HIGHLAND DRAGON MASTER

Two dragon-shifters rekindle a long-ago flame as they travel unknown seas in search of the ultimate treasure.

When Scottish dragon-shifter Erik MacAlasdair ventures to France in search of a ship, he is surprised to discover the captain of the ship he’s pointed toward is old friend Toinette Deschamps. Herself a dragon-shifter, Toinette spent her formative years with Erik and his cousins in Scotland centuries ago. Now, having inherited a ship and crew from her most recent husband, Toinette is willing to venture into the unknown lands for the treasure Erik says might turn the tide for Scotland in the war against England. After several weeks on the ocean avoiding each other and the chemistry between them, Erik and the captain find themselves stuck on an island. The trust they must have in each other and their crew, and the crew in them, allows for a great deal of forward motion in conversation and physical activity. While the plot gets off to a slow start, the magic eventually leads to enough interesting plot to pick up the pace. The romance, however, is flat. Cooper (Highland Dragon Rebel, 2017, etc.) is so focused on the mystery of the island that she relies on the reunion of a couple who might have had chemistry as teenagers. The slow-burn romance is quiet, which some readers might enjoy, but is almost too quiet to be convincing. While the story pulls away from the more involved war-related events of some of Cooper's previous books, it eventually takes the reader on an Indiana Jones–esque quest that is more a compelling adventure tale than a romance.

A slow burn in every sense of the word.