Heart of Fire (Dragon's Mate #2) by Hope Bennett

Heart of Fire (Dragon's Mate #2) Reviews

• 
  Kati *☆･ﾟ [a bit distracted atm]

  3.75**** stars
  
  
  Okay, first: I loved this story! Sadly, tho, I have too many niggles to rate it any higher. BUT, read my review first before you decide to skip it because of my rating.
  
  So, there is Seren, he lost his dragon five years ago. He can’t shift, he can’t heal, he can’t access his magic, he’s weak - practically a useless member of his clan of nobles.
  
  On the other side of the story we have Dane. He’s crawling out of his skin - or better, his dragon is. He’s restless and enraged and his dragon is freaking out when he can’t set eyes on Seren to know he’s safe.
  
  These two belong to different dragon clans and years ago Dane came to Seren’s family’s castle to train him (it’s what he does). There must’ve been some kind of connection between them then but Seren kind of dumped him and we don’t learn why for a long time.
  
  
  It’s pretty obvious to the reader that, whatever’s wrong with them, it has to do with the other. Their need for each other is intense and I loved it. It’s what I live for in my romances.
  
  At this point I would’ve wished for flashbacks to five years ago. Dane remembers Seren as a strong, confident man and dragon, but I never saw that. I only saw the vulnerable, weak one. So I struggled a lot with reconciling these two pictures of Seren. Dane on the other hand was easy to understand and connect with. I loved him.
  
  

  Before I could stop myself, I’d wondered if that’s what Seren and I would have looked like together.  Seren was taller and broader than Morgan, stronger, more confident, louder; but then I was bigger than Lew, so maybe that is exactly what we’d have looked like together: perfect.

  
  
  That’s actually exactly what I meant with not seeing this side of Seren at all. But I love the quote and at the very end there was at least a glimmer of that old Seren peaking through.
  
  What confused me a little (but maybe I just missed the world-building in book 1?) was that the whole vibe of the story and what we saw felt rather medieval but there were also a lot of modern stuff like clothes and phones, yk. It didn't quite fit.
  
  The writing and storytelling was a bit wonky as well as it had some editing errors but the story itself was awesome and in the end (and I know I repeat myself) I loved it. I can imagine this book is the best one in the series. My intense-emotions loving heart was SINGING!! A big thanks to you,
  Megan, for providing me with all I needed to know to skip book one. 🩵🩵🩵
  
  
  ***********
  Dragon’s Mate Series
  
  Book 1 - Family of Fire
  Book 2 - Heart of Fire - 3.75 stars
  …
  Book 6 - Unworldly - tbr
  
  *this series contains 7 books overall
• 
  Megan

  MM Romance
  Dragon Shifter Fated Mates
  4 Stars ⭐️
  
  
  I loved Dane and Seren! This book was worth suffering through book one because Dane and Seren were perfect for each other and I devoured this. These two had been apart 5 years yet their dragons weren’t happy with that choice. Dane could barely control his dragon anymore and with it lurking at the surface he was becoming almost feral. Seren had the exact opposite problem, an issue I didn’t know could even happen to a shifter and it made me love this even more. Seren had so many issues to work on due to shitty Lord Somerville destroying his self esteem but Dane was there to comfort him and love him.
  
  I’m starting to think the dragon shifters in this series are total morons though because most people know they are fated mates from the first time they meet but these two along with Morgan/Lew from book one were oblivious. I just couldn’t figure out how an old ass dragon shifter (Dane) couldn’t figure out the reason his dragon was so restless and out of control was due to him being away from his mate. 🤦🏻‍♀️ It made sense that Seren didn’t know what was happening because his problem was so different but Dane you fool. 🐉🤡
  
  This series needs to be read in order because this book starts midway through the end of the last book, just from the new character’s POVs and it won’t make a lot of sense without it. Book one wasn’t terrible, it just was a bit annoying at times and despite the author saying it was British English, there were a huge amount of wrong words like waking instead of walking or wo instead of who. This book also has some errors but I just loved the characters so much that I could overlook a lot of it.
  
