The Dragon Delasangre

Dragon Delasangre #1

by Alan F. Troop

Here, at last, are the confessions of one Peter DelaSangre, who tells of his life on an island off the coast of Miami...of his lonely balancing act between the worlds of humans and dragons...and of the overwhelming need that gives his life purpose: To find a woman of his own kind...

Genres: Fantasy, Dragons, Urban Fantasy, Fiction, Romance, Paranormal, Adult

292 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 2002

Reviews

[Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

A man picks up a young woman for a one night stand. He accidently kills her during sex so he eats her. But he's kind enough to share her with his bedridden father. Since he is not really a man but a dragon who can shape-shift it's...sexy?
If it weren't for the whole eating people thing, it would not be wrong to label this a mafia romance.
My biggest problem with this was that the author tries to give Peter DelaSange his instinctual animal side and his intellectual human side. Every time there was a dragon part I kept thinking that the author must never have watched Animal Planet. Or National Geographic. Or even Jack Hanna. The more he wrote, the more he proved most things the dragons did were cultural and not instinctual. Much of it was counterproductive to their survival. Why did the dragons need to eat people when there was other, more abundant and larger prey? If shapeshifting was a hard skill to learn, why did Peter's mother not know she was a dragon until she met his father? Why would any creature shape-shift into their food?
Peter finds his soulmate (barf) in Elizabeth. She is a spoiled selfish immature bitch. The story pretty much became sex, eating people, 'someone is trying to kill me'. Is it the brother of the woman he killed at the start of the story? Is it his shady lawyer who has been stealing from him? Is it his right-hand man who knows how to make people disappear? Could it be a rival mob? Could it be the family of the dragon he killed to win his bride? Could it be his father-in-law? Maybe if the mystery part had been more prominent I might have liked this better. Instead, I got annoyed and read the ending. Since one of the things I was hoping happened did, I sadistically finished it all.
This is an easy read. Peter is almost a sympathetic character. At least it is easy to understand most of what he does. I give the writer credit for telling the story from Peter's point of view when it would have been so much easier from the brother's.

[Loyd · Rating 1 out of 5]

Am incredibly surprised that 1) I actually finished this book, and that 2) it has sequels. I have no idea how this book got on my bookshelf, but when scanning for my next read, I picked it up thinking that it's premise (dragon shape-changers walk amongst us during day and hunt us at night) was interesting and light/fluff reading. It turns out that the book was mostly soft-core dragon porn which grew incredibly tedious. Also, of the story line that remained, the author greatly over used "fore-shadowing" to the point of it becoming "fore-spot-lighting". Items were mentioned again, and again, to the point that you could see the "car wreck" coming, not seconds in advance, but before the driver even got in their vehicle and left home. You could guess what was going to happen chapters in advance, and I correctly guessed the main "secret" villain looooong in advance (hint, it's the only character that made sense, and whereas normally this is a bait-and-switch by the author, it wasn't in this case). The dragon (main character) was supposed to be old enough to know better, but kept making incredibly stupid story-line mistakes that just seemed waaaaay out of character for the dragon as previously described and set up.

Long story short, this went immediately to my resale pile, and I won't be reading the sequels.

[Samantha Robbins · Rating 1 out of 5]

The fact that I finished this is genuinely surprising. It’s a small book so it didn’t take very long to read and that might be a blessing. This author really leaned into the animalistic side of being a dragon. And not in a good way. The amount of murder and people eating is just gross and the author tries to wrap it up in just the grossest way possible. With the protagonist wanting to mate with his dead wife’s sister. Don’t read this unless you want to be grossed out.

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just picked this book up at the used bookstore and knew nothing about the author but it was a book that grabbed me from the first page. Its kind of like a dragon romance novel. And I am not too big on romance novels but thus being said it was a terrific book. Alan F. Troop is definitely a fantastic writer.

[Kylie Stoddard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I accidentally read this series out of order, starting with the third novel in middle school; it was the only one available. I bought this one on Ebay last year as an adult and absolutely loved it. It really started to make the third book make sense. I was excited to start the second as soon as I finished this one.

[Jolisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a very OK book. The characters seemed very flat. Most of them weren't very likeable, including the main character, Peter. Also, the author's writing style was not to my liking. It also felt like there were too many run-on sentences.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to get into, didn't like the main character nor most of the others.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

it's very long ago, but this book was awesome!
Gotta read it again...

[Elaine Fultz, Teacher Librarian, MLS · Rating 3 out of 5]

VOYA review early 2000s

[Nicole Santana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book

[Gordie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice easy read. First book I've read about shapeshifting dragons and haven't really decided if I'm a fan or not.

