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Gothic Dragon

by Marie Treanor (Goodreads Author)

3.69 · rating details · 16 ratings · 5 reviews

Sometimes you can make your dreams a reality. Stuck in an uninteresting job and settled in a safe but vaguely unsatisfying relationship, the only bright spot in Esther's life is her writing. She's fascinated by colorful life of her ancestor Margaret Marsden, a nineteenth-century Gothic romance novelist. A woman who mysteriously disappeared without a trace. A weekend away t...more

Paperback, 224 pages

Published May 1st 2009 by Samhain Publishing, LTD (first published 2008)

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Apr 08, 2011

Tracy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-romance, non-series-stand-alone-novels

Great Concept But Has Problems With Execution
Esther has a mystery far back in her family tree. Her ancestor Margaret Marsden was a Gothic novelist in the early 1800's, until her husband, concerned over the commonality of that profession for a member of the upper class, forbade his wife her passion. Not long after, Margaret succumbed to an unknown illness before disappearing off the face of the earth with nary a trace. Almost two hundred years later, Esther, an aspiring author in her own rig...moreGreat Concept But Has Problems With Execution
Esther has a mystery far back in her family tree. Her ancestor Margaret Marsden was a Gothic novelist in the early 1800's, until her husband, concerned over the commonality of that profession for a member of the upper class, forbade his wife her passion. Not long after, Margaret succumbed to an unknown illness before disappearing off the face of the earth with nary a trace. Almost two hundred years later, Esther, an aspiring author in her own right, intends to write a novel about Margaret's disappearance, and her research takes her to a Lord's home to study extensive and rare book collection. There she finds the final book Margaret ever wrote, The Prince of Costanzo. The book is so rare, Esther's only ever read reviews of it and has never even seen a copy before. Excited to experience this story, she opens the cover...and finds herself transported into the world of Costanzo. She comes face to face with the villain of the story, Prince Drago, but it's when she meets the ancestor she'd been researching that Esther realizes that there's more to The Prince of Costanzo than fiction, and maybe more to her destiny than she'd ever believed.

I thought everything about the concept of the story was imaginative and fabulous. An average woman leading a rather humdrum life but with a dream to be an author tumbles headlong into a rare book and finds that fiction and reality have merged in confusing and sometimes terrifying ways. The man of her dreams is also the source of nightmares and her hope for forever. I loved the concept of the plot.

I was less enamored, unfortunately, with the way the story was written. I felt that the beginning of the book was muddled and the characters very scantly developed and two-dimensional. The narrative throughout was choppy, but most notably in the transitions between 'reality' and Drago's world. I didn't like the story surrounding Esther's fiance and thought the book really would've been better off without it. In lieu of that, I would've preferred more time given to the character development of Esther and Drago and the evolution of their relationship, which is where this book shined brightest. There was a lot of potential for a slow, satisfying crescendo to their affections that ultimately went unrealized. One of my absolute favorite plot devices in romance is when the male lead has loved the female lead for years and years and the woman is completely unaware of it, and I would have been thrilled had that been given more than just a cursory nod in this book. The setup for it was there but then very little was done with it.

I also had significant issues with the lack of cohesion in the development of Drago's world, the mishmash of modern colloquialisms that everyone understood with no reason why they should, and the absence of sufficient explanation of the scope of Drago's sorcery and the extent of magic in his world. The last created more than a few weak points in the plot when just the fact that he was a sorcerer was used to explain odd plot turns and unusual happenstance. The plot got muddied and confusing again through the book's denouement and conclusion, with things going on that seem to contradict what few bits of mythos that had been previously defined. All these issued combined left me feeling that the execution of this book was lacking in the level of sophistication and polish of a top romantic fantasy.

~*~*~*~
Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.(less)

· see review

Jan 29, 2012

Bookworm *aka Cobra* rated it

Book Description:
Sometimes you can make your dreams a reality. Stuck in an uninteresting job and settled in a safe but vaguely unsatisfying relationship, the only bright spot in Esther's life is her writing. She's fascinated by colorful life of her ancestor Margaret Marsden, a nineteenth-century Gothic romance novelist. A woman who mysteriously disappeared without a trace. A weekend away turns into a hunt for clues when Esther stumbles across Margaret's "lost" novel, The Prince o...moreBook Description:
Sometimes you can make your dreams a reality. Stuck in an uninteresting job and settled in a safe but vaguely unsatisfying relationship, the only bright spot in Esther's life is her writing. She's fascinated by colorful life of her ancestor Margaret Marsden, a nineteenth-century Gothic romance novelist. A woman who mysteriously disappeared without a trace. A weekend away turns into a hunt for clues when Esther stumbles across Margaret's "lost" novel, The Prince of Costanzo. Though desperate to read it, every time Esther opens the book, she falls asleep-and headlong into amazingly vivid dreams about Costanzo. But in this dream world where war, magic and poisoning are commonplace, nothing is as it seems. Least of all the supposed villain of the novel, the enigmatic sorcerer Prince Drago. She finds herself kidnapped to his castle and subjected to a seductive interrogation that curls her toes. As their feelings for each other grow more powerful, she begins to wonder.is he the real villain, or a hero who only wants to save his kingdom? All she knows is that now that she's had a taste of Costanzo-and Drago-her real life troubles seem insignificant. Until they come crashing around her, threatening to cut her off from the man she loves. Forever.

