Review: Drakon's Plunder by N.J. Walters

SYNOPSIS:

Life is not going well for archaeologist Sam Bellamy. She’s stuck in the middle of the ocean on a salvage boat with people who want her dead. It wasn’t her gift for being able to sense objects of power that got her here, rather her need to make a secret society called the Knights of the Dragon pay for killing her mentor. Sam doesn’t believe in dragons, but the Knights do, and if she can get one of the sacred artifacts they’re searching for away from them, she’ll consider it payback.

Ezra Easton is content to run his marine salvage company and live alone on his private island. He may be a four-thousand-year-old water drakon, but he’s civilized enough to know just because he pulls an injured woman from the ocean, doesn’t mean he gets to keep her...

When she wakes up, she has a few tall tales to share, and it seems the Knights are after her. But this drakon won’t give up his treasure.

EXCERPT:

Ezra was in his human form about twenty feet from the boat, trying to decide on the best way to sneak onboard, when he first caught sight of the woman creeping along the port side. With his preternatural vision, he could see perfectly. It was obvious she was trying to hide. She had a black wool hat pulled down over her head, was swathed in a large dark coat, and moved furtively along the deck, keeping to the shadows.

He glanced at the bow of the ship where the lone guard stood, cigarette in hand. Ezra had circled the boat twice already, and this seemed to be the only man keeping watch outside.

Who was the woman, and what was she doing?

His dragon stirred inside, wanting him to move closer. He glided until he was only about fifteen feet away. She glanced over her shoulder, but he knew she couldn’t see him in the dark.

He watched while she untied the rubber dinghy and dropped it into the water. Was she leaving? Curiosity piqued, he drifted closer and watched her frantically trying to find the paddle. He sensed her relief when she finally found it. Seconds later, she began to paddle.

A spotlight came on, shining right at the dinghy. Ezra managed to duck beneath the waves and swim into the shadows before it caught him in its glow. By the time he surfaced, a man was standing on the deck with a gun pointed at the woman.

A slow anger began to burn inside Ezra.

“You didn’t really think I bought the whole story about there being nothing in the urn but a necklace, did you, Sam?”

To give the woman credit, she didn’t stop paddling. “You wanted gold, Aaron. Now you have some. That necklace is worth a small fortune.”

“But it’s nowhere near as valuable as what you have in your pocket.” He laughed when her hand went to her jacket. “I knew the second you went back to the lab. There’s nowhere on this ship you can go without me knowing about it. Now stop.” He fired a shot that landed just in front of the dinghy. Sam set the paddle down on the floor of the boat.

“I can’t let you have this.”

Ezra could tell the woman was terrified but was trying to appear brave. He wondered what she had that was more valuable than gold. Whatever it was, it was probably what he’d come here to retrieve.

She pulled a small plastic bag from her pocket and opened it. The angle she held it at made it impossible for Ezra to see what was inside. The man on deck began to swear. “Don’t do anything stupid,” he warned her. “We can talk about this.”

She laughed, but there was no humor in it. “I’ve always known you planned to kill me. Just like you killed Brian.”

“Who the hell is Brian?” the man demanded.

She held the open bag out over the rim of the dinghy, perilously close to the waves. “Brian was my mentor. He was the only family I had. Well, you can all rot in hell before I’ll give you this book. If I can’t have it, no one can.”

What had Ezra stumbled into? A power play among members of the Knights? Those in the lower ranks of the society frequently jockeyed for position, often killing one another to move upward. There was little honor among them.

He didn’t like thinking that about the woman, but he didn’t know what else to believe. His dragon didn’t like her talking about another man, even if she spoke of him as though he was family. He struggled to keep the creature in check and stay in his human form. Now was not the time to shift. Not yet.

“Come on, Sam,” the man called Aaron cajoled. “We can work this out. There’s no reason for you to do this.”

“I can’t.” She shook her head and looked resigned.

“That’s really too bad.” Aaron raised his weapon.

Ezra realized what he was about to do and rocketed through the water, shifting on the fly. His dragon became a living torpedo with a single target.

A shot rang out just as he rammed the Integrity. He heard men yelling as the boat shuddered and shook and began to take on water from the huge hole in the bow. Ezra circled and rammed the ship again, this time driving it onto its side.

He used his powerful wings to propel him underwater and back to the side of the dinghy. It had also taken on water when the bigger vessel faltered. The woman—Sam—lay on her side on the bottom of the small boat, blood mixing with the seawater puddled around her.

There was no time to waste. He grabbed the line from the dinghy in his mouth and began to swim, cutting through the water. He had no idea how badly she’d been wounded. He wasn’t even quite sure why he cared, but he did.

He couldn’t let her die. He needed to know more about her, why she was with the Knights, and what was in that bag she’d been holding.

REVIEW:

I have been reading Ms. Walters books for a while and haven't had the pleasure of reading this series. Not sure how I missed it since I like her books and I love dragons. These dragons are not your normal dragons and have an interesting back story.  Of course since  I started reading this series in the middle I am going to have go read the first two. Good thing I already have one of them in my to be read pile.

Sam was my kind of heroine. She is intelligent, brave and a take no crap kind of girl. I liked her a lot She would make a great bestie. And Ezra even though he older than dirt lol he is not caveman kind of guy. He is protective and alpha to the bone but he's not an asshole about it.  I did like his powers He can fly and he can swim. Man can he swim. I believe this is first time I've read a book about a water drakon and I liked it. 

My only issue with this book was that it kind of ended abruptly. It had a happy for now with Sam and Ezra but kind of left the story hanging. You don't know what the Knights were doing and Sam was kind of left in limbo what with them hunting her. I'll definitely be reading the next book to see the resolution. I give this book 4 stars and was given this book via Netgalley in consideration of a review which in no way influenced my opinion.

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