Dragon’s Kiss by Ally Blue
Blurb:
In a future ruled by superstition and fear, wanting the wrong man can be deadly.
A Mother Earth story.
The rules governing a Pack-Brother’s existence are simple. Love your Brothers. Protect each other and your Tribe with your life. Seek sex only within the bonds of Brotherhood, or your life is forfeit. The laws are harsh, but fair. Or so Bear has always thought. Then he and his Brother Lynx capture a stranger in the Carwin Tribe’s outlying lands—Dragon, a Brother from a distant Pack, banished from his Tribe for the crime of challenging things he shouldn’t.
Dragon intrigues Bear from the start, and not just because of his exotic beauty. Interest in the decadent old world is discouraged in this post-Change society. Dragon is the first person Bear’s ever known, other than himself, who’s curious about the vanished past. That kinship sparks a forbidden attraction between them. An attraction which is, if they give in to it, punishable by death.
In the space of a day, everything Bear was raised to believe is called into question, and he must make a life-changing decision—follow the law, or follow his heart.
[More naked chests, but it’s an Anne Cain naked chest so… that’s better? It’s prettier at least.]
Review:
I’m always up for a post-apocalyptic story and throw in some hot sex between two guys and really, can you go wrong? Dragon’s Kiss doesn’t necessarily go wrong but it focuses more on the hot sex between the men than the world building. However, the world building included is intriguing and evocative and the story has a noticeably hanging ending, fairly screaming for a sequel. For a short introduction to the concepts and ideas, this story is pretty decent. It’s not much more than an introduction and the short length would work against other stories in this universe, but for now I’m intrigued.
The world has been destroyed by a natural disaster of some kind and left small groups of people bonding together in tribes, reminiscent of early cave dwelling clans. Separate from these tribes are Packs, but the exact nature of Pack versus Tribe is not thoroughly explained and still somewhat ill described. Packs apparently are filled with all men, each containing some essential identifier that sets them apart from the Tribes, but again what exactly marks men as Pack at an early age is never elucidated. These Packs live by a set of rules which demands they only have sex with each other, no monogamous relationships, and never think or wonder about the past. These rules are enforced with a variety of archaic and barbaric rules and punishments meant to keep people docile and ignorant.
Bear is a member of a Pack and has always hidden his curiosity about the past. He knows that if he divulges that he actually wonders what life was like before the big disaster, he could be executed or exiled. So instead, Bear has ignored those thoughts and goes about his days patrolling and having sex with his various brothers. All of this changes when he meets Dragon, an exile from another Pack who questions the rules of secrecy. His interaction with Dragon rejuvenates all the queries and wonders he had ignored and the sizzling chemistry between the two is too much for Bear to ignore.
The characters of Bear, Dragon, and even Lynx are given life but no depth. The hints of personality are started but never finished as each is interrupted by a sex scene or conversation about the consequences of their actions. Bear seems more interested in finding a monogamous sex partner in Dragon than in exploring the past. Curiosity about the past is supposedly the shared bond but really the sex is too good between the men to ignore. This left all characters slightly empty as the focus on the chemistry and erotica took over the world building and plot. The hanging ending comes about abruptly and clearly was meant for more installments, so perhaps the characters will develop and grow in subsequent stories.
As a short story that focuses on the erotic element with tantalizing glimpses of characters and a world, this tale is decent. It’s intriguing enough to start the series and the writing has a simplistic yet emotive quality. The prose is easy to read while being descriptive without overly dramatic language. Additionally, there are numerous erotic scenes within the story that spans 30 pages. So if you’re a fan of the author and are looking for an introduction to a new world with hot sex – this may work for you.
Get it HERE!
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