Ysolde de Bouchier muss die Fehler ihrer Vergangenheit ausbügeln, und ihr bleibt nur noch wenig Zeit dafür. Zum Glück hat sie schon einen Plan, der jedoch nicht ganz einfach umzusetzen ist. Da wird auch noch ein Mitglied ihrer Familie entführt, und jemand versucht, Ysolde zu erpressen.
For as long as she can remember, Katie MacAlister has loved reading. Growing up in a family where a weekly visit to the library was a given, Katie spent much of her time with her nose buried in a book. Despite her love for novels, she didn't think of writing them until she was contracted to write a non-fiction book about software. Since her editor refused to allow her to include either witty dialogue or love scenes in the software book, Katie swiftly resolved to switch to fiction, where she could indulge in world building, tormenting characters, and falling madly in love with all her heroes.
Two years after she started writing novels, Katie sold her first romance, Noble Intentions. More than thirty books followed during the years after Noble's publication. Her novels have been translated into numerous languages, been recorded as audiobooks, received several awards, and placed on the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. She also writes for the young adult audience as Katie Maxwell, and for the mystery world as Kate Marsh.
Katie lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and dogs, and can often be found lurking around online.
I caught this book release on fictfact and remembered a little bit about the Aisling novels, but forgot the plot of the dragon series. I decided I had to read the whole of them again. I really adored the Aisling books, liked the Silver dragons, but was kinda meh about the light dragons. By this book, I was ready to smack some sense into the ridiculously clueless Ysolde/Tully! She really is my least favorite mate, I think I'd rather read a whole book of Cyrene than have to suffer through any more of this woman's thought (or lack thereof) process. I'm hoping we get a little Black or Blue dragon action in the next set, and seriously hope Ysolde and Baltic fade into background characters. Don't get me wrong, I llove me some Baltic, but his mate makes me want to punch someone.
I give the book 3.5 stars, in spite of Ysolde, because of the following: Brom. How such an idiot could raise such an intelligent kid is beyond me Lots of dragon history. I was able to get some questions answered finally! The sex shop sheep Jim. I want to be a demon lord so I can have my very own Jim! Magoth. I hope he has a cameo in every wyvern's tale!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I’m just glad it’s over. I love the Dragon Series. The Aisling Grey and Silver Dragon books are so good. The Light Dragon’s however, are a hot mess. This series is dependent on Ysolde being ignorant. She doesn’t remember her original past, nor does she have clear memories of her life post resurrection. The First Dragon wants her to complete a task for him, but only speaks in riddles. How can someone solve a problem when they don’t even know what the problem is? They can’t, and I read three books to watch Ysolde technically not complete her task.
The first problem was the First Dragon. He is the creator and Father of all the Dragon’s, so why he needed Ysolde to do his dirty work was beyond me. All he had to do was say what it was he wanted and why and poof it could’ve been handled. My main issue with this book was why couldn’t Ysolde remember anything? She did not remember her original life, and she spent the first 300 years of her resurrection with both short term and long term memory loss. Every few month’s Gareth had to reintroduce her to the world like some new born baby, until Brom was born then she sort of remembered things. Why? We are never told. Baltic is resurrected with all of his memories intact . So what was the deal with Ysolde’s brain damage? Also what was the deal with her fugue’s? Why was she able to turn lead into gold during them? Does she still have that ability?
The most annoying thing about Ysolde was how much of a push over she was. She’s ask someone what they were up to and the doorbell would ring and she’s completely lose her train of thought. She’d ask Baltic a question and he would easily distract her with his magic penis. I mean good lord, all she needed to do was focus just a little bit. Also her whole forgive and forget attitude about being murdered was ridiculous. The more that was revealed the more outraged she should have been. Baltic was not a bad person. His lashing out and becoming the dread wyvern made perfect sense. He didn’t commit any of the crimes her was accused and “convicted” of. He didn’t kill any of the Blue Dragon’s, he didn’t start the Great Dragon War, he didn’t make the Black Dragon’s become some blood thirsty horde. The fact that it took a few sentences in front of the rest of the Weyr to clear that up and still no one apologized was maddening. If I was him I would have cursed all Dragon’s to be mateless. Don’t get me started on Ysolde not wanting to kill any Dragon’s when they were constantly coming for her head, I mean self defense is important.
