Reawakening

Reawakening #1

by Amy Rae Durreson

For a thousand years, since their defeat of the Shadow at Eyr, the dragons have slept under the mountains. Now their king, Tarnamell, has woken. Driven mad by loneliness, he hurls himself south until he finds and tries to claim the Alagard Desert. Unfortunately, the desert already has a guardian spirit, and he doesn't want to share. Amused by the cocky little desert spirit, Tarn retreats, planning to return in human form.

When his caravan enters the desert, however, Alagard is missing. Rumors fly of a dark power, and soon Tarn’s caravan encounters the living dead and an amnesiac mage called Gard.

Forced to take refuge in the Court of the Shells, a legendary fortress in the heart of the desert, Tarn, Gard, and their allies decide to seek out the Shadow before it destroys the desert. But to confront the Shadow, Tarn needs to gather his strength. A dragon's power depends on the love and loyalty of his human hoard, but Tarn's original hoard has been dead for centuries. Before he can face his most ancient enemy, he must win the trust of new followers and the heart of a cynical desert spirit.

Genres: Fantasy, M M Romance, Dragons, Romance, Magic, Shapeshifters, M M Fantasy

260 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 16, 2014

About the author

Amy Rae Durreson is a quiet Brit with a degree in early English literature, which she blames for her somewhat medieval approach to spelling, and at various times has been fluent in Latin, Old English, Ancient Greek, and Old Icelandic, though these days she mostly uses this knowledge to bore her students. Amy started her first novel a quarter of a century ago and has been scribbling away ever since. Despite these long years of experience, she has yet to master the arcane art of the semicolon. She was a winner in the 2017 Rainbow Awards.

Reviews

[Julio Genao · Rating 2 out of 5]

be careful what you wish for.

when i read ms. durreson's marvelously inventive and promising free novella The Lodestar of Ys, i bemoaned the hurly-burly nature of the story—rushing from one interesting locale to another, abandoning nicely-realized settings and characters alike, just as i was growing to appreciate them.

now?

now i've got the opposite complaint.


but that's all i can really say without spoilers.

i can't talk about this book the way i want to without maybe ruining the story for people who might never even notice what bothered me, and the fact remains that nearly everyone i know really, really likes it.

with good reason, too.

for all my issues, there's still an awful lot i really liked about this story.


thus:

i've hidden my charbroiled criticism under a spoiler-tag—for being spoilery, but also because my joking around might give you the impression that i hated this book—when in fact i did not.

not even close.

no—my frustrations are all writerly in nature, and so of mostly no concern whatsoever to anyone who doesn't obsess over this shit for a living.


so for sure skip the spoiler if you don't care to read a review focused primarily on technique and execution.

ok?

ok:

this is a good book marred by poor editing.

when i say 'poor editing,' i don't mean that the book was full of typos.

those are the responsibility of proofreaders and line editors. as with nearly every book i've ever read from this publisher, the line editing and proofing in this novel was just fine.

but editing—content editing—is something else entirely, and when i invoke the term here i mean that the integral pieces that make up the story as a whole—the tone, the pacing, the plot, the characters—were not as refined as they needed to be to avoid very common and very irritating mistakes that drive people like me—editors—absolutely apeshit.


it begins beautifully.

ms. durreson has created another terrific setting, with interesting characters and lovely imagery.

the setup, the back-story, the opening chapters—all wonderfully compelling, and way fun to read.

but then a series of missteps—an excessive turn of phrase here, or a character behaving in a manner inconsistent with his established personality—begin creeping in.

these niggly little problems are mostly tolerable, given that they don't occur with any frequency until well into the middle third of the story—but then something happens that brings all of these tiny issues into sharp relief:

the plot stops moving.

the story lingers too long in one spot—and then rushes forward again, with little in the way of logical progression.

which meant that i found myself with plenty of time to reflect upon deficiencies i'd been having too much fun to notice before.


zombie apocalypse, everyone—zombie apocalypse! run for your lives!

except for the parts where our immortal love-interest alagard spends all his time flouncing around like a rebellious teenager bcuz reasons—but also to disguise the fact that he really, really wants to get his guts fucked-out by tarn, our dragon hero.

his hysteria was charming when he was an incorporeal elemental—but horribly, horribly annoying when he joined a group of people having a bit of trouble trying not to get killed by the risen dead.


luckily, they all stumble into a place of safety, where there is now time for everyone to discuss their feelings about everything and also have plenty of buttsex on account of bathing facilities.

desert valley! populated entirely by badass swordswomen who can kill you in the face! in a magical yet derelict fortress built thousands of years ago!

where they all hang out.

for nearly six chapters.

during which it is decided there must be a grand feast.

with dancing.

because—as my gregarious caribbean peoples would say—a little armaggedon's hardly an excuse not to have a fuckin party, cousin.

which is the perfect opportunity for our dragon-god hero and his desert-elemental boyfriend—immortals, the pair of them—to spend pages and pages squabbling like deranged hens—

—and that's another thing:


what the actual fuck is up with alagard, anyway?

what a little punk bitch!

who in their right mind wants to mess about with a nasty piece of work like that more than once—never mind every day for weeks, while the world is coming apart at the seams and everyone is in mortal peril?

we are talking about someone who summons a friggin' sandstorm to scour the skin from your flesh when he's annoyed with you.


