teals, simple, cute illustrations that perfectly match the tale.

Lin receives a baby dragon as a pet, and they spend their days playing with each other. While playing soccer in the house the abreak a vase, and Lin's father decides the dragon must stay in a cage. The next day, the dragon is gone. Lin goes travels the countryside trying to find him, and is aided by a witch until pet and girl are reunited once again.

This is a clever way to share another culture with children, writing some of the characters afterwards would be a great project.