Dragon Fall (Unabridged‪)‬

stories that fall down the rabbit-hole- what’s up is down, and humor leads the charge.

Aoife Dakar is not your average girl: returning to her parent’s house after a two year stay in an institution for her ‘hallucinations’. See, on a rather mundane date to the Goth Faire, everything turned on its ear when she witnesses a murder, encounters dragons and sees a man disappear in a cloud of smoke. No one believed her, and her brother and sister chalked everything up to stress and grief, as their parents had just died. The only thing from that night, aside from a ring, Aoife has pushed aside, determined to keep her life utterly and unendingly normal.

A touch of curiosity has her venturing out, hoping for some answers. Answers she doesn’t get, but she does end up with a very large Newfoundland dog and a moody naked man on the beach. Not quite anyone’s definition of ‘normal’, but it will soon become mundane to Aoife.

Thrust into the midst of a tumultuous era for the Dragon Septs, the ring she never set aside after the fateful night of the Goth Faire seems to be a thing of power. But, burdened with a talking dog (ok, a demon named Effrajim who chose the Newfoundland form) who apparently now must answer to her, and a mysterious and moody man who heals in an instant, breathes fire and is *gasp* a dragon, with a serious attitude, life is changing quickly.

There is a curse on the Dragons, and a quest for control. Not your average curse: the septs cannot meet since they wish to kill one another on sight, and because of the curse they can’t even deal with one another since they can’t talk. Oh they can talk, and yell, and do so often – but to one another it sounds like gibberish. Sadly – their mates are no help in this either – so Aoife as a new entrant gets to play translator in a giant game of operator.

The story itself takes a bit to get going and moving forward: Aoife doesn’t really gain legs until she starts poking at Kostya to get reactions, especially as he is incredibly stubborn and cannot (or will not) admit when he is wrong. With Jim the demon dog poking at everyone’s last nerve while being of little help, the story had me giggling and rolling my eyes in equal measure. These are stories that fall down the rabbit-hole- what’s up is down, and humor leads the charge. Although some of the situations delve into silliness – it’s pure MacAlister, with plenty of missteps, mistakes and some horrendous consequences looming in the background. With appearances from Aisling and Drake, as well as Renee and the other Dragons, a familiarity with at least Aisling’s stories will help readers get into the story. A quick ending that doesn’t answer all the questions but does bring an HEA will have readers ready for the next book.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.