How to Slay a Dragon

by Mallory Dunlin

The job should have been simple. Get in, slay the dragon, and end the hunting season with plenty of gold. But what you don't know can definitely hurt you.

Hui-Seun expects a simple hunt and a clean kill. Instead she finds an angry, ancient half-dragon bent on conquering her home. Held captive by her prey, the dragonslayer must think on her feet—first to keep a beast with delusions of monarchy from putting flame to the countryside, and then to get free.

You don't become a dragonslayer without an interest in dragons, though, and forced proximity makes for a lot of learning opportunities. As the days roll past and walls come down, Hui-Seun learns more about the mysterious, beautiful half-dragon keeping her chained to a wall... and discovers that he's not the beast she imagined.

But dragons and dragonslayers have always been linked by the flight of an arrow, and when others come to finish the job, Hui-Seun must choose where her loyalties lie—with the people she's sworn to protect, or the creature she desires.

Genres: Fantasy, Dragons, Novella, Romance, Fantasy Romance, Enemies To Lovers, Shapeshifters

69 pages, ebook

Published January 1, 2022

About the author

Mallory Dunlin is a certified monster lover who cut her reader eyeteeth on fantasy epics. She combines her reading passions into writing romantasy novels with powerful women and traumatized, dangerous, non-human male leads.

Reviews

[buket · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I will wear your chains and warm your home and give you eternity. Please just claim me. Let me be yours.” 😩🩷

[Poppy || Monster Lover · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my 3rd book by this author and I loved it! Her world building always blows me away and I don’t know how she manages to pack that, meaningful interactions between the main characters, and action all into a novella, but she does. Nazaro was such an amazingly complex MMC - a mix of naive, lonely, spoiled, and powerful. Hui-Seun was a highly pragmatic badass bitch with a crass sense of humor that somehow managed to continually shock Nazaro . They were adorable and obnoxious together.

Spice: 2/5

Triggers: violence, gore, severe injury, hunting (for food and for removal of dangerous animals), kidnapping, captivity

[Lia ☾ · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I will wear your chains and warm your home and give you eternity. Please just claim me. Let me be yours."

----------------------—

Story rating: 5.0 ⭐️
Spice level: 3.0 🌶️ 
Smut frequency: 1.0⏳

----------------------—

Tropes:
🐉 Dragonslayer x Dragon
⛓️ Captivity
⚔️ Enemies to friends to lovers
💪 Badass FMC
💔 Lonely dragon

----------------------—

It's simple, for me a novella is a 5 out of 5 if :
➡️ It has a world-building that manages to immerse me in it easily
➡️ It has MCs that have actual personalities
➡️ The story is neither so simple that I won't care nor so complicated that I feel like it shouldn't have been a novella in the first place.

That's it. 🤷🏽‍♀️

And not one ingredient is missing here 🙌.

Great world-building, amazing (and very funny) FMC, the cutest MMC, and the story is just the right amount of cozy and angsty for a book that has 69 pages.

Loved it, and if you're into dragon romance (and spice) this is a really good one! 🥰

(+ the ebook version comes with a very interesting art piece of our dear dragon. 😏)

[Kelspar · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

This was pretty cute, I enjoyed it a lot but I didn't love it. I feel like the transition from enemies to friends was barely solidified before rushing into romantic feelings. The friendship felt organic, they got to know and trust each other. Then all of a sudden, there were romantic feelings. There was definite chemistry, from the start, but I think the big feels were rushed. I did like this a lot, if it had been longer and just a tad slowed down in the feelings area, I would have given this 4⭐ easy.

And how hot is that picture of Nazaro in the back?? Holy cow 🔥🔥🔥 what a freaking treat. Maybe I should round up since we were so generously gifted a full frontal spread 🤤😍

[christinac_reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet and fun novella featuring a dragon slayer who's surprised to find a sentient half-dragon, half-human instead of the mindless beasts that set out destroying everything. She's badass and dominant and he's a little bit of an idiot who doesn't want to listen. I enjoyed the banter and was surprised to find quite a bit of plot, solid character personalities, and character development in such a short read.

If anyone's looking to read this, its free on the author's website!

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved how dominant the female lead was in this novella! I also really enjoyed the relationship between Hui-Seun and Nazaro...they're so adorable and obnoxious at the same time! Just because this is a 69-page novella doesn't mean Mallory Dunlin didn't do a good job with world-building or evoking emotions...she brought it!

