Mysterious newcomer Hathar, a roguish “merchant adventurer” from far-off lands, ignites an exploration of Elin’s first taste of physical desire, as well as a desire to experience life beyond the palace. Now, they must find a way to escape before Hathar’s ship departs, stranding them forever in The Dragon’s harem.
A treasure hunt turns up the most unexpected prize.
It's a fantasy based world in R.L. Mosswood's Golden. Elin lives in The Dragon's harem. He's a dahabi, or golden in looks, from is golden curls and golden skin, to his golden brown eyes. Any male who is born with this coloring is considered dahabi and to be in service of the Dragon Queen.
That's right, a lady dragon is running things!
Actually she's more like this:
The queen stays in a mostly human form to praise hymns to an erotic god with her hoard of golden men, aka bone her way through hundreds of men. ;)
Elin however isn't attracted to anyone especially not the Dragon Queen, so much so when his initial night into hymning he was not attracted and let's say it's better to read what happened next. Let's leave it as sad and embarrassing.
After that night, Elin is the bottom of the harem pile, someone the other harem men look down on. Virtually ignored, he is nothing more than a shiny golden toy that lost its luster but he has to remain trapped in the toy box. None of the harem is permitted to leave...ever.
Enter new captive Hathar!
Elin is tasked for cleaning up the brutish man. And from the moment he looked in the solver eyes of Hathar, Elin felt a pull. Something he's never felt before. The attraction scares Elin at first. Then he warms up to it.
The connection helps smooth the fear. The fact that Hathar also seems to share this connection doesn't hurt.
Hathar doesn't belong in the harem and has a life outside of it, only coming tot he mythical island in search of a dragon's treasure.
I really like the way the author played with dragon mythology. I figured out the treasure fairly quickly but it was fun to read along as Hathar discovered the truth and also fall for Elin. Hathar only has about 2 weeks to say in the harem before catching up with his ship, so the pace in which Elin falls for Hathar is fairly quick.
The reader doesn't get a chance to delve as deeply as I would have like with Hathar and Elin. This is lighter and fairly erotic. And it check off a characteristic I enjoy finding in a romance: a gential piercing!
It's like a treasure discovery for this reader every time (though it was underutilized). There is a decent amount of sex scenes, smutsters. But I'd probably rate them 2.5-3 out of 5 on a hotness scale. If I don't look too deeply, it went off smoothly enough.
The pace however, it could have been smoother for me. Sometimes Elin or Hathar would chat just a smidge too much or explain something or return to explore a point made. I'd find my attention waning.
Overall, it was a good read.Golden has a HEA, it's light with a bit of adventure. If you're in the mood for dragons, harems and platinum haired sea adventurer (pirate for me) with a female dragon shifter in charge, give Golden a try.
I would try this author again see what other ideas they have. The execution in Golden was good enough for the main ideas.
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