Fresh Pick | DRAGONBOUND by Jade Lee

Dragons #2

April 2009
On Sale: April 1, 2009
Featuring: Sabina
336 pages
ISBN: 0843960477
EAN: 9780843960471
Mass Market Paperback
$7.99

Romance Paranormal, Fantasy

Buy at Amazon.com

Dragonbound
by Jade Lee

Horrific are a dragon’s claws, its fiery breath and buffeting wings. Potent is its body, fraught with magic down to the very last glistening scale. But most fearsome of all is a dragon’s cunning —- and the soul that allows it to bond with humans.

Sabina was the one girl of her generation chosen as Dragonmaid, friend and caregiver to the copper dragon of her nation’s tyrant king. There she witnessed the greed, lust and rage such a beast could incite—and acquired her own very dark secret.

Excerpt

The Negotiation

Now

Dragon fire burned people alive. It boiled the skin, seared the bones, and left nothing behind but a charred smear of hot grease. But if Sabina stood away from the plume, just three handspans aside, then all her clothes were burned away, her skin took on a rosy blush, and she would end up flushed and naked before the most exquisite creature in the world.

Sabina stared at the fire in the inn’s hearth and remembered her past. She recalled the scorched smell of burning hair; the rough, abrading caress of scales on skin; the feel of a mouth so dry that her tongue could not even wet her teeth, much less her chapped and bleeding lips.

Dragon fire, dragon scales, and dragon love—she had known them all, and all she had to Read More...


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Jade Lee | TORTURED PRO NEEDS HELP. A lot of help…

Some book are written from inspiration. Some books are written because there is a contract. And then there are books that simply won't shut up!!!!!

I write historical romance. That is the core of my career. Historicals set in the Regency era. Historicals set in China. Historicals set wherever my muse and the market wander. And then, because it's fun, I'll write contemporary sexy (as with my Blaze books) or paranormal (as with Crimson City or These Boots were Made for Stomping!). But those are just fun books and come along when someone offers the possibility to me, not because I go out searching for them. Don't get me wrong, they're good books, but they are written because the opportunity found me, not the other way around.

As you may imagine, the above keeps me very busy. So the last thing I needed was a fantasy romance series. Sure, I grew up reading Tolkien like everybody else, loved the Thomas Covenant chronicles (talk about an anti-hero!), and wrote my undergraduate thesis on Narnia. I have adored fantasy for years and mourned the absence of a decent love story in all those coming-of-age-with-magic books.

But...and I'm going to put this in bold here...I am a professional writer. Here's what professional writer means to me: I get up every morning, I drink my coffee, and I write to my core audience. It is my job, and as such, it needs to have a clear career focus and goal. No other worker would decide to be a welder one day, a plumber the next, and then a month down the line say, hey, how about carpentry? That's not a professional, that's a hobbyist or a kid looking for a career path. Well, I've got a hobby (racquetball) and I'm well past the kid stage. I am! (she says stomping her foot.)

So what the frick was I doing writing a Fantasy Romance???? Dragonborn was this cool idea I played with in my spare time. It started when I was a kid. I thought of a girl (my age–whatever age that was) who carried a dragon egg in her belly, bound mind to mind with the unborn dragon, and eventually hatched the egg and deposed the evil baddy. Woo hoo! Coming of age at its finest (but notice the girl-centered plot). Then one day–as an adult–I realized that she had a boyfriend. Not just a boyfriend, but a dragon killer boyfriend who was using her to find the egg. They fall in love, but then he discovers that she's got the egg. Oops! What a tortured love story!


Wow, did I love that! So...eventually, I wrote Dragonborn. Why? Because it was such a cool idea and I didn't have a contract at the time. Why not? I wrote it...hmmmm...five years ago? Yes, it took that long for Dorchester to finally read it, buy it, and publish it. Great. It was a fun lark, but it's over. Good book. They've deposed the evil baddy, fallen in love, and are going to live happily ever after...probably. Because it's always “probably” in fantasy.

Then I realized that I had a problem. ....

Find out what Jade's problem is by clicking here... and possibly win a prize by commenting on today's blog!