I'm having an extremely good reading month, with a bunch of carefree paranormal/fantasy romances. This is exactly the kind of lighthearted, steamy good time you need for summer. I'm not trying to cry or think, I just want fluffy handsome shapeshifters to read as I lounge in the sun, and Lola Glass delivered. This is the first book I've read of hers and I got the impression some of the characters that showed up were cameos of couples in her vast backlog so I'm happy ro have something to dive into once I chip away at this massive TBR.

Never Fall for a Dragon by Lola Glass is a quick and steamy standalone romance. Overall, this book was alright. The spice was great, always full of passion and very sexy. The angst and tension while the characters tried to deny their desires was top notch. But the plot was very lacking to me. I wanted something with more substance. I also thought both narrators did a wonderful job bringing these characters to life. I definitely recommend this one for fans of very spicy romance.

Thank you to the publishers an netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Never Fall for a Dragon follows August ( a dragon) and Eloise ( a human) as she tries to break up a fight between Bryn and August. Eloise has no idea that they are brother and sister when she interrupted them in a cafe. Once August controls his emotions he finds that Eloise is mate and they now have to spend the next 4 weeks together and not have sex. They are both attractive to each other which is going to make it harder to keep their hands off each other. This was a good book and I really enjoyed the whole book. Can't wait for the next 2 books in the series.

Quick Summary: A dragon shifter romance

My Review: Never Fall for a Dragon by Lola Glass is book #1 in the Mate Mountain series.

About the Book: A dragon shifter and a human woman with an awareness of the supernatural world meet and heat. The heat, of course, has everything to do with sharing a connection. The two decide to "team up" in an effort to escape the full consummation of their mating bond. Of course, everything else is on the table. When they are parted by circumstances, what are they each willing to do to set things in order?

About the Characters:
August - > Strong, responsible, loyal, fierce, protective, honorable, passionate, willing to make the tough calls when needed, willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good; August is a shifter who is centuries old

Elodie - > Driven, fearless, faithful, strong, unapologetic, passionate, willing to do the thing you least expect to save someone she cares about; Elodie is a college aged student who graduates before the story ends

About the Conflict: Truthfully, this story did not have a lot of conflict. It came across like it was setting things up for future stories in the series. Although August and Elodie faced a separation of sorts, due to a choice he made, it seemed that the circumstance was more informational than anything.

About the Other Characters: There was just enough said to promote interest. The more the brothers and the other dragons were mentioned, the more I wanted to understand their lifestyle. Also, the mention of witches and werewolves caused me to be curious about what else might be in store for readers.

About the Narration: The narrators for this audiobook were Nick Mondelli and Renee Thorn. The duo did a good job with communicating the depth and intensity of feeling expressed by characters. It made for a solid listening experience.

My Final Say: This was a fairly good introduction to a potentially promising series. I look forward to learning more.

Other: For those readers who want a whole lot of spice with their dragon shifter romance, this one delivers. It's heavy on the petting and parking, yet light enough on story points that one would not get bogged down. With that said, book one made for an interesting kickoff.

Rating: 3.25/5
Recommend: Yes
Audience: NA (O) to A
Status/Level: 👍
Audiobook: Yes
Narration: +

Appreciation is extended to the author, to the publisher (Dreamscape Media), and to NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to review this title, via an ALC, in exchange for an honest review. The words I have submitted are my own.

✨️💚✨️Audio Book Review✨️💚✨️

Book: Never Fall For A Dragon
Author: Lola Glass
Rating: 4.5 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟.5

🥵🌶🥵🌶

Wow. This book was so much spicier than I thought it would be ... and I absolutely loved it.

I was hooked from chapter one and devoured the whole thing in one day.

I haven't read many shifter romances and well now I definitely won't stop.

The MMC is a dragon shifter and you are thrown into a world where the paranormal is common.

Yup. 🙃

You get:
• Dual POV
• Spicy
• Dragon Shifter
• Fated Mates
• So Much Tension
• Protector MMC
• Paranormal

Pick up the first one is this series now, if you love spicy shifter paranormal romance, of course! Available through KU, ebook, paperback, and audiobook.