...speaking of vile-tempered power-bottoms, whither sethan?

how the hell are you going to introduce three incredibly potent and engaging characters, expertly induce us to love and/or detest them—and then bloody disappear their asses for the next 60 percent of the novel like a south-american dictator?


and who do i need to email about why the sex is so bad?

which, it is—sorta—but always in the exact same way: torridly.

overwritten, in other words, while the prose nearly everywhere else is elegant, understated, and amusingly dry.

it's like the sex scenes were written by another hand altogether.

for example...

...well, look—i'm gonna go ahead and do something exceptionally lazy and ill-mannered here and just paste the transcript of a peevish rant i perpetrated upon a friend towards the end of the book, because it covers the majority of my issues with the sex scenes, and illustrates my overall point:

every author needs someone they trust to tell them things, like, 'hey, this is too much,' or 'hey, not enough of the good stuff here,' or 'this makes no sense at all, buddy.'

every. author. every. where.

including me.

because otherwise, shit like this happens:

HIM:
Read [Durreson's] short in Steamed Up, if you haven't already

ME:
i’ll need to
if only to apologize for the review i feel coming-on for this one i'm reading now
i mean... i don't know what happened to the writing
the sex scenes especially
i have notes
because i knew you wouldn’t believe me
He came with a gasp, burying his face against Tarn’s neck as wet heat flooded the space between them.
flooded, you see. with—at most—two tablespoons of cum.

HIM:
I believe you. You're a pissy fusspot, but you don't lie.

ME:
Tarn exploded against him...
y’know. like a dragon.
with explodeycum.
“Oh, shit, there’s the wet spot. You could have cleaned up first...”
…yes, as multi-millenial desert spirits are wont to complain

HIM:
Maybe dragons produce more volume.

ME:
“passages” and “wet heat” and—as always—“preparation.”

HIM:
Ah well

ME:
and this, which i annotated simply with a ‘Jesus:’
He’d had some thought of teasing Gard, of stopping to demand that Gard tell him he liked him, belonged to him, loved him...
THESE ARE THE THOUGHTS OF AN IMMORTAL DRAGON WHO HAS FUCKED, LIKE, 40 MILLION PEOPLE IN HIS LIFETIME

HIM:
I cannae defend that

ME:
Then Gard’s spine arched, and his body tightened around Tarn, his moans dying into a sudden silence, before a hot wave splattered against Tarn’s belly, splash on splash as Gard’s fingers locked onto his shoulders, his nails scoring Tarn’s flesh.
WAVES.
SPLASH AFTER SPLASH.
ENDLESS. FONT. OF JIZZ.

HIM:
It's a classic

ME:
this one’s fun:
Only Gard’s voice gasping his name kept him human...
...because otherwise he would transform into a ten-ton dragon and crush a laggard into a bloody paste as he inadvertently exploded the keep.
...ok, even though i typed that maybe 30 seconds ago, i can't remember what word autocorrect turned into ‘laggard’—but it was probably really, really bitchy.

HIM:
No doubt

ME:
He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Have you any idea how awkward it is trying to scrub dried spend off yourself when you have an angry teenager trailing you wherever you go?”
No, I don't, because 'spend' is water-soluble and not like unto acrylic nail polish, mr. sissybritches

HIM:
Yes, but volume tho

ME:
“There are some things only a lover or the eyes of God should see. The Savattin made it a matter of shame and power. It was beautiful once. My father’s most famous poem, the one that brought him the Shah’s favor, was called ‘The Unveiling.’ It was about my mother.”
HE’S TALKING ABOUT A FUCKING BURKA. THERE IS A BURKA IN THIS BOOK.
“Nobody respects me,” Gard complained.
HAVEN’T THE FAINTEST IDEA WHY. MAYBE YOU SHOULD COMPLAIN ABOUT IT SOME MORE.
Tarn stared at him, startled. He had not expected this, for all he regarded Cayl and Sethan as his.
FIRST MENTION OF SETHAN IN 150 PAGES
(they disappeared once gard and tarn started fuckin)

HIM:
You are in a froth

ME:
i cannot deny it; i feel really let-down
He was ready for Gard’s cock, or his fingers, and was unprepared for what he got instead.
(gard licks his butthole)
my comment on that one:
He's immortal. Had countless lovers across the span of millennia.
But rimming?—GOOD HEAVENS, NEVER IN ALL MY DAYS.

HIM
Right.

ME
this one is fun too:
Only his grip on the end of the bed and Gard’s arms wrapped tightly around his hips kept him standing...
…ALSO HIS LEGS

HIM:
Poor Amy

ME:
yes. her editor let her down.
big-time. none of these problems are catastrophic on their own.
The first blunt press of Gard’s cock was beautiful, and Tarn groaned and pushed up to meet him, riding the burn until Gard slid deep into him, filling him like a pillar of fire.
like a pillar, dude
like a pillar of fire.
all the fucking is in flamey metaphor. bcuz dragon.

