Ami's Hoard

3.5 stars

Some authors have been around for a long time but I have not had the chance to read their books because, well, I feel too lazy to catch up with their collection. Such was the case with Yasmine Galenorn who is popular with her Otherworld series (there are 17 books to date!). Luckily, this year, she releases “ Flight from Death ” which is the first book of a new series, albeit set in the realm of Otherworld. What makes me quite excited about this book is the fact that the heroine, Shimmer, is a blue DRAGON shifter. How cool is that? Usually we have male dragons, but this time, we have a heroine dragon!

I don’t know whether Shimmer and Alex have appeared previously in any of the Otherworld books; there were some references about an incident that happened off page that kept being brought up. However, overall, I thought the story was working really well as a stand-alone. I didn’t feel lost at all, probably also because the supernatural creatures in this story are quite commonly found and they retain their well-known traits.

Shimmer and her boss (love interest) Alex, along with Ralph, the werewolf techno geek, went to help Alex’s friend, whose bed-and-breakfast was being haunted. The ghost-hunting soon became more complex when it turned out that the nature of the ghost was more evil than expected. In addition, there was a Gypsy curse involved which complicated things further.

I did like Shimmer as a heroine. She couldn’t shift into a dragon unless she was in the water, which means that she spent the majority of her time in this book as a human. But I thought she was quite strong and likeable. I could feel her somber mood, being exiled on Earth like so. I hope she could see that Earth wasn’t so bad after all; she had friends and she could try to get into the water more often. Having said that, I also wanted her to be more bad-ass – hey, she is a dragon after all! For majority of the time, I thought Shimmer was still trying to find her way on Earth, that she didn’t really show a lot of power and came across as rather ordinary.

As for the main hero, Alex Radcliffe was pretty bland. To be honest, he was neither memorable nor intriguing for me. I don’t mind a non-Alpha hero, but there was nothing in Alex that I found interesting. On top of that, being a vampire who needed his rest, Alex was missing in some of the major moments in the book – when the action took time during the day.

In fact, I found myself being more charmed with the secondary character, most notably Chai the jinn. I wanted to know more about his history and power. He was a pivotal character when it came to banishing the creature they hunted. In that sense, I even felt that Chai was more resourceful than Alex.

I was pretty let down with the conflict resolution though. The build-up was quite suspenseful and this creature seemed to be really scary and powerful. However, the final fight was really quick and easy. I was expecting fireworks and all I got was sparks.

I also didn’t enjoy the romance – I thought it was forced and rushed. I wouldn’t mind Shimmer and Alex being together, but I missed the progress and tension. Suddenly Alex was available, and Shimmer acknowledged the attraction, and bam, they were a couple. It was missing the ingredients that made me feel invested for them.

As a start of a new series, I thought it was pretty decent. Overall, I did like it. I liked the friendship and the group feel among these characters. I think I might keep my eyes on the sequel.

The ARC is provided by the publisher for an exchange of fair and honest review. No high rating is required for any ARC received.