Dark Heat

The Dark Kings Stories, #0

By: Donna Grant

Narrated by: Antony Ferguson

The Dark Kings are sworn to defend an ancient legacy of dragon magic. But their fiercest challenge lies in the modern world, where a woman's love conquers all. These are their stories. Dark Heat gathers together these favorite stories of Donna Grant's Dark Kings.

Dark Craving: Fueled by ancient magic-and enflamed by human desire - the Dragon King known as Hal can transform himself at will into one of the legendary winged creatures he is sworn to protect. But one thing he can never do is fall in love...with a mortal woman.

Night's Awakening: The dark immortal warriors were never meant to experience human desire. But when Guy, a member of an ancient order of shapeshifting warriors, meets Elena-a mere mortal whose beauty and blind ambition shakes him to his core - all bets are off...

Dawn's Desire: For centuries, the Dragon Kings have hidden their shapeshifting powers from the world. But when a mortal enemy threatens to expose them, the warrior Banan must leave his secret lair in the Highlands to risk his life for the dragons within-and resist the temptations of human love.

Passion's Claim: Banan has been waiting for centuries for someone like Jane. Guy knew it was love at first sight with Elena. Can two Dragon Kings commit to two immortal women for eternity? Or does fate have something else in store?

©2013 Donna Grant (P)2014 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Grant's world of immortal dragons is richly detailed and blends beautifully with the familiar realities of her human characters." ( RT Book Reviews)

Love me some DRAGONS!

Great prequel 3-pack to the Dark Kings Series by Donna Grant... Awesome starter for the rest of the series. I think these book will crossover with the Dark Warrior books b/c during the first story when the silver dragons begin to move... the Immortals Warriors are mentioned... (the Immortal Warriors are the warriors from the Dark Warriors Series) so...I am think crossover at some point.

Anyway... the Kings have a spell to block out feelings for humans since one betrayed them and cause them to be separated from their dragons eons ago... but one human female catches a Kings eye... and no magic can stop his true feelings for her...

This happens for 3 kings... setting up the series....

Great stories... although not need to enjoy the rest of the series... which only one book is out now...but well worth it to get a better understanding of the Kings...

Any Donna Grant fan would enjoy this 3-pack...

Great narration too... This can't be Ferguson... didn't sound like him... but if it was... WoW! Ferguson is getting better with his female voices...

Dragons rule

This was a very good beginning to a new series if you like shifters. They are as old as time and are guardians of humans as well as dragons. Each dragon king is ruler of a different type and color dragon. There is just enough suspense in each story and fear of the woman destined to be there mate to keep the stories moving and interesting. It leaves you anticipating the next book in the series and the mystery of what has changed and who has learned their secret and is trying to destroy them. I enjoyed it.

good read. little over priced though.

it was a good story. narrator was better than expected. only a few slow areas but overall a good read.

Dragon series

I thought the narration was well done, but not great. Solid if simple story line overall I'd give it a 7 out of 10.

Cool Series!

Cool series with great world building. Each book features a different couple to focus on, but there are side storylines going on. Don't like that it takes forever for the storylines that are in multiple books take forever to be solved. Like the Ulrick thing. There also tends to be too much rehashing in this series and it can go a little slow, but overall, this series rocks. I've been reading some of the later books in this series and wanted to start at the beginning. This is a fun series that takes place in an interesting world. Love the dragon shifter aspect and the romances are always sweet.

I loved that this book had 3 short stories and a bonus novella all in one! I listened with Audible and enjoyed it. The narrator does a good job; a little formal, but he's crisp, clear, and the quality of the audio is good.

I've been reading some of the later books in this series and wanted to start at the beginning. This is a fun series that takes place in an interesting world. Love the dragon shifter aspect and the romances are always sweet.

Dark Craving -

Hal is a dragon shifter, who meets human Cassie. There's a connection between them, but the dragons are untrusting of humans after being betrayed before. Hal and Cassie have a sweet connection, and I do enjoy the whole mates type scenario. There's also some steam to the story, which I enjoyed. This is a quick read and a good introduction to this series. Lots of story and action to read about in this series!

Night's Awakening -

Loved how this one started with the cave exploring aspect. Elena and Guy are sweet together and some good passion. I’m always on board for the whole mates thing! Love that connection. This was a fun, short read.

