This is an OK addition to the Texas Dragons series, but I did have one BIG issue with it (and with the entire series). The author needs to research how people in Texas talk, because she had them talking as if they had absolutely no education, and constantly used bad grammar. Very few people in Texas actually say "Howdy, pardner", "I ain't" instead of "I'm not", call women "Darlin", etc. As a native Texan, I found it insulting that she wrote her characters as if all Texans talk like hicks with little to no education. The language like that wasn't quite as insulting in this book as it was in some of the other books in the series, because both Reno and Dani were from Colorado. That issue was still enough to lower my rating to 3 stars.
This book is about Reno and Dani. Reno has been an interesting character throughout the series, and I was glad to finally get his story. What his terrible family did to him was incredibly sad. I won't give spoilers, but he and Dani had to endure a great deal of pain because of his family. I did wish the story had given a better explanation of Reno's powers at the end, when he was finally forced to use some of them to protect Dani.
I liked Dani, and thought it was sad how Reno had to leave her so many years before. She, of course, had no idea why he left -- even though he was trying to protect her. I did like that she forgave him pretty quickly once she heard his reasons for leaving, though.
In spite of my issue with the way the characters talked, I did enjoy the story. Now I'm looking forward to reading the Big Bad Basilisks series. This book can be read standalone, but I think readers will enjoy it more if they read Terry's Double Dragons series (and possibly also the Awakened Dragons series) first. The books in this series should also be read in order, since they contain plot lines that extend through the entire series.
My rating system is below.
1 star -- Hated it, or did not finish. I usually only give this rating if some of the content is truly objectionable to me, like if one of the main characters does something really awful, and gets away with it.
2 stars -- Didn't like it. This rating usually means that I thought the writing wasn't very good, the editing was terrible, I didn't like the characters, or it had other major flaws.
3 stars -- I liked it, but had some minor issues with it. This rating means that there were minor editing issues, the story needed more character development, it was just too unrealistic, or had some other fairly minor issue. The majority of books I read get this rating – I do not consider it a bad rating.
4 stars -- I liked it a lot. This is a high rating for me, and I rarely give a higher one.
5 stars -- I loved it, and will probably read it again. Very few books are good enough to get this rating from me. The ones that do are usually classics.