Consorting with Dragons by Sera Trevor

Consorting with Dragons

Author: Sera Trevor
Title: Consorting with Dragons
Series: None
Genre: High Fantasy
Pairing: M/M
Rating: Four Petals

On the Author's Website:
http://www.seratrevor.com/consorting-with-dragons.html

Summary:
Lord Jasen of Grumhul, an impoverished young nobleman, has come to the Draelands to find a rich husband to help pay his father's debts. To the shock of everyone, he ends up attracting the attention of King Rilvor himself, and the dragons who control the magic in the land. Becoming royalty wasn’t something Jasen either expected or wanted, but he can’t control his growing feelings for kind and handsome king. Scheming factions at Court conspire to keep him from Rilvor’s side, and now Jasen has to decide if the chance at true love with Rilvor is worth the burden of being the husband of a king.

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Maggie's Rating: Four Petals

Maggie's Review:

I received this book as an ARC via the author in exchange for an honest review.

Jasen's father won a bet, which provided Jasen with the opportunity to be presented at the castle as a marriage prospect to wealthy lords and ladies who would hopefully be able to pay off his father's debts.  Jasen never expects to actually fall in love, let alone meet the king, but when political machinations start pulling them apart, Jasen knows he must sacrifice everything for the kingdom, even if it means destroying his chance of happiness. 

I did read the original short story this is an expanded version of.  I enjoyed it, but wished it were longer and had some of the stickier parts smoothed out.  This new version fixed a lot of that for me.  The expanded length allowed the story to flow better with more opportunities for Jasen and Rilvor to meet and for their relationship to blossom.   It also allowed for considerably more depth to the world building, including how the current arrangement with the dragons came into being and the politics of the court that influenced the entire marriage process.  I also liked the new aspects included in the story, particularly the extended visit to Grumhul, which gave much more insight into Jasen's character. 

However, despite this being the expanded version of a short story, there were still a lot of places where it came across as stilted and confined, much like the original version.  There were spots where more expansion was necessary, particularly the back history of Grumhul's queen--which felt like it was thrown in just to put words on the paper--and the history of why the dragons had so much involvement in the human world--which was told to us rather than shown.  It didn't detract from how much I enjoyed reading this story, but that little bit more would have catapulted the story into the next level. 


Maggie's Recommendation:

I really enjoyed the original short story this was expanded from and I have to say this expansion was even better.  It gave new insight to the characters and provided added depth to the plot and world building.  Overall, the story could have used some more expanding to fully realize the potential in the original short, but I definitely recommend this story and am secretly hoping for a sequel.