Dawn's Desire -

This book features Jane and Banan. I liked that there was more action in this short story than the previous, but I would've liked for Jane to have more confidence. She kept going on about being a plain Jane, but her looks are definitely not a plain Jane. Maybe her personality is the plain Jane. She's still okay though. I also didn't quite feel the connection between Banan and Her, but they are sweet together. Liked the suspense of finding out who is messing with the dragons and that some past characters were all working together. Fun short story!

Passion's Claim -

This was a sweet novella! Jane and Elena are both worried that their dragons don't want to fulfill their mate bonds. It was good to read more about both couples; I especially liked Elena and Guy's storyline. Wonderful addition to the series.

Overall, I'm excited to see the other dragon shifters find their mates! There's also some story tie ins with some of Grant's other series and this series, so it's really cool to see all the characters interacting.

A good start to the series

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes. Donna Grant is a good writer that keeps the story flowing and keeps your attention. I enjoyed the Dark King characters as well as their mortal women. It has a good story line that leaves me wanting to get the other books in the series.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Dark Heat?

When Cassie saw Hal in Dragon form for the first time.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

I have to be honest, I wasn't crazy about the narration for this series however, it didn't ruin the book.

Could you see Dark Heat being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Not at this point. I may change my mind as I work my way through the series.

Super cheesy

Wow.... I'm stunned the editor didn't negate all the repetitive phrasing and overall cheesy descriptive narrative. I ended up listening to it in 1.25 speed because I couldn't imagine going through a whole 12 hours. Usually I like Antony Ferguson, but he needs a new female impression. I fell asleep at chapter 31, woke up at chapter 50, and didn't even need to go back to know what had happened. Slightly entertaining, mostly I listen to it because I subscribe to the Romance package and didn't have much to lose besides time.

Very basic story

Not a lot have crossover with other stories. And very little detail throughout the book Coreene Callahan has a much better series

LOVE ME SOME DRAGON SHIFTERS

Let me first start off by saying that this is a complication of four novellas of the Dark King Series. Almost like a prequel to the series itself. It does make references to the Dark Warriors Series but I don’t think you need to read that series in order to understand this one. This book tells the tales of three dragon kings and the women who captured their hearts. In the days of old (I love how that sounds) dragon ruled the sky. Than man came along and something was needed to communicate between dragon and man. So the most powerful of each dragon kind (color) was given the ability to shift between man and dragon to serve as a middle ground for both species. These individuals were known as the dragon kings. Sometimes a dragon king would take a mortal woman as his mate, forming an eternal bond that would make the woman immortal as long as her dragon was alive. This arrangement worked well until the dragons were betrayed by a dragon king’s mate. This cost countless of lives for both man and dragons alike. In order to protect themselves, the king of king casted a spell that would bind the dragon kings emotions so that they would never fell strong emotions towards a human female ever again. Ok let’s skip some countless years to present day Scotland and our story begins.

The three dragon kings in these novellas have lived since the beginning of time and are content to keep living their lives as they are until each one encounters their mates. Soon they begin to feel the emptiness that millennia of loneliness have created within them. They will stop at nothing for their mates to truly love the man and the dragon. Each woman is different and complex. Cassey is stuck between a rock and a hard place when she meets Hal but she knows there is something special about him. She is determined to prove to him and his king that she loves both the man and the dragon. Elena is driven and fierce. She has finally reached the point in her career that she has been trying to reach her entire life but that all goes to hell when she goes caving with her new boss and meets Guy. Jane is plain or at least that is what she has been told most of her life. Until she meets Banan, he opens her eyes to the beautiful woman that he sees before him. Even with an unknown dangerous villain that knows about the dragon kings and is threatening their way of life but that will not stop Banan from his woman.

I love Antony Feguson voice. It’s so rich and sinful. It’s the perfect voice for a series about dragon shifters because it sets you on fire (ok even I thought that was corny). But his voice is amazing. Love it.

Bottom line, yes buy the book. It’s worth every credit and I mean really, you get four short stories in one glorious book. Seriously, where is the downside?

Gotta love Dragon Shifters!

I really loved being able to listen to the first 4 books back to back. The story was not really romantic and if the dragons had been around since the beginning of time, how could they be so clueless?