Keeper of the Dragon’s Tears
Title: Keeper of the Dragon’s Tears —
Book 3 of the Knights of Kismera Series
Author: Tamara H. Hartl
Genre: Adult Fantasy Romance
Rating: Four Stars!
Egyptologist Maggie Shaffer finds
more than antiquities when she discovers a mysterious tomb in a hillside excavation
site on the edges of the Giza Plateau. Tomb raiders have since pillaged all of
the artifacts, but Maggie can’t shake the nagging feeling that there’s
something there worth discovering — the problem, of course, is that time is
money, and the museum that’s partially invested in her journey is growing
impatient. So, to make sure that she’s truly staying on task, the museum sends
in Ted Maxwell, a fellow Egyptologist who just so happens to be Maggie’s
abusive ex-boyfriend.
At first, all seems well; Maggie
keeps things professional while Ted keeps his temper in check, but as time
drags on with no discoveries, tensions begin to flare, and when Maggie sneaks
off to the dig site in the middle of the night, certain that she’s onto something,
Ted follows. Naturally, that’s when Maggie discovers the Dragon’s Tears — a collection
of gemstones encased in a small box covered in hieroglyphics. She has no idea
what they are or what they do, but when Ted confronts her and becomes violent,
Maggie quickly learns that the Dragon’s Tears are part of a transportation
system that whisks her out of harm’s way in the nick of time and lands her in another
plane of existence.
When Maggie realizes that she isn’t
far from Kismera, a town where yet another of her ex-boyfriends resides — this one
now happily married — she makes her way through the mythical land with the hopes
that he can help her return home. That’s when she serendipitously meets Cearan
Lionblade, brother to the infamous Ki Lionblade — or, a.k.a., her ex-boyfriend’s
new wife. It’s all seriously complicated, and to keep things extra interesting,
while Cearan and Maggie’s love story unfolds, a mysterious stalker watches them from
afar.
Of course, it’s important to
remember that this is the third book in the series and that there’s a lot of
backstory at play here. I mean, a lot. Fortunately, the author does a lovely
job of providing just enough information so that the book flows along seamlessly, and while I did adore the storyline and its Johanna
Lindsey 1980s Fabio-clad-covered-romance feel, I will admit that I was a tad disappointed
with the protagonist. I wanted Lara Croft meets Daenerys Targaryen; unfortunately,
Maggie, more often than not, came off as a prototypical damsel in distress — weak,
weepy, and wallowing; all the things that women needn’t ever be in books
anymore. On the plus side, Cearan is that prototypical sexy warrior who says
and does all the right things, so in the end, I was rooting for their cute little romance and I was glad that I had happened along the book series.
