Monday, February 10, 2014

Dragon Fire Book Tour with Dina von Lowenkraft

Dragon Fire
By Dina von Lowenkraft
Publisher: Twilight Times Books
Published: Aug, 5, 2013
ASIN: B00ECNEZ6G

Amazon Synopsis:

Some choices are hard to live with.
But some choices will kill you.

When seventeen-year-old Anna first meets Rakan in her hometown north of the Arctic Circle, she is attracted to his pulsing energy. Unaware that he is a shape-shifting dragon, Anna is drawn into a murderous cycle of revenge that pits Rakan and his clan against her best friend June.

Torn between his forbidden relationship with Anna, punishable by death, and restoring his family’s honor by
killing June, Rakan must decide what is right. And what is worth living – or dying – for.

Book Links

My Thoughts:

Dragon Fire is a unique book about dragons and their interactions with humans. Anna, a human, meets Rakan, a dragon in human form who is on a quest to destroy a long-time enemy of his mother’s.

Set above the Arctic Circle in Tromso, Norway and the wild steppes of Tibet, allow for some beautiful and uncommon visual scenic descriptions. Rich in descriptive langage, Dragon Fire is a beautiful book to visualize in the mind’s eye.

The dragons are not originally from earth, but from a red planet, of which there are only fragments left. They dragons have not procreated in many years and want to begin populating the earth, but the leader of the dragons, Rakan’s mother Yarlung will not let them do so until their ancient enemy, Jing Mei is destroyed once and for all. Rakan’s mission is to prove that June is Jeng Mai, and then to destroy her. The problem?  Rakan is attracted to Anna. June is Anna’s best friend. Not only that, but dragon-human relationships are forbidden.

Strangely, at least some humans have some of the same abilities that dragons have – things like the mind-touch. Rakan discovers many secrets that he did not know had been kept from him. In fact, there is more to many of the characters than we find out about by the end of the book.

There were a number of interesting twists and turns in the plot in this novel that were quite unexpected. I liked the form in which they occurred as they brought a new dimension into the themes within the book.

Some of the themes within the book include racism, blood feuds, loyalty and betrayal as well as family relationships.

I found this to be quite a rich and complex novel and to be honest, sometimes I had trouble keeping everything straight. I was highly entertained by Dragon Fire and thought that it was very well written. Ms. Von Lowenkraft’s story crafting ability is superb or she would not have been able to carry off such a complex work.

There were a few things that were left unclear to me still at the end of the novel. One of those things was why Anna was marked by a stone on her palm in the first place. I didn’t really find any reason for that. Maybe we’ll find a reason in a sequel?

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and I would read it again just because it is so complex. I gave Dragon Fire  5 stars out of 5.


I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. A positive opinion was not required. All thoughts are my own.


About the Author:

Born in the US, Dina von Lowenkraft has lived on 4 continents, worked as a graphic artist for television and as a consultant in the fashion industry. Somewhere between New York and Paris she picked up an MBA and a black belt – and still thinks the two are connected. Dina is currently the Regional Advisor for SCBWI Belgium, where she lives with her husband, two children and three horses.

Dina loves to create intricate worlds filled with conflict and passion. She builds her own myths while exploring issues of belonging, racism and the search for truth... after all, how can you find true love if you don’t know who you are and what you believe in? Dina’s key to developing characters is to figure out what they would be willing to die for. And then pushing them to that limit

Author Links

5 comments :

  1. thank you for your review, Kathryn!
    cheers,
    Dina
    and yes, there will be more coming :-) there is actually a 4 book series planned that starts with June's arrival in Norway, and continues 2 books beyond Dragon Fire's ending point - I hope you'll be interested in reading them too!

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    1. Definitely! Any book with a 5 star rating is an absolute want to read the next one in the series. Bring it on!

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    2. great! will let you know when it comes out :-)

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  2. Grr for some reason my comment this morning didn't publish properly :( anyway thank you for taking time to read and and review and for your continued support

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    1. I don't know what happened. But, your welcome. I enjoy the books on these tours.

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