Dragon's Lair

by Sara Craven

Brief and disastrous. That described exactly the marriage of Davina and Gethyn Lloyd.

Now, their first meeting in two years--at Gethyn's home in Wales--only confirmed the tangle of misunderstanding that lay between them.

And while Davina might acknowledge deep inside herself that all the old cravings for him were still there, it was a different matter to betray her feelings to him. What had changed, after all?

He had only the hollowness of passion to offer her, not the warm reassurance of loving she needed!

Genres: Romance, Harlequin, Harlequin Presents

Paperback

First published May 1, 1978

About the author

Anne Bushell was born on October 1938 in South Devon, England, just before World War II and grew up in a house crammed with books. She was always a voracious reader, some of her all-time favorites books are: "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, "Middlemarch" by George Eliot, "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë, "Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell and "The Code of the Woosters" by P. G. Wodehouse.

She worked as journalist at the Paignton Observer, but after her marriage, she moved to the north of England, where she worked as teacher. After she returned to journalism, she joined the Middlesbrough Writers' Group, where she met other romance writer Mildred Grieveson (Anne Mather). She started to wrote romance, and she had her first novel "Garden of Dreams" accepted by Mills & Boon in 1975, she published her work under the pseudonym of Sara Craven. In 2010 she became chairman of the Southern Writers' Conference, and the next year was elected the twenty-six Chairman (2011–2013) of the Romantic Novelists' Association.

Divorced twice, Annie lives in Somerset, South West England, and shares her home with a West Highland white terrier called Bertie Wooster. In her house, she had several thousand books, and an amazing video collection. When she's not writing, she enjoys watching very old films, listening to music, going to the theatre, and eating in good restaurants. She also likes to travel in Europe, to inspire her romances, especially in France, Greece and Italy where many of her novels are set. Since the birth of her twin grandchildren, she is also a regular visitor to New York City, where the little tots live. In 1997, she was the overall winner of the BBC's Mastermind, winning the last final presented by Magnus Magnusson.

Reviews

[StMargarets · Rating 2 out of 5]

These two wore me out.

Welsh poet hero has such a fragile ego that he couldn't handle his virgin teenage bride having wedding night jitters so he raped her.

Then his fragile ego couldn't handle apologizing or being kind so he gave her the cold shoulder the five weeks they lived together.

Then his fragile ego couldn't handle the heroine trying to make amends by making a nice dinner and having sex with him the night before he left for an author's tour of the US.

That's the last the heroine has heard from her husband in two years. He never answered her letter about her miscarriage or her lawyer's letters about a divorce.


Our heroine is just as ridiculous. She lets her mother run her life. When she finally goes to see the dragon in his liar, she lies about why she's there and goes out with an OM in order to spite the Hero's cousin, a wanna-be OW. She cuts her hair, hides in the back of a jeep to get away from the hero, breaks her arm, the list goes on.

I'll say one thing for SC, her heroes may have anger issues, her heroines may like being flung around, but she does keep the pace lively.

Finally, SC runs out of ways for the H/h to torture each other. The big reveal about mommy dearest meddling comes to light she tells the hero that the heroine aborted the baby - not that she had a miscarriage . But - the heroine has to read a discarded manuscript for her to understand the hero's true feelings. (To paraphrase - hero is a man baby with a fragile ego). For some reason, this makes the heroine melt. HEA

The last image of the heroine with her arm in a cast canoodling with her anger issues-husband is a chilling one.

[Dianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Davina wants a divorce, and she’ll go to Wales to get one if she has to. Two years ago, posh good girl Davina fell in love with Welsh coal miner’s son / bestselling author / poet Gethyn. They rolled around on the grass together and made up funny stories about people in pubs. It was all marvellous.

‘Commoner men want sex, and sex hurts and is awful!’ Davina’s super-controlling mother warns her on her wedding day. Davina freezes in fear. Everything turns quite disastrous.

Gethyn has no empathy. He’s not patient, or kind. He gets incredibly offended and sarcastic about Davina’s intimacy trembling. They spend a few weeks together with Davina cleaning house and cringing when Gethyn looks at her. Gethyn spends his time glaring at her and typing. Then, he goes off to the US on a book tour.