HIM:
I get it

ME:
last one
the note on this one is simply, ‘kill me’
It wasn’t until Gard lifted his face, his eyes damp and a little frightened, that Tarn realized he was speaking in languages that had been extinct for thousands of years. It took long minutes before he could find a modern word, and all he could manage was to snarl, “Mine.”
no peacoat? no sassy secretary? no jory? what sort of mary calmes novel is this?
...
anyway.
that was the last notation. something else stupid happened and i didn’t have the energy to write it down.
basically gard being a pissy idiot again.
i’m abandoning it. how does it end?

HIM:
I haven't read it yet

ME:
*gasp*
oh fuck, i’m sorry!
so sorry! shit. i thought—for sure, i thought... fuuuuuuuck! my bad!!!

HIM:
Heh

ME:
gah. i am so, so sorry. i hate spoilers.
with the fire of a thousand dragon cockpillars.

HIM:
No spoilers.
This is all sex stuff

ME:
true. right. ok. cool.

HIM:
I assumed there would be sex stuff

ME:
me too. but i didn’t expect it to be all … swoony and hyperbolic and... flammable, like that.
he was so turned on he nearly BURST INTO FLAMES WHEN HE CAME
with his FIERY PILLAR

HIM:
I hate when that happens

ME:
it was REALLY HOT
*rimshot*

HIM:
Your problem is you haven't read enough dragon sex...


which, you know, maybe—but i still stopped reading this at around the 80 percent mark.

despite ms. durreson's characteristic wealth of talent and imagination—and i feel i must make this point absolutely clear: she is one to watch—this novel is a prime example of what can happen to an otherwise wonderful story without proper editorial stewardship.

ms. durreson is not to blame, here.

because it's very nearly impossible for any one writer to catch every single misstep in their own work—of any length, never mind a full novel—without an editor, or several beta-readers, or both.

because the real work of writing is in the editing—not in the typing.

and good editing takes time. a lot of it.

this book felt rushed, unpolished, and undisciplined, and it's a goddamned shame.

when i complained about all those chapters spent hangin-out in the desert keep, dancing and bickering and fucking and bickering some more, my friend compared it to a similar problem with The Lodestar of Ys: the endless honeymoon tour of various islands almost entirely comprised of ill-tempered conversations and then fucking, which makes it all better, naturally.

my review of that story?

"great—but this author must have run out of time."




tl;dr:

despite my despair, it is my opinion that immortal dragon gods with big dicks in any story written by ms. amy rae durreson will always win all the things.

yes, there are annoying bits—but if you're not a writer or an editor i expect they probably won't annoy you very much at all.

if you enjoyed Lodestar of Ys, you should certainly give Reawakening a shot—

because everything that was wonderful about that story is even more so in this one.

i just wish the same couldn't be said about what wasn't.

[Evie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have loved Durreson’s modern ghost stories and was curious to see how their narrative voice and skill translated to fantasy work and I have been left kind of feeling a little bit conflicted and I think ultimately you can feel that this was some of her earlier work.

To start with, the scope of the world building was impressive. The story of Tarn, a dragon king who wakes from a thousand-year slumber after a great battle to defeat an evil Shadow, only to meet a feisty desert spirit he becomes immediately infatuated with and decides to court, was a fun premise. I also enjoyed the novelty of the desert environment and the way that magic was woven into this world.

Unfortunately, some of the character writing and interactions felt a bit unnatural and clunky, and I felt like this narrative clumsiness did impact a bit on my engagement with the romance between Tarn and Gard. Gard behaviour and reactions to Tarn just didn’t always feel consistent with the development of the story and I found myself being surprised at times with the choices he would make. Although I did ultimately enjoy the two of them together.

It’s worth noting that there was an explicit, on page, one night stand early in the book between Tarn and a member of the merchant caravan he travels (this occurs before the reader really meets Gard) and I am still not entirely sure of the purpose of this scene? Nor did it feel particularly consistent with what we come to know later on of his character and dragons, but I guess perhaps it can be used to speak to a dragons need to feel love and Tarns loneliness and isolation at the time?

This is a series or interconnected stand alone dragon shifter romances, and while this volume ends on a note where the reader would be perfectly satisfied, the series remains unfinished and there doesn’t appear to be any guarantee that the author plans to continue publishing, so take that as you will. I will probably continue with the other dragons stories as I am keen to meet them as they wake up, but I am not running to get my hands on them immediately.

I think that this was an ambitious and enjoyable fantasy escape which is just missing a little bit of polish. I reminds me of fantasy works by Megan Derr and I think that fans of Derr’s work would probably also find something to enjoy here. 3.5 stars ✨ rounded up.

[ttg · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars - For fantasy fans, Reawakening is a pretty smashing novel, filled with beautiful exotic settings, creatures of lore (dragons!), fighting gods, battlemaidens, the walking dead, and a dark menacing villain that can infiltrate your heart. It’s got sword fights, daring escapes across the desert, a developing romance (and yes, sexy times), and most of all, a lot of adventure.

