Author: Jessica Payseur
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Pages/Word Count: 30 Pages
At a Glance: A daily dose with a lot of bittersweet emotions.
Reviewed By: Jennifer
Blurb: Kithric, an aging dragon tamer, leads a solitary life atop his mountain, until the day he accidentally traps a dragon that is more than he seems. Expecting to be killed for capturing a dragon shifter, Kithric instead finds himself spared and left to deal with his continued solitude.
He finds he can’t be rid of Ylfrin the dragon shifter that easily, though, and as Ylfrin continues to return, bit by bit Kithric begins to fall for him and starts to value using what life he has left to the fullest. But before he and Ylfrin can explore their feelings, they must first confront dangers and corrupt forces encroaching from outside Kithric’s Mountain.
Review: Sometimes you just need a quick read for the day. Maybe you don’t have much time, but you want something to whet your appetite until you can sit down and enjoy a full novel. Kithric’s Mountain is one such story, and while it sounded great to me, I was surprised by how much heart there is in this story.
Part of the “Never Too Late” collection from Dreamspinner Press, the story focuses on one older man, and one younger. Kithric is an older dragon tamer living alone after his business partner dies at the claws of a dragon. Now Kithric is just biding his time until the same happens to him. In face he welcomes it. He’s tired of living but doesn’t want to do it himself, and if he gets a little careless in his dragon trapping, so be it.
Ylfrin is a handsome dragon shifter Kithric ensnares one day. At first outraged, when he discovers Kithric would welcome death, he lets him go. But Kithric keeps trapping dragons despite being told not to.
What follows is a short, bittersweet story. Not all is as it appears with Ylfrin, and the twist to the “Never Too Late” theme was surprising. I was won over by these two men, and my heart ached for them. I wanted to know more about what would come next in their lives together, because yes, this is a happy(ish) ending. The one issue I did have was that the resolution was pretty fast. There’s a threat to Kithric, Ylfrin rushes in and has already solved the problem, and bam. End of threat.
If you like fantasy and are thinking about checking out one of the 2015 Daily Dose titles, I highly recommend this one for the unique take on the theme.
You can buy Kithric’s Mountain here:
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