Vibes: dragon shifters, going into HEAT, soft monsters

Heat Index: 7/10

The Basics:

When Elodie sets off dragon shifter August's heat, she's set off as well (literally needing his touch to NOT feel pain... until she needs a lot more). The thing is, even if she was down to complete the mating bond with him—which she isn't, less because she doesn't want to have sex with him than because, you know, that's a lot—she couldn't. August is set to serve a prison sentence shortly, and his mate would have to enter the dangerous prison with him, risking her life. So they huddle away in a cabin to wait out the four weeks with as little pain as possible... And they're going to Do Things to keep the edge off... except That Thing. If they hold out. Which they totally will, right?

The Review:

Look, it's a heat cycle dragon shifter book. It's meant to be fun, and it is fun. It's mostly a lot of forced proximity with some mild Plot Stuff in the form of the prison sentence, but mostly not. If you like dragons and the mating instinct, you'll probably like this.

Although... I don't mind dragons, and I like mating bond stuff. But I still felt a bit underwhelmed? I think that what I'm realizing is that paranormal fated mate stuff is difficult for me because a high standard was set with Immortals After Dark. If you're not chewing off your leg to get to her, what are we doing?

I also found that the story meandered a bit. Elodie and August had good chemistry, so like. I wanted to see them bang. Why didn't they start hooking up earlier—like, I get the P in V delay, but I still expected a lot more sex in this than I got.

The thing that I think some soft monster books struggle with is that they want the monsters to be sweet guys who care about consent, and such as that. I get the desire. But these heat cycles sort of fly in the face of it. For me, a satisfactory fated mates book really needs FRICTION. In every way.

That said, I liked both narrators and they did a good job!

The Sex:

Like I said, there isn't as much sex as I expected? Like, there is sex, and it is good. But if you go into this expecting a ton of smashing, you might be surprised. It's confined towards the back half of the book, and it's not SUPER adventurous, or super constant.

While I do think that people who want something quick, light, and cozy will enjoy this... And I did have a good time... I could've used more of, well, everything.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was such a fun book! I really hope we are getting audios for the rest of the series. The plot set up for this was really fun to me. I love a book where they are forced together due to a being mates. We got enough information early on how the dragon world worked to make it all fit together nicely too.

Narration wise it was fantastic to listen to. I enjoyed both narrators a lot. And was happily surprised when we had a surprise of a dual narration.

This book was a good read, but it was a lot more smutty than I had expected. The story was nice, I enjoyed hearing both characters POV with the audio version.

The story was structured around dragons and what happens when they find their mate. A dragon shifter mated with a normal human woman? Crazy! Their chemistry & evolving love kept me from putting down this book & starting something else.

It wasn’t my favorite, but it wasn’t terrible. Thank you NetGalley for the arc copy!

While I stayed engaged and interested because I’m not super familiar with this genre, by the end, I felt like the story lacked depth. The world itself sounds like it could be very interesting, but I just didn’t get more than a glimpse of it. Very singular focus on the two leads. It needed more.

Story: 4⭐
Spice: 3🌶 (Only due to frequency vs length of book)
Narration: 4⭐

The narration was really good. This is a dual narrative (Narrators only voice their chapter POV and the voice of all the characters within that chapter.)
Nick has a dreamy voice, and I was sad he only had like 3 chapters. Renee has a perfect voice for the FMC. She's strong and funny.

This was a great fast read. It was cute with forced proximity and gave you all those feel-good feelings! If you are a lover of shifters (especially dragons), mating bonds, spice, teach me (MMC) but is a quick learner. You will really love this read.

Don't take this book too seriously and you will likely love it. It's not super serious, it's a bit campy, it has low plot and high sexual tension and some very steamy scenes. This book is not going to win any Pulitzer prize but it's fun and romantic and perfect for reading if you are looking for a fluffy, sweet romance with dragons shifters.

The audio narration by Nick Mondelli and Renee Thorn is done well!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for access to the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Let me start by saying that the narrators did a fantastic job with the characters and the author wrote a funny, steamy and interesting story that I devoured. Never Fall for a Dragon didn't disappoint. I absolutely love it and I don't want to give anything away because I will be recommending this paranormal romance story to all of my friends. I love a slow burn romance story and although Elodie and August story was an instant mate acknowledging story it wasn't an insta- love story. It gave me time to get to know and enjoy both the main and side characters, but especially the main characters before they fell in love. The steamy scenes were HOT, there were both sweet and funny moments and a sweet ending for the main characters. I'm definitely looking forward to August brother's story and getting to really know the other two Sky brothers and seeing how they fall in love. I think readers that enjoy paranormal romance stories will enjoy this standalone romance book.