There are still so many character’s left to find love. Hopefully the series is not over, and MacAlister goes back to her fun and fabulous style of writing.
Katie M does it again! Sparks Fly reminded me exactly why I love her dragon series. Her characters top my all-time-favorites list! And it's not just the main characters--it's every single character in this series. I cannot get enough of them! But I must admit that I have a crush on Baltic--he's one seriously smokin' hot dragon!
The scene with Constantine and the blow-up sheep in fishnet stockings was the most hilarious scene I have ever read in my life. I had tears in my eyes and was laughing so loud my hubby was giving me a you-are-nuts look!
But beyond the alpha heroes, witty heroines, fantastic humor, the plot is fast-paced, full of twists and turns that had me flipping the pages to find out what happens!
Keep 'em coming, Katie! I cannot wait for the next installment to see what kind of trouble these dragons land themselves in!
Entertaining and fun read. I was grateful for the character descriptions in the back of the book. I really liked this, and can't wait to read more books by this author.
Katie Macalister continues her humorous and witty "Light Dragon" series with this funny and romantic novel starring Ysolde de Bouchier and her dragon mate Baltic. Ysolde and Baltic were introduced in a previous novel of the series and continue their own special journey in this current story "Sparks Fly." Actually, it is more Ysolde's story. Ysolde has her hands full attempting to redeem her dragon mate's honor by fulfilling a request from Baltic's dragon-god father to right his past wrongs against all of the dragon clans which has caused an inseparable rift in relations and ultimately Baltic's self-induced exile from the clans as a dragon chief or wyvern. Baltic will have nothing to do with it though and stubbornly clings to his exile. Ysolde is at her wit's end trying to figure out what exactly Baltic's great wrong has been and is getting very little help from the mysterious and all-powerful dragon-god himself who insists on speaking in riddles. She is on the verge of giving it all up when someone very close to her is kidnapped and endangered. Then, there is no wrath like that of one pissed-off and scorned female dragon! Katie never fails to deliver an immeasurable amount of wit and humor in her stories. Ysolde's adventure is entertaining delivering constant chuckles. Ysolde is a definite diamond among zirconias in this story with a character that stands out and one-liners to die for. Baltic is a stereotypical alpha-male, chauvinist which is part of his charm. However, don't expect any deviance in his character which is always pretty predictable. I suppose this helps to deliver the comedy in many scenes. There is a few scenes of sexual tension and romance between the two main characters, but it's not a story built around the sex and romance of the hero and heroine. It is a story meant to simply entertain in the more common fashion of smiles and laughter. Overall rating of 3.5 from me for its overall ability to tickle my funny bone. :-P
Ugh..... I love this author but this book might have finished off this series for me.
I struggled really hard to get into it and stay into it and to even enjoy myself. Sure there were funny lines though most felt REALLY forced.
And there were characters I liked yeah way too damn many of them.
There was a fairly well though out plot line ummmmm LINES, and by that I mean this book was WAY too busy.
I just wanted it to be over so I could move on to my new Amanda Ashley novel. You see I am that person who reads one book until they are finished before picking up another usually, but in the course of reading this book I read three others, just because I was trying to put off finishing. I was so BORED. Everything in this novel was all over the place and the characters are starting to feel lumped together.
So while the author’s writing was still good I am just sick of this story line, or maybe it is just Ysolde and Baltic. together
Dieses Buch ist ein wirklich perfekter Abschluss für die Light-Dragons-Reihe. Die Story rund um Ysolde und Baltic wird hier zu einem Ende gebracht, viele offene Fragen werden beantwortet und es wird einiges an Licht in die etwas verworrene Geschichte gebracht. Man muss als Leser zwar höllisch aufpassen, dass man im letzten Drittel des Buches aufgrund der vielen handelnden Charaktere und dem doch recht rasanten Handlungsverlauf den Überblick nicht verliert, aber das hatte für mich keinerlei Auswirkungen auf das Lesevergnügen. Die Liebesgeschichte von Baltic und Ysolde selbst hat mich persönlich nicht so unbedingt angesprochen, aber dafür das Drumherum um so mehr. Ich liebe es, in der Storyline immer wieder auf bereits bekannten Charaktere aus den vorherigen Reihen zu treffen, die trotz ihrer Unterschiede und individuellen Geschichten gemeinsam zu einem harmonischen Ganzen verschmelzen. Zusätzlich mag ich die leichte und humorvolle Schreibweise der Autorin, welche mich so gefesselt hat, dass ich die Reihe an einem Wochenende durch hatte. Eigentlich schade, weil jetzt nur noch die "Black Dragon" Reihe vor mir liegt, aber ich freue mich schon sehr darauf. Kostyas Geschichte interessiert mich ganz besonders und ich hoffe, dass meine hohen Erwartungen nicht enttäuscht werden. Dieser Band war zwar nicht der stärkste dieser Reihe, aber stellvertretend für die gesamte "Light Dragons" Reihe gebe ich hier 4 Sterne.
