Eight Simple Rules for Dating a Dragon

February 26, 2018
Sparks’s pleasant third Embraced fantasy romance (after So I Married a Sorcerer) pits gentle elven healer Gwennore and heroic dragon shape-shifter Silas Dravenko against an evil shifter, an ancient curse, and their own fragile hearts. Queen Freya of Norveshka, the land of dragons, is desperate after the death of her children and has been ordering her royal guard to bring her replacements. Gwennore tries to save King Leofric’s daughter, Eviana, from being kidnapped by one of the queen’s dragon guards, and is taken in Eviana’s place. The dragons think the queen is cursed like other Norveshki rulers before her, but Gwennore’s psychic ability to diagnose illnesses suggests Freya’s madness comes from poison. She teams up with sexy Norveshki general Silas to find the truth—a plan complicated by their growing feelings for each other. As with Sparks’s previous books, a tangled plot resolves with ease after the efforts of the determined lovers and their friends. Fans of Sparks’s lighthearted romances will feel right at home here. Agent: Michelle Grajkowski, 3 Seas Literary Agency.

Starred review from April 1, 2018
On Aerthlan, five foundlings born during the twice-annual eclipse of the planet's two moons have grown up as sisters. As Sparks continues her Embraced series, following How to Tame a Beast in Seven Days (2017) and So I Married a Sorcerer (2017), she focuses on Gwennore, an Elf, attending a birthday bash on the border of two countries where two of her sisters are queens. When her three-year-old niece is swept away by a dragon, Gwennore grabs hold and is carried high into the sky, where she is rescued by another dragon, whom she calls Puff and with whom she discovers a telepathic link. Puff assures her General Silas Dravenko will help her when they reach Norveshka. The queen is mentally deranged, and Gwennore, whose gift is for healing, agrees to stay for a week and look for a cure if the girl is safely returned home. Sparks, a glittering light in fantasy romance, offers an intriguing story, a palpable connection between Silas and Gwennore, strong relationships between friends, and a terrifying villain who imperils not only a kingdom that believes it is under a 500-year curse but the entire world.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)