My Thoughts:
I loved the premise of this story.

Esther, our heroine, is an aspiring author writing a story about Margaret Mardsen, a great, great, great...something relative. At the home of Sir Ian and Lady Hay she is thrilled to actually investigate Marsden's last published work, The Prince of Costanzo. But something funny happens every time Esther touches the book. She is drawn several hundred years in the past where she meets the villain of Marsden's book, Prince Drago. Only, the enigmatic man that Esther meets is not the villain portrayed in the book.

Esther and Drago are instantly drawn to each other. Upon her initial trip to the past, Esther meets a young Drago, burgeoning on manhood. But their meeting quickly ends when Esther is snatched back to the present. Finding that she is asleep in the Hay's library, Esther believes the encounter a dream. Several more instances occur where Esther is drawn into the past and flung back into the present. Each time she returns to the past her desire and love for Drago grows and does his for her.

The book has an interesting cast of characters Matilda-Margaret, Cosimo, and Fortune are Drago and Esther's nemeses throughout the entire story. They make the story interesting with their machinations on trying to take the throne from Drago. Esther and Drago were interesting but not particularly complex. Even as a sorcerer, Drago too easily accepted Esther's story of time travel. That portion of the story line fell short because it wasn't particularly believable. The other thing that fell short...and flat...was the climax of the story. It caused minimal ripples of change from the current pace of the story. It was in fact anti-climactic. They story pacing at the end seemed rushed and the end of the story came too abruptly. It was odd...and not in a good way. These issues knocked the story down from four stars to 3.5 stars.

Overall it was a decent story. It only took a few hours to read and I relatively enjoyed what I read.

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Jun 27, 2010

Suzanne the Mighty ~Satin Seductress~ rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: time-travel, romance, magic

3.5 Stars

Esther is an aspiring authoress about to start a novel on her mysterious ancestor Margaret Marsden, who in her time (the 1800’s) was an author of gothic romance novels. This leads her to a private library where she find the last existing copy of the The Prince of Costanzo , Margaret Marsden’s last novel before she disappeared. However, whenever Esther tries to read the book she falls asleep and finds herself having a very vivid dream of Costanzo, and all the characters in th...more3.5 Stars

Esther is an aspiring authoress about to start a novel on her mysterious ancestor Margaret Marsden, who in her time (the 1800’s) was an author of gothic romance novels. This leads her to a private library where she find the last existing copy of the The Prince of Costanzo , Margaret Marsden’s last novel before she disappeared. However, whenever Esther tries to read the book she falls asleep and finds herself having a very vivid dream of Costanzo, and all the characters in the book, but especially Drago, the villain of the story. However, things aren’t quite as they appear, least of all Prince Drago.

I couldn’t quite bring myself to give this 4 stars, so I think 3.5 stars is a fair assessment. I liked the whole idea of the story, I marked it a time travel romance, but what actually happens is slightly different, I won’t say more otherwise it might spoil the story.

The character of Prince Drago, was sensual, funny and charismatic, I couldn’t help but like him, even when I thought he was evil. Esther didn’t stand out as much as Drago, but she was a likeable character, even if she didn’t quite have the reactions that I think a normal person would have. If I was in her position I believe I would have freaked out a bit more (and probably a very irritating heroine I imagine!) Their romance was hot and there were a few very steamy scenes that had a good sensual lead up. But there was more to this book then just sex, although the main focus is on Drago and Esther.

But there were some very odd moments, for example, when Drago (who lives in 15th century in Italy) says things like “Taking candy from a baby” and “rock your world” It just didn’t seem in keeping with the setting that he lives in. I can’t imagine a 15th century Italian Prince using those phrases! Also the ending is rather abrupt, I turned the page expecting more, even though nothing is left unresolved, it just felt sudden.

All in all it was a solid read, and I think fans of fantasy romance or paranormal romance will probably enjoy this story for a quick light read.
(less)

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Jun 01, 2011

Sherri *SheLuvs2Read* marked it as dnf

Shelves: 2011, ebook

The first chapter is stilted and choppy and seemed to be all over the place. Very hard to follow where the story is supposed to be headed to. After reading some other reviews which agreed with me and then some, I'm relegating this to the "did not finish" list and moving on to something new.

Too many books, too little time for bad editing.

· see review

Feb 08, 2012

Sara rated it

Shelves: alternate-history, bad-guys, brooding-hero, meh, secrets, time-travel, prince, magic

Feb 01, 2012

Krista (One Love) (Critical) marked it as to-read

Feb 01, 2012

Wendy marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Jan 29, 2012

Glamoured marked it as to-read

Shelves: fantasy-paranormal, fiction-time-travel, fiction-romance

Jan 29, 2012

Angie marked it as to-read

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Feb 05, 2012

Lauren rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: romance, time-travel, 2012-february, 2012-reads

Jan 29, 2012

Christine marked it as to-read

Jan 26, 2012

t'irla ~aka s'layer~ marked it as to-read

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About Marie Treanor

Marie Treanor lives in Scotland with her eccentric husband and three much-too-smart children. Having grown bored with city life, she resides these days in a picturesque village by the sea where she is lucky enough to enjoy herself avoiding housework and writing sensual stories of paranormal romance and fantasy.

You can find out more about Marie and her books on her website: www.MarieTr...more

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