Tarn the dragon is awakened after centuries of sleep to find his treasured hoard depleted and the world having moved on without him. While on an evening flight, he gets the taste of something new, something strange and spicy and hot, an angry desert spirit that is NOT HAPPY to have a dragon invading his sandy domain. Tarn is quite smitten by the spirit’s irate attempts to kick him out, and the dragon vows to return to the desert to woo him properly and make him part of his new hoard.

And thus Tarn’s adventure begins, as he changes into his human form and joins a trade caravan bound for the same desert that he’s madly crushing on. His wooing plan has started. He just has to find his angry spirit.

But when they arrive, the desert is a much different, far more deadly place than the warm, welcoming realm it had been on his first post-sleep flight. The dead are rising and attacking travelers, and Tarn finds that things look eerily similar to a war he’s fought before.

That’s the gist of the beginning of the story, and it just takes off from there. I personally found the blurb with the book confusing, and I didn’t quite know what to make of it. I came into this 100% because I loved Durreson’s free fantasy novella The Lodestar of Ys. That was a wonderful story, so I bypassed the blurb, and dove in, feeling pretty safe that the author could provide a good fantasy story for her first full-length novel, and I’m happy to report that it was a great read.

I would qualify this story as fantasy first, romance second, although don’t worry romance fans, it has a lot of that (plus quite a few intimate scenes.) But the weight of the story is one that is fantasy, about a dragon’s quest to rebuild his world and his heart, and to conquer an old enemy. Along the way, he not only meets his match in Alagard, the fierce yet very flirty desert spirit, but also picks up a crew of wonderful side characters, each who have their own distinct personality, from the older sworldswoman Ia to flirty young buck Dit to haughty yet caring caravan leader Sethan.

For people who bemoan the lack of diverse characters or developed female characters in m/m, I definitely recommend this book because it has a wide array of rich characters, including a lot of queer male and female side characters. (Sethan’s caravan has a bit of a reputation of being a safe haven for those who are “sparkly” or who prefer same-sex partners, so there are a lot of couples in the background.)

As for the main romance, Tarn and Gard’s back-and-forth is pretty sparkly on its own. Gard’s fierce need for independence makes him come off more fiery than Tarn ironically (since Tarn is the one that can breathe fire), but Tarn is like a giant Great Dane—someone who is so powerful (even in his limited human form) that he’s far more relaxed compared to Gard’s bouncing, flitting energy. (Although even ancient dragons can get a little jealous, lost, and sad at the thought of his beloved not wanting him back.)

Durreson’s writing is smooth and clean, and paints a bright world in full color, even when that world is dune upon dune of endless white sand. It’s a very creative, imaginative story, and for those who like being transported to other worlds, you can find safe passage here.

My only down points are that at some points in the middle of the story (and the novel is over 89,000 words), the journey did feel a little rambling. I also often found myself having a hard time reading the name of Ia, one of the side characters—my eyes would blow right over her name, and I had to restart a lot of the paragraphs where she is featured. And you can call me a heathen, but I almost could have done without some of the sex scenes. They were all well written, but some of them felt a little extended or filler-ish compared to the rest of the story.

But overall, I think it’s a really great fantasy novel, and would definitely recommend it for those who are m/m fantasy fans, especially ye olde dragon fans, since Tarn gets to have some fun scenes in dragon form.

With what I’ve seen so far, I think Durreson is a bright new star in m/m fantasy writing. I’m looking forward to whatever world she unveils next.

Review to be up this week over at Boys in our Books:

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

DRAGONS!

Yes, I'm very predictable. I <3 Dragons. This is a suitably diverting tale of evil that surfaces and those who fight it.

Tarn, is the first dragon. He reawakens after a long, long, long slumber. Unsure why, he flies out to investigate. Things have changed dramatically. As he journeys, he finds that which he covets most--Alagard. More importantly he needs to fight the rising evil, and along the way he acquires a new hoard.

The story is engaging and thoughtful. One can certainly see similarities between the story and modern day peoples: Bedouins, Persians, Arabs, and Kurds. There are several parallels between this story and issues in the Middle East. But, the story focuses on Tarn and his new life he is building. My favorite characterization was Alagard, though I was pleased with Tarn's draconian patience. And their interactions are filled with amusing banter.

Favorite quote:

“Civilization needs fighting men to protect it,” Tarn tried, but he was talking to Gard’s retreating back."

[Heller · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

This is exactly what I needed to read right now. Just a fantastic fantasy story, that's basically battle for control of the world. Very good vs evil/light vs dark.

I loved Tarn the dragon so very much. He's ancient, he's lonely and he's been asleep for a thousand years. The world has cracked and been remade in his absence and he's only a fireside story of legend, but something woke him up and whatever that was is waking up other things that want more than just to be loved.

Alagard, the Desert Storm, is all kinds of snarky attitude. Fabulous.

This has such rich characters, with lush settings and an epic story. The world building was totally solid and I hope there's more to the series. I know we got a bit more of the story from the notes at the end but I'd like more please.

[K.J. Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't generally read dragons or high fantasy but this came strongly recommended, for which I am glad. Lovely characters in a vividly drawn, well constructed world about which I'd be glad to read more (Sethan and Cayc's story please!). There was a real sense of melancholy about Tarn's endless existence and need for love. And even though the romantic conflict hinged on communications failure, that's pretty fair when the communicators are a millennia-old dragon and the spirit of a desert.

