Draco

Accidental Mates #1

by Brenda Steele

First book in the Accidental Mates Series.

With temporary genetic enhancements to her body, to make her sexier, Harmony sneaks into the dragon shape-shifter's room to either seduce him or kill him - whatever works to keep the beast from forcing her sister to marry him. The Drelconian lords were a race of the hottest men, with the - stiffest - equipment a girl could ever dream of. They descended to Earth looking for breeders in exchange for desperately needed fuel. And when Draco pinned her against a wall with an offer of all night fun as payment for releasing her sister from his bond, how could Harmony possibly refuse?

Genres: Dragons, Paranormal, Shapeshifters, Romance, Science Fiction, Paranormal Romance, Fantasy

100 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 30, 2008

About the author

Brenda Steele loves all things out of the ordinary. She writes to gratify the cravings of her own sexual drive, and then for her dear readers. Hopefully, the two won’t be far apart and all who read her work will come away satisfied.

Reviews

[Netanella · Rating 2 out of 5]

So a 2-star "it was okay" rating reminds me of my first date with my now husband. We were at a nice, but patron-less, restaurant with beautiful outdoor seating, enjoying the patio under the trees all to ourselves. Our hapless waiter Henry comes by at the end, and makes this profound statement: "How was the food? It was okay, right? You don't want another beer, do you?" "No, Henry," I thought. "I don't want another beer." I mean, why would I? It was just okay.

So this book reminds me of Hapless Henry and the Restaurant that Eventually Went Out of Business. Meh. I pushed myself past the halfway point, but could not finish it.

The setting "Accidental Mates" is a futuristic Earth where fuel resources are scarce. Hardly a surprise there. However, here's a surprise: an alien ship full of spacefaring dragonshifters (!) lands, offering a bargain to the energy-starved Earth. We'll trade you some mumbo-jumbo jewel-like element to solve your fuel-issues, and you give us some of your women for breeding purposes. All righty, then! Earth complies, and the storyline begins.

The world-building is poorly described. What a loss.

Draco is our bad-boy Dragon Lord, whose uniqueness is characterized by his name. :) Harmony is our female earthling who's traded for fuel crystals - really, she tries to be a bad-ass, caring sister who offers herself to the dragons in exchange for her younger, more beautiful sister. However, Harmony is a piece of work, and I mean that in the most derogatory of ways. She is close to the top of my TSTL list (an acronym I recently learned from a GR friend). To be nice about it, the daycare staffers at my son's school would say that Harmony is just full of "bad choices." Yup. That about covers the extent of her stupidity throughout the book.

So, I can't really recommend this pile of mush. But if someone offered me a beer about now, I think I would take it.

[Kira's NetGalley Book Blog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, this was certainly hot! This was definitely erotic but there was a story/plot to the whole thing which made the book doubly readable and fantastic! I had to shake my head at some parts because Harmony and Draco made me want to smack them in the face but luckily, I was able to hold myself back. Aside from that, the book did get me hot and bothered. Good read!

[Carolyn F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved this story. Had me crying throughout.

[Kelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just not enough development of the characters or the culture. Seemed more of an excuse for writing sex scenes. An opportunity was missed to create a fascinating world.

[Stephanne88 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 out of 5 stars

I didn’t like it, bad editing, and confusing storyline. He never said he loved her, usually I will read the next book and give a series another chance but I don’t think I will be doing that with this series.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dammit! You can't end it that way! Do you know it is now gonnna kill me until I can get around to buying the next book! Grrr....Ok, now I am hooked and NEED to know what happened

Ok now that I have had my rant I will get to what I think.

I got this book as a free read. I've had it for a while and started reading it late last night. I loved that the story started out fast and keep the fast pace threw the whole book. The steady flow of the story kept me right with it not wanting to put it down. I loved Harmony's kick ass tough as nails attitude. She is smart and sassy. Draco is all alpha male with a gentleness that peeks threw when you don't expect it. I found the story was well written and endearing. With a great story line.

I didn't expect it in a free read and got everything I love in a story.

The only thing that irritated me was the ending. As you can tell from my ranting from the beginning of this review. Now gonna go and look for the next books in this series.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I heard that this book was about dragon-shifters I just had to read it. I didn't know that I would become hooked. I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

Harmony will do just about anything to keep her sister from marrying Draco. She decides that she needs to kill him so that her sister will be safe. What she didn't plan on doing was having sex with him and becoming pregnant.

When Harmony finally decides to give Draco a chance and marry him the council tells Draco that he can never marry her because of her father. Now she has to sit back and watch him marry someone else.

I hated the ending. The author sure knew how to end this book to make you want to read the next one. I can't wait to read the rest because I want to see how everything plays out and see if the other dragons will be lucky in love.