  I still read “uasal” as nasal 😂 but at least this time I had some background info going in because I was lost af last book despite it being the first in series. This series needs a glossary because I don’t think most people would know at 1% wtf a uasal or a curaidh was. I sure as fuck didn’t but thankfully Bronwyn 💗 told me they were Gaelic for noble and warrior afterwards which made sense to the book. It’s just weird though since these aren’t Scottish dragon shifters but whatever. 🤷🏻‍♀️Anyway the next one is going to be about a clumsy curaidh dragon shifter and a thousand years old gargoyle and I’m intrigued.
  
  This cover does not go the book justice. Yikes.
• 
  Jewel

  3.5 Stars
  
  I liked this one more than book one. The pacing was better, and they didn't spend nearly as long second guessing each other.
• 
  AngelFire

  I'm completely floored by how much I enjoyed this! I'm not into the fated mates thing, I knew this was the second in a series and the summary is written with a rom-com tone while the premise is far from rom-comy so I was sure this would be a quick DNF. Plus - that cover really intrigued me because it's very unique but I was worried that it too would be a case of false advertising/trying too hard (which has happened to me very often with books that market themselves as being dark/intense). Well, not only did I finish it but I enjoyed the majority of it! In fact, I'm going to read two other books in the series and check out what else the author has written.
  
  One of the reasons this book worked for me was because it contained so many tropes I love: second chance romance, plenty of angsty pining between the MCs, MCs willing to destroy anybody/anything in their path to protect each other and lots of hurt-comfort. There was also bed sharing, body heat sharing/naked cuddles and having one MC take care of the other when he's injured (including having Dane bathe a filthy, injured Seren and both of them ignoring the sexual undertones of the situation in order to stay focused on getting Seren clean and warm).
  
  The writing was also very enjoyable and the action scenes were thrilling and intense, which I hadn't expected at all. In fact, I'm using my dark romance tag for the book since the descriptions of many battles involved a lot of violence and gore, which made me really happy because I was worried the book wouldn't take those topics seriously. Speaking of which - I was very happy that the MCs dragon shifting abilities played a huge role in the story. I've read some shifter books (dragon and others) where the shifting ability rarely comes into play or it's just a party trick and this book did complete justice to the shifter genre and I ended up loving Dane's dragon just as much as I did Dane himself.
  
  I also loved the fantasy aspects. This is book 2 in the series and I hadn't read the first one but I had no trouble getting up to speed on Dane and Seren's interesting history and the world the author had created. I really loved that the author casually wove worldbuilding explanations into the narrative when and if they were required which made it easy to understand what was going on but wouldn't be annoying to those who had read the first book. The fantasy world itself was also refreshingly unique (IMO). The dragon shifters live in different clans spread throughout coastal/rural England and they live in old castles and follow traditional routines but the author always makes it clear that these books take place in contemporary times. There's magic, dragon shifters, fated mate bonds and other fantasy creatures but there's also cellphones, coffee shops and hotels. The way the author blended together the typical medieval-style high fantasy setting with the contemporary world was really well done and everything fit together beautifully. It was also a neat touch that the author used Irish (Gaelic?) words for certain dragon related terminology (uasal = gentlemen (the nobles); ridire = knight (dragon hunters) etc).
  
  I also adored both MCs. Dane is part of a warrior clan and he's one of the biggest, strongest dragons around. The guy's job is to kick ass when somebody threatens somebody he cares about and there's no such thing as overkill where Dane's around and I mean that literally (if you're squeamish then this is not the book for you). Dane is exactly the kind of guy you want on your side and you don't ever want to be fighting against him. Seren is from a nobility clan and while he's a competent fighter when in his dragon form, he's also capable of doing magic. Together, the two of them are an impressive force and that's mostly due to Dane having trained Seren five years before the story starts.
  
