Oh, gentle reader… I thought I had broken myself of the Kristen Ashley habit. Longtime Cannonball Read participants will remember my earlier addiction to her books and my lamentations over them. And by lamentations, I mean my lamenting over my inability to quit reading books that made me want to scream in frustration over the way the female main characters were inevitably told to just get over bad behaviors by the male main characters due to their possessive, protective feelings about said female. I’m jerk because I care, damn it!
I thought (erroneously, obviously), hey, it’s been several years since I last read an Ashley. Night’s Fall is the first installment in a new-to-me series in a new world that KA has created. Maybe things will be better! And, do you know what? They were better. Much better. Especially considering that this is a fated mates, dragon-shifter romance involving a billionaire crown prince and a gorgeous but quirky costume designer.
Aleksei Knightstar is a hard-working crown prince of the kingdom of Night’s Fall. He’s also a dragon shifter and self-made billionaire. Unlike his wastrel younger brothers, Aleksei has worked hard to build his business empire rather than relying on an allowance from the royal family’s coffers. He’s charming, kind, considerate, the total package.
Laura Makepeace is a talented, successful costume designer for tv and movies. She’s funny, quirky, and gorgeous, with a pretty serious case of bad self-confidence because of trauma caused by her parents when she was a kid. She’s also the survivor of a recent attack where her shifter half was killed trying to protect her human half.
They meet one night at a nightclub that Aleksei owns as part of his business empire. He immediately recognizes her as his fated mate and invites her over to his VIP table for champagne. She does not understand what is happening and makes a throwaway comment about her favorite fried chicken. (Which, girl, honestly. Same.) Their relationship builds from there and is marked by his support for and interest in her career and life in general.
And then, at about the 35% mark in Kindle, something insane and unexpected happens at an art gallery showing they are attending together. His alpha-hole tendencies come out full force, and we’re immediately in familiar KA territory.
I’m not going to go into further details, because I don’t want to be a spoiler in case you do read Night’s Fall. There is a *lot* of plot that I didn’t even get to because there is a lot going on. It is the first book in a new series, so there is a lot of heavy lifting happening when it comes to world-building, but it’s not too hard to follow. There is murder, mystery, mayhem, macguffins, oh my.
Overall, I’m giving it 3 stars.
