Reviewed by Chris

TITLE:  The Only Option

SERIES:  Dubious #4

AUTHOR:  Megan Derr

PUBLISHER:  OmniLit / All Romance eBooks, LLC

LENGTH:  89 pages

RELEASE DATE:  May 1, 2016

BLURB:  

A desperate dragon. A lonely necromancer. A marriage neither wants.

When he is summoned to the royal castle, Rochus anticipates nothing more than a particularly difficult assignment. The bothersome journey is almost made worthwhile when he is propositioned by a young, beautiful dragon, Tilo, who seems untroubled by the fact that Rochus is a necromancer.

When Rochus arrives at the castle he is ordered to marry the very same dragon he spent the night with. Though Rochus would rather sign papers and return home, he is helpless against Tilo’s pleas for help, even if it means spending more time around a man he is desperately drawn to but who doesn’t seem to want him.

REVIEW:  

Necromancers are not exactly the most well liked people. Maybe it is the magic, maybe it is their pale skin and dark teeth. Maybe it is the tendency to enjoy a nice warm cup of blood for dinner (and, no, he is not a vampire, he is a civilized, capable necromancer of forty-three, not some ravening monster). Anyways, they are not what anyone would consider the most likely choice for a bed-partner. Which makes it all the more suspicious that such a young and pretty dragon would practically (and literally) throw himself at Rochus and beg him to bed him. Suspicious and well. Tempting. Very tempting. And it’s not like anyone ever said that necromancers lived to ripe old ages because of their wits and cunning. If the dragon was so intent on bedding him, who was going to complain, really? He wasn’t going to.

Not till the next day. Not till he finds himself married to the dragon against his will and probably all good sense. Not till he figures out that the dragon had known exactly who he was that night at the inn. Not till he finds himself once again alone and married and really wanting to just hit something. Not till he starts to fall for his husband. Then, then he might have a few things to complain about.

If there is one thing that I know it is that if Megan Derr is writing about a dragon, then I want to read it. Don’t know how she does it, and with such variation, but she seems to bring to life on the page all the things I love about dragons and their various abilities and personalities. Tilo doesn’t get center stage here (though I am hard pressed to complain since I enjoyed Rochus so very much) but everything about this dragon was just exactly how I love it. Plus dragon fights are cool. Dragon fights with what amounts to a zombie dragon is even better. Only wish there had been more time spent on it. I’d have loved to see a full out battle between the two (or three or four) of them.

Rochus was a great main character. he is nearly twice Tilo’s age, but despite that (or maybe even because of that) he wasn’t exactly the most to-gether guy around. Ok, when it comes to magic he is pretty kick-ass, but let’s just say that affairs of the heart have left him a wee bit wary of pretty young things that come courting him (into dark alleys where their friends wait to play). The ups and downs of his a Tilo’s relationship played out really well here, though. And forced marriages are probably my all time favorite trope. I just eat them up. How they work out how they actually feel about each other, inter-spliced with some pretty cool action scenes, made this book a joy to read.

For all that this was less than 100 pages long it didn’t feel at all rushed. For the most part. That last bit was, I admit, a bit of a let down. I was expecting a big ol’ fight or something, not for all the action to happen off page and very rushed through. I get wanting to get to the bit where Tilo and Rochus figure shit out, but that kinda killed all the momentum of the story right there. This story was well on its way to being one of my favorite’s of Derr’s but it got knocked back a little by that extremely rushed climax (at least to the action parts of the story). The resolution to the romance definitely saved things a bit (loved the whole courting gifts things), but I wish it could have spent a bit more time wrapping the whole story up, not just Tilo and Rochus.

This was a highly enjoyable story though and I have to say I totally recommend it. Especially for you lovers of forced-marriages out there.

RATING:  

BUY LINKS:

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