When a fierce huntress adept with a longbow meets a fire-breathing dragon, enough sparks fly to start an inferno.Warrior-Priestess Rhavana of High Rock owes her freedom to Seira of Blackstone and Crown Prince Toryn of the centaurs, so when duty requires them to journey into the homeland of the dragons in order to discover how deep the soul-mage conspiracy runs, Rhavana joins them.Trouble meets … them.
Trouble meets them at the border in the form of a big red dragon calling himself Kolaith.
He demands one of the warrior-priestesses stay behind and aid him in tracking and reclaiming his sister’s soul from the soul-mages. Otherwise, he’ll chase them all out of dragon territory before they can carry out their mission.
Rhavana suggests a centaur for their superb tracking skills, but Kolaith won’t be swayed. He wants a warrior-priestess.
Sensing how stubborn the dragon is and knowing they don’t have time to do a lengthy political dance with a dragon, Rhavana volunteers to stay behind and help track the soul-mages even though she knows the dragon is omitting something.
It isn’t until the rest of the party moves deeper into dragon territory, leaving Rhavana with the dragon, that she discovers what else Kolaith didn’t say.
It’s not just his sister’s soul he wants to save—it’s her clutch of soon-to-hatch eggs.
The big red dragon is determined to reclaim the eggs and raise them himself. But the dragonets will need a mother’s magic and love, and Kolaith has decided Rhavana will make a perfect mate for him and mother to the little ones.
Rhavana likes her newly restored freedom too much to simply capitulate and become a mate or a mother at the snap of some big scaly lizard’s fingers. That he shifts into one of the comeliest men she’s ever seen won’t influence her resolve at all.
Not at all.
And once they’ve hunted down and destroyed the soul-mages, rescued the clutch of eggs, and freed the soul of Kolaith’s sister, Rhavana plans to return to her own land.
But unbeknownst to Rhavana, Kolaith is in love, and a dragon in love is a very dangerous thing.
Author’s Note: The Huntress vs Huntsman world is a series of steamy fantasy romance novellas. If steamy hotness of the fantasy variety isn’t your thing, avoid like the plague.
Huntress vs Huntsman Reading Order:
Master of the Hunt
Night Huntress
Dragon Archer
more
Alright, I really REALLY loved this book! This is book 3 in the series, and it really won’t do you any favors to read this out of order as it is essentially one story-line with small parts. Dragon Archer