Per the author's website - content warnings: animal death (mention), assault, blood, dubious consent (mention), fire, gambling, kidnapping, profanity, prostitution (mention), racism, sexism (mention), sexually explicit scenes, violence

sexual content includes: begging, PiV sex, soft femdom

[Kate Presley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahhhhh, at first I was getting a lil pissy bc I was 80% through and there was no spice but then the spice be spicin.

Anyway, I want a lil soft boy dragon to boss around and take care of and call dumb and he still think i'm the best thing ever like Nazaro.

So good, so quick, so yummy.

[Aphelios · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was good but spicy scene lost me at "mate me" and then I just started to cringe. Maybe that's not my kink after all.
But I really like the idea of nipples connecting to Bluetooth, so she could feel tingle sensation in them just because he purrs, ngl.
2,5 just for the nipples.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a glutton; I need more Ms. Dunlin!!!

[TrashConnoisseur · Rating 5 out of 5]

★★★★★ "Nazaro started smiling as I walked over, and by the time I crouched down next to him he was looking at me the way flowers greet the dawn."

♡
- badass female lead that works as a successful dragonslayer

"You know, some people call orgasm the 'little death,'" I said, my smile sharpening as his eyes darkened with desire. "I'm a dragonslayer, greatwyrm, and I've already accepted the bounty for slaying you. But I'll be kind, and let you pick the method."

- love me a male love interest that begs and purrs


"I stared at him, my lips parting as he purred for me, the sound rolling and beautiful."

“I will wear your chains and warm your home and give you eternity. Please just claim me. Let me be yours.”

- the author actually establishes banter and personality before anything sexual

- desperately need more male leads that are written like this, i'm on my knees begging

- it's actually free on the authors website, just google her name and the title and you'll find it


𓏴

- i just know that the next male lead is gonna suck in comparison to soft boy nazaro

[PleaseGoAwayImReading · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a short, sweet story. Not super complicated but with a nice slow burn enemies to lovers trajectory. Hui-Seun is a dragonslayer and Nazaro is half dragon and half human. Hui-Seun finds herself taken prisoner and chained in the dragon’s cave. What’s a chained dragonslayer to do?

The banter between these two— so enjoyable! I really loved as they fell into the habit of daily conversation and basically tried to beat each other playing the medieval equivalent of board games.

This made me laugh and smile, and ended with a HEA, so it gets 5 stars from me.

[Anna Makowska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and sweet freebie novella from the author's newsletter, I wanted to see whether I'd enjoy the author's writing style and I very much did. I liked how Hui-Seun didn't instantly fall head over heels for the dragon and was thinking about her own survival all the time. Nazaro was adorably clueless, true himbo. The plot was straightforward, but you can't expect anything else from a 70-page length. One day I hope to have the courage to take a stab at the author's 600-page epics and see how the author handles longform plotting, but for now this morsel will suffice.

[Nita · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very pleasantly surprised by this novella. Based on the cover I thought it was going to be pure smut. Which I would have been totally ok with. But this had a good plot to it. Loved the banter between Hui-Seun Jin (dragonslayer) and Nazaro (dragon). Their relationship starts rocky due to one being a dragonslayer and the other being the dragon that is initially being hunted. But they end up starting a friendship, that leads to them having feelings for one another.

[Maerwynn B · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found myself enamored with this quick book by the second page.

The protagonist's distinctive and humorous voice distinguishes it from other monster romances, eliciting numerous laughter-filled moments. Mallory's writing style is quick, making it a super enjoyable read.

Will be reading more of her work in the future.

[Riley · Rating 4 out of 5]

honestly really nicely written and an interesting concept! could be completely smut free if you just stopped a few pages before the end 😂 fun, quick read.

[Hunter037 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun novella, which I got free from bookfunnel. I really liked the FMC and her inner monologue. For a novella, it didn't feel rushed or like there needed to be a lot more plot, which I often find to be the case with short books

[Caity · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love a hurt x comfort trope, AND a captive falls for captor. This was a short book, but it had everything I love. It was perfectly sweet, spicy, and pretty funny. I really liked how she was always giving him sass. It left me feeling so happy, and I highly recommend it.

[S.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went in with extremely low expectations and was rewarded with a thoughtful, emotional, and otherwise fantastic story.

