Yasmine Galenorn’s urban fantasy romance series began with the three books Witchling, Changling, and Darkling, which dealt with the adventures of the D’Artigo sisters Camille (a witch), Delilah (a werecat), and Menolly (a vampire). All three are of half-human, half-Fae descent, which renders them uniquely capable of handling the various conflicts that can emerge between the Otherworld of magic and the ordinary human world. Most recently, their battles have had to do against the nefarious force known as Shadow Wing, a villain who would rather split the difference and drench both worlds in evil equally.
In Dragon Wytch, the story continues with Camille (the protagonist of Witchling). She’s doing relatively well as the owner of a small bookstore and insatiable lover of two men (fox demon Morio, and dark elf Trillian), but she and her sisters are still continually on the lookout for any signs that Shadow Wing or his minions are making another play for power.
Things take a turn for the worse when a unicorn shows up at the bookstore, claiming to have brought a gift to help Camille fight Shadow Wing, but that it was stolen before his arrival. Camille, whose magic is strong but whose control over it tends to be wonky due to her half-human heritage, must retrieve and learn how to use it. And on top of all that, Smoky, a shape-shifting dragon with whom Camille made a bargain with in previous books, has come to collect his prize: a week with Camille, to do whatever he wishes to her. Preferably in bed, and naked.
If you think all this will distract Camille from her real mission, you would be right. It becomes very apparent very early that this is not a book for Galenorn newbies, but rather, one of those tiresome novels in a series I like to call a “brick book,” as in, it’s just another brick in the wall. Its basic story cannot function as a standalone, as it sweeps in on waves of backstory backwash and exits on a frustrating anticlimax that lays more ground for the next instalment than it ties up loose ends in the current one.
While the fantasy element of the story gets short shrift, the romantic sexual elements get a significant workout by comparison. Camille is quite happy as the mistress of a male harem that includes a fox, an elf, and now a dragon who favours skin-tight white jeans. However, her lovers are not nearly as open-minded. While gentle Morio is fine with sharing, the jealous Trillian and the overpoweringly dominant Smoky (who would prefer a monogamous relationship) find themselves battling for Camille’s affections, and their power games for pride of place take up just as much narrative space as the, you know, quest to save the world from total destruction.
Fans of Galenorn’s previous books may enjoy the return of familiar characters, but newcomers will want to start with Witchling, if at all. The mystical battles tend towards the cartoonish, and it’s a miracle any of the male characters can get anything done, since they spend most of their time impossibly horny for Camille or her sisters.
(Berkley, 2008)
