(You may know them better as Ari McKay).
Sometimes Fate has a bizarre sense of humor.
Or at least it seems that way to Gus, owner of the Rainbow Room, Asheville’s main hangout for gay paranormals. He’s seen Fate catch up with the patrons of his bar while he served drinks and listened to their stories for three hundred years. He found all of it amusing, until his fated mate walks in and suddenly the twists aren’t so funny any longer!
Bear Hickes is a mage who specializes in fire, but life has lost its spark since his twin brother got married and left him alone. His older brother, Whimsy, is determined to help Bear find happiness no matter how much Bear objects, but meeting Gus gives Bear a wonderful idea: if Gus will pretend to be his boyfriend, Whimsy will get off his case. And somewhere along the line, Bear finds he wants it to be for real.
But there are secrets Gus is keeping from not just Bear, but the whole world. And when those secrets catch up with him at last, the danger won’t be just for Gus alone.
This story is set in the Asheville Arcana universe, but can be read as a standalone.
Stop Dragon My Heart Around is part of the multi-author Magic Emporium Series. Each book stands alone, but each one features an appearance by Marden’s Magic Emporium, a shop that can appear anywhere, but only once and only when someone’s in dire need. This book contains explicit scenes and a guaranteed HEA.
As per the blurb and the title, Gus is a dragon, a legendary being thought to be extinct, who has been quietly, unobtrusively living his life as the owner of the Rainbow Room, serving good food and drink to paranormal patrons for the last few centuries. Gus doesn’t dwell on his loneliness and is content to just be until one day, a mage named Bear walks into his bar, and Gus immediately realizes that Bear’s his mate.
Ensue classic denial of said mate, which evolves into a fake boyfriend scenario, as Bear convinces Gus to pretend date him to get his brother Whimsy, off his back. Of course, these two connect oh so right because fate deemed it so, and their love progression is authentic as their “dating” evolves naturally to more as growing feelings inevitably follow. Throw in a sinister evil preying on the supernatural citizens of Asheville, draining them of their life force, and it soon becomes apparent that Bear will be used against Gus in all the worst ways possible. Good thing that Gus has a seemingly useless item from the mysterious Magic Emporium to ultimately save the day!!
In all honesty, I picked this to read because it’s connected to the series written by this author’s other pseudonym Ari McKay. I have a hard time saying no to sequels or spinoffs, and I looked forward to revisiting the characters from Asheville Arcanum. Overall, I wasn’t disappointed regarding that aspect, though I do think people who haven’t read that series might be a bit overwhelmed by the other 3 couples that feature heavily here. Regardless, I enjoyed seeing all of them living happily and still fighting the good fight.
However, I was rubbed wrong several times by one of the MC’s opinions as it’s tossed around as a flippant side comment. I’m no stranger to reading about protagonists faced with hate and bigotry, but when said protagonist actually spews it himself with little background explanation other than he’s obviously Native American based on the cover (and in no way am I saying that there isn’t awful tragic history regarding European conquerors), it seemed incongruent and unnecessary. This again is just my unimportant opinion, but I’m assuming when your audience is most likely in the majority of the group you’re casually disparaging, then that’s just awkward. I was simply thrown off kilter and I’m not even “white”, but when our real world is in such crazy racial turmoil, any blanket statements about any race seems in poor taste. Simply put, this left me feeling all the wrong things despite this being a good addition to the Magic Emporium series.
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