Gethyn isn’t there for Davina when she needs him the most. Instead, he stays in the US and is photographed with beautiful lady celebrities. After two years without any contact Davina tries to get a divorce. But Gethyn will not respond to her lawyer’s letters, so her lawyer suggests that Davina goes to Wales to track him down.

Davina’s not keen. Her uncle and boss and Gethyn’s publisher asks her to go to Wales to deliver some paperwork about another US tour to Gethyn and ask him when he’s going to deliver his next bloody book. Davina feels a lot more comfortable with taking this type of paperwork to Gethyn, and thinks she’ll maybe be able to slip in the divorce papers for him to sign without him noticing.

Both Davina and Gethyn act all wounded and self-righteous. Gethyn is mean and Davina is prissy. It’s all a huge delicious mess of threatened beatings and haircuts and a jealous lovesick cousin and injuries. There are some missed opportunities to get bitten by a death adder, or make love under a waterfall under the shadow of a dragon rock while not getting hypothermia, but I guess one can’t have everything. Neither of them will really talk about what’s got them most riled up, which makes sense. They don’t want to think about it, and the book would be too short if they started yelling why they’re feeling the feelings at each other right from the start.

I was a little disappointed with how Davina’s big devastating reason for wanting a divorce played out. I was on board with a lot of gap-fill drama all the way through the book, and then it wasn’t the big emotional payoff I’d hoped for. The revelation was very satisfying, but then it all fizzled out with not nearly enough grovelling from Gethyn.

[Iris · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the deal asshole: If I have to pretend that you're #1 lover man from planet Smooth Moves then you're going to have to prove it. To both your teenage virgin bride and to me! And you totally failed.

H attempts to coerce h physically, assuming that as an HP heroine she's just one thrilling caress from his strong but tender, work roughened hands away from succumbing to her body's own treachery, but not this time buddy. Here the important principle is female demisexuality, her NO is mainly mental and emotional; empathy, consideration and some loving words would have done wonders but none of these are part of Gethyn's repertoire. Flouncing away in a sulk after sexual congress of any kind is his preferred move.

Dragon's Lair is SC's 9th book and it's a real dud. Completely lacking in humor or chemistry between the leads, Davina is bland and Gethyn is just hideous, it's far below SC's standards. Disappointing because the books immediately preceding it were so good, (admittedly Past All Forgetting, while nearly perfect is somewhat of an outlier) I even wonder if Dragon's Lair was actually written—perhaps initially abandoned—before PAF and The Devil At Archangel? Both MC's are just so lacking! I have grudging admiration, in a vintage HP—mouth agape sort of way, for how precisely SC threads the forced seduction/rape needle, even how steadfastly Gethyn sticks to his selfish, unapologetic principles, but it's basically an unpleasant and boring read. For SC completists only.

[iamGamz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oooooh this one was delicious. It had so much angst and misunderstanding.

The h and H met, fell in love and married within a few weeks. Her mother was strongly against the marriage. So much so that she deliberately did all she could to sabotage their marriage before it even started.

The H is reserved, domineering, bossy and very plain spoken. He’s a plain, honest guy and the h’s mother looks down on him because of this.

The h allowed her mother to manipulate her into fearing her husband and ruining their wedding night. It was unpleasant, at the least. Her lack of trust in her husband caused a two year separation.

Until her uncle stepped in and send her to Wales to meet with her estranged husband under the presence of needing someone to deliver an offer for a book tour. (The H is an author and her uncle is his publisher)

There is a wannabe OW. The H uses her as bait to get a ride from the h. But most of the problems stem from them not being honest with each other.

I liked the way the book ended. The h had to do the groveling. She learned how truly horribly her mother ruined things for her and accepted how much she loved her husband. She also got a peek into her silent husbands mind during the early days of her marriage. That’s when she realized how mistaken she was about the proud man she married.

A great read and one I will pick up again.

[DamsonDreamer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bare 3. Part of my SC completion drive. Estranged after disastrously swift marriage with the usual interference from a possessive, nasty, snobbish mother. Gethyn, despite being a writer, was a fairly unattractive H and a bit on the nasty side. Davina was a bit of a non entity. Very much not one of her best. Welsh setting.