[Marcus D. Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it

Found this book as a kid(series) and loved it. It was well written then and still holds that action and imagery today as well.

[Natasha M · Rating 4 out of 5]

good

It was an enlightening read and it was well done. I like it a lot and hope the rest of them are as enthralling

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dragon Delasangre (Dragon Delasangre #1)
by Alan F. Troop


My thoughts:

This book is awesome and original. I read it years ago and re-reading it, I loved it just as much. Alan F. Troop is a talented writer with the ability to put the reader in the mind of essentially a monster from the human point of view. There are four books in this series and I’m sad to say no other books from the author. The story is a really fun read, and I found myself rooting for Peter, something one would think would be impossible, but given that it is told in a very personal first person style, it works. Much of the story is about a sort of internal battle within Peter between his human friendly upbringing and the ways of his kind. That internal struggle is externalized with his relationship with his more traditional wife and her family.


Style: First person, present tense. This is a rare choice that not all authors can pull off but it worked in this story.

Characters:

Peter DelaSangre - Dragon and patriarch of his family

Jeremy Tindall - the family attorney (human)

Aurturo Gomez - Co-manager of DelaSangre’s company, LaMar Associates. (Human), also Peter’s most trusted human.

Peter’s Father aka Don Henry

Maria Santos - a waitress Peter dated and killed

Jorge Santos - the brother of Maria Santos

Casy Morgan - Jorge’s girlfriend

Elizabeth Blood - Peter’s wife

Derek Blood - Elizabeth’s older brother

Charles Blood - Elizabeth’s father

Samantha Blood - Elizabeth’s mother

Chloe Blood - Elizabeth’s younger sister

Philip Blood - Elizabeth’s younger brother


The story


story follows Peter DelaSangre who is a member of a very rare species of being who can take either dragon or human shape. But no matter the shape, Peter is always a dragon. Having been raised among humans he has an unnatural (according to his father) fondness for them. He still eats them of course because ‘we are what we are’.

When the story begins, Peter lives a lonely life on a private island with his ancient ailing father. He is filthy rich and wants for nothing, but his mother died long ago and his father is the only other of his kind he has contact with. He dates human women (pretty perverted as it would be like a human having sex with cows!) and usually doesn’t eat them but one night he kills Maria Santos, a waitress he bedded. He feels bad about it.

He was driven nearly mad because he catches the scent of a female. He doesn’t know what it is at first, but then his father explains how their kind mate and after his father’s death, Peter sets out to find her. He does and must battle a rival suitor to the death but he wins and claims his bride. And eats his vanquished rival because that how dragons roll. Peter is often ignorant of his own kind’s ways but he catches on quickly.

Her name is Elizabeth and by mating they are wed for life according to their kind’s laws. She is also immediately pregnant which is also the way of their kind.

After some awkward time with her family which includes a wedding ceremony of sorts, an extortion of a promise of gold to be delivered to Charles, and a not too veiled threat about keeping Elizabeth safe, Peter whisks his bride home to Florida.

Throughout the book there is some foreshadowing of the plot of the next book regarding Chloe. Re-reading the book after reading the sequels it really stands out.

Once back home with his bride, Peter must face Maria’s brother who convinced (correctly) that Peter murdered his sister. While that’s happening, there are also mysterious attacks that seem to be from a different source.

Once Elizabeth insists on capturing Jorge and his girlfriend and turning them into their slaves (something she is used to having), you can just see that things are not going to end well for anyone.

As stupid as some of the actions are, the author does a good job of convincing the reader of the reckless influence that Elizabeth has on Peter. He knows better but just can’t deny her anything.

But in the end, it is his own fondness for humans, coupled with his own arrogance that is Peter’s downfall. Jorge seems to accept his fate and develops a comrade with Peter and then uses it to his advantage. Peter falls for it not because he is stupid but because he is so arrogant that he thinks he is invulnerable.

It costs him his wife’s life, but his captives don’t realize that he and his wife are dragons and that works to Peters advantage. The mystery of the attacks and who has been helping Santos (before his capture) is answered as well. It is Jeremy Tindall, Peter’s employee. None of them survive. After delivering his son postmortem, Peter kills them all.

By the end, Peter learns the lesson his father spent a life time trying to teach him, we are what we are. He is a dragon and his kind cannot be friends with humans.

[Stephi · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could give this negative stars, I would.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

SO I read this when I was maybe in Highschool, so Things are not fresh in my head... BUT

Is it an interesting premise, and written decently?
YES

Is the Main character a total anti hero, to the point of being unbearable

YES

I actually Lost interest in this series because after the 3 or 4 books I bought and read, even being obsessed with dragon main characters at the time... He was just to terrible for me to really want to read about him.