  They had both developed feelings for each other while training but when Seren was told/threatened by his clan leader to stay away from Dane (since warriors aren't considered good enough for nobles), they go their separate ways and spend the next five years grieving a relationship that died before it got off the ground. I found it fascinating that the author had both Dane and Seren's dragons go through different versions of depression as a result of the break up. These two dumb-dumbs don't realize until near the end of the story that they're fated mates, which is why their dragons reacted so strongly to them being apart but I personally didn't find this reveal surprising. Anyway - Dane's dragon struggles with constant rage to the point where Dane has trouble keeping his dragon under control and he's constantly lashing out and getting into fights when he shouldn't. With Seren, his dragon retreats so far within him that Seren loses the ability to shift or use any of his shifter magic (healing, magic spells etc). His dragon is the light inside Seren and being separated from Dane had turned off that light and left Seren an empty shell. The author did such a great job describing their pain at being separated that their joy at being reunited and deciding to get together permanently made me as happy as it did them. They were adorable together, especially Dane.
  
  The reason I can't give this wonderful story more than 3 stars is because of the length. The story isn't nearly as complex as it could and should have been. When the story starts, Dane and Seren have already been broken up for 5 years. Seren is told he's going to be forced to mate (ie marry) with somebody from another nobilty dragon shifter clan, he refuses, he's disowned and cast out, he's kidnapped by that nobility dragon shifter clan and Dane rescues him and brings him to his warrior dragon shifter clan. The End. The story is just Seren going from clan A to clan B to clan C and the entire thing takes place over the course of 3 days. Yet, the book is 360 pages and the reason why is due to filler.
  
  After the epic beginning where we're introduced to the MCs and Seren is cast out, the pacing suddenly crawls to a halt for several chapters as the MCs are separated and they interact with many different side characters who are all sequel bait for future books in this 9 book series. Some of the characters who showed up did serve an important purpose (Glimmer, Glenwise, Rhod) but many didn't (Prince, Broadmire etc). I do appreciate that the author showcased all of those characters personalities well, to the point where I know that I'm interested in books 8 (Glimmer/A Ridire) and 9 (Glenwise/Rhod) but you couldn't pay me to touch books 3 through 7. But it was still irritating having the pacing slowed to a crawl and having to skim through scene after scene of boring nothingness while I waited for the MCs to reunite. The author also went overboard to force the side characters into scenes, even if it meant pushing the MCs into the background. The worst example of this was Glimmer having the locket of Seren's hair that the witch used for the location spell. It would have been much better for Dane to have kept something of Seren's all of these years and for that to be used for the location spell.
  
  Another obvious clue that the author is paid per page is that half of the book contains repetitive internal monologuing by the MCs. Many times individual lines of dialog would be followed by paragraphs of internal rambling (which we'd heard dozens of times already) before another line of dialog was added. Some conversations were painful to follow and many times, the internal rambling was so bad that the characters were literally thinking in circles. They'd have Thought A, go through Thoughts B through E and that last one would lead back to Thought A and so on. It didn't help that the smut scenes were well written but they were very long and there were many of them. Since the book suffered from such a severe level of bloat already, the smut scenes were yet another part I had to skim over in order to stay awake. Then there was the ridiculous situation where Seren's voicemail to Dane is fully written out THREE TIMES in the narrative - first when Seren leaves it, second when Dane listens to it and a third time when Dane lets somebody else listen to it!! The author isn't even trying to hide the fact that she stretches out her books with filler to get more money from higher page reads.
  
  The length of the story would have made perfect sense if the author had done one of the following: a) showed all of Seren and Dane's romance with a five year time skip in the middle or b) had the entire thing take place over longer than 3 days with more types of conflict and more plotlines. As it was, the book could have easily been cut in half and told the exact same story. This all being said, I'm going to check out books 8 and 9 because I did enjoy the story and it's currently my favorite dragon shifter MM romance, which says something.
• 
  Hanna W

  I really liked this book a lot.
  Seren and Dane were really cute. Like totally cute. Dane's dragon just couldn’t be settled until he knew that Seren was safe. 😭
  It took them some time to figure out that they were mates but they were still drawn to each other.
  
