Review: Protector Dragon by Liv Rider
Blurb:
Shifters ruined his life. How can he be falling in love with one?
Growing up the only human in a shifter town, Joel has been an outcast his entire life - not even his own family let him forget how weak humans are. Running away was his only chance at a normal life, and he's been avoiding shifters ever since. But when his job working in a coffee shop puts him in a room full of shifters, he has to confront his worst fears. He's just not sure if he should be alarmed or happy that the hottest guy he's ever met is determined to talk to him. After all, everyone knows shifters aren't attracted to humans.
Dragon shifter Thomas Rollins thought nothing could be more difficult than resolving arguments between the shifters in his district. But when he meets his fated mate Joel, he has no clue how to get the suspicious human to talk to him for more than five minutes, never mind go out on a date. When he learns about Joel's past, he's determined to prove shifters and humans can get along very well.
Just as Joel is starting to let his guard down, his family finds him and forces him to come back to a place he refuses to call home. Can the trust Joel and Thomas have started to build survive the ultimate test?
Protector Dragon is a m/m paranormal dragon shifter/human romance with a HEA and no cliffhangers. It is the first book in the Lewiston Dragons series, followed by Halloween Dragon and Wedding Dragon. All books can be read separately.
Review:
Yes, I know I’m reading these out of order, but I do appreciate the fact that their standalone nature makes it possible for me to do this. As in, this is the second book in the Lewiston Dragons series by Liv Rider (my first introduction to this series and author was Wedding Dragon and you can read my review on that here).
But! Onto this story! Protector Dragon is the first in the series and has a different feel from the third I’ve read. I have to admit, if I had read this one first, I’m not sure if I would’ve continued the series, since my main goal with picking these books up was to get me out of a reading slump with a nice low-stakes brain melt.
While Protector Dragon had that same feel, the blurb made it sound a lot more serious (plus the fact that it is categorized as a kidnapping thriller?). In fact, the blurb says it all and what’s going to happen, but it also makes me feel like there should have been more happening. The story of Joel leaving behind his family and running away and why felt very realistic and reminded me a lot of other stories I’ve read where, for various reasons, the main character has to run away. He is living the good life, in hiding and always looking over his shoulder, and he is good at hiding.
Until he meets Thomas, because - of course the problems start when you meet a boy. While I really appreciate the open communication between the two characters, there were some moments when they talked where I felt like Joel should have been insulted or taken Thomas’s words a different way and the fact that he glossed over it - made me gloss over the conversation too. They were important and made sense to both the plot and my rabid-hallmark-movie-needing-brain, but they also felt underwhelming.
Which is why when the big point of Joel’s family finding him and forcing him to come home came - I was underwhelmed. The entire book gave me those happy low-stakes, cozy, no fighting, romantic story vibes - until that moment. And the resolution to it as well left me wanting. I’m sure that the latter is due to my own involvement in epic fantasies where the climax is all out, but the resolution here didn’t fit either the fantasy vibes or the hallmark-movie vibes. It, again, felt underwhelming. In fact, I wouldn’t put this as a thriller, let alone a kidnapping thriller.
I do have to say though, that I’m glad I met Thomas and I do love his relationship with the other two dragon shifters (one of which was one of the main characters from the other book). In fact, I love his relationship and friendship with them so much that - hey what, third book is on my TBR! I’m curious to see how Liv Rider will introduce the same concept with that character and what challenges they will have.
Overall, this was such a quick read (in a day!) that kept going with really good pacing and just enough stakes to make me want to keep flipping the pages. The spice was hot, though like the rest of the more major plot points it felt - underwhelming. And, unfortunately, so did the ending. However! However, that ending I think worked really well because of the POV and the character’s own internals.
Summary
Romance: main
Spice: 3/5
POVs: third, dual
Tense: past
