Reckless Dragon by Ella Drake [Review]

Reckless Dragon (Wild Seas #2) by Ella Drake
Format: ebook
Source:  purchased
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: January 4, 2019

Wild Seas
1. Captive Dragon
2. Reckless Dragon - Kindle

Ella Drake
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Synopsis (Goodreads):

Officer Lilly Pride is working overtime to help solve a rash of disappearances. When an unusual creature from her past turns out to be involved, she faces the truth. Fantastical sea dragon shifters are real and someone is stealing them. The strange path of the case takes her to the underworld, Aita. Rescuing the victims means going against everything she's ever believed, breaks her faith in justice, and gives her a choice: Sacrifice either herself or the man who got her into this mess.

Troy Bayard hadn't been sure before but when Lilly comes back into his life, he knows exactly what she is. His mate. His to protect. She insists on going to Aita to rescue kidnapped dragons, but he has to stop her. The underworld has no escape, and much as he can't stand for Lilly to go, he has to. His brother is one of the missing and a close call pushes him past the point of no return. Troy's own son is at risk.

Aita is full of the dangers of river ghouls, time distortion, poisonous fruit, and the lure of the gods themselves. But the greatest risk is what traps souls within the realm. Temptation. Consumption of flesh while in the underworld means no escape, and the call to mate--the call to taste passion--is irresistible.

Every touch is a risk.
Every touch binds.
The destruction of a race is the cost, the only path, to freedom.

Thoughts on Reckless Dragon: I dig non-standard...err, characters, I guess. Like, I like when characters have a quirk you don't normally see in other books in this genre. Like, you know, the ability for a male to carry offspring and such. The fact that this quirk is rooted in fact makes it even better.

But Troy and Lilly's story is more than just biological quirks. Frankly, Troy's escape from the fiercely repressive matriarchal society of the sea dragons...well, I'm all for lady power and all that, but not at the expense of beating down the opposite gender. And the male sea dragons are treated TERRIBLY back home. So knowing he got away from that AND he was willing to risk returning when his brother was captured made me like the guy even more. Especially when his mother was as domineering as she was.

Geesh. That lady was like a bulldozer when it came to getting what she wanted.

Dealing with danger, mythology, and gods while finding a connection and trying to keep from getting trapped for all eternity in the underworld kept things interesting. And I REALLY dig that biological quirk of the sea dragons.