Series Review: Fireblood Dragon by Ruby Dixon (Books 1-3)

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Heat Factor: His tongue is like a cat’s. And he uses it. A lot. 

Character Chemistry: It’s mostly an animal sort of chemistry.

Plot: Dragon man retrieves human woman bait sacrifice and claims her for his own. She has thoughts about that. 

Overall: This was so special in very good ways.

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Okay folks, we are now three for three Ruby Dixon fans at The Smut Report. For me? I had to check out the dragons. And what do you know? Fire in His Blood is on Audible Escape. 

I would like a dragon. 

Please picture this: A red-haired (red is a signal of being in heat for dragons) woman is left on the roof of an old building outside of dystopian Fort Dallas, naked, by the human militia–to be dragon bait. A dragon comes and thinks, “I am no longer losing my mind to the madness that brought me to this place! This woman, my mate, has saved me from the darkness!” AND THEN HE SNIFFS HER CROTCH BECAUSE HE’S INTO HER AND BRINGS HER A GOAT TO PROVE THAT HE’S GOING TO TAKE CARE OF HER SO SHE’LL HAVE SEX WITH HIM. 

What else do you even need to know about this book?

The really fun thing about the worldbuilding in this book is that it really boils down to dragons are animals. They behave like animals. They smell – fear, arousal, but also just the scent of the person you love, the place you call home. They don’t think the world is especially complicated. But their happiness is contingent on their mates’ happiness, so there are tons of orgasms and more oral sex than you can shake a stick at. 

The complicated thing is that the male dragons and female humans can’t communicate. The dragon wants to mate. It’s a one-woman thing. He’s all in. Once she finally agrees to mate with him, he’ll give her his venom (he shifts into a somewhat human form and has these wicked fangs–everything about these dragons I heart heart heart), and then their minds can talk (like all the Drakoni can talk) and everything will be fine!

But human women are more likely to be interested in a hookup than forever with a creature they’ve been thinking is the most dangerous animal in the entire world. (That isn’t a sentence I ever thought I’d write.) I mean, first she’s terrified and trying to figure out why she’s not immediately dinner. Then she’s trying to figure out how to continue not to die. Then she succumbs to the big, sexy dragon man who’s hell-bent on getting into her non-existent pants. That doesn’t mean China patterns! And then this big dragon guy bites her and starts talking to her with his mind and he’s telling her they’re mated FOREVER?! She never agreed to that!

So anyway, the relationship dynamic is very interesting in addition to being wonderfully engaging. 

The one thing I struggled with in Fire in His Blood was that, even before they had the telepathy thing going, Claudia knew that Kael would do anything for her. But she still withheld information from him, unnecessarily. She didn’t like being bitten, so she kept shying away from more sex. But she never said she didn’t like being bitten and could that not be a part of the sex please? She’s pretty assertive about telling him what she wants when he’s going down on her. She’s also determined to get back to Fort Dallas to rescue her sister and friend because they can’t survive without her! Okay, so, for starters, she ended up mated to a dragon because she got caught breaking the law and was held by the militia. Her ability to provide wasn’t particularly good to begin with. I also don’t love a heroine who’s so amazing and badass, but doesn’t think the other women in her life can adult. But even if this all makes sense, running away from a creature who is unkillable and who will do absolutely anything for you when you’re trying to achieve a goal is a bit self-defeating, no?

Whatever, Claudia is Claudia and that’s that. You better believe I started book 2 the minute I finished this puppy. 

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Postscript:

Because much of the overall tone of the next two books in the series is quite similar to the above, I don’t think I’ll write separate reviews for them, so here are some notes. If you didn’t care for Fire in His Blood in general, these probably won’t be up your alley either. If you didn’t care for Fire in His Blood because of the heroine (seems to be a theme on Goodreads), these next two books just might be. Here’s the scoop:

Fire in His Kiss takes off when Sasha is caught by Dakh during the climax of Fire in His Blood (she was dropped, mid-flight, from Kael’s grasp). What makes this one a little different is that, in order to survive, Sasha has been trading sex for money and food. But the guy in the militia who has been making this trade with her also likes to beat her. Her experiences with sex are really bad, basically, and she hates it. 

Sasha knows, thanks to Claudia, that Dakh isn’t going to kill her because he wants to mate with her, and eventually she gives in because of the tradeoff she sees for food and protection. She gets it with the dragon and not without him, is essentially how she sees it. But when Dakh bites her and can understand her thoughts finally, he realizes that she doesn’t feel about him the way that he does about her, and seeks to woo her so they can be true mates. It’s really nice.

Fire in His Kiss also introduces Emma, who is the heroine of Fire in His Embrace, as well as the beginning of the plotline of that book (drama, drama, drama), with the introduction of a shady new villain who comes from the same world as the Drakoni. 

So, Fire in His Embrace elaborates on this plot, but the romance takes a different direction. Emma, who reluctantly befriends Sasha in book 2, is captured by a group of nomads that is led by shady villain Azar, who makes her give up her panties so he can catch himself a dragon. And they do catch a dragon, Zohr, and he’s chained up in this super intense way (because he’s a dragon), and Emma feels responsible and has to free him. Plot: check.

When Sasha reminds Emma that there’s only one way to tame a dragon, Emma sneaks into the pool where Zohr is held and has sex with him. She does not concern herself with the fact that she’s a virgin, and she has no idea that he has to bite her in order to mate with her without burning her with his semen (not kidding). When Emma is threatened, Zohr reacts to protect her (no surprise), but that means his wings are completely shredded, so he can’t fly. Unlike Claudia and Sasha, who rely on their dragons for survival, Emma is the one running the survival show for Zohr, who is susceptible to Azar’s mind tricks, and who is also physically disabled (for a dragon). 

Anyway, Holly is correct, and reading these books is like eating popcorn, and I am invested now, and I really want to know what happens to Amy, but only the first three of these books are on Audible Escape so I guess I’m going to have to read from now on. Too bad my reading list is completely, utterly bonkers out of control.

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Buy Now: Fire in His Blood | Fire in His Kiss | Fire in His Embrace

The Whole Dang Series

Audible Escape (so you can binge listen) | Kindle Unlimited (so you can binge read)

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