This story shouldn't work, but it does on so many levels--enough that I really like it and have already re-read it 20 or more times. Gold takes the cliched plot line--poor, struggling but beautiful chick meets hunky, fabulously rich guy to overcome their wildly different backgrounds and fall in love--and turns it into a primer on what it takes to make a relationship succeed despite multiple traumatic crises and the most unlikely of circumstances. Adding emphasis and richness to the action, the woman (Elaina) is a dragon, the man (Alex) a human, which amps up the tension in their encounters but also provides multiple opportunities for much needed balance and reflection.
One such difference is that the dragons from Gold's Mythos world need to "claim" a critical mass of treasure to establish and maintain their hoards in order to stay alive. The gold and jewels comprising their hoards must "bond" to them for that life force energy to be accessible. Alex and Elaina's first encounter finds them at his residence where she had gained access to his annual fundraising dinner through her disguise as a catering service employee. She has been compelled to resort to stealing jewelry from his fancy party guests because her hoard is too small to maintain her heart beat. After initially feeling an overpowering attraction to one another, he catches her with the stolen items--his outrage over her thefts setting up their first conflict hurdle. At this point, Alex does not know Elaina is a dragon in humanoid form.
As events unfold, Gold adroitly weaves their interactions throughout to underline how the negative beliefs and self doubt residing in both, coupled with the vast gulf of "cultural" differences between a dragon and human, need to be resolved. In the process, the story of Alex and Elaina provides a credible platform for highlighting the variety of issues any aspiring couple needs to take into account to convert white hot chemistry into a long-term relationship success.
A good example of this is the scene where Alex and Elaina dive into their first intimate encounter. Mindful of ensuring her pleasure despite his almost overwhelming passion, Alex brings the naive, dragon virgin to ecstasy through his intense, yet sensitive ministrations, turning it into a seminal experience for her. By doing so he sets the stage for his skeptical lover to take a deeper look at her belief that dragons can't love.
A short time later, however, Elaina turns the tables when in the quiet aftermath of their love-making, she discovers the physical scars on Alex's body from his repeated abuse as a child. Her probing but sensitive questioning pulls out long-buried emotions in him--internal conflicts and memories he has never shared with anyone else. Bringing that kind of baggage to the surface, where it can be examined and released, is essential to good relationship health. Sharing it with a beloved only deepens the experience and makes it more healing.
Despite a clearly familiar plot line, neither the actions nor the events in this story are predictable or expected. Each sexual encounter emphasizes where the lovers currently find themselves at every stage of their relationship. Unlike many other stories of this type, the shared intimacies between Alex and Elaina are not simply pornographic diversions, but symbolize instead the challenges they face in their evolving commitment to each other, yet serve the narrative that there is much more to genuine intimacy than its physical expression.
The immediate and strong attraction that initially brought them together needs to work through many trials before their relationship reaches the level of stability needed for a long-term commitment. Facing Elaina's grandfather and father at the end serves as the climax to the dilemma facing them at that point. The dramatic struggle with Volus, Elaina's father, triggers the onset of Alex's own heretofore unknown but unnatural abilities--abilities that begin to answer the mystery of how a dragon and a human can be romantically involved at all.
When that encounter concludes, it leads the exhausted couple to embark on a new path forward. At this point they have navigated enough obstacles to the love and trust they have doubted along the way so that now they can realistically evaluate their prospects for a long-term arrangement. The ever cautious Elaina (at least in the "feeling" department--not her actions) concedes that yes, love is possible for a dragon, while Alex is satisfied he has found his match in the relationship equivalent of a "fair fight." Both can now acknowledge the other essential elements required for a successful partnership: commitment, respect and the status of best friends, without which no romantic attraction can reach its full potential.
This book is quite well edited, but I have my usual gripe about the missing subjunctive in most of the "if" and "as though" clauses throughout the book. There are three or four instances where that grammatical construct is correctly applied, but in most cases it is ignored. That is the only stumble I found in an otherwise well crafted, hard-to-put-down story that is sweet without being saccharine and appropriately humorous amid the drama. It also contains realistic, well-developed characters and natural, recognizable dialogue. Highly recommended--
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Top reviews from other countries
Yvonne Marjot
There's more than one way to slay a dragon
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 29, 2015S. Burgess
What a fun read! I loved how real Alex and Elaina ...
Reviewed in Canada on March 29, 2017