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Lair of the Dragon
When Naomi's journalist sister asked her to infiltrate The Lair of the Dragon, Bran Llewellyn's private retreat, Naomi felt she couldn't refuse. But she hated the deception! She had to pose as Bran's new secretary, and soon discovered that the man, who was such an intriguing mystery to the newspapers, had been temporarily blinded in an accident. Worse, working so closely together meant that there was an undeniable attraction between them. Naomi's conscience told her that she couldn't keep her secret for much longer. And common sense chided that Bran's sight would eventually be restored. But if she revealed her deceit....She hadn't realized how easily she had fallen in love with Bran!
- GenresRomanceHarlequin Romance
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1994
About the author
Catherine George
449 books72 followersDeirdre Matthews was born in a village on the Welsh-English border, where the public library featured largely in her life. Her mother, who looked upon literature as a basic necessity of life, fervently encouraged her passion for reading, little knowing it would one day motivate her daughter into writing her first novel.
At 18, she met a future Engineer, who had set in a pendant a gold sovereign, that his grandmother put in his hand when he was born, and she have never taken off since. After their marriage he swept her off to Brazil, where he worked as Chief Engineer of a large gold-mining operation in the mountains of Minas Gerais, a setting which later provided a very popular background for several of her early novels. Nine happy years passed there before the question of their small son's education decided their return to Britain. Not long afterward a daughter was born, and for a time she lived a fulfilled life as a wife and mother who always made time to read, especially in the bath!
Her husband's job took him abroad again, to Portugal, West Africa, and various countries of the Middle East, but this time she stayed home with the family. And spent a lot of lonely evenings in between the reunions when her husband came home on leave. "Instead of reading other people's novels all the time," he suggested one day, "why not have a shot at writing one yourself?" So she did.
But first she took a creative writing course. Encouraged by the other students' enthusiasm for her contributions, she decided to try her hand at romance, and read countless Mills & Boon novels as research before writing one herself. Her first novel was accepted in 1982 as Catherine George, which Romantic Times voted best of its genre for that year, along with more than sixty written since.
These days son and daughter have fled the nest, but they return with loving regularity to where she and her husband back for good from his travels live, with Prince, the most recent Labrador, in a house built at the end of Victoria's reign in four acres of garden on the cliffs between the beautiful Wye Valley and the River Severn.
At 18, she met a future Engineer, who had set in a pendant a gold sovereign, that his grandmother put in his hand when he was born, and she have never taken off since. After their marriage he swept her off to Brazil, where he worked as Chief Engineer of a large gold-mining operation in the mountains of Minas Gerais, a setting which later provided a very popular background for several of her early novels. Nine happy years passed there before the question of their small son's education decided their return to Britain. Not long afterward a daughter was born, and for a time she lived a fulfilled life as a wife and mother who always made time to read, especially in the bath!
Her husband's job took him abroad again, to Portugal, West Africa, and various countries of the Middle East, but this time she stayed home with the family. And spent a lot of lonely evenings in between the reunions when her husband came home on leave. "Instead of reading other people's novels all the time," he suggested one day, "why not have a shot at writing one yourself?" So she did.
But first she took a creative writing course. Encouraged by the other students' enthusiasm for her contributions, she decided to try her hand at romance, and read countless Mills & Boon novels as research before writing one herself. Her first novel was accepted in 1982 as Catherine George, which Romantic Times voted best of its genre for that year, along with more than sixty written since.
These days son and daughter have fled the nest, but they return with loving regularity to where she and her husband back for good from his travels live, with Prince, the most recent Labrador, in a house built at the end of Victoria's reign in four acres of garden on the cliffs between the beautiful Wye Valley and the River Severn.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 3, 2017
Catherine George is back with a bang, something even Sheldon Cooper would approve of.
This book gets 4 stars because :
1 Bran
I always end up falling for heroes named Bran. Its bizzare but Bran was totally swoonworthy. Genius painter, wicked, romantic and Welsh. And very perceptive.
2 Naomi
Naomi spends most of the time in a state of conflict and you really sympathize with her. She is extremely attracted to Bran but can't act on her feelings because her conscience keeps scolding her. Naomi enters Bran's home with an agenda, she can't walk away because she is privy to his secrets.