[Roub · Rating 3 out of 5]

not one of sara craven's best!but i love a besotted hero when i see one! davina was cold and unlovable. frankly, it's hard to believe gethyn pined two years for someone as selfish and spoilt as her! yet he did and he wanted her back.

[Xai Xai · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish modern Harlequins were like this one. It focused more on the emotional side of the characters than on the physical aspects of the marriage. Granted the passion is needed in a relationship but I figured too much is elaborated on them. With this book, I enjoyed the angst, the trickery the hero used to make her stay with him. He was quite perceptive in figuring out her next action. I enjoyed the nature trails of the countryside of Wales. The language expressions were new to me. What impressed me the most was the caring and loving way the hero addressed the injury sustained by the heroine when she fell. He was a true husband in every sense despite his anger and dislike for based solely on misunderstandings. I loved the love letters her wrote to her when they were still finding their way to each other in the early days of their marriage. The coldness and the indifferences were just a barrier to what they truly felt for each other. They did hurt each other but it was based on the wicked and selfish influence of the heroine's mother. Wonderful second chance story! I recommend!

[ANGELIA · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't altogether bad, but it had too many weak points, and one terrible one, which happens too often in books from the late 70's. The H, frustrated by the h's apparent reluctance to sleep with him, forces himself on her on their wedding night! It started out more like a seduction then ended up a rape! His saying he hated himself is way too little way too late!

The author made the mistake of having the h (a young one, only 19) go from enjoying their hot make out sessions while they were dating to, after a few words from her mother (who was controlling, manipulative and vindictive, among other things), being uptight, insecure and anxious. But the H (who's around his late 20's or early 30's) should have known something was wrong that she could act so differently, and asked her about it, tried to talk to her. He even suspected her mother was behind this but assumed the h would have enough sense not to be influenced. Also, the h should have tried to explain that she felt overwhelmed, was afraid she wouldn't please him, be a disappointment, and between that and her mother telling her she'll probably hate sex with someone like him (the h came from a well-to-do family while the H, a successful author, was from Welsh working class and Mom was a snob), it made her a real mess, not helped by what the H did.

Ms. Craven also goofed by making the couple spend several weeks together practically avoiding each other and not talking about their problems, then (all told in bits-and-pieces flashbacks while the h is thinking back), when he's about to leave on an American book tour, the h decides she wants to start again, she lets him know she wants to sleep with him, they have a night of passion and he leaves the next morning before she wakes up with a note on her pillow! She was hurt but decided she'd go with him and fight for their marriage, went to see her mother (big mistake), found out she was sick, couldn't leave her and of course Mom insisted she needed her to stay, discovers she's pregnant, falls down the stairs, loses the baby, tries to get in touch with the H but he never responds, because Mom talked to him and told him the h had been pregnant but had an abortion! All this melodrama told in flashback!

So, you get details in bits and pieces, and some unnecessary stuff thrown in. There's the OW who's not really the OW and the OM who's not really the OM, the H's well-meaning but opinionated aunt, the h's well-meaning but interfering uncle (who's also the h's boss and also the H's publisher), the little boy at the inn/ranch in Wales that the H owns (and where the h goes to see him for business reasons and to get the divorce she supposedly wants), who goes missing while searching for a mythical dragon, the OM and OW as a secondary couple, the h and h wasting time arguing when they should have been talking, and other things that are entertaining reading but also filler space.

If the H never stopped loving the h (even when he thought that she had aborted their baby), and realized she was too young and dominated by her mother to be ready for marriage, then why didn't he tell her, talk to her (he assumed she had an abortion because she was frightened and overwhelmed and probably pressured by her mother), suggest they separate temporarily but start over, get to really know each other, do things right this time. Instead, he stays away for two years but keeps tabs on her through her uncle, always meaning to get her back. He sure did a good job of hiding that! It seems he expressed his true feelings for her in a diary, which the h accidentally found. How hokey is that??? Women in the late 20thc rarely kept diaries, let alone men!