[BriBiscuit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh wow….🥵🥵🥵 prepare for a quote that will make you skip the rest of my review and immediately pick up this novella!
"I will wear your chains and warm your home and give you eternity. Please just claim me. Let me be yours."
This is a line that will forever be scorched into my brain, and often I will reimagine it! Thank you Dunlin for writing such a spicy tale between a resourceful dragonslayer and a capable yet naive half-dragon. From the start the ties between our slayer and half-dragon are much more complex than meets the eye. As there is much to be learned about them both from under her metal armor and his coppery scales. It blows me away how much Dunlin was able to fit into this short fantasy novella, as the world around them developed I found myself wanting to know more about their world and it's magical history between all the races. The main characters were very intriguing and adorable as much as they were capable of being deadly to their foes. I wish the story was longer but within its wonderful pages I found myself adoring the slow burn between the two, and it made me giddy when they slowly lowered the walls between one another as they became more comfortable together. If truly felt as time went on they longed for one another on a much deeper level than what a typical slayer and dragon would ever experience. They were meant to be 💖💖 I would love to know what happens next in their story, as the many possibilities their futures may hold sound like such an enticing and sexy tale to be told!

4/5 Tangled manes
OMG that spicy art piece at the end of the ebook? Bless both Dunlin for thinking of such a scaley man and thank you to the artist for using your talent to bring it to life ! 💖

If you're looking for a fantasy novella where dragons are involved and it’s a bit of a slow burn then look no further and pick up this little gem!

[Lexx Perez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick Pick:
I chose this novella for a quick read between larger novels, mainly because of the fun and spicy cover.

Expectations vs. Reality:
Given the cover, I expected more heat. Surprisingly, the slow burn worked well, especially considering the limited page count and the need for plot development.

Story Development:
The transition from enemies to lovers felt rushed. There were time skips that lacked detail, making the relationship development a bit hard to believe. It felt more like an author’s fantasy of just bumping into a dragon man and flirting, rather than two characters naturally evolving from strangers.

Conflict Resolution:
The central conflict was resolved far too easily, which left me wanting more complexity and tension in the story.

Overall Impression:
It almost felt like a summary of what could have been a more fleshed-out novel. While it’s not a bad book, it falls short in terms of story depth and plot complexity.

🌶️🔥Level: 1 (Fun little slowburn)
🗣️Quality: 3
📖Plot and Storyline (including character development and conflict resolution): 1.5
👤Characters (including chemistry and likability): 3
✍️Writing Style (including pacing and dialogue): 3.5
🌟Overall Enjoyment (reader satisfaction): 3.5

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.7 stars

For a 78 page novella, this does a good job of creating a world by providing details on the magic elements of other species that aren’t physically present within the story through characters but are used to describe the type of world we’re in.

I think had this been a bit longer, providing more depth I would have rated it four stars. All in all this was an enjoyable read. This is the shortest novella I think I’ve read, but it was packed full of information but not in an overwhelming way.

The couple of slang used always take me out of the world a bit during the read but I still enjoyed this read. Quick and fun. Like the use of, “dicked down” and “black out drunk”.

Quotes:

He looked like he belonged in the boudoir of some harem of exotics.

his eyes went hard again, going from gray fog to sharp flint

"It doesn't make any sense. You're nonsensical." He made a purring sound, something I'd only heard once before, when I'd gotten the chance to watch a pair of wyrms doing a courtship dance.

"A childhood may set one's morality in place, but a lifetime might still change one's social mores,"

"I will wear your chains and warm your home and give you eternity. Please just claim me. Let me be yours."

[DemetraP · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this short story. The heroine is a dragon slayer. The hero is a half human half dragon who has recently been exiled from the dragon kingdom. So he is a few hundred years old and goes back to his mother's kingdom (a former princess) looking for a home. Except his mother's kingdom doesn't exist anymore.

The heroine gets called in after he is seen eating cows. He captures her and keeps her chained in his crumbling stone fortress he found abandoned in a forest. She tries to tell him he can make a deal and nobody would want to kill him if they knew he was "sentient" and not a typical beast without a mind.

The hero doesn't believe her. Eventually the hero gets wounded and the heroine escapes to rescue him from himself. She makes a deal where he will protect that stretch of the forest and he gets named as a noble. So now he is safe and has a home.

She returns and they live happily ever after.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Okay so How to Slay a Dragon was wayyyy more adorable than I expected??

I picked it up thinking it’d just be a quick spicy dragon novella 🔥 and suddenly I’m here getting emotional over a lonely dragon boy and a stubborn dragonslayer who absolutely refuses to admit she cares 😔

The vibes were ahhh I lovedddd

Short, snappy, a little feral, a little soft it’s actually exactly the kind of fantasy romance you can inhale in one sitting and still think about later. Hui-Seun is actually iconic. Nazaro will forever be my emotional support dragon now.

