HEAT – Donna Grant
A Dark Kings Novel – Book 12
St. Martin's Paperbacks
ISBN: 978-1-250-10957-6
February 2018
Fantasy

Dreagan Distillery in Scotland, London & Ireland – The Present

In expectation of an upcoming confrontation with the Dark Fae and other enemies, Dragon ‘King of Kings' Con has awakened the remaining Dragon Kings who have slept away through centuries. Nikolai, King of the Ivory Dragons, was one. Now he has to constantly confront the fact that he not only went against the dragon who saved his life and mentored him, the Silver Dragons' King Ulrick, but he also helped force Ulrick into exile. Only the mortal woman and MI5 agent Esther North alleviates his guilt. Esther North is sister to Henry North, another MI5 agent who has helped protect the dragons and their home of Dreagan Distillery. Even when not with Esther, Nikolai sees things she sees and makes very accurate drawings of those events, but a powerful Druid removed some of Esther's memories, and Esther wants to get them back to feel wholly herself again. Nikolai will help her. The Dragon Kings believe the memory loss and changes were done at the request of Ulrick as part of a greater plan of retribution against the Kings. Besides helping Esther, Nikolai will learn more about the Dragon Kings' enemies, too. He suspects Esther is his mate, a special relationship among Dragon Kings. This begins an emotionally tense and dangerous journey.

Other story lines within this world build in significant ways. Things are happening in the Dark Fae Court that astound and anger Balladyn. Light Fae Rhi learns significant information about the Light Fae Queen Usaeil. Suspicions about Ulrick and his uncle Mikkel become clearer to the Dragon Kings.

While the romance between Nikolai and Esther consumes this twelfth volume in this series (and a very good tale it is!), the continuing story line running through the series creates a strong draw for readers. Events are starting to congeal into an overall war between good and evil. Many characters from previous stories appear to help Nikolai and Esther. This story directly continues the plot line from the last story, BLAZE (released June 2017), about the take down of the evil Kyvor tech company. Besides a hot romance, HEAT's characters endure loss, heartache, destructive jealousy, changing alliances, and encounter mysteries. Some characters seem to be going through a sea change in their outlook. With all their enemies and dangers, can the Dragon Kings prevail?

Robin Lee