Great fun by a terrific voice. Gobbled down in two sittings.

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, that was properly fantastic. Durreson has written a remarkable fantasy novel filled with all the best fantasy tropes; magic, dragons, gods, warrior-priestesses, epic battles, etc. All set against the backdrop of a richly detailed world with distinct cultures and histories. The protagonist is a powerful Dragon called Tarn who awakes from a thousand-year sleep to a changed world and finds a desert spirit he wants to court. But he also finds that an ancient enemy has crept back into the world. It's eminently readable. With a great cast of secondary characters. Somewhere around 35% I just got sucked in and didn't come up for air until I'd finished. Then, as icing on the awesome cake, we get a deliciously antagonistic relationship between Tarn and his desert spirit, Alagard. It's also smoking hot in places (pun not intended). So basically, it's all my favourite things in one book. If you like fantasy as a genre, then do your self a favour and read this.

[Johnny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been sitting in my reader since January and I do not know why I ignored it. I'm a huge fan of the fantasy genre and mixed with m/m romance makes this book perfect for me. Fantastic world building! Great characters! I hope there is going to be more of the gay dragons. :)

5 Sparkling Stars!

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rounded down

I quite enjoyed this! Interesting world-building and an engaging story with a solid cast of characters. It's quite a slow build, and I still think it's weird that we have a fairly explicit and drawn-out sex scene between one of the MCs and some random dude he doesn't end up with at the beginning of the book--totally unnecessary, added nothing to the story, and felt like a weirdly self-indulgent desire of the author that is fairly polarizing--but it didn't squick me, just felt like a baffling decision. I really enjoyed Tarn, but I found Alagard pretty frustrating and annoying, which I'm sure wasn't helped by the fact that we don't get his POV. I didn't absolutely adore the relationship as much as I adore Tarn, but I liked the book on the whole and I am excited to read the next!

[Georgie-who-is-Sarah-Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glommed this and its sequels in a couple of delighted days. Excellent stuff. Effective world building, strong characters, persuasive romance. I was going to write "credible romance", but as one of the lovers is a dragon...

Durreson is an auto-buy author for me now. She writes across a number of genres and she's convincing, subtle and funny in all of them.

[ancientreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Series (through #3) reviewed here.

[M'rella · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book started so well, with dragons and desert spirits and old lore; it promised a grand adventure.

The Dragon King wakes from his slumber and sets out on a quest. We learn ancient history of this world. We travel to remnants of the ancient kingdom.
We meet new characters as Dragon King joins a caravan to cross into a desert. We stumble upon a victim of a vicious attack - Gard, the desert spirit, who is now under complete control of the evil Shadow.

But then?
Oh, when all else fails, call for zombies and endless running in the desert.
Sex is plentiful but awkward.
Zombies are everywhere.

Dragon King won't quit speaking Yoda.
More desert and sandstorms,

more zombies, as we lose characters from the beginning of the book to author's forgetfulness(?).
Where is Sethan? (I was SO into him!)


Will Gard ever shut his venomous mouth, there is a war going on around, after all, things to kill, things to do (pardon the pun).
Why some of the dead turn zombies and some (like Enis) don't?
Predictable villains. Very predictable villains. Yes, you know who you are, little witch!
Out of all the characters so vividly introduced in the beginning of the book, only a handful (if even) stay with us through the very end.

*Checked with Julio's review about sex bits. The whatever sex I gave up reading is indeed awkward according to him. I am not alone, go me! I skipped a lot, made the book so much more compact :D

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

This was a fun and lighthearted fantasy. Tarnamell (Tarn), king of the ancient dragons, wakes after being asleep for over a thousand years. The Shadow is defeated, but not without loss. Friends, lovers, and soldiers have long passed. Tarn finds himself lonely. He seeks out to learn more of this new world and to gather a new hoard. This is where he meets the desert spirit, Alagard (Gard). He is feisty and has youthful quality about him. Tarn wants nothing more than to have Alagard and his desert as part of his hoard, however Alagard is fiercely independent and protective of his desert and is adamant that this never happens. Even though there is a romance in the story, it takes a back seat to the fantasy/adventure plot, but it's intertwined in a way that makes sense to the story.

While traveling with a caravan of merchants, Tarn discovers that the Shadow has returned. Tarn not only needs a new hoard, but is now on a mission to find the shadow and destroy it. The story was on the simplistic side as far as the main conflict goes. Even so, I loved Tarn's voice and all the side characters in this. They were unique and strengthened the story.

I rounded down because there were several parts of the book that dragged and bored me. The other reason is I thought the ending was anticlimactic. There was a huge build-up of Tarn coming face to face with the Shadow, but then there wasn't much of a battle. Tarn was hurt and Gard came to the rescue. Meh, it was over too fast and everyone went on their way.

Everything was tied up too neatly and it was hard for me to accept it.

[Aldi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The world-building was lovely, as I’ve come to expect from this author, and the supporting cast was an absolute delight (to the point, alas, where I was and am more interested in Sethan and Cayl’s story than the actual protagonists’!). I also really enjoyed the dragon-shifter mythology.