Thank you NetGalley for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

This was a great short but super spicy fantasy romance.

This was my first book by Lola Glass, and I loved it. I do wish I had started with her previous books though because while it does work well as a standalone, it’s obvious that there’s some backstory about the side characters and the world building from previous books that would’ve made this one even better.

The beginning and middle of this book doesn’t have a lot of plot, mostly just spice and romance. The end is has a whole lot more plot though and while I loved the spice and romance, the added plot towards the end really made me care a lot and enjoy the whole book a lot more.

The FMC and MMC were both strong and well written characters. Their banter was perfect and they equally help each other through everything. They actually felt like equal partners which doesn’t happen enough in human/shifter romances. The spice was absolutely delicious as well.

The book ended perfectly with a nicely wrapped up (and well earned) HEA and just enough of a sneak peak into what the next book will be about. Definitely will be reading more from the author.

A dragon shifter and a human woman accidentally set off a bonding heat and are stuck together in a cabin in the woods for four weeks. Elodie interrupts what she assumes to be a fight between a supernatural man and a human woman and sets of a potential mating ritual instead. August is about to head to prison for breaking some rules in the process of protecting his sister, but is detoured by the imminent heat that’s triggered by Elodie. There’s some dragon politics in the background here, but this book is mostly a quick and easily digestible steamy read. I thought it was a fun and not-too-deep kind of story and perfect for reading in between longer more epic or angsty books.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the audio recording for this book. The narration was excellent.

This is a fun and steamy dragon shifter romance. The story dives right into the attraction between Elodie and August. She walks out of a coffeeshop to interrupt an argument between a man and a woman. As soon as the man turns to her, he goes into heat, and as soon as he touches her, she joins him there.

If they sate their bond, they’ll be mated, but if they stay together (and maybe partake in some other actions to release some pressure), they may just make it through and be able to go their separate ways.

Fully expect to suspend your disbelief with this one; it is a dragon shifter romance after all. Elodie willingly goes with August, a dragon shifter whom she has just met, to his unfurnished cabin in the woods for four weeks. (Don’t worry; he gets furniture in there for her stat.) At least she has the forethought to be concerned about school and how her friends and mom will worry about her.

There’s plenty of heat to this one—both literal and of the attraction kind—but there’s also a sweetness to how they take care of each other.

This is the first of three books, and it looks like each book focuses on the relationship between one of the three friends and one of the dragon shifter brothers.

I’m not going to lie; I will probably keep reading this series. This first book is a fun escape and has more plot than I was expecting. Listening to it at 2x speed on audio, it was a quick, little diversion that helped me get through some Saturday morning chores.

The audiobook has dual narration by Nick Mondelli and Renee Thorne. I expected his voice to be more gravely or growly as a dragon shifter, but ultimately liked his narration. Some of the phrasing in Thorne’s narration didn’t feel very natural to me, but those moments weren’t enough to fully pull me out of the story.

3.75⭐️

I listened to an advance copy of the audiobook from Dreamscape Media. All review opinions are my own.

⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️

🐉Shifter Romance
🖤Mate Bond
🐉Forced Proximity
🖤Spice
🐉Dual POV
🖤Touch her and Di3

I received an ALC from Dreamscape Media via NetGalley.

I have read my fair share amount of shifter romances of all different kinds so I’m familiar with the basic world building around those relationships.

I thought this one was very cozy and romantic compared to some of the other ones that I have read. The spice was good. Thought that it was a good pallet cleanser if you’re looking for a quick intro to shifter romance or if you’re just looking for a fast book I feel this one is perfect.

I did listen to this book on audio. I really loved the male narrators performance throughout the whole book. The female narrator threw me a few times with her voice changes because I didn’t feel it was as consistent. But I still think that she did a great job.

𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
3.5 🌟
-
Never Fall for a Dragon is book 1 in the Mate Mountain series. Quick, easy, cute read. If you want smut, semi plot, dragon shifter, human female, with a dash of mate bond vibes, this book is highly recommended for you. I do feel like this could have been a novella, it sometime felt like nothing was happening, but then something was happening. If that makes sense.
The narrator did a good job, I enjoyed listening to their voice.
𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐬 :
•Dragon shifter
•mate bond
𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 Aug.6
Thank you, Netgalley, and Dreamscape Media for the audiobook for my honest review.