As for the h, her sudden revelation as to her mother's true character was laughable! She had known enough about it before, so that she should have been able to put the pieces together. Would the H really have ignored her call and letters if he knew she had a miscarriage and was asking for him? She should have put two and two together long before she did, when it was her mother who talked to the H on the phone after the miscarriage. But two years go by and then suddenly she's suspicious????

And when the H finds out the truth, he accepts it, but doesn't show much emotion. That doesn't make sense. He discovers she wanted their baby and miscarried and she was miserable, and it doesn't seem to faze him, aside from being angry at her mother.

And she also does something that other h's have done, and which is so RIDICULOUS!!! Because the H loves her long hair, she has it cut short! Not because she wanted to get it cut (in fact, she didn't like it) but just to spite him! I can't stand when they turn the h into a defiant teenager! She was 21 at the time, past the "I'll show you!" age. STUPID!!!!

And for all their time apart, and all the stuff they went through, the quick getting back together just didn't ring true. Everything just suddenly falls into place. This happens a lot with earlier books, where the couple spend most of the time apart (or together, but fighting) and then we're supposed to accept that everything's fine at the end. It really doesn't work, and that's why the books from about the mid 80's work better, where they're together more and there's more connection.

One thing I give the author credit for is making the h's attempts to run away backfire every time. Those escapes get annoying, as well as redundant. Twice the H foiled her plans and the third time she fell down the stairs and woke him up. A refreshing change!

So, it makes an okay read, but nothing to regret if you skip it.

[Live2Read · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars
Mixed feelings about this one. Not too bad but it wasn’t as expected either——-neither angst nor love depths can be found here. The heroine was affected by the bad breakup yet she came off too aloof. Initially, as well as for the latter parts, she appears rather detached than attached in the whole love affair. The hero? Well, he seems to be highly attached to her but he remains detached the whole time. A strange relationship there. Then, ow/om were useless of the plot. All & all, the lot proved to be drama-free folks in comparison to their potential.

With that being said, I also feel like its my duty to pass this on over, that I must warn a potential reader, that the hero indeed doesn’t make his official entrance until 35% in the story. Yes, that’s it, for more than 1/3 of the story the hero simply remained in mere reference, as well as greatly present in the heroine’s broken, forlorn memory to the point of severe distraction! In her day’s distraction, I was also distracted too. (When it comes to significant flashbacks, I much prefer it all in one go. Not given partially here & partially there as the character carry through her day in real time. It gets distracting!)

Last thing, in reference to the title, the hero is not the dragon here. Obviously, the mother of the heroine is the vile serpent! A real fire breathing dragon of a mother-in-law! Yikes!!! If I was the hero, I would have counted that loss as a blessing & run along in search of a better wife & a less horrible MIL, if one’s may.

[أجمل زهرة · Rating 4 out of 5]

رواية وجه في الذاكرة من روايات عبير

[RomLibrary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brief and disastrous. That described exactly the marriage of Davina and Gethyn Lloyd.

Now, their first meeting in two years--at Gethyn's home in Wales--only confirmed the tangle of misunderstanding that lay between them.

And while Davina might acknowledge deep inside herself that all the old cravings for him were still there, it was a different matter to betray her feelings to him. What had changed, after all?

He had only the hollowness of passion to offer her, not the warm reassurance of loving she needed

[Tricia Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing is lovely. One of a couple of SC where the H is not that great a lover and the marriage fails in part due to that. In comparison to all the HPs where he's a sex god I always find it an interesting trope. The h s mum is truly a horror. Still hope they see a sex therapist or maybe she can get him to read a book or three.

[Menna Allam · Rating 3 out of 5]

not too good and not too bad , it was boring at the beginning ... it finished quite well

[Francis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book. Funny cover.

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

GAHHHH! Sara Craven can write really good books, but she can also write really annoying ones!
The H treats the h like crap the whole book and then, even after she explains that she had a miscarriage and not an abortion 2 years ago, he doesn't express any regret at the loss and the misunderstandings!
He claimed that he intended to reconcile with her and that the uncle was in on it. And yet he rejected her from the start. There wasn't even the glimmer of a will to reconcile from him!