However, I struggled with the romance, in some part due to Alagard, whose personality is on the exhausting side (unpredictability and pouty mood swings can be entertaining in an incorporeal desert spirit, but are pretty insufferable in a human adult), but largely due to the entire thing being built on an easily fixed bit of miscommunication. Now, I get it, they’re from different eras and different species but they’re both currently in human form and it just strains the bounds of credibility for me that neither Tarn nor any of the large supporting cast witnessing the constant flouncing and huffing would have just sat Alagard down at some point and explained wtf a dragon’s hoard actually was, when he made his lack of understanding pretty clear. One Damn Chat, my dudes.

Also wasn't wild about the many sex scenes, but that's mostly because everything about this relationship felt very insta and I prefer a slower burn.

I will read the rest of the series, because I do enjoy her worldbuilding and writing a lot. Just a bit sad that so far none of her other books are as good as The Lodestar of Ys!

[Ami · Rating 3 out of 5]

High fantasy is not high on my priority of favorite genre. However, I do like to challenge myself from time to time, to read outside of my comfort zone. I'd like to be surprised, and I did, several times (most notably with my now loving historical MM). But either it was my not favoring the genre or Durreson's writing just didn't click with me (I have only read two of her stories and they weren't that memorable to me either), this one was just okay in my book. Not blown-away nor interested with the sequel.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

MM fantasy romance. So I thoroughly enjoyed this. I loved the relationship between the two MCs, even though much of the conflict is built around a linguistic misunderstanding. The world building was tangible and the plot external to the romance (which was most of the plot) never dragged.

My only complaint - this felt formulaic and lacked the imagination that I usually associate with this author’s shorts.

[Nikyta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review can be found at The Blogger Girls review site.

It should come as no surprise that I adored this book. In fact, I loved it so much that I read it until the wee hours of the morning just to finish it and woke up with a book hangover the next day but IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT!

This is the story of Tarnamell, the dragon king (and firstborn dragon), who’s woken up centuries after he went into a healing sleep. Upon awakening, he’s consumed by loneliness and in his flight to understand what has happened, he lands in the desert where he’s pissed off a desert spirit for trying to steal his home. Drawn to the desert spirit, Tarn agrees to leave but promises to return. Months later, he finally makes it back to the desert in his human form only to find out the feisty spirit no longer there but the desert is filled with anguish and fear instead… along with other creatures created by the Shadow, Tarn’s long-standing enemy. With the help of his caravan and the arrival of Gard, a man with no memory, Tarn must do everything he can to keep his new hoard safe, even if they don’t wish to be under his protection, but most of all, he must do what he can to finally defeat the Shadow.

Okay, so that little recap does not do the book justice so don’t let it turn you off! If you love fantasy, this book will draw you in. It’s filled with different creatures – dragons, mages, spirits, zombies – and does a pretty good job of blending them into a story without it being weird that dragons would be fighting zombies. It’s a fun story with humor, suspense, some shocking moments and hot sex! I cannot say how much I am in love with this book because it managed to be exactly what I wanted without even realizing it.

There are a lot of characters but the focal point is on Tarn and Gard. Where Tarn is the all powerful but arrogant dragon, Gard is feisty, passionate and flirty. He sees Tarn and has no issues with taking what he wants. Unfortunately, that is not all Gard is and when he regains his memories, he realizes who Tarn is and is way beyond furious with him. Even when he wanted to hate Tarn, though, Gard couldn’t seem to resist him. The connection between them is potent but there’s a lot of tension (good and bad) that makes their relationship difficult and complicated. I loved that Gard refused to be owned but I was also sad that he wasn’t understanding what Tarn meant by wanting him to be the heart of his human hoard. There’s just so much to their relationship that it’s hard to describe without giving everything away.

The plot revolves around Tarn returning to the desert and its spirit but when he arrives, he finds an old enemy instead, who has the spirit enslaved. Long story short, it’s about Tarn and his hoard finding ways to defeat the enemy and, in the process, uncovering a sanctuary that not very many people know about in the desert. At the same time, they must combat against zombies that the Shadow are ruling, the Shadow’s followers, and the anguish that the desert gives off in the form of sandstorms. I don’t want to seem like I’m gushing but it’s a story with a lot of layers, a lot of problems, and the attempt at resolving those problems. It’s a little sad at times but for the most part, it’s a fun story with humor and sarcasm. One of my favorite quotes from the book was:

“Fear not,” Gard told her, smile quirking up. “At the worst, we can all climb onto Tarn’s back and he can fly us home. I think he’d make a very fetching pack mule.”

“People fall off,” Tarn said flatly.

“Tie them down,” Gard suggested. “Where’s your creativity, lizard man?”

Tarn narrowed his eyes. “Some of them vomit.”

Gard patted him on the shoulder. “It’s hard to be a hero, isn’t it?”

If I did have any complaints it was that the ending, that showed the definitions for certain words, places and people was written in a way that gave away much of what will probably happen in the future stories in this series. At the same time, it made me yearn for Arden’s story because with the way Tarn was explaining the other dragons, they would never wake… but the ‘handbook of terms’ at the end led me to believe that he does eventually and having his story will be AWESOME! I CAN’T WAIT!

