Queen of Dragons follows Princess Maricara of Transylvania from the lost drákon tribe as she seeks help to find a serial killer targeting other drákon.

A Historical Romance

Queen of Dragons is a romance from every aspect of the story. Now there is a reason I do not read romance, and I’ll explain.

I understand why some people like romance, but I’m not one of them. I don’t mind when romance is in a story; some romantic tension and the eventual kiss do not bother me. But I stay away from romance as a genre because it does not interest me and becomes this distracting aspect of the story that detracts from the characterization and plot development.

For me, that is what happened with Queen of Dragons. Shana Abé is a good author. I loved the opening of this novel, and the fact that this is book 3 in a series also did not leave me lost. I bought this book years ago based solely on the cover and the fact that it is about dragons.

Abé did a fantastic job summarizing details of the previous novels that were important to this novel. And she did it in a way that did not take away from the overall pace of the novel. We’re introduced to these characters through a series of letters that let us know who the characters are and the political structure of the drákon. It captures the reader’s attention instantly.

Distracting

Then as the story continues, we see the fierceness of Princess Mari and how she does what she wants while maintaining her role as the undisputed leader. Her people respect her. Then there are Kimber and his people who want to own her.

At first, it was still interesting to me—these two groups of people with different social etiquette. Mari is from a place where drákon does not have to hide, whereas Kimber and his clan live in a “sophisticated” society, one rigid and set in its secrecy and protocol.

This was all very interesting, to see her hold her head above them and be the fierce woman she is.

But then the sexual tension between the two characters took over. Some moments were lovely when Kimber acknowledges she was a child bride and shows his disgust for it. We see his respect for women and her, which adds to the romance.

However, the romance between them took center stage, and much of the internal narrative focused more on how attracted they were to one another and how they resisted their sexual urges.

Final Thoughts

Queen of Dragons is a well-written novel with good characterization and an exciting plot. However, the amount of time Abé took to focus on the romance between Kimber and Mari became a distraction and took away from the otherwise great storytelling.