Fire and Fang

by Eden Cole

Brody arrived at the yearly meeting to discover the Draken council requires him to mate immediately. They've decided that he will be the first of the dragon shifters to mate with a male because of their dwindling numbers and few women. Only when a Draken mates can he shift into a powerful dragon. As if that wasn't bad enough, they've not only selected one man but two for him to mate with. Brody can't believe this is happening to him when the two men who bullied him as kids walk into the council chambers.

Parker's kiss, and Jax's touch send Brody running from the only home he's ever known, to cross into the human lands. He meets Matt on the way, a man he thinks is human. Matt is everything that his dragon mates are not. He's gentle and loving, and Brody learns to accept the feelings he's always had. When he doesn't shift to a dragon being with Matt, Brody thinks they can live happily together away from his homeland. But Parker and Jax will not give up on the man they have wanted for so long, even if it means hiring a werewolf to track him.

Genres: M M Romance, Paranormal, Shapeshifters, Menage, Dragons, Fantasy, Gay

68 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Eden Cole has been creating stories in her head since she was a small child. Love and romance, sensual pleasures find their voice in her erotic stories of romance. Fantasy, paranormal and science fiction are her favorite genres to write in.

Reviews

[Cole Riann · Rating 2 out of 5]

eh... 2.25 stars (rounded down)

Originally, this showed quite a bit of promise, but then every transition in plot (mostly in the last half) happened without being driven by the characters. To me, it almost seemed like a piano leading a singer instead of the singer properly leading the piano, if that makes sense. The characters just seemed to react and there was very little time spent on their depth of feeling and emotion. That reactionary type plot writing (like a WTF? deus ex machina) coupled with the superficial interpersonal relationships made this less than enjoyable for me.

I even expected the sex to be hot, because the type of sex in this book seemed more about the act and smut factor (which by itself wasn't bad, lol) rather than the development of the different relationships between the very different men. Still, the best part of well written smut is passion between the characters, and all of this made for some rather cut and dry scenes that, while maybe technically smutty (i.e. a 3-man train), still seemed rather dry and tended to confuse me about the characters rather than clarify them.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This sounded like an awesome story and I have enjoyed other shifter stories by Eden Cole, so I figured I would love this one, especially since it featured dragon shifters. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case here. I just couldn’t get into this story. One of my biggest problems? The fact that the four main characters don’t all get along with each other. I mean, there’s no affection whatsoever between Matt, and Jax and Parker. The only person they all have sex with or show any real affection to is Brody. Jax and Parker get along as friends but even they don’t really show caring about each other. And I know that just because you all care about the same person doesn’t mean you’ll fall in love with the others, but at the least you’d think they’d care about each other and eventually feel some affection for each other. The only reason Jax and Parker put up with Matt is because Brody makes them. What the heck? Would it kill them to show some affection for each other? I’m not saying they have to have sex, but couldn’t they at least, I don’t know, hug? Complement each other? Act like they like each other?

Second, Jax and Parker made Brody’s life miserable as kids and try to force him to mate. Brody runs and then the second they show up again he goes back with them? The only way he really stands up to them is by telling them they have to put up with Matt. And I don’t know about anyone else, but if two guys made me miserable throughout my childhood and pulled the crap Jax and Parker did to Brody on me, I would definitely make them do some begging and groveling for forgiveness before even thinking about mating them, yet Brody does it just because it’s his duty?? Really? First he runs away and now he wants to do his duty and mate them? Seems to me like a bit of a double standard or hypocrisy. Maybe that’s just me being cynical, but I think that’s highly unrealistic.

Third, what was up with the chameleon attack? It came out of nowhere, no warning, nada and did little for the story. I had a WTF? moment where I felt like I was reading something that belonged in a different story. I know it had been mentioned that Jax and Parker were fighters, but we hadn’t seen anything at all about that then, BLAM! Out of nowhere a convenient chameleon attack! At first I thought it would be a way for Matt to be accepted into the dragon community but nope. The only thing that occurs is Matt, Jax, and Parker get along and work together long enough to help Brody which I thought could have been achieved much more easily and in line with the story.

Anyways, those were three of my biggest problems with the story. There were a few others, but those were the big ones. All in all though, the story was decent. I was disappointed though because I know Ms. Cole can do much better than that and I have come to expect great things from here and this one just didn’t cut it. A decent, short, one time read if you’re looking for one, but if you’re looking for something more substantial and worth rereading, this one isn’t for you.

[Serena Yates · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of the story is interesting: Brody 'has to' mate with Parker and Jax, but wants to be with Matt, a non-dragon-shifter. At least once he has figured out that he is attracted to men in the first place.

Brody is confused, doesn't stand up for himself (this never changes) and, on the whole, just didn't inspire me much. The process of these four men figuring out how they will relate to each other was not really clear to me, I didn't manage to connect to Parker and Jax at all, and to Brody and Matt only to a certain degree. Many of the changes in attitude were unexplained, and while there was a plot, the connection to the characters eluded me.

However, the sex was hot, so if you're looking for a light read with lots of between-the-sheets action and dragon shifters who are too arrogant for their own good, you may like this book.

[Sapphera · Rating 1 out of 5]

To be frank, I never want to read this book again. Eden Cole can be a good author, but this is not an example if that. Although the front cover told me it would be about four chests, the story led me to believe it would be a pair in the end. From the start I hated Parker, and Jax was just his quiet sidekick, the author was able to get me to feel these emotions but it just led me to hate all of it.

