I picked up a copy of May Dawson‘s Forbidden Honor as an Amazon freebie.
In my world, dragon shifters rule. Dragon shifters are always royals. They’re always male. They’re always assholes.
An orphaned servant like me? Everyone assumes on first shift, I’ll turn into a squirrel.
Instead, I grow wings. Breathe fire. Throw the world into chaos.
No one wants a girl in the Royal Dragon Guard. So I’m disguised as a man and sent off to military training.
The Dragon Royals are not a welcoming bunch. These princely scions of the four ruling families have been training to fight the plague-crazed Scourge since they were toddlers. Every girl in the city dreams of winning the heart of one of the dragon nobles, but they only care about each other.
Jaik, the cold-hearted hero who never smiles and never falters. Arren, who kills without mercy and guards his friends fiercely. Lynx and Branick, the twin spymasters with deadly swords. Talisyn, with the beautiful cruel mouth and endless bravery.
By night, I’m the servant they flirt with. I’m the one stealing Jaik’s heart and kissing Talisyn and antagonizing Arren. All the while, Branick and Lynx fret that I’m a spy, sent to destroy the Royals.
By day, I’m Lucien Finn, the man they despise and the dragon shifter they have to fight alongside.
These royals are determined to make me fall, and the princes play dirty. Can I ignore the pull they have on my heart and kick them off their thrones?
Will they break the maid… or kill the man? What will it do to us all when they finally discover the truth about who I truly am?
I had mixed feelings about this book, but I mostly enjoyed it. I liked the characters well enough and the world seems interesting. But I also thought it had a little too much filler and far too strong of a ‘she’s a special snowflake who is not like other girls’ vibe. Plus, the men of the harem are given drastically uneven attention, though I suspect that is a matter of the neglected ones getting time in future books. All in all, I don’t regret reading it, but I probably won’t be continuing the series all the same.
Here’s the thing. I love the Why Choose genre, but it’s burning me out pretty quickly because of how series-heavy it is. This was book 1 of 6, and I’ve read enough such series to strongly suspect I’ll need to read all 6 books to reach any sort of satisfying conclusion (and each will end on a cliffhanger). I just am not ready (or in a position, time-wise) to commit to 5 more books. That’s not so much a criticism of the series as a comment on my condition in engaging with it. But it is what it is.
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