  I really loved the characters. Especially Seren. I felt so bad for him and was so happy when he finally got his Happy End.
  The story itself was quite intriguing and thrilling. I honestly couldn’t put the book down.
  
  This was actually the first book I read from this author.
  I really liked the setting the story took place. It was described really good and I could imagine it very well.
  I enjoyed reading this book!
  
  
• 
  Dan

  You know a book is bomb when you start it and finish it the same day. So far my favorite. I adore Seren, for the record
• 
  Sadie Loves Reading

  Let me start the review by saying that I enjoyed the first book to the next two books in the series. And the review is about the whole series as I read it in a sequence.
  The outline of the story and the world-building is very good. The characters are somewhat well-established.
  What is dragging the book down? Well, it is the dialogue and the subplots. Furthermore, the timing of the event happening in the book makes no sense.
  I strongly believe that this book had potential but unfortunately the narrative was a drag.
  
  ***𝙵𝚊𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝙵𝚒𝚛𝚎***
  
  I liked the first book, Lew and Morgan are my favorite couple in this series. Morgan gives all cold vibes but he is a sweetheart whose life has been controlled and ruled by his father. Lew is an honest and brave warrior. He is protective and cares a lot for Morgan.
  
  ***𝙷𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝙵𝚒𝚛𝚎***
  
  Dane and Seren were introduced in the first book, Dane was rejected by Seren and heartbroken for years. Even though his heart was in pain he always was there for Seren to protect him. Seren had a reason for his rejection but now he yearns to take control of his life. It's a second-chance romance and hence I can't say much.
  
  ***𝙿𝚛𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙿𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎***
  
  The third book is about Prince and Darren. Prince is the cousin of many cousins introduced in this series. Darren is a security consultant who is also a gargoyle. He is a headstrong, career-oriented workaholic whereas Prince is young, sweet, and a bit messy.
  
  Overall it was average for me, low on angst. You good give it a chance if you love dragon shifter and fated mate kinda story. It did have a few amazing moments.
• 
  Katherine

  Anger and loss
  
  It was fairly clear near the end of the first book that Dane and Saren had a connection. In fact, it looked an awful lot like they were mates, but they had been kept apart for five years. Seren rejected Dane at that time, thinking he was protecting him, and Dane has been a bit out of his mind since. With Dane getting worse and Seren seeing Morgan say no to a mating that he is now going to be forced into things really kick into play.
  
  Seren had a slightly different upbringing than Morgan did. Still a royal but not first string he was taught to fight and use his magic. Things changed when he lost his dragon and now he had spent five years hiding in plain sight among so called family who hate or look down on him. Being forced into a mating feels like rock bottom, and something in Seren realizes he can't do it, finally getting him to stand up for himself (something the Somerville's don't take well).
  
  Dane has been half out of his mind since leaving Seren and had no idea why. Now it is getting worse and Dane is starting to feel like he can't even control himself around family. When he hears about trouble happening with Seren it both focuses him and drives that anger forward. Dane will have to fight for Seren but it isn't straight forward who he has to fight.
  
  These first two books are quite interconnected. Dane and Seren coming from the same family, plus it explains some of the questions the family had from the first book. It is clear that the Hoskins embrace love and their mates, but this isn't common amongst dragon kind. Things have changed in this world and as the Hoskins continue to find their mates, things are sure to keep changing.
• 
  M Will

  This is a well written paranormal M/M dragon shifter second chance romance. A second installment of the Dragon's Mate series, this one centers around Dane and Seren. Having met five years previous, both seem to find themselves suffering after their clan relations force them apart. This story was fast paced and once again gives us the author's insight to how her paranormal dragon hierarchy is designed, and the problems which plague it. This one has a bit more of a darker touch so reader beware. We also get to revisit some of our beloved characters from the first book, which is definitely a bonus. I finished this one in a day. Good story!
  