Body's father was an existence that was forced and then promptly non existent. To go from definitely mating with a female to 'oh you can now mate with a male, and more than one' for the sake of clan purity was nonsense. It just sounded like they had forced their way into this mating to mess with Brody. The fact that the brothers marriage was a bad one told me that the society of dragons was broken and a waste, the mother being proud of the fact Brody was going to suffer in silence made me want to pull my hair out. Everything was set up to make me detest the society, so that when Brody left, I felt it was the right thing, I felt that Matt would be the right person for him.

But then he became forceful and Brody was coerced into sex with a stranger. The problem is that the author kept setting things up for no apparent reason. Any and all mentions of the families was a complete waste of time, they never appeared and when they did it was such a brief cameo that their introduction was a waste of words.

Matt initially shared Brody's dislike of the city, but instead of them moving to another place away from the city (since Matt's 'bum' status somehow meant he was wealthy, but not enough to not live in the city he hated) they essentially waited for the plot to follow them.

Nova's existence only confirmed my dislike of Parker, but was otherwise yet another worthless character designed to irritate me, or at least that's how it felt. He was just a convenient plot point to smooth out the bumps.

Parker and Jax's sudden appearance didn't start a fight or debate as expected, instead Brody spent time trying to close the gap between the mates and to fix plot-holes in the fact a mated dragon hadn't changed, suddenly becoming the fact that being announced as mates sealed the deal irrevocably. Which is nonsense? If I were a dragon I could just go up to a stranger, declare them my mate and they would be stuck with it? What if the partner dies?

Past this point everything just seemed a jumbled rush to get a plot in, with random sex thrown in for good measure. Brody who was ignorant about sex was suddenly fine with doing it in front of others, to the extent that even Parker in the story points out this doesn't sit right. When your own characters point out plot flaws there's a serious issue. After they turn into dragons it feels like the author wants us to suddenly forget all the previous troubles, who cares about all those issues, now it's the three of them against the council.

Except it isn't. I see no happy ever after. The only thing they can agree on is that they all want to have sex with Brody. The dragons seem to have built their whole lives around the pretext that they wanted Brody as their mate and then they were going to be all powerful and in their perfect social place. Except for the fact gay mating wasn't acceptable until they demanded it, and the bond was suppose to be sacred and everlasting, but that apparently didn't matter because Parker had decided Jax would have Brody on the side, ignoring the fact that their whole society were all being forced into mating so how would Jax be able to get out of that?

Once again, a character points out how ridiculous it is to think that the house they wanted previously had to be negotiated, so Brody would have to live with one of their families for no particular reason, but suddenly they had a house with a bed big enough for four really ripped and buff men, except for the fact half the time Brody is described as essentially a petite feminine slip of a thing, while the other half he's a muscley dragon who must defend his land.

And then he gets kidnapped, the rest of the people are killed and lying in the street, Parker is able to fight against all these problems, but Brody? He wades in, gets kidnapped in a flash and is treated like a dancing bear. Why exactly was he the only one to not be instantly killed? How did he become the defender when he's considered the weakest, and the furthest away physically? And don't get me started on the cougar or the ridiculous chameleons in this "battle"

But it's all okay, they have sex so who cares. Oh wait, me.
Overall the whole plot was so disjointed that rather than getting distracted by the sexy times, as I assume was the authors plan, I got bored by them as I was trying to get some sort of resolution to the innumerable plot errors.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Different in a good way

I loved the book.
It's about a young in there world s view of a dragon shifter. They live secluded, some go to the human world. The main M/C is very naive at the beginning. I don't believe he is selfish. He was right upset about being mated to his childhood bullies. He ran and since he hasn't mated, he has not shifter abilities. Mating Matt and "forcing" his other two m mates to accept him isn't how it's sounds.
Okay, enough of all that.
Down to it, I am 100% glad I purchased this book. It's realistic in a shifter world. I will recommend it for a short in between read.

[Query · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was one of those books that started off all right--not very promising, but the premise was interesting. Then we learn that Parker and Jax were actually in love with Brody, and that's a neat twist because Brody's already cozy with Matt, right?

Well, actually, this was just an excuse for a foursome. None of the developments made any sense (seriously, how did we get from Brody running away from Jax and Parker to totally accepting them?) and the writing stayed poor throughout.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book, would like to see it turn into a series.

[Mandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I actually liked this one! Reminds me why Eden Cole is such a guilty pleasure for me. I wouldn't of minded if it was a bit longer since it felt a little rushed towards the end.

[Clover · Rating 2 out of 5]

it wasn't well developed for this kind of stories that includes lot of people and mythology. it was like the author rushed to finish the story and even the sex scenes were meh.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three dragons and a cougar MM Romance, what's not to love.

[Scarlett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never thought a 4-some would work, but this is nice.

[Tailtiu · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5*

[Sheilad37 · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok. Too quick

[blub · Rating 2 out of 5]

One too many mates and too quickly paced for my taste. The concept was interesting but the execution didn't work so well for me.

[Tyisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it but I wanted more. I wanted Jax and Parker to realize that they also want to Matt and not just Brody

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. wish it was longer, it felt rushed towards the middle to end.