3 Chemistry
These two were a super cute duo. Bran had dragon worthy mood swings, the title is completely justified. But Naomi holds her own against Bran.
4 Wales
I love Wales as a setting, mountains, cold and forests. Perfect place for a new romance.
This book loses one star because :
Half - The pushy sister
Half - Naomi has a quivering self esteem, especially paranoid about how ordinary she looks. Bran keeps trying to reassure her but there is no real change in this area. I think Bran will have to share her struggle till she gets over her issues.
This book gets 4 stars because :
1 Bran
I always end up falling for heroes named Bran. Its bizzare but Bran was totally swoonworthy. Genius painter, wicked, romantic and Welsh. And very perceptive.
2 Naomi
Naomi spends most of the time in a state of conflict and you really sympathize with her. She is extremely attracted to Bran but can't act on her feelings because her conscience keeps scolding her. Naomi enters Bran's home with an agenda, she can't walk away because she is privy to his secrets.
3 Chemistry
These two were a super cute duo. Bran had dragon worthy mood swings, the title is completely justified. But Naomi holds her own against Bran.
4 Wales
I love Wales as a setting, mountains, cold and forests. Perfect place for a new romance.
This book loses one star because :
Half - The pushy sister
Half - Naomi has a quivering self esteem, especially paranoid about how ordinary she looks. Bran keeps trying to reassure her but there is no real change in this area. I think Bran will have to share her struggle till she gets over her issues.
February 2, 2019
Heroine's sister pushes her to masquerade as a reclusive artist's secretary so sister can get the scoop and get a promotion (and the hunky editor she is in love with) at her newspaper.
Heroine falls in love throughout the masquerade and the hero seems equally besotted. Heroine makes the compromise of letting her sister know details of hero's home (the titular lair of the Dragon) as well as some of his paintings but decides not to betray his biggest secrets: 1) he is temporarily blind after an accident 2) his impossibly gorgeous girlfriend Allegra, the subject of his last portrait, dumped him when he lost his sight. So sister's scoop is published, with the scoop being the description of the interior design of hero's lair. Must have been a reallllllyyyy slow news day.
TSTL heroine thinks the hero will not find out her deception because he is blind and can't read the papers for himself. OF COURSE he does and tells her to get out. She does.
Months later, hero contrives a meeting. He has regained his sight and is ready to exchange ILYs. He was mad not because she betrayed him by passing herself off as a secretary but because he thought she had also pretended to fall in love and have wild sex with him just to get a bit of dirt on him for her sister's newspaper. After talking to the heroine's sister and realizing heroine was just as miserable apart from him as he was apart from her, he tracked her down to propose and HEA.
I am SO over CG and read her nowadays only when I feel like a good hate read but this incredibly dumb tale didn't even succeed on that front lol.
Heroine falls in love throughout the masquerade and the hero seems equally besotted. Heroine makes the compromise of letting her sister know details of hero's home (the titular lair of the Dragon) as well as some of his paintings but decides not to betray his biggest secrets: 1) he is temporarily blind after an accident 2) his impossibly gorgeous girlfriend Allegra, the subject of his last portrait, dumped him when he lost his sight. So sister's scoop is published, with the scoop being the description of the interior design of hero's lair. Must have been a reallllllyyyy slow news day.
TSTL heroine thinks the hero will not find out her deception because he is blind and can't read the papers for himself. OF COURSE he does and tells her to get out. She does.
Months later, hero contrives a meeting. He has regained his sight and is ready to exchange ILYs. He was mad not because she betrayed him by passing herself off as a secretary but because he thought she had also pretended to fall in love and have wild sex with him just to get a bit of dirt on him for her sister's newspaper. After talking to the heroine's sister and realizing heroine was just as miserable apart from him as he was apart from her, he tracked her down to propose and HEA.
I am SO over CG and read her nowadays only when I feel like a good hate read but this incredibly dumb tale didn't even succeed on that front lol.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 11, 2022
If you like:
—charming English countrysides, villages, and old country houses
—ceramics
—picnics
—bookshops
—witty banter
—handsome artists
—warm, capable heroines
—vibrant chemistry
—delicious dinners cooked by motherly housekeepers
you will probably enjoy this book. I know I did, the setting is so wonderfully detailed and charming! I want to live there! It looks like this was part of some sort of Welcome to Europe series, with this book focusing on Wales.
