Mirrigold: Mutterings & Musings

Origin by A.J. Sherwood & Jocelynn Drake

My rating: 4.5* of 5 stars

A solid opener to this new urban fantasy/paranormal romance which lays down great foundations for the series.

I had a few questions at the end but I’m sure they’ll go on to be answered in subsequent books and I’m definitely looking forward to finding out more.

One thing I will say, although this book was set in Germany, apart from the use of that language, there were also times it felt ‘American’.

I’m not sure a many hundreds of years old European Dragon King would ever say “fuck that noise” tbh. It’s a minor whinge though, I’m being picky, and I suspect it won’t bother the vast majority of readers 😁

The rest of the narrative is a beautifully paced exploration of the culture and history of the world Cameron finds himself in when he ‘bumps’ into Alric at a festival celebrating the end of the Dragon War.

He knows dragons and mages once existed, but they’re supposed to have been destroyed 500 years ago.

I really appreciated how the authors let the world building come out organically in dialogue and Cameron’s observations. There weren’t any big info dumps or long monologues.

The Fire Dragon Clan itself is full of really interesting characters who I’m hoping will be getting their stories told as the series progresses.

There’s also a bit of an age gap (outside of the actual long lived dragon that is!) feeling to the romance between Alric and Cameron and it works well alongside the hurt/comfort and fated mates elements.

The bad guys are suitably megalomaniac and only a few clues are dropped as to where the series long arc is going. I have some theories already so I’m dying to see if any of those are true!

Alric and Cameron together are both sweet and steamy, although they both have a small stage of martyrdom where they deny their feelings because of alleged unworthiness which thankfully doesn’t last long.

Overall this was a sit down and read in one go book and I enjoyed it a lot! It also has a soft note of irreverent humour throughout which I appreciated a great deal.

PS: On a side note, I absolutely love this cover, I very much appreciate that it’s not a headless torso 😉

#ARC kindly received from the authors in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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