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book. I loved the idea of an alien dragon race who needs help but the story felt short. The lord dragons apeared to be so powerful but in ssence they were ruled by the elders.
The whole action felt rushed and it failed to convince me. I am not sure how Harmony went from wanting to kill Draco to making love to him. Afterwords their whole story felt so wrong. I couldn't connect with the characters. Harmony was on the run and against being with Draco who
wanted her and then she became all accepting of her fate. She became the mistress without blinking. The end came so fast leaving me wanting to know more about how Ryuu was involved in the whole story and how he saved the from being eternally unhappy. Maybe Ryuu story will shed some light for me about the whole plot.

[Helen Jessica Mays · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hated the chacarecters. Two stars are just for the idea, not for the plot or the steamy scenes. Heroine was over the top horny since the moment she has seen the hero. There was no explanation about that hornines. It happens in other books too but they generally explain it with consepts like being true mates or something. There was not even that. It was not believable. Hero was so bad to her and abused her, hurt her; but she was ok with it in the end. After so much abuse and hurt I expect real grief, pain and regret on the part of the hero so that I can feel closure at the end of the book. There was not enough of it since everything was rushed and heroine was TSTL and said "you have no choice". Whole book was ridiculous. I cannot even write a decent comment to it, I feel confused, and inconcluded.

[Delphina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I sooo wanted to love this book. I am a shifter addict and dragon shifters are a rare and I can never turn them down. I think if the same story was written as a full length novel that it could have been great, but unfortunately it fell short for me. It felt like it could not decide if it was going to be strictly erotica or if it was going to be a love story with heat (very steamy heat) and a bit of mystery. I really feel like the background story of the shifters could have been amazing. It had some amazing ideas, but just fell flat for me. I am not saying the book was awful. It was a fun, free read, but as tempted as I am to see where this story goes, I am afraid that I will be disappointed if I pay $4 a piece for each the next installments.

[Caro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good novella. (A gem and good surprise of a freebie) I loved the characters and the story line. This is something I wouldn't mind reading again. Dragons...yay! I liked the spunk, the action and suspense, the attitudes (although there was some head smacking warranted), the fantastical atmosphere, some good steaminess, and the ending was perfect and definitely left a smile on my face. This is definitely a book that left me wanting to read more in this series and I will be on the look-out. Another author that may rise in my humble esteem. (I'll have to read more) Great for an anytime read. Enjoy!

[Shaly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Talk about one hell of a cliffhanger! That was just so wrong...lol. I enjoyed this read, good action, lots of bigotry, betrayal, suspense and mystery made it very interesting. All the hot sex wasn't bad neither ;0). There were a few grammer mistakes which always takes away from the story. Draco's character was kind of an ass sometimes but given his history, its understandable. Harmony was great, very tough, strong, stubborn and self-sufficient. Great heroine material. I look forward to reading the rest of the books in this series.

[Johanna Sawyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really not a whole lot to say about this book, it was fluff fiction. They did and said a lot but it wasn't that great of a read. I found it mildly interesting but it didn't suck me in and make me devour, I mostly just flipped through it. I thought it was a horrible quick ending, author could of at least let her have the baby. What have we done that when a woman has a baby it's considered a cliffhanger.... I doubt I'll buy book two

[Rosebud · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great premise that didn't deliver. Way too many subplots and directions. For me it became how many different ways can the central characters have sex and how much twists and turns can be inserted into this book to spice it up. Sometimes less is more which would have worked so much better here for me.

[Lady Lioness · Rating 1 out of 5]

The reason this got one star from me is simple: there was no plot. There would be some dramatic statement or event, like the hero declaring 'I have found my bride!', and then the next chapter would pick up at some future point and in some completely different location. There was little world-building and even less relationship development. Save yourself the time and skip this one.

[Hyacinth Janecyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this story. Harmony will do anything to protect her sister Arnetta. Draco is all stubborn alpha male. Funny back and forth between the two. The Elders are jerks and I can't wait until they get theirs! Elders do NOT want Draco to marry Harmony and they nearly don't get their HEA. I really want to know what happens after the wedding!!! Do Arnetta and Landon get their story????

[Elisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just sort of 'meh'. Parts of it were really good like some of the sex scenes and the ideas for the story, but the heroine got on my very last nerve. Not sure if I'm going to continue with the series or not.

[Allie Ritch · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun hot read.

[Vicky Upshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, but it just stopped :(

[Mya · Rating 5 out of 5]

love the dialouge

[Rachel]

*free on ARE

[Brittany · Rating 1 out of 5]

Only good thing about this was the smut and it was free. Little to no plot. The heroine was all wishy washy with her feelings and did not stick to her guns whenever she felt angry.

[C.J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok story but didn't end up liking the characters until near the end.

[Sabrina Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read from beginning to end...

[M&Y · Rating 2 out of 5]

Completely self-indulgent writing, but if you can get past the bad dialog and character connections that don't make sense...there are some background elements of the world that have possibilities.

[Leonie · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5*

Although this was just an ok read for me, I will have to read the next book because of how it ended.

[Tilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 /5.

[Adriana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Free 11/6/12 at All Romance

[Jacq · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Tracy Mcneil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read. Steamy and sexy. gripping characters that come to life. loved it.