I picked this book up for an ARC review from NetGalley from a lead from the author on her monthly newsletter.
I've been reading Shelly Laurenston/G.A Aiken for 8 years and a complete addict to all her series.
This is the 9th of the Dragon Kin series and features Aidan and Brannie who's Izzy's best friend and family of the dragons who care for the queen.
This is the continuing battle with the Zealots and trying to get rid of them and their campaign of terror.
This book is as usual full of laughs and a good heat factor.
Catching up with all our characters from this universe and how they and their families react is more than wonderful and I love how she leads you towards the next book.
I'll still buy this on its preorder.

Story was well written but I just felt it couldn't be read as a stand alone and as I have not read other books in this series I felt at times completely lost.

Aidan likes to keep the ball rolling, “keeping the friends-effing thing going.” He untied the material that bound her breasts. “Is that all right with you?” Aidan really doesn't understand his woman's mind, “we’re both here, naked, on our last night of what may be freedom or possibly our lives . . . and you’re worried about a bouncy bed?” I liked this book, I fell in love with Aidan.

OMG!! this series just keeps getting better and better I loved this one Brannie is so much fun and we get a chance to hang with Kieta who is all kinds of crazy.   All the usual players also pop up with plenty of crazy humor and bloody action.  A lot of focus is on the "Kids" who I can't wait to read about, they are even older now since this book jumps ahead in the war that was just getting started in the last book.  Now the wait is on for the next one...

Four and a half stars.

This book brings to a climax the arc of the Zealots and the god Chramnesind as Queen Annwyl the Bloody and the dragons of Garbhan Isle together with Queen Rhiannon and all the characters we have met in the past eight books draw together for the final conflict. This is an epic book, don't even try to read it if you haven't read the previous books, all our old favourites are back to do battle. Annwyl gets dragged into a well and disappears. Dagmar Reinholdt and her cohorts are plotting, the Cadwaladrs are their usual blood-thirsty selves and we see the Mi-runach and the Daughters of the Steppes. G.A. Aiken brings all of these fantastic characters to life so vividly and weaves the strands of their stories together in the tradition of some of the great fantasy novelists of my childhood.

At the personal level, Captain Branwen the Awful and her best friend Aidan the Divine have been fighting side by side against the Zealots. After Chramnesind's priests level the mountains as far as the eye can see, Aidan, Brannie and two of Aidan's Mi-runach brothers Caswyn and Uther drag themselves from the rubble and flee the approaching Zealot army, only to run into Rhiannon's youngest daughter Keita the Viper. The foursome are ordered to protect Keita as she undertakes a dangerous mission.

To do all of the different threads true justice this book needed to be twice as long (I wouldn't have minded). There was just so much going on that the romance between Branwen and Aidan didn't really take off for me. There didn't seem to be any great love between them, just two best friends who kind of slipped into love by accident. I also thought that, and probably intentionally, this book wasn't as laugh out loud funny as some of the others. Sure, Keita, Uther and Caswyn provided some light relief, and the Daughters of the Steppes are always good value, but overall this was a more sombre book as befits the climax of a story arc about a vicious cult.

I really liked this but I didn't love it. Branwen and Aidan just weren't strong enough characters in my opinion, Keita really stole the show from them even though it wasn't her book. But it was a strong fitting end to the Zealots, although it looks like there might be more trouble on the horizon ...

<will be publishing entire review closer to release date>


Okay. I finished it. And I have to say...

I was disappointed.

Yes, okay, I said it. I was actually disappointed by a G.A. Aiken novel. I never thought the day would come.

Well, that's a bit of a lie. Ever since the involvement of the Chramnesind arc, things have been getting chaotic.

There's been less and less of all the good stuff that made these books so fun and interesting to read. A few books ago, the story started to become more and more convoluted. There's so much information being thrown at you with each book that it gets harder and harder to sort it all out and figure out what's going on.

In all honesty, it feels like with each book the couple that's focused on gets less and less attention and is just used as a plot device or a general framework.

Unfortunately, it was glaringly clear in this book that Aiden and Brannie were not really the focus. It felt like every two pages, the POV was changing to someone else, and 75% of the time, that person was not Brannie or Aiden. We have Talwyn, Annwyl, Dagmar's kids, Keita, Rhiannon, Brannie, Aiden, the Mí-runach, and a ton of other POVs thrown at us with seemingly no order. I was so confused the entire book - we'd go from listening to Brannie threaten Caswyn (funny!!) to... I don't even know. I skimmed the entire thing. Literally clicked through any part that wasn't relevant to Aiden and Brannie.

You see, all of the POVs were in different locations, making the switches all the more annoying and confusing. I felt like I was being pushed to focus on the big battle and Chramnesind and the twins and Annwyl and a ton of other things that I didn't get to know Brannie and Aiden deeply at all.

Aiden is a damaged soul who was forced to live with a horrendous family. Brannie is a fierce warrior who is loyal to the bone. They had such potential and their story could have been one of the best in the series, but due to the lack of focus on them, their relationship felt hurried and strange.

Another complaint I have is that (and this isn't specific to just this book, the last few have also had this problem) there have been no scenes of the dragons ~Claiming~ each other. If it's such a pivotal and moving moment, shouldn't it be included in every book? I was in the first few and it was great. A really good way to show that the couple was committed and dedicated and happy and all that good stuff. Now the dragon relationships feel cheap and fake... or at least sorely lacking.

However, for all it's shortcomings, this book did have that trademark good humor and funny scene that I know I'll always see in a G.A. Aiken. Keita and Brannie's constant bickering was one of the highlights of the book for me. Zoya, my girl, was still up to no good. The Cadwaladrs were still up for protecting their Brannie. I was so happy to see that that spirit hadn't left any of the characters.

In conclusion, if you pick this book up expecting it to be like the first, or the second, or the third, or the fourth, or the fifth, or even the sixth in the series, you will be disappointed. You will think, why, God?? Why, Ms. Aiken?? What happened?? You will feel cheated and hurt. You will feel like Brannie and Aiden, and you by extension, have pulled the short stick of the dragon world and have been passed over in favor of "more exciting" characters, like the Abominations or Brigida or literally anything else. However, as I am a well of eternal hope and good wishes (as well as being loyal), I will pick up book 10, and 11, and 12, and however many after that. I will pick them up and I will hope that they do a 360 and end up back in early series territory. And if/when they do, then BOIIII, will we be back in business!

2.75 stars total.

**ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

Another amazing book from G.A Aiken! I was waiting for Branwen the awful's book since Izzy and Eibhears book. This book was not a disappointment. Aiden and Brannie were amazing together and so cute too. Bring the Heat seemed to finish off most of the series but hopefully this is not the last book!

I absolutely adore this series! Bring the Heat has all the usual humor and shenanigans that one would expect from an Aiken novel. I didn't want it to end!