Review--Tempted by Fire by Erin Kellison

Dragon shifter Thane Ealdian has waited six hundred years to avenge the loss of his family, and finally a clue has surfaced that implicates an old adversary. Thane will stop at nothing to seek his revenge, but to prevent violence between the clans, the Bloodkin Triad has forced a mediator on him. Some upstart named Emerson Clark...

Emerson is fed up with all Bloodkin and how they've managed to control every aspect of her life. While she doesn’t believe that Bloodkin can shift into dragons—because, really?—she has to admit, they are exceptionally nice to look at. But once the mediation is over, she wants nothing to do with them ever again.

When Thane discovers that the clever and beautiful Emerson is the key to uncovering the truth, he has no intention of letting her go. Although she wants to run, she can’t turn her back on Thane or her intense feelings for him. His quest pulls at her heart, just as his nearness sparks something dangerous inside her. With evil in hot pursuit, sooner or later everything will ignite—the mediation, the shifter within her... and their passions.

As I tend to say about reads with this particular kind of creature…here there be dragons!! Heehee! You gotta love a good dragon story and I feel like I am seeing them a bit more frequently as of late and I have no problems with that! This time though, instead of a young adult read we have an adult read! Erin Kellison brings us a hot and steamy (no pun intended!) dragon romance read with Tempted by Fire!

I had been meaning to read this one for ages, and finally just dove into the other day! It would’ve been a one day read if it weren’t for the whole being an adult and having to work kind of thing! Tempted by Fire was insanely hard to put down! It’s a shorter read at just over 200 pages, so more novella(ish) length if anything. But that doesn’t stop me from loving every minute of it!

We have a precarious situation to start with, Emerson is acting as a mediator between a man named Thorne and a family known as the Heolsters. They’re dragons, Emerson in facts works for the Bloodkin, but for some reason she struggles to believe that dragons are actually real. And despite having a werewolf for a foster brother, I found this odd. Why would she be so closed off to believing in the existence of dragons? But that’s just the case here.

The Heolsters and Thorne are arguing over who has the rights to a set of bones that were recently found. Thorne knows they are that of his wife and child from centuries ago, but the Heolsters claim otherwise, and so Emerson is the go between. But she’s about to learn just how dangerous this particular job is. It’s no wonder why she wants to leave the business.

Naturally, we start to see some chemistry between Emerson and Thorne. Thorne has been rather secluded and closed off for years, really since the death of his wife and son, but Emerson starts to light a spark in him. She’s everything he desires in a woman, but sadly, he’s nearing the end of his dragon life and if he were to change one more time, he believes he’ll remain a dragon and basically die. He’s accepted this and is ready for it even, but he wants to find his family’s murderer and make them pay once and for all before he goes.

The mystery elements were pretty intense for such a short story! It didn’t really leave room for guessing who could be the perpetrator, but I didn’t have a problem with that. I simply enjoyed the story-telling and watching it unfold! And boy, was this one a doozie! You could see some of it coming, in a sense, but the overall reveals were quite shocking!

We meet quite a few interesting characters as well, and I could foresee them possibly being in their own book, should this series run that way. But I really hope we get more of Emerson and Thorne because I quite enjoyed them as a couple! Time will only tell of course, on how this series will run. Thankfully the next book isn’t too far off!

If you’ve been dying for a dragon read at more of an adult level, then I highly recommend Tempted by Fire! It’s just the sizzling kind of read to warm your blood! I totally enjoyed this one and look forward to more!

Overall Rating 5/5 stars