Fantasy Book Review – Playing With Fire by Katie MacAlister

Just when I thought that I had read at least one book containing every type of supernatural being that an author’s imagination could create, I find a new book with a great new storyline. Playing with Fire (Silver Dragons, Book 1) by Katie MacAlister is a great new other-earthly fantasy romance series that you will really enjoy. The main character, May Northcott, is a doppelganger created by a water nymph named Cyrene. May is Cyrene’s exact twin in all ways except she’s not a water nymph. However, she can slip into the shadow world and go past barriers that other beings can’t get through.

All of this was orchestrated by none other than Cyrene herself; she’s the one who decided to make a copy of herself. Why? So she could be a better thief. Yes, Cyrene created May so she could do a better job stealing things.

Of course, in order to do this, Cyrene had to summon a demon lord and give up one of her personality traits; the crazy girl ended up giving up her common sense! Had she not sacrificed this trait she might have realized that Magoth, the demon lord, planned to bind May to him as a slave forever. Yes, Magoth was ecstatic to get a thief bound to him who could retrieve some of the items needed to ensure his return to earth. He also wants to persuade (and seduce) May into being a slave to other (ahem) things. Alas, since Magoth is pretty good looking, May finds it hard to resist him.

So May becomes a thief for Magoth and we enter the story when May is trying to rob an important essence from a powerful mage and, by accident, ends up robbing him of his most powerful essence, which he’ll do anything to get back. He hires every bounty hunter available to find her which puts May on the run. She actually wants to return the essence in the hopes that he’ll drop the chase for her.

However Magoth has no sympathy for her situation and immediately sends her out on another mission. This time she’s not so successful. Or maybe she is.

You see, May gets caught by a dragon, and not just any dragon. She gets caught by Gabriel, an extremely handsome and sexy silver dragon ruler. He and the other silver dragons in his sept (think pack) are trying to find an important dragon relic. When he realizes he’s captured a thief he knows exactly how to use her; he’ll have her find and steal back the relic.

However his plan backfires a bit because the minute he touches her, he’s consumed with desire. Gabriel soon realizes that May is his life mate, someone who he can touch without causing them to burn. Oh, one thing about the dragons in this book; they have 2 forms, a human form (a gorgeous human form) and their animal/dragon form. For convenience purposes dragons default to their human forms.

Okay, let’s recap the problems that May is now facing:

• she’s got to figure out a way to gain her freedom from Magoth;
• she needs to avoid the bounty hunters who’re tracking her;
• she needs to prevent Gabriel (who she really likes) from burning everyone and everything that he believes poses a threat to her;
• she needs to save her “no common sense” twin Ceylon from blackmailers.

As you can imagine there’s a ton of action in this book. Not to mention the really hot sex between May and Gabriel. Additionally, the relationship between May and her twin Ceylon is entertaining and funny to read about. Together they don’t let anyone get the best of them; they also have a witty answer for every situation they encounter. In summation, this book has something for everyone: action, sex, adventure, sex, suspense, sex, and oh yeah, hot sex.

The end of the novel left me hanging so I’m thrilled to know that Katie MacAlister has the sequel already out, ready for my next visit to Amazon. And ready for me to purchase both books for the holiday for a friend of mine!