The Highland Dragon’s Lady (Highland Dragons # 2) by Isabel Cooper
Historical/PNR/Fantasy
Released December 2, 2014
Sourcebooks Casablanca

 Reviewed by Sheena

Favorite Quote: “I didn’t even know your sort enjoyed young women, ” she said, by way of firing another shotacross his bow, “at least not in any way but dinner…

“Myth and fable, I assure you,” said Colin.  “Oh there’s a villain in every family, if you look hard enough.  A great-great-great uncle might have breakfasted on the occasional peasant.

Umm *wrings hands* Right.  So.  I read this book about an Arya Stark-ish heroine in a part historical romance, part paranormal fantasy novel where her hero is more Clark Kent than Superman if you know what I mean.  First, I will say that the author has a pretty good voice in there somewhere….buried beneath a lot of….stuff…deep down perhaps, but it’s there nonetheless.  I think my problem began with being sold on a hot cover and interesting blurb- but in actuality meeting a dewbish hero and muddled plot.  Midway through the novel, I didn’t know what I wanted to happen and not because I was torn between more than one awesome but polarizing potential outcomes- but because I was working too damn hard to keep the world building and plot straight and trying to convince myself that the hero has functioning not just decorative balls. *sigh*   So here’s what we’ve got:

Regina Talbot-Jones has always known her rambling family home was haunted. She also knows her brother has invited one of his friends to attend an ill-conceived séance. She didn’t count on that friend being so handsome… and she certainly didn’t expect him to be a dragon.

Scottish Highlander Colin MacAlasdair has hidden his true nature for his entire life, but the moment he sets eyes on Regina, he knows he has to have her. In his hundreds of years, he’s never met a woman who could understand him so thoroughly… or touch him so deeply. Bound by their mutual loneliness, drawn by the fire awakening inside of them, Colin and Regina must work together to defeat a vengeful spirit – and discover whether their growing love is powerful enough to defy convention.

We meet Regina right away and in a very confusing but interesting scene where we see she is adventurous, unconventional and not at all your average young woman of Victorian England.  She has a reputation near tatters could care less and calls herself Reggie for emphasis.  She swings from trees and climbs upon roof tops and though she has a family that loves her dearly, she is sadly resigned to be alone. She has a magical gift akin to soul reading, where she can get impressions of memories and feelings, emotions, with skin to skin contact.   Colin MacAlasdair is not sexy. I mean we are told he is and Reggie gets the hots for him often enough but I’m not buying.  I did like his wit and reasoning and the banter between he and Reggie was the best part of the novel, but he was so not a hero I was hoping would swoop me up and take me.  And he is a beast for crying out loud!!!   A Dragon.  A Scottish Highland Dragon shifter…and he comes across severely passive and very luke warm. He does mention having a Dragon shifter brother, Stephen, who is supposed to be all brawn and likes to fight…maybe I will seek him out- Alpha starved as I am with Colin…

Invited to the family home by Reggie’s (possibly gay) brother to investigate a haunting, Colin and Reggie come together as a sort of ghost buster team and begin to fall in…mutual lust and interest.  They have sex and then kind of haphazardly agree upon an engagement for propriety’s sake  in what must be the most cerebral and clinical marriage proposal ever.  Though, I appreciate the absence of insta-love- and I could appreciate Colin’s honesty about not knowing exactly what he felt for Reggie, I was hoping the plot development would steer them towards a more believable HEA.  Ultimately, of course we find them in love by books end, but even then there is no real plan for their future.  Just a pronouncement that they will be together come what may to be taken day by day.  Umm excuse me- what!!??  What are their plans for her life expectancy?  What will they do about children?  Will she take the risk inherent to living a long life with Colin?  I’m not entirely sure and I wish the reader were left with a more solid knowledge for their future.

Genre bending is cool when it works, but unfortunately, I do not believe it worked so well in The Highland Dragon’s Lady.  The story was flat and the Hero was forgettable  and not at all what a dominant dragon shifting highlander man should be. I should have shivered in wanton need each time he appeared on the page and not do the squinty-eye peer at my e-reader screen wondering where’s the beef?  I felt sorry for my heroine- poor lass didn’t even get to get ravished by a hot dragon…more like the hot dragon shifter’s gecko side kick got to hit it instead.  Wouldn’t you be pissed if you gave your maiden head to an uninspiring, kind of light in the loafers  dragon shifter when you could have and should have had the hottest, top of the food chain, fire breathing, Highland dragon male ravish you instead?  Just sayin.

“He looked down at Reggie.  She was smiling in a sleepy, sated way, which boded well.  Even the dim vestiges of chivalry couldn’t make Colin reproach himself.  She’d taken the lead quite handily when matters had come to a point, and he thought she might pinch him if he asked whether she was all right….Colin realized he couldn’t think of anything to say.  HGe coiled and uncoiled a strand of Reggie’s hair and tried to come up with an appropriate comment: witty yet considerate, yet not so considerate as to seem patronizing…”

Though the plot was cluttered, the moments that counted most happened when Reggie and Colin were simply relating to one another.  Planning and plotting and bonding over their often isolated feelings, in these moments I found the characters likable.

All in all this was a very demanding read, not easy to lose yourself in the story and I will not likely continue this particular journey.  There is a book 3 in 2015 and book 1, Legend of the Highland Dragon is available now.

 Grade C-

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