Review: Dragon Rising by Jaime Rush

Title: Dragon Rising
Author: Jaime Rush
Series: The Hidden, Book 0.6
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Release Date: 1 October 2013

Clues left by her missing father lead Lyra to a gorgeous, mysterious Caido, a descendent of fallen angels. When she discovers that his brother is also missing, she's determined not to let the exasperating man shut her out.

The last thing Archer needs is an emotional Dragon at his side, especially one whose heat reaches beyond the icy walls he, and all Caidos, must erect for good reason. Working together? Smart. Falling in love? Foolish…and inescapable.

Dragon Rising has a lot of potential I think. Even though it started rough for me, the world quickly intrigued me and made me want to know more. A lot more, something I think the length of the story affected and left me somewhat disappointed.

I've got to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of novellas to start out series, especially paranormal series. There's too much world-building to do, too much to introduce, to really make it happen in novella format. Dragon Rising had me confused and more than a little lost in the first 30% or so while I tried to take everything in; special names like Caido, Crescent, dhagger, Mundanes...what the Crescents (dragons) actually looked like, and how they were created. I still don't know how they age, procreate, or even how they transform. In fact, when they're transformed the only picture I really got was a human with a long tail and scales. I don't know if that's accurate, but there was never a description given.

Crescents are dragons, but also Deuces - which I think also means demi-gods - and Caidos are fallen angels, but can also be considered Crescents and maybe even Deuces? I'm honestly not sure. Lyra's a Crescent though, a yellow dragon which means she's more emotional than others, and ends up needing the help of the unemotional Caido, Archer. There's a very clear draw between them, but what I couldn't figure out was why. Apparently, humans and Crescents are drawn to Caidos, some sort of Thrall, and Lyra often wrote off her attraction to Archer as such throughout the story. Archer, after initially wanting her nothing but further away from her, can't resist touching her - regardless of the consequences for him.

The overall plot comes crashing to a climax within a few pages, with everything tying up so quickly I'm still not quite sure what happened. There were many names thrown at me, with an expository explanation of what happened and a tiny bit of action. I had been intrigued as the mystery deepened, but by the time it all was cleared up I felt like I didn't know much more than what I had at the beginning.

Despite my above complaints I was really interested in this world. I think I was so disappointed because I see so much potential here and I want to see it developed more, perhaps in a full length novel. I like the different mythologies presented here, the absolutely fresh - to me - world created.

Grade: C-

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