Book Review: Devoted to a Dragon by Lauren Connolly

★★★★ #DevotedtoaDragon #Sweet @LaurenaliciaCon #Autoread

If Ms. Connolly wrote it, I will read it. The latest romance is between high school sweethearts torn apart. There is the right amount of angst to push this compact story to a 4 star for me. I loved the characters. Lee and Esme flat out do it for me. Why? Because they both have determination and they cared not what others thought. They set a goal for themselves and singularly focused on it to make it a reality. This kind of drive will always appeal to me.

What I like about Ms. Connolly's writing is her character development. The romances are sweet but not what pulls me in. It's the characters and how they deal with obstacles and difficulties in their life. Lee's been betrayed in the worst of ways. He could have spiraled down. Instead, he fought to regain what he truly desired. Returning back to where he grew up so that he could find the love of his life again is a swoon worthy romantic gesture. What Ms. Connolly does is up the difficulty by sharing just how hard it was for Lee to find his way back. This kind of character growth and building inspires me. Lee has a lot of great qualities and plenty of love to give. Usually in romance stories, the characters are lopsided. Either the male or female is overloaded with amazing qualities and the other one is meh. Usually those stories are a fail for me.

Esme was a bit iffy for me. After everything that has happened to Lee would she be worth his fight to get back to her? The last maybe 15% of the book teared me up with what Esme has been plotting and doing since Lee's been gone. She is 100% worthy of his dying devotion and a perfect match for him.

I would be remiss to remark about the "monsters" theme in this series. I am not sure if Ms. Connolly is laying the ground works for a big reveal or if this is her social commentary on interracial relationships. I am kind of hoping it is the former. I find it disturbing how isolated the "hybrids" are kept from the "purebred" shifters. I like how this is changing with the newer generation. Looking forward to the next book in this lovely series. This paranormal romance is highly recommended to readers who love dragons and a happily ever after.