It’s got banter, tension, cuteness ANDDDD somehow real heart for a tiny book

I loved it. Simple as that 🫶🏻⚔️🐉

Tropes
🐉 Dragonslayer x Dragon
⛓️ Captive but sassy dynamic
⚔️ Enemies to Friends to Lovers
💪 Tough, funny FMC
💔 Soft, lonely dragon boy

[Kreela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lovely two-hour read. The main character is a feisty, self-reliant dragon slayer who gets captured by the dragon and later saves his cookies. I really liked the little details:
• Anyone who gets captured becomes a “princess.”
• Dragons are lively in the warmer months, so slaying vermin occurs in the winter months.
• The dragon is a noble who was unprepared to defend his land when his father died.

Expect the big bad drake to cave to her whims. I can see that Mallory Dunlin doesn’t shy from spice, but her writing evokes the fantasy from my youth: where knights roam, the crossroads are where adventurous travelers find inns or brothels or both, and wanderers wear stilletos and shields. I think I love her world. It’s so D&D.

[SARAH MERIZALDE · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got this little story as part of the 2023 FaRoFeb book advent calendar, and this didn't disappoint. A classic tale of hunt the dragon down because 'it's causing trouble' when all actuality its mostly staying in its neck of the woods wanting to be left alone. When the dragon goes to slay the dragon, well let's just say they weren't expecting to run into a strikingly handsome HALF-dragon. If the cover doesn't tell you what you're getting into then you're blind.
There's a tiny bit of kidnapping, lots of conversations filled with tragic backstories and loneliness, and a mating bond that will not be ignored~
Tis short, sweet, and to the point, but a very cozy read for the holiday season that's full of warm fuzzies and tenderness. Would love to read more by this author.

[Eniram · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5 / 5 ⭐️

Bon, heureusement que c'était une très courte histoire.

On a pu bien cerner le personnage de Hui Seun, mais alors le personnage de Nazaro, je trouve qu'on est resté dans un grand flou... On connaît son âge, son origine, passé familial, mais sa personnalité...

Aussi, pour un dragon, censé est un dragon rare (et plus ou mois féroce), il est relativement calme et sans embrouille ?

Malgré le fait que l'histoire soit courte, j'ai bien aimé la relation entre les 2 personnages. J'ai aimé qu'on nous montre qu'ils jouaient tous les 2 à des jeux. Ça a permis qu'ils apprennent à se connaître.

[K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this little novella!

How to Slay a Dragon is a great, imaginative fantasy romance with little nuances that set it apart from other realms - like the main characters ability to instantly tame wild deer (elk/moose) and ride them instead of a horse. I really liked that the troubled and somber character is the male lead in this.

It’s less than 100 pages, but slow burn and the spicy stuff isn’t until the very end. Nonetheless, it is a cute plot line and loved the happy ending. Would absolutely recommend this to someone who likes Romantacy, it’s obviously monster/shifter smut as well, but that’s almost a side bit and not hugely involved in the spice scene.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basic plot: Hui-Seun gets captured by the dragon she is hunting.

This was a sweet, little short. I got it as a freebie through the FaRo list, and was pleasantly surprised by it. Being a short, the world and its cultures weren't fully fleshed out, but there was quite a bit embedded in the story. And there was no info dumping, the details were revealed naturally. The writing was quite good. Not a lot of action, but there was a build up of tension throughout. The characters had personalities and motivations for their actions. I wouldn't mind reading more from this author.

[Alejandra Guerrero · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a short, sweet read. The world seemed interesting, though I wish it was described in more detail. The book could easily have been 200 pages and it still would have felt too short. It was that good. The characters are quite interesting, and the relationship felt natural. A lot is just told instead of shown, but it’s not the important bits, and in such a short novel, I kind f expected it. Again, it could have been much longer, with all those bits that were not shown. The humans, for once, were actually reasonable, which I found refreshing.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

🐉 I love that the FMC is a handsome warrior woman. Her somewhat rough personality was refreshing, but at the same time she is just very level-headed and kind.

🐉 The MMC was a pretty, pathetic meow meow man who was clearly dying from loneliness.

🐉 I liked the role-reversal a lot. I wouldn't quite call it femdom, as the one sex scene isn't really kinky. HOWEVER, had we gotten a longer story I am certain the FMC would've shown that dragon his place eventually. Apparently "female dragons rule the lair" is a thing 😏

🐉 I wish this was longer :(