Book: My Dragon, My Knight
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Reese Dante
Publication date: March 31, 2017
Length: 200 pages
Reviewed by Morningstar
Synopsis
Danny Sims is in over his head, torn between his abusive lover, Joshua, and Jay Holtsclaw, the bartender up the street, who offers Danny the one thing he never gets at home: understanding.
When Joshua threatens to get rid of Danny’s terrier, Danny knows he has to act fast. Afraid of what Joshua will do to the dog, and afraid of what Joshua will do to him if he tries to leave, Danny does the only thing he can do.
He runs.
But Danny isn’t a complete fool. He has enough sense to run into the arms of the man who actually cares for him—the man he’s beginning to trust.
Just as their lives together are starting to fall into place, Danny and Jay learn how vengeful Joshua can be.
And how dangerous.
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Review
I am a first time John Inman reader and although I thought the story was well written the writing style just wasn’t for me.
Jay was the owner and bartender for “The Clubhouse” a gay bar. He’s a somewhat older man who works hard for what he has and has lost a love in the past in the most tragic way. When he first sees Danny he sees the bruises and knows the lies he’s being told but a friendship is born. One that Danny defies his abusive boyfriend to foster.
Danny lives right now the block from Jay’s bar and it’s the only good thing about his life. He hates the class he’s taking but Joshua said he should. He has no friends because Joshua scared them away. He lives in fear for his life and the life of his dog because Joshua beats him. Danny thinks it’s him every time it happens. He can do better, be more. But that all comes to blows one night the fear is bigger than it ever had been.
I loved that the author was willing to delve into the abusive relationship that Danny was in on page but didn’t make it extreme. It was a big part of the story and it was even better having it in there. I think Danny was an accurate portrayal of an abused “spouse” in how he blamed himself and believed so much that Joshua loved him. And even though Jay and Danny were a decade apart and really were very different people they meshed well together in how they viewed each other and relationships and their banter was cute.
There was a slow build for Jay and Danny, from friendship to more but all the while they had been falling in love, fearful of telling the other how they felt. The move from friends to boyfriends was seamless and sweet but the writing was a little too flowery for me. As I mentioned before I did love their snarky banter which is what kept me reading. the middle went a little too slow and I felt like the two main characters should’ve known right away who was at fault for all the bad that was happening. Their denial was annoying and felt contrived for the purpose of the story.
There weren’t a lot of secondary characters and the few that there were didn’t play a major role.The ending was a on the edge of your seat suspenseful, heartbreaking, and scary. I loved how they stood together in the fight against Joshua and the end of the epilogue was perfectly sweet.
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