Title: "Can't Get Enough"
Book:
Series: Dragon Kin prequel
Author(s): Shelly Laurenston (aka: G.A. Aiken)
Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy, Romance
Publisher/Year: Brava/2008
-Webpage: The World of G.A. Aiken // Shelly Laurenston

Synopsis: Even for a dragon, Ailean the Wicked has a bad reputation. For 150 years he's been renowned for his fighting prowess, but now he's got a new conquest in mind--a gorgeous dragoness known as Shalin the Innocent. Ailean suspects she's anything but. And while he's saving her from her enemies, he plans to prove that, even in human form, a bad-boy dragon can show a girl a good time that's truly off the scale...

Review: This is the short story that got me interested in the Dragon Kin series to begin with! I read this, the only story from that entire anthology, and fell in love with Ailean and Shalin so much that I had to know more about their descendants (if there were any to be read about). This is set a few centuries before Dragon Actually (at least 3 centuries, probably closer to 4 or 5 centuries) since that book is about Ailean's grandson Fearghus, and tells the infamous story of how Ailean was brought to heel. More or less.

What's interesting is that pretty much the rumors and insinuations made about Ailean by his family and by others are all true. The man (dragon?) would bed anything so long as it interested him. What I was happy to see was that when he wasn't able to take Shalin to bed decades ago, he didn't decide that it meant he had to pine away for her. He moved on because he practically realized that he couldn't just let himself waste away. It would happen if it was meant to happen.

We meet Addiena, another dragoness who is spoken of occasionally, a Princess who is selfish, willful and vindictive. Horribly so. Almost began a war because she was rejected in fact. What surprised me the most was the fact that given all the random deaths that seemed to occur (those dragons sure are violent!) how Addiena managed to reach adulthood at all. She's HORRIBLE. Her mother, the Queen, really should have killed her and found a different hatchling.

Shalin and Ailean are a funny pair--Shalin tries to kill him (a lot more often then you would expect of a woman in love) and Ailean kind of just says 'Oh she doesn't mean that!' and continues to try and seduce her. They're both kind of victims of their own insecurities though, but in the end it works out. Really well. As is evident in the current series.

+++

Title: "Chains and Flames"
Book:
Series: Dragon Kin prequel
Author(s): G.A. Aiken (aka: Shelly Laurenston)
Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy, Romance
Publisher/Year: Zebra/2008
-Webpage: The World of G.A. Aiken // Shelly Laurenston

Synopsis: Bercelak the Great, 9th son to Ailean the Wicked and Shalin the Innocent, finds himself engaged to the Queen's daughter, Princess Rhiannon, a matter that causes him much joy and her a lot of aggravation.

After all, Queen Addiena isn't known for doing things out of the niceness of her cold, black heart.

But Bercelak is determined to keep Rhiannon for his own, to make her see how much he loves her and maybe show her that maybe being the son of Ailean the Slag isn't such a bad thing after all...

Review: Ha! So that's my own synopsis--can you tell? This story was originally published elsewhere as well, with the defunct Triskellion Publishing and is set between "Can't Get Enough" and Dragon Actually. This tells the story of how Fearghus' parents Bercelak and Rhiannon met. And that whole business with the collar around Rhiannon's neck.

Having read this after Dragon Actually I was a little shocked by some of the behaviors of some of the characters. Like Bercelak. He seemed so less...ruthless in this then he did in Dragon Actually. And seriously, considering these are Ailean's descendants, why are NONE of them happy with humans? He raised them all with human servants. Ailean was different then he was in his short story, but I suppose having fifteen kids would do that to a man, dragon or not.

Bercelak chose to go almost the same route as his dad did--mate wise at least. Which amused me since neither Bercelak nor Ailean were quite sure how they came to be related. Rhiannon, for the most part, is a shrew. Admittedly with her mother (Addiena) gunning for her all the time, her siblings trying just as much and having her power restrained from infancy...I guess she gets to have that chip on her shoulder. It was amusing to watch as she tried to maintain that haughtiness throughout everything.

Addiena, true to form, is a bitch and happy to be one. Still selfish, still vindictive, and still in love with Ailean, she gets what she deserved. Oh yes she does. I can see why Rhiannon accepted Annwyl after meeting her though--in many ways the two of them probably would have been fast friends (if both born the same species). They both had torturous parents, demented siblings, take nothing attitudes and enjoy a good fight whenever they could.

The whole thing with the chains proved to be interesting. Bercelak (not surprisingly) likes to restrain his partners. Rhiannon, far from hating it, loved it and by the end of the story why she was so proud to be wearing the collar makes a whole lot of sense.