Gold Rush

Tarakona Dragons

by Jody Wallace, S.E. Smith (Foreword)

She didn’t know she was a dragon. He didn’t know he was a hero.

Oksana Popov, scientist, has no reason to believe in magic until she finds a portal to another world near the mysterious town of Magic, New Mexico. Even then she’s inclined to believe it’s military until she meets rascally wizard Wade Insbrook, who helps her through her transformation into an actual gold dragon. But when she tries to return to Earth and confront her parents about her heritage, Wade uses all the tricks in his very tricky book to stop her. Because gold dragons who don’t have a particular wizard to drain their power blow up. Literally.

And while Wade might appeal to Oksana’s baser instincts, he’s just not the right kind of wizard. Originally from Earth, he’s been hiding on Tarakona because of a deal gone bad with a demon. While things heat up between Wade and Oksana, her trip through the portal has alerted the demon, and soon the demon has discovered Wade at last.

A harrowing escape finds Wade and Oksana on Earth and racing to destroy a seemingly indestructible object before the demon uses it to raise hell. Their budding attraction won’t be the only thing that can’t survive the demon apocalypse.

Tropes: This fish out of water romance contains elements of romantic suspense and adventure, opposites attract, and the secret society trope.

Note: The Gold books are preceded by Silver Born by Jody Wallace, Silver Unleashed by DB Sieders, Read at Night by Jody Wallace, and Red in the Morning by DB Sieders, but all six Dragons of Tarakona books should stand alone. They are a subseries in the Magic, New Mexico world.

262 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 28, 2018

About the author

Jody Wallace’s 30+ titles include sf/f romance, paranormal romance, and contemporary romance. Her fiction features diverse protagonists, action, adventure, and humor. Her readers frequently comment on her great characters, suspenseful stories, and intriguing and creative world building. When describing her methods, Jody says: “There are two sides to every story. I aim to tell the third. And I add cats regardless.”

Outside of her fiction career, Jody has employed her Master’s Degree in Creative Writing to work as a college English instructor, technical documents editor, market analyst, web designer, and all around pain in the butt.

Reviews

[Amanda Bhear · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it! A scientist trying to find out more about her family discovers a lot more than she could have imagined. She falls through a portal & discovers a new dimension of dragons & wizards. She then finds out she is a dragon herself, from that place. What is going on? The man claiming to be a wizard who finds her helps her find some dragons to help her understand her new other self. She finds out these are his street gang & he is from earth. He is hiding here from a demon who wants to kill him. The demon finally finds him wanting his chalise that with this man's last soul will help him stay on earth wrecking havok permanently. They get back to earth, & into Magic to retrieve it. On the way to the portal a witch asked her to test one of her gadgets with releasing dragon energy into batteries. The demon catches them & gets the chalise. The talk one of the imps into getting the gadget for them. They tell her how much the dragon energy could be worth. When the demon starts the ceremony to use his soul to use the chalise he causes a diversion. The dragon uses the gadget to blast some energy into the others & knock the chalise out of the way. The imp brings it to her. She uses the gadget to channel eneough energy into the chalise to destroy it & kill the demon & a lot of his minions. When the man wakes up he is surprised to find himself in a hospital bed with her by his side. He thought he'd be dead. She tells him what happened, and that they are near her parents home. I loved it!

[Sydney M Neblett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Out of this world

Many times I have visited Magic, New Mexico, but this was my first experience with this author. This book is just a joy to experience. I love how the characters have such strong personalities and how they manage to come together when you would expect a disconnect between them. The excitement was everything I have come to expect from the town of Magic and I love that the author made the female be the hero. I can’t wait to read the next book because I am fully vested in the outcome for the Dragons of Tarakona.