Rating: 3.5 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Azaran is a dragon rider. His father was the leader of the Brotherhood of the Ormarr and, as the first born, one day the honor will be his. When he was eighteen, Azaran’s parents were murdered and since he was not of age yet to be leader, the honor passed to his uncle. Azaran was then responsible for training and raising his younger brothers and the group goes out on rescue missions. Azaran has a lot to handle and while he knows he has a mate somewhere out there, being responsible for one more person is more than he can handle. Or so he thinks until he gets to know Toby, because one look and Azaran knows that Toby is his.
Toby always wanted to help people and becoming a doctor was natural to him. But he is burnt out with his patients not getting the care they need due to issues with insurance. A vacation is in order and the oceanside village on the other side of the country is exactly what he needs. Except, when Toby’s medical assistance is needed, he’s put into the middle of a world that can’t possibly be real. A world where dragons exist and men ride them through the skies. Men like Azaran, to whom Toby is inexplicably drawn. Azaran thinks he will need to look after Toby, but Toby can take care of himself, as well as Azaran and his brothers. Getting used to this new world and finding out he has a mate takes a little adjustment, but the men were born to be together.
Azaran opens a new series about brothers that are dragon riders and the premise was fun. The men are not shifters and are bonded to a dragon that they can call forth from a tattoo on their arm. It’s something they were born into and their existence is mostly kept hidden, except from those that call upon them for search and rescue operations.
This book introduces all of the brothers, as well as their dragons, who have their own personalities and I enjoyed the on page time for the dragons as much as the brothers. The story focuses on the oldest brother, Azaran, and Toby, who is his mate. Toby just needed a vacation and while he knew he was looking for something, he never could have expected what waited for him. He had no idea that dragons existed, that there were dragon riders, and that one of them was his mate. The men are drawn to each other as fated mates are, but Toby doesn’t understand what is happening and Azaran is not ready to accept that he has found his mate, but the men have little choice as the pull toward each other is extreme.
Toby fits in with the brothers and the dragons well, and can easily uproot his life to the other side of the country. Once he has found Azaran, he simply cannot imagine life without him and the initial pull of the fated mates is done well. As their relationship progressed, while I liked their story, it was harder at times to fully lose myself in the book and forget I was reading as the writing didn’t allow for that for me.
There is a larger plot that will continue on throughout the series as the dragon riders encounter trouble on each of their missions with wraiths and riders knowing exactly where they are at all times. This aspect wasn’t well developed yet as it was not clear who was actually hiring the brothers for these missions and then the riders and wraiths sent to derail them were ill-equipped and were barely a barrier for the well-trained brothers. The epilogue moves the larger plot forward and can it be that the “bad guy” is that obvious from a few paragraphs? I will wait and see.
There will be four books in this series and they will all be written by different authors. It will then be interesting to see how each author handles the mating of each brother and then the larger plot. While I did have some reservations, overall, Azaran was an easy read with interesting characters in a world where men ride dragons.