Possible Spoilers?

Main character is a dragon hiding in human form. He eats people. Murders them and eats them, lives on a private island. he tries to be a "good" "person" in that at least he's not as terrible as some others of his kind. But that essentially amounts to not torturing the people he hunts and eats... Why he cant just eat live cows, I honestly cant recall if it was ever explained, may have been just "tradition" to eat people.

EXCEPT when he lets his recently born dragon child eat a man alive, because they had the audacity to break into his home and killed his dragon-wife after he sort of murdered and ate a family member of theirs.

I'm not one for moralizing fiction characters and judging a novel solely on if what happens is ethical or just, but honestly the story and Main characters were simply not interesting enough for me to ignore the questions of why hes does what he does. There was a section in one of the books where MC's child (also a dragon shape shifter) is upset he has to eat people, he wants cereal, doesn't want to hurt his friends etc. Which could have been really interesting to explore more, but nah, ceral makes me vomit, time to eat people and not think about it again.

[LibraryGirl2008 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Peter Delasangre belongs to a family of shape-shifting dragons who live off the coast of Miami. Since the staple diet of dragons consists mostly of humans, Peter and his family often take on the form of their prey to lure their victims to their untimely deaths. After a young, pretty waitress ends up as Peter’s dinner, it comes as a rather a shock to him that her family has managed to trace her disappearance back to Peter—and they’re out for blood. Bad timing, especially since Peter has just found—and married—the love of his life, a beautiful lady dragon by the name of Elizabeth. Troop builds a fascinating world of dragon culture in which to set his tale. Dragon weddings, it turns out, are not that much different from human ones, in that they involve dowries, marriage vows, in-laws, etc. Unfortunately, the fantasy world plays only a supporting role, while a cast of truly despicable protagonists take center stage. Peter and his dragon bride are cruel, self-centered, and just unlikable in general, while the antagonists (the characters the reader is not supposed to sympathize with) turn out to be devoted, dedicated, law-abiding citizens you can’t help but cheer for. This leaves the reviewer to beg the question: “Where’s St. George when you really need him?”

[Kaitlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-read in a single sitting on the plane. I first read these in middle school/high school and loved them. What's funny is when I originally read these, I lived up north. Now I live incredibly close to Miami, where the story is primarily set.

Overall, this seems to be the Simpsons-esque predictor of the dragon shifter romance genre that has exploded as of late. There's so many hallmarks of the genre - the violence, the pair-bonding, the weird scent/pheromones, etc. that its kinda crazy it came out so long ago.

Re-reading now, Peter seems like such a fucking moron. And the author has this really, really odd fixation on race and ethnitcity and national origin. Characters are often referred to as The Latin, The Mexican. Or even just by thier skin color. BIPOC folks are often described in oddly fetishistic terms - whites are 'pale' but Blacks are "like creamy milk-chocolate" and the descriptions go on and on.

[Kraig Horton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really different novel than many others I have read. Usually I see the same themes over and over again in fantasy novels that have to do with dragons. But this book was so very different. Alan F. Troop brings a whole new light into the world of dragons in this novel. He shows the reader shapeshifting beings that live normal lives working, have friends, doing everything that would be considered the norm in human life. That is only in public though. Peter and his son live on a island off of Miami and are alone due to his wife being dead. It is a story where the reader is brought into a fascinating secret of a race that live a human life but also has one as a dying race of shape shifters that are dragons. In the Troop has mastered imagery showing the reader immensely detailed explantation of the transforming process, the length that these in depth characters will go to to survive and the battles and adventure of any die hard fantasy fan. This series is a fantastic read!

[C is for **censored** · Rating 2 out of 5]

The star rating given reflects my opinion within ‘the official goodreads rating system’.

1 star: Didn’t Like it
2 stars: It’s Okay
3 stars: Liked it
4 stars: Really Liked it
5 stars: It Was Amazing

I don’t really give a rat-fuck that there are some who think I ‘owe’ an explanation for my opinion. Nope, nada, and not sorry about it.

Sometimes I may add notes to explain what my opinions are based on, and sometimes I don’t. I do this for me, on my books, in my library and I don’t ‘owe’ any special snowflakes a thing. Fuck off if you don’t like it and stop reading my shit.

Particularly given the ‘modifications’ to reader’s personal content going on (and outright censorship), unless particularly motivated I will not comment in detail.

It would help if GR was forthcoming in the new ‘appropriate’ and would make a site-wide announcement delineating the new focus from a reader-centric site to one that is now for authors and selling.

[Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading so many urban fantasy books that so similar to each other, I found this book a nice change. The main character is not a PI, detective, police consultant, or Miss Marple. The dragons were allowed to be dragons and kill people rather than bemoaning a human love. The main character, Peter, is fond of humans, but he does not fall in love with one.

Some people might find the scenes where people are somewhat disturbing, I didn't but then again also read horror books. I found them to be in character for how the dragons were portrayed. There are plenty of fight scenes in the story, including a nice epic one at the end, but I found the more interesting conflict to be between dragons and humans how closely they can be allowed to coexist together (e.g. whether they can actually maintain a friendship even if the human is ignorant of the dragon's true nature).

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this series minus one thing.. the whole eating humans thing is really brutal like ripping chunks of people while still alive, etc. I dunno, I don't usually have a problem with it with werewolves and vampires, etc. but I suppose it's because they don't actually "eat" the person. Lots of books have the whole "I'm better than just a human" mentality, especially the shape shifting books.. these dragons lack something but I can't put my finger on it. Oh and the whole dragon sex thing is just weird.. doesn't light MY fire.. LOL.

The end of this book is very sad. I admit I cried. But when his baby is born the way he feels towards his baby is very touching, obviously the author is a father. I look forward to reading the next one.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this book. I know it's not a great thing to say you don't like a book when you haven't even finished it, but good gosh, if most everything in a book is stuff you don't like or if you're lost or confused throughout most of a book, it's just not for you. There's a certain style of writing I like, and this is just not it. There are other billions of other books in the world to meet and read.
*spoiler* Although it was cool he was a guy who could turn into a dragonoid form, the rest of it didn't quite please me. And my puny brain kept interpreting the writing style in a way that made me imagine that the whole story was set either night or dusk. Never did the sun rise. ...Maybe it's because the more eventful stuff *did* happen in the dark. ...Ugh.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a little surprised at just how much I enjoyed this book. It is not in any way to be confused with the typical Paranormal Romance books available in this genre. Peter DeLeSangra is a Dragon. A cold blooded, human eating. dragon who can shape shift into human form as well. I bounced back and forth from feeling revulsion for Peter to feeling pity for him. The storyline introduces us to Peter well into his life, as he searches for his life mate, a female Dragon, who will be his wife and life partner. I am not even sure what it was that kept me so engrossed in the story of Peter's life, but I was and I picked up book #2 immediately after finishing this one last night.

[caracal-eyes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite different. It was all right, but for some reason couldn't engage me very well. Usually I expect to finish a book with in a week, a little more than that if I have a bunch of other books to read or things to do. This one took me a month to read, since I was reading other books I found more interesting in between reading it. I'm not sure why--something about the characters,the plot, or something just didn't click with me. So, I'd give it a 2.5 if I could, but it's good enough that I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from reading it, since my low rating was more due to my personal taste, I think, than any problem with the book itself.

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the cover of the paper back I own, there is a quote from someone who says something along the lines of, Allen F. Troop did for Dragons what someone did for Vampires and Werewolves. They were on the money. The story is fresh and you dont know the folklore of dragons that can turn to humans and have their own abilities. Everything about the story comes off as a well thought out TV program. Bringing you up in fascination over the activities of humans and dragons to dropping you down with mishaps and tragedy. I love this book enough to have shared it with friends and family to mostly get great reviews back and awesome discussions later.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book a lot. It was a fun read and kept me turning the pages. Is it a masterpiece? No. Is it a great, fun read? Yes. I liked the way Troop gave the dragons their own hidden culture. These are different dragons. They live for a few hundred years instead of thousands. They are not so big that they dominate everything. They can be killed. They are not your typical dragon of fantasy literature. I also liked they way Peter Delasangre was given feelings for the humans he has to kill. He seems a monster trapped in a world without escape. "We are what we are."

[Misty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book intrigued me. To begin with, I love dragons and reading about a shape-shifting dragon was too exciting. I enjoyed the constant personal dilemma he battled with dragon vs humans.

But there were some weird aspects for me. The desire to not provoke humans, but continuing with stupid decisions that will inevitably end badly for humans. Age differences in mates???!! Should I not care since they are dragons? And the plot just took a ridiculous turn at the end. This would normally be a book-killer for me, but alas, I like dragons.

Did I enjoy? Yes. Would I recommend? No.

[Amy Qualls · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't finish it. I kept thinking about the law of conservation of mass, and wondering how exactly the main character kept transforming back and forth from itty bitty human to ginormo-dragon (now with extra rowr! and grr!) without violating the laws of physics.

I think maybe I should just admit that fantasy isn't my bag and stick with sci-fi.

If one of my friends wants this book, they can have it.