All in all, this was a phenomenal fantasy novel about a lonely dragon looking for a new home filled with love and loyalty and his attempted courtship of a desert spirit. The world is fascinating and I liked how there were so many secondary characters but it never felt overwhelming or excessive. In fact, I felt like I knew them even though they weren’t given much focus in the story. If you’re a fantasy lover like me and you love some good suspense and adventure to you story with a bit of romance, definitely give this one a try. I’m so glad I finally read it and really hope the sequel comes out in the near future!

[Pjm12 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book cleverly intertwines lightness and banter with sadness and seriousness. Tarn is an indelible character, and although we only get his viewpoint, others are only too willing to share their (somewhat skewed and sometimes harsh) view of him, so we do get a larger picture.

The plot is not too difficult, but the world and its history and its people can be confusing, especially as Durreson tries hard not to overload us with exposition and information. I appreciate not everything can be or should be explained.

I was glad to read about some of the secondary characters prior to the book's release on the author's website. It's both a great marketing idea as well as a reader's pleasure to see these people (& nature spirits) before they meet Tarn. Loved all that. As well, the historian's guide at the end of the novel made me wish I had a print copy, so I could flick back and forth.

This could easily be a series, but I don't mind admitting that if this is all I saw of Tarn and his hoard, that would suffice. Although, yes please write Rafe's story. I didn't get enough of him. (Oh, maybe I do want more.)

Loved it.

[Amy Durreson]

The first of my dragon series :)

This story, unusually for me, started with a single sentence: "The dragon flew south, out of the mountains, in search of the heat of the desert." That was all I had, in response to a vague fancy for writing about a dragon. A version of that line is still the opening sentence of the book, and I wrote the rest of it to find out why he wanted to find the desert (it turned out he fell in love with it, much to the desert's irritation).

This is the most shamelessly epic thing I've ever written and I had such fun with it. The sequel, Resistance, is due out at the end of 2015.

[Наталья · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
Понравилось почти все. Древний терпеливый дракон, жаждущий любви, и игривый вольнолюбивый дух пустыни - их разговоры часто вызывали у меня улыбку (что не очень удобно, когда идешь по улице :-D). Придуманный и тщательно прописанный мир (даже прилагается справочник), множество второстепенных персонажей, приключения и общий враг со своими сюрпризами.

Но немного утомили постоянные походы, и лобовое протовостояние с врагом разрешилось слишком быстро.

Рекомендуется любителям фэнтэзи-слэша и, в частности, драконов.

[La*La · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

Very, very good! Solid world-building, intriguing characters...this book sucked me in from the first pages. Tarn was adorable, I loved him so much. Alagard was irritating, frankly. So immature for a 1000 year old spirit...ugh.
Anyway, Tarn made up for all of that.

Just wish the plot was a bit tighter. All the traveling back and forth with stops here and there scattered the book.

Will definitely read the next book! I'm way intrigued by Arden.

[Katharina · Rating 5 out of 5]

6 stars? 7?

It's about 1.5 hours after I planned to sleep and can't bring myself to care. I'm flummoxed. Flabbergasted. Other funny words starting with an f.

I expected quite a bit from this book because I read M's glorious review before starting and M's not one to give 5 stars lightly. I still didn't expect this.

This book started out pretty great, no question. But it took me about twenty to thirty pages until I wanted to forget about absolutely everything I was supposed to do and just go on and read. And read and read. Because this story - well, it got better on every freaking page. I'm not kidding.

Yes, I admit, there were times when I wanted to strangle Gard because of his antagonistic, feisty, sometimes almost childish behaviour. And there were times when I couldn't wait anymore and just wanted to know how things would go on. I grew impatient. But I didn't do all that because the book was slow or because the characters were stupid. No, I felt like this because the plot was so bloody good and the characters so absolutely perfect. In their stupidity (well, sometimes).

I LOVED this. Loved the story, loved Tarn and Gard (holy crap, did I ever love them), loved the language (oh, the old phrasings you usually only get in historicals and especially true fantasy stories... how I love thee!!), loved the HUMOUR shining through, LOVED LOVED LOVED the last 20 or so pages. The ideas in here (about the dragon hoards, about the world in general) were fantastic, unique, imaginative, and IT ALL FIT. In the end, it made sense. This was pretty short for a fantasy novel, but I can say with absolute conviction that it didn't leave me wanting at all. Not in the slightest.

This book is a true gem for me, something I'll definitely come back to. It made me laugh, made me cry even at times, kept me captivated the whole way through, and surprised me again and again. Books like these are the reason why I love fantasy so much, and why I love reading so much, and why I love this genre so much.

If you like fantasy - go and read it. And if you don't, well, go and read it anyway. It's worth it!

ETA: Oh, and the handbook aka glossary at the end? That was brilliant! Made me laugh so hard sometimes (and it proved pretty useful at other times too)!

[Achim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously I'm no impartial reader untouched by his expectations and current mood but even knowing this I have no idea why I gave Reawakening such a mediocre rating after the first read. So just let forget that review and try a new one.

First of all Reawakening is high fantasy but with a big romance part at its core. So you can expect a great world building founded on a rich history but the story never gets that complex and multilayered to push the relationship tale permanently to the backseat. The epic battle fought by bigger than life heroes lead by giant dragons against the ultimate ancient evil happened a millennia in the past. The evil got conquered, the heroes became faraway legends and the dragons fell asleep and believed lost but as it always is: ancient evil never gets destroyed completely and its awakening is dragging other beings out of hiding and eventually wakens the dragon king.

There is no need to be worried that this is a tale with the usual sincere and portentous tone. Durreson makes this quite clear right from the start when the dragon Tarnamel after his long sleep flies to the southern desert Alagard and decides to make the desert the center of his new hoard. He just didn't reckon with the local spirit who's not inclined to step back. He is the desert after all and loved by everything under his protection. So the first meeting of Tarn and Gard isn't such a huge success and ends with the tactical retreat of the big lizzard. The immediate attraction and bickering, the protective dominance and flirtatious banter, the whole game of opposite-attract is a constant in their growing relationship.

The author doesn't only create a rich world and a alluring love story but also cares about the other characters and grants them a history outside being just a name in the glossary (btw I really enjoyed how Durreson made that glossary somehow into a kind of story on its own).


So everything is good? More or less, yes. The jury is still out on the final fight against the Shadow and on the big misunderstanding between Tarn and Gard and of course I don't want to start any niggling about the effect of surviving millennia or even centuries on a character but all that aside I really enjoyed this book and cross my fingers that Durrenson is finding back into this world and starts the fourth book soon.

[YullSanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5
Ярко, продумано и интересно! Очень кропотливый труд, и это чувствуется. Почему оценка низковата?
Сумбурно. То есть мне понравились герои и сюжет, но что-то постоянно отвлекало, будь то сложная речь, бесконечные странствование или все новые и новые персонажи, в жизнь которых нужно было обязательно вникать, или забыть о логической концовке.
Вполне возможно, я просто ленивый читатель *пожимает плечами*

Наташа, спасибо за рекомендацию! Я нисколько не жалею, что прочла ;)

[Leanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I loved the wistful, pining dragon trying to woo his desert spirit and accumulate a beloved hoard, but thought it lost some impetus around the halfway mark. It took me days to get through to the last quarter where things picked up nicely again to a satisfying end.
Good world building, great characters and the best pairing of a dragon and desert spirit you're ever likely to read.

[Colette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a weakness for dragons, so I was really excited to find this book, and it more than lived up to my hopes. A Dragon Lord awakes after thousanda of years and goes in search of warmth and a love and a new hoard. I loved this story and the authors take on dragons and their hoards. If you love fantasy and great story telling you should definitely pick this up. Highly recommended.

[Antonella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book. I found it imaginative and well written. See review by ttg, she already said it all, including my perplexities. The main one: less sex would have been better, and less descriptive-banal-stereotyped sex.

[Mercedes · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

From the minute I started I was hooked! Dragon pursuing not-so friendly desert sprite. It seemed right what the Dr. order.
The story is good, very good. But maybe too good because so many characters are introduced! I kinda stopped caring about the main issue after a while and was skimming to Gard's and Tarn's parts.

I would still recommended to Dragon stories lovers.

[Plainbrownwrapper · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say, I love Amy's narrative voice. And just about everything else about her writing. The characters, the snark, the imaginative plots, the worldbuilding. Good stuff.

I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

[Magpie Fearne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful, heartwarming m/m romance in a vividly imagined secondary world, inspired by the Middle East. Tarn is a dragon lord who wakes up after a thousand years and searches (in his human form) for a new place to settle and a new hoard. He falls for a desert elemental spirit, Alagard (Gard), who is also bound in human form after an attack by the bad guy they'll have to eventually fight.

Like Durresson's The Lodestar of Ys, the worldbuilding in this novel is also inventive. She has an assured hand with the creation of her worlds. Often when reading fantasy romance, the worldbuilding is sketched lightly, paper thin almost, because the draw is the romance and the rest is window-dressing. But here the world is described so confidently that it felt like a real place. I love secondary fantasy worlds, so it was a delight for me to travel through it.

Tarn, the dragon lord, is our POV and a delight. He is very loving, very generous, and the main reason this book gave me such a warm feeling of joy. The secondary characters are interesting, some better drawn than others, and there's quite a lot of them.

The main issue however, and the reason I didn't give it 5 stars, was Gard, the other half of the pairing. He's described as a moody, snarky, bitchy kinda dude, which sometimes made him come across as immature. But whatevs, that's who Tarn likes, who am I to judge. The main problem was that I didn't feel convinced about Gard's feelings before the end. This is a single POV romance, which always makes it a challenge to show the non-POV character falling in love, and I don't think it succeeded in doing so. Besides the physical attraction (there are numerous sex scenes), I couldn't see when or how Gard started falling in love.

Nonetheless, it's still an enjoyable read for fans of fantasy romance. It gave me a warm, lovely feeling and I'm excited for the rest of the series.