I had trouble with the ethics of Naomi’s breach in trust, partly because it’s not done for very good reason and it goes on for so long. But I really liked her, as I like Catherine George heroines in general—they’re smart and kind and helpful and I would most certainly be friends with them IRL.
This is such a good example of why I like HPs as well. In the short span of under 200 pages, you get completely immersed in a different life, with all the joys and troubles that go along with it—with lots of emotion and plot in such a short amount of time. Nothing better for troubled times than a quick escape like this one.
3.5 stars
—charming English countrysides, villages, and old country houses
—ceramics
—picnics
—bookshops
—witty banter
—handsome artists
—warm, capable heroines
—vibrant chemistry
—delicious dinners cooked by motherly housekeepers
you will probably enjoy this book. I know I did, the setting is so wonderfully detailed and charming! I want to live there! It looks like this was part of some sort of Welcome to Europe series, with this book focusing on Wales.
I had trouble with the ethics of Naomi’s breach in trust, partly because it’s not done for very good reason and it goes on for so long. But I really liked her, as I like Catherine George heroines in general—they’re smart and kind and helpful and I would most certainly be friends with them IRL.
This is such a good example of why I like HPs as well. In the short span of under 200 pages, you get completely immersed in a different life, with all the joys and troubles that go along with it—with lots of emotion and plot in such a short amount of time. Nothing better for troubled times than a quick escape like this one.
3.5 stars
January 22, 2015
Pleasant, light and quick read. The story would be much better if we were privy to the hero’s POV. The author created much more likable characters than what you find in average older HP stories. The hero, famous painter temporary blinded by an accident, was neither alpha nor beta.The heroine, who came to work for him under false pretenses, was not a simpering dormant but rather normal woman with a spine. There is also a nice sprinkle of information about history of Wales and some of its attractions.
April 3, 2014
A romantic story, main protagonists Naomi and Bran.
January 31, 2026
Trying to remember... was the hero blind for most of this book? I can't quite recall. Perhaps CG should have played it up a little bit more. Made it an important plot point, reference the H's blindness almost every single page, that sort of thing?
Oh wait she did! LOL she beat the "Hero-is-temporarily-blind" horse till it was nothing but pulp. He was the blindest temporarily blind hero in the history of temporarily blind heroes lol.
That aside, this was a very enjoyable read. Good pacing with their relationship development, I thought, and a satisfying ending, esp when both of them confessed of their initial attraction in a chance encounter at the beginning of the book.
Heroine bumps into the Hero, who is a well-known Welsh artist, at the opera one night. She's temporarily stunned by his hottness, and mentions the encounter off-handedly to her sister, a reporter at a newspaper who is looking to advance her career.
One guilt trip leads to another, and heroine has maneuvered herself into a job transcribing the H's autobiography at his home, in order to give her sister the scoop she needs to advance her career AND catch the attention of the co-worker she's crushing on or whatever.
When she gets there, the hero is Blind, with a capital B, from a skiing accident, I think? But this author did her research and didn't claim "snow blindness" and just doesn't list a particular cause even though he did get a good scratch up the side of his face.
Anywho, they slowly begin falling for each other while the heroine has this big guilty secret hanging over her.
Naturally just when she's got the H where she wants him, or he's got her where he wants her, the article about the H her sister wrote came out a week early (her job was only for 2-3 weeks) and the H's chauffeur who reads the h's sister's newspaper shows the article to the H, and he goes ooooofffff in a rage and tells her to get out of his sight. (lol, sight? Get it? He does not have sight, as he is Temporarily Blind!)
So she does, and just when she's getting on with her life, she goes on a vacay with her sis, who has tricked her into meeting the H, who now has his sight back and is gaga over her, and they live happily ever after even though he is no longer Blind, with a capital B.
It was cute though even though they couldn't stop talking about his blindness.
Oh wait she did! LOL she beat the "Hero-is-temporarily-blind" horse till it was nothing but pulp. He was the blindest temporarily blind hero in the history of temporarily blind heroes lol.
That aside, this was a very enjoyable read. Good pacing with their relationship development, I thought, and a satisfying ending, esp when both of them confessed of their initial attraction in a chance encounter at the beginning of the book.
