Reviewed by Kat

TITLE: Healing The Dragon’s Heart

SERIES:  A Heartstone Rescue Prequel/Valleywood (Book 21)

AUTHOR: Minerva Howe

PUBLISHER: Turtlehat Creatives

LENGTH: 137 pages

RELEASE DATE: July 31, 2023

BLURB:

Dragon shifter and Valleywood talent agent James “Jack” Lane doesn’t have a lot of time in his schedule for nonsense. So when someone from his past shows up in his office, James has every intention of sending the guy away. Even if he was once James’s betrothed, an arrangement made when they were just children.

Dexter Erega doesn’t have a lot of time left. In dragon society, once a mate is cast aside, his heartstone is broken, and he’s locked away until he dies. Dex has managed to get away from that life, but he needs James to officially sign the papers releasing him from their marriage arrangement.

James had no idea his family would follow through on such a barbaric act, and now he feels like he needs to make things up to Dex. That starts them on a journey deep into the Colorado mountains to a Seer who can help, and who might be the key to Dex getting his life back. Can James convince Dex it’s a life he wants to share as his mate?

Note: This is a Valleywood mpreg story, but it is also the prequel to Mending the Dragon’s Heart, and a Heartstone Rescue novella.

REVIEW:

What a treat to get the prequel to Mending the Dragon’s Heart. So many questions are now answered.

Jack Lane is a very busy and important man in Valleywood. He’s a high-powered talent agent and now diving into being a successful producer. He’s also a high-energy mover and shaker in all the Valleywood entertainment industry scene. So when his assistant Holly is waylaid, with is much needed morning coffee and treat from Rocky Mountain Java, he wants to know what is keeping her so long. Her answer of being held up because he had a visitor that was his fiancé Jack is momentarily set back on his heal. Dexter Erega life is fading fast since his Heartstone was destroyed when the Alpha he was mated with declined the mating to run off chasing his Valleywood dreams. Now all Dex needs is James, his chosen mate by the seer now called Jack, to sign his release from responsibilities so he can go to the meager cabin in the woods to hopefully finish his novel before his passing. Jack is completely baffled and appalled by the events that happened after his departure. He had no idea of the barbaric act of destroying a shunned mate’s Heartstone and then hidden in exile. Now Jack had to make things right for the sweet omega…but does he have enough time to do so? And can his friend/seer Cain help them?

Oh how tragic the events that lead to Dexter’s almost demise were heartbreaking. And Jack’s desire to live the life he wanted but was never explained the consequences of this choice were hard to read too. But to shatter a Heartstone of an omega who was rejected for no fault of their own and banished to die was criminal. I loved that Jack took ownership of the situation immediately. He was bound and determined to right the wrong and watching the change that incurred in him because of this was touching. But seeing what two powerful and determined Alphas like Cain and Jack could achieve when they decided to work together to save more omegas like Dex was both exciting and rewarding.

I loved both Dex and Jack. Jack realizing what he had lost by ignoring the seer’s mating was touching. I think the way the families went about this all was the true tragedy though. Barbaric rituals and old time joining of families needs to be changed. These men were mates but they needs wisdom and age plus’s time to realize this. And all the consequences of ignoring the mating should have been revealed before the final rejection was made.

I truly enjoyed this book. We had met so many of the main characters of Cain’s new haven and Omega sanctuary already in Mending the Dragon’s Heart and Jack a bit in Coffee and Honeybuns, where he enjoyed his daily caffeine breaks. This book takes place before Mending and after Coffee. I had wondered about all the characters when Reno, Durango and Boone were sent by Cain on the dangerous rescue mission for Lake that resulted in his mating with Boone and Dex’s friendship with Lake. Also how Rowan became the midwife of the haven. This book really explains how all of the sanctuary in valley surrounded by the mountains of Colorado came to be. And why Cain was in procession of the magical heartstones.

I am hoping we will sill get Durango and Reno’s books and more stories of the reduced omegas that need all this haven’s help. I am really loving this particular series set in Minerva’s Dragon Veil universe.

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

Amazon