While I love, love, loved book 1 of this series (THE paperback that got me back into reading again and cemented Katie Macalister as a fav go-to author) this conclusion of Baltic and Ysolde's story was a struggle for me to complete. I've had it in suspended TBR animation since it was published and tried several times to get the groove on! I hate that I couldn't rate it higher. There really wasn't much of a plot: Save Baltic's Honor, Save Weyrkind. Okay, I'm in. LOVE ME SOME BALTIC! And while Ysolde was never my fav heroine in all the dragon series, I was always rooting for her. That she'd get her memories back. That everyone that ever took from her would meet Ms. Karma (cause she's the bitch). That she and Brom and Baltic would get there HEA. But book 3's Ysolde? Ummmm. I just kinda wanted to punch her till she calmed her ADHD inner dialog shit down. Sighes. But with all my bestie book girlfriends, I get that she's desperate, over-protective, hormonal, and fictional...so I hang with her till the epilogue LOL Then there is the author's classic humorous character dialog. Which I have always admired. Hmmmm. It was just way too much here. It's one thing to watch the (dragon) Marx Brothers or (demon lord) The Three Stooges's interactive shenanigans in small doses...but to read dialog looped between so many characters slowed everything down to the point of almost no real humor (good or bad) left. So while most loose plot threads came to a somewhat satisfying conclusion, they were almost lost to me over the loud goofy voices of a cast of thousands. In the end IMHO you need to read this as part of the series...just read the Drake and Baltic parts, skipping to the epilogue. I will keep my I LOVE KATIE MACALISTER fangirl card in my wallet and will read Koysta's story...but it might remain on my TBR list for a little longer.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Another fun Light Dragons book. Baltic is being his usual stubborn self. He doesn't feel that he needs to be part of the community of dragons, they are just fine on their own. He feels no need to lift the curse from the silver dragons. He does want to track down Thala and take care of that problem, and get on with restoring his castle. Ysolde is still trying to figure out how to fulfill the First Dragon's demands, especially since he won't tell her exactly what he wants done. She also needs to do some heavy bargaining to acquire some artifacts that she needs for various purposes. When her ex-husband kidnaps her son, she goes on a rampage to get him back. That battle is pretty intense, but with some fun moments too. The final battle of the book is very good, with some serious mayhem happening. I loved the part where she confronts the First Dragon, doing and saying things that make other dragons present cringe, but she doesn't care. The epilogue is great, and I loved the machinations that went on. Ysolde's son Brom is one of my favorite characters, and I loved his mixture of little boy and adult. The scene with Constantine in the sex shop was hysterical. I really hope there will be another Light Dragons book, because I really want to see what happens with Thala.
1 1/2 stars - I struggled to finish this book because it was so boring. Feel free to skip everything up to page 250, just know that Ysolde made some deals with Drake and Constantine and you will be completely up to date without slogging through Ysolde losing her temper every 5 minutes and threatening everyone.
The last quarter of the book includes all the characters you love from all the dragon books, including Magoth, the ex-demon lord and Cyrene the ex-wyvern's mate naiad, but it becomes distracting. Although each character keeps their distinctive voice and personality consistent with previous books, their constant interjections dilute the emotion in the scenes.
I really had high hopes for this book because I liked the resurrection and redemption elements of the story, but I felt they were resolved weakly. It's not explained the purpose for Ysolde's visions or how they were supposed to help her meet her mission. Plus she doesn't I guess I just felt the build up was not worth the payoff.