Heroine bumps into the Hero, who is a well-known Welsh artist, at the opera one night. She's temporarily stunned by his hottness, and mentions the encounter off-handedly to her sister, a reporter at a newspaper who is looking to advance her career.
One guilt trip leads to another, and heroine has maneuvered herself into a job transcribing the H's autobiography at his home, in order to give her sister the scoop she needs to advance her career AND catch the attention of the co-worker she's crushing on or whatever.
When she gets there, the hero is Blind, with a capital B, from a skiing accident, I think? But this author did her research and didn't claim "snow blindness" and just doesn't list a particular cause even though he did get a good scratch up the side of his face.
Anywho, they slowly begin falling for each other while the heroine has this big guilty secret hanging over her.
Naturally just when she's got the H where she wants him, or he's got her where he wants her, the article about the H her sister wrote came out a week early (her job was only for 2-3 weeks) and the H's chauffeur who reads the h's sister's newspaper shows the article to the H, and he goes ooooofffff in a rage and tells her to get out of his sight. (lol, sight? Get it? He does not have sight, as he is Temporarily Blind!)
So she does, and just when she's getting on with her life, she goes on a vacay with her sis, who has tricked her into meeting the H, who now has his sight back and is gaga over her, and they live happily ever after even though he is no longer Blind, with a capital B.
It was cute though even though they couldn't stop talking about his blindness.
May 25, 2026
~G~ in my A-Z Mills & Boon Readathon.
Thumbs down for this one because the heroine was such a scummy liar. She infiltrates the home of a famous artist (who is convalescing after a terrible accident) to report back details of his private life to her journalist sister, who intends to use the scoop to snag a hot promotion. What a sleezy, horrible, self-serving bitch.
The heroine spends the whole book lying, taking secret notes, reporting back to her sister, and persisting in the scheme even when her sister tells her to back off. Its obvious this artist is falling so madly in love with her, and when they end up sleeping together he makes it so clear he is besotted by her... and still she lies and twists herself in knots to save her own skin. Time and time again she 'brushes aside' her guilt, which signals to me that she knows full well what a scum bag she is, and has no problem ignoring it.
She's a user and a liar. I cannot stand heroines who are such scummy, low down characters. The poor hero deserved better than this.
Thumbs down for this one because the heroine was such a scummy liar. She infiltrates the home of a famous artist (who is convalescing after a terrible accident) to report back details of his private life to her journalist sister, who intends to use the scoop to snag a hot promotion. What a sleezy, horrible, self-serving bitch.
The heroine spends the whole book lying, taking secret notes, reporting back to her sister, and persisting in the scheme even when her sister tells her to back off. Its obvious this artist is falling so madly in love with her, and when they end up sleeping together he makes it so clear he is besotted by her... and still she lies and twists herself in knots to save her own skin. Time and time again she 'brushes aside' her guilt, which signals to me that she knows full well what a scum bag she is, and has no problem ignoring it.
She's a user and a liar. I cannot stand heroines who are such scummy, low down characters. The poor hero deserved better than this.
abrierto-to-read-hr-other
September 29, 2022Falling for him...
When Naomi's journalist sister asked her to infiltrate The Lair of the Dragon, Bran Llewellyn's private retreat, Naomi felt she couldn't refuse.
But she hated the deception She had to pose as Bran's new secretary, and soon discovered that the man, who was such an intriguing mystery to the newspapers, had been temporarily blinded in an accident. Worse, working so closely together meant that there was an undeniable attraction between them.
Naomi's conscience told her that she couldn't keep her secret for much longer. And common sense chided that Bran's sight would eventually be restored. But if she revealed her deceit... She hadn't realized how easily she had fallen in love with Bran
When Naomi's journalist sister asked her to infiltrate The Lair of the Dragon, Bran Llewellyn's private retreat, Naomi felt she couldn't refuse.
But she hated the deception She had to pose as Bran's new secretary, and soon discovered that the man, who was such an intriguing mystery to the newspapers, had been temporarily blinded in an accident. Worse, working so closely together meant that there was an undeniable attraction between them.
Naomi's conscience told her that she couldn't keep her secret for much longer. And common sense chided that Bran's sight would eventually be restored. But if she revealed her deceit... She hadn't realized how easily she had fallen in love with Bran
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews