Dragon Unleashed by Grace Draven
Fallen Empire #2
Fantasy Romance
June 9, 2020 by Ace
ARC

Favorite Quote:

“You will always have a place among us, a place beside me, in life and beyond death when the earth sings us to dust and tells the wind of how Halani of the Lightning loved a draga and he loved her in return.”

I’ve never made any secret of the fact that I am unabashedly a Grace Draven fangirl and have loved all her work. Dragon Unleashed is the second novel in her Fallen Empire series and features a draga on a quest and an earth witch who is a member of a traveling group of traders.

This book felt different than its predecessor. While Phoenix Unbound kind of kicks off the series with a bang, Dragon Unleashed is paced in an unhurried way. Most of the action takes place in the second half, which means that the first half is build-up and backstory, learning about our characters and watching their relationship unfold in a sort of leisurely fashion. Honestly? It took me a few chapters to really become engaged. I knew there would be a big pay-off because this author always delivers, but I wondered how long it would take the pacing to pick up.

Readers first meet Halani in the first book in the series. She has spent her life as part of a traveling caravan of free traders. Her gifts lie in earth magic, healing, and helping her uncle as one of the leaders of her people.

Malachus is on a quest to find his mother bond. As a draga, he is trapped in the guise of a man until he can merge with the gift left by his mother and become his true self. His search leads him to a market where he is ambushed and injured, but then rescued and nursed back to health by Halani.

What he doesn’t know is that her uncle is now in possession of his mother-bond.

The romance between them slowly builds as they discover and confide in each other, so that trust and love start to grow. It’s a soft, patient sort of romance full of longing and hope and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them fall in love. Their HEA was so lovely.

The second half of the book is where the action picks up tremendously and the main conflict really kicks off. The villain is once again Dalvila, the Spider of the Empire, and she is convinced that drinking the blood of a draga will help her regrow the arm she lost in her last battle. I knew the slow build-up would be worth the wait and it really was. The climax is awesome. Draven shapes her dragon lore with scenes of storytelling among the traders so that by the time readers get to see the final scenes they are on the edge of their seat in anticipation.

I’m not sure who will feature in the next book in the series, but I do have a sense that we haven’t seen the last of Gharek and the mysterious Siora. No matter who it is, I look forward to my next adventure in this world.

Final grade- B

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