I want to give this book a better rating, I really do, but find myself exceptionally irritated at Ysolde and the fact that she is a total wuss. I would use stronger language but children may read this. I have a five letter word in mind that would shock most mothers, mine not included!
Ysolde is a dragon dammit, she needs to start acting like one and stop kowtowing to her enemies. If my ex-husband stole my son and ransomed him for gold I would find my son, make sure her was safe, shift to dragon form and eat my ex and his nasty wife. Period. End of story. There would be no getting away. Verbal threats would not suffice.<
I did love the appearance of all of my favorite characters from the Aisling Grey Series and the Silver Dragon Series and Jim is always a pleasure.
For fans of MacAlisters Dragon series this will sure to be a hit but for those new to the books may be a little disappointed.
Did not finish. Why ? First I feel asleep 5 times while reading the first 100 pages, something I just don't do. Second, I just could not connect with all the happenings and characters. I like the characters, I like their world, I really enjoyed the Aisiling Grey series. This one just has too much going on for my reading taste. Third and finally I had a big problem with the ability of the characters to observe details of structures and joke while hiking to save her son ?!?!? So unbelievable and distastefully out of character.
I loved this book, I think it was my favourite out of the light dragon books. It was hilarious and addictive. It had kidnapping, adventure, magic and dragons. I love these dragon stories and do not want them to end. I want to know what happens to everyone next. Definitely glad I read these series and would recommend them to everyone. xxx
*This review is about the whole Light Dragons trilogy*
My Rating: Book 1: 3 Stars (I liked it) Book 2: 2 Stars (It was ok) Book 3: 2 Stars (It was ok)
Starting this trilogy after finishing the "Aisling"-Grey novels and the "Silver Dragons"-trilogy, I have to say that I was disappointed. I really enjoyed most of the books before and the story-built-up in the trilogy before was amazing and the sole reason why I wanted to continue reading this series, but the "Light Dragons"-trilogy just didn't live up to my expectations.
First, the things I liked. I really appreciated getting more inside into the past happenings of the septs. Baltic's redemption-arch was definitely interesting as he was more or less a villain in the books before and getting his perspective added context to the whole war and conflict between the septs. I enjoyed Ysolde being a single-mum instead of another hot single just looking for her next catch. I liked that Jim and all the others were still playing an active role in this book.
Now the things I didn't enjoy: The writing-style was so confusing. Only in the last book it was more clear when something was actually happening or just a flashback. But in the first two books, this wasn't especially clear and confused me very much. It made it really hard to concentrate on the story and what was happening when - as a reader - you jump from reality to vision without any kind of transition. Next up, Baltic and Ysolde...to make it short I didn't like their relationship. Baltic never heard of communication whatsoever and then basically blames his mate for being "over emotional" when he didn't tell important information which was crucial for their safety and their relationship. Plus, he constantly compares the "new" Ysolde to the "past" Ysolde. If she wasn't like the same person - more or less as she lost most of her memory - this would sound a lot like "My ex never....My ex girlfriend didn't...Why can't you be more like my ex...bla bla bla." Don't get me wrong Ysolde is far from being a likeable character, but if I was in her shoes, I'd walk out on him in like the first book. Now to Ysolde, the MC of this trilogy: Y. is annoying. MacAlister really tried to make her quirky like she did with Aisling, but this time it just didn't work at all. The main reason it took me that long to finish the trilogy was Ysolde. Just like Baltic this young lady doesn't know what proper communication and boundaries are. Instead she constantly tries to make everyone she meets to act in a way that profits her. Baltic isn't interested in politics, now he has to because Y. wants him to. Baltic says he isn't into certain bedroom fun, Y. does it anyway. I hope you get what I want to say...but being in her mind was extremely frustrating. And let's not talk about how whenever they had a fight instead of actually talking it out, they just jumped each other and pretended the conflict never happened because s*x solves everything I guess. Now that we are on the topic of the devil's tango. The steamy scenes in this trilogy were not good. The most smut was in the first book and after that there's barely anything. The scenes constantly cut off as soon as start making out. Not that this is a reason to dislike this book, but in contrast to the other books in this series, the scenes in this one were first of not enjoyable to read nor even really there. And again sometimes I felt like both of these characters didn't know what consent means, but that could also be just me. The story took forever to unfold. Until like the last 10 chapter I felt like the whole plot was going nowhere. Obviously we got a new villain presented which is probably important for the following books, but this literally took until the last few chapters and before that there was just chaos. We jumped from one storyline to the next.
Overall this books tried to hard to be like the Aisling Grey-novels. The character, the dynamics, having some weird non-human sidekick....but it just didn't work in this instalment. Aisling and Drake had a pretty decent chemistry and worked through their communication issues and even broke up when Aisling felt trapped into a corner by her overbearing dragon. But Baltic and Ysolde clearly lacked any of that.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I have mixed feelings about this one. I don't know which story I love more, Aisling- Drake or Ysolde- Baltic. Probably the first couple, because the story is original and for Asling everything was new but Ysolde's story has the factor of her memory loss in favour, and discovering their past through her visions and their story has also been a delight. There are a few surprises in store, which I'm not going to spoil, so it's up to readers to find out. We also learn a bit more about the First Dragon. I have to say it kept me on edge in a rollercoaster of emotions. It's great to see the evolution of characters after 10 books. Can't wait for the black dragons sept now!
Katie Macalister...I must say that you are in the top 5 of my favorite authors. My genre is normally Regency romance romp...a loooooooong way from the dragon series genre!! Needless to say, your story telling, the humor, and the characters all kept me glued from beginning to end...I could not stop until I read the very last of the Dragon series books. I understand you will be coming out with a new Dragon series in 2018...I can't wait!! Thank you for the awesome read...so looking forward to more!
I think this dragon series has run out of steam. I found that I just no longer care about these characters, in part while Baltic may be brooding, he has no other real emotional range. And Ysolde is not an engaging character for me, even with her visions of the past. I find myself missing the wit and humor of the first few books, and the spice between Aisling and Drake. The best moments in this books are when other characters from past series show up. In summation, I think this saga has played out and I'm a little done with paranormal romance at this point.
Not a detailed review, just a few thoughts I had while reading: - Only read this book because I read the previous 2 books in the series and I'm the type that has to finish what I started, unfortunate for me because it was quite the struggle to summon the desire to pick this book up and even more so to finish reading it. - Ysolde is just all bark and no bite. All she does is get angry and yells at everyone all the time but she's got no real ability to do anything. Her arcane magic is wonky because she's a dragon, but she's also a very unskilled dragon who cannot change to dragon form at will. I guess she's only good at moving pieces around like chess, getting others to do what she wants them to do. Not very "badass" in my opinion. - Almost half of the characters in this book are annoying to me, which I think is too much, and makes it too hard to like this book. First Dragon with his cryptic words was super annoying, Baltic with his tight guarding of all information was super annoying, and Cyrene and Kostya's noisy and shrill presence alone was annoying. It's so hard to like anyone in here! - Wish there was more written about the budding romance between Savian and Maura, at least they were cute and not annoying. - For someone who is so busy saving the world and has the universe's problems on her shoulder, her obsession with adult sex toys comes at a weird time, like talk about prioritising the wrong things. - Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the author's first few dragon books, the story between Aisling and Drake. I keep hoping to find the same enjoyment in her subsequent books that's why I continued with her Silver dragon and Light dragon stories, but both of those have disappointed me terribly. I want to like them so badly, but it just didn't happen. I think this will be the end of my journey with Katie MacAlister.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
It has been a long time since I have read any books from this series, or its affiliated series, and because of that it took me a while to remember the characters and the story. I was a little disappointed with this story; it lacked the humor I remember and I was irritated with Ysolde and Baltic. They do not have a healthy relationship. The First Dragon was extremely irritating with his vagueness. Thank goodness for Jim; that demon never fails to entertain.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I have read the previous books, so I knew what was going on in this series... but if you haven't then you will be very very lost. I liked finally reading about Baltic and Tully is definitely a match for him. Twists and turns and a very grumpy dragon, Baltic is beautifully grumpy and wonderfully loyal and to see his more humanised qualities really made him a beautiful character to watch grow.
Great last book to finish up the series. It was a little rushed at the end trying to get too many things completed but the story was really good it was entertaining and it kept you riveted the whole time
Auch in dieser Drachen-Reihe von Katie MacAlister war dies wieder ein krönender Abschluss. Ich habe die Reihe in vollen Zügen genossen und kann euch alle Drachen-Reihen der lieben Katie nur ans Herzen legen.