Deathmaker by Lindsay Buroker [Review]

Deathmaker (Dragon Blood #2) by Lindsay Buroker
Format: ebook
Source: purchased
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: March 1, 2016

Dragon Blood
0.5. Dragon Rider
1. Balanced on the Blade's Edge
2. Deathmaker - Paperback | Kindle
3. Blood Charged
4. Patterns in the Dark
5. The Blade's Memory
5.5. Under the Ice Blades
6. Raptor
7. Soulblade
7.1. The Fowl Proposal
7.5. Shattered Past
7.8. Crazy Canyon
8. Oaths

Lindsay Buroker
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

When Lieutenant Caslin Ahn joined Wolf Squadron, she was prepared for the reality that she might one day be killed in the line of duty. She was less prepared for being shot down, assumed dead by her own people, and dragged off to the Cofah Empire as a prisoner of war. As if being thrust into a dungeon and interrogated wasn't bad enough, the sadistic commandant decides to give her a cellmate: the notorious pirate Deathmaker. Given the crimes he's committed against Iskandia, Cas owes it to her people to try and kill him.

Part warrior and part scientist, Tolemek "Deathmaker" Targoson has not only slain thousands with his deadly concoctions, but he has a special loathing for Iskandian pilots. It was Ahn's commander, Colonel Zirkander, who ruined his military career, forcing him to leave his country in shame and join a pirate organization. Years later, he uses his dreadful reputation like a shield to keep people away; all he wants is to be left alone to work in his laboratory. But when fate lands him in a cell with Zirkander's protégé, he sees a chance for revenge. Why kill the lieutenant when he can use her to get to his old nemesis?

There's just one problem: it's hard to plot against your enemies when you're in prison with them. Cas and Tolemek will have to work together if they hope to escape the Cofah dungeon. In the process, they may find that neither is what the other expects, and that they have far greater problems to worry about than ensnaring each other...

Thoughts on Deathmaker: I wanted to be disappointed that we didn't get a Ridge and Sardelle book this time, but... I liked Cas and Tolemek too much. I mean, a slightly scary warrior/scientist butting heads with a captured Wolf Squadron pilot determined to get back to her people? YESSSSS! And pirates. Those guys will stab you in the back without thinking twice about it, amirite?

So. I'm not disappointed. We were given danger and mystery and some tense moments when these two teamed up to defeat those standing against them. Both Cas and Tolemek have layers, btw. They're not entirely what they seem and it makes them extra prickly with one another.

It was GLORIOUS.

Things are revealed in this book that make me very curious where things (I'm trying to be so vague here and it's HARD, guys. HARD!) are heading in Iskandia. I sense a bumpy road ahead for our heroes and I'm ready for it. *rubs hands together and cackles madly*