  I received a free copy of this in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Rebecca Park

  Seren fell in love with Dane from the moment they met but was forced to tell the man he loved he didn’t want him, he lost more than the love of his life that day. Dane spent years on the edge of going insane thinking the man he loved didn’t want him & in truth his love was being kept from him against his will. Watching these two fight for their love & reunite was so heartbreakingly beautiful. I absolutely love fated mate stories & I very much enjoyed this story. I can’t wait to read all about Darren & Prince next. ❤️😀
• 
  Maddy

  Finally! Seren and Dane get their HAE :)
  The tension has been real! I was rooting for these two since book 1 and now they get their chance at happiness. Finally! Dane was suffering terribly, but Seren has been suffering even more, which was explained in this book. It is horrible what some people have to go through because of the cruelty of others. All is well that ends well though! They had to fight for it, but they did it! They deserved some happiness and I am glad they found it in each other. Another achingly sweet story about the Hoskins dragons. Delightful!
• 
  C.Gard

  So-so
  
  This wasn't a bad book by any means....it just... didn't really have the development I was looking for. For half of the book, these two aren't even around each other. Then things move at warp speed....which sort of makes sense because of their history, but I feel gipped because there wasn't any real relationship development. Nothing really happened in this book, which is a shame because there were some really good elements...it just didn't all come together for me, unfortunately.
• 
  Ida Umphers

  I loved watching Seren finally come into his own here. Standing up to his uncle initially seems like the most dangerous decision he's ever made but fortunately, Dane is there, reluctantly but under some compulsion he can't quite accept at first, but there nonetheless. A blend of fated mates, hurt/comfort, developing self-confidence and independence, great world building with action, suspense and a great couple in Seren and Dane.
• 
  Jennifer

  Another book where communication could have solved a whole lot of problems. I always find that pretty annoying- there was a lot of pining and too much time spent on unimportant information. For the good part this series, even with previous complaints is interesting and well written. The storyline line keeps me coming back and looking forward to the next books. You really do need to read in order.
• 
  Kelly Gress

  Series is Getting Better and Better
  
  I'm enjoying the series so far. The one dangling piece of information that is not resolved is where is Alfie and how is he doing. It was unresolved from the first book and still no explanation in this book. I hope we find out what happened to him. Otherwise, I enjoyed the story with the MCs and getting to know them better. I'm definitely invested in the characters and excited to see what happens next.
• 
  Jude

  There are times when the fated mate trope just seems to simple with the easy recognition, then there are stories like this one where they are fated, but do not recognize each other instantly. This story tugged on my heart. Again simple yet layered characters, a plot that is rich and interesting with worldbuilding limited to the setting. I do wish the world-building went past the immediate setting as I am now interested in how this world came to be.
• 
  Valerie

  Soren and Dane take a while to acknowledge what they have felt all along, but circumstances out of their control lead them to take the long way to finding the truth about each other. I thought this was a sweet read and loved Soren as he's trying to do what's best for everyone until he absolutely refuses to sacrifice his happiness for something his uncle wants. Sweet!
• 
  Kathreadsall

  cute second change m/m dragon shifter romance!
  
  Really enjoyed Dane's story! He was such a grumpy, angry dude from book one, and I'm so glad he got his happy ending with Seren!
  
  They were so cute together, and the smut was fire! I think this book could have been a bit shorter, but I still enjoyed the ride and am excited for the next book in this series.
• 
  Ashlyn

  Really sweet good story!
  
  I enjoyed this book very much, a lot of effort was put in to make it not the same run of the mill shifter book. It made me actually want to finish the story after the characters got together. Props to the author job well done!
• 
  Joanne Mccorkell

  Im so glad Seren and Dane were able to work out they were mates.... though how either missed it I dont know.
  I worry now for Alfie and Glimmer, reallly dislike Lord Somerville, cant wait until he gets what he deserves.
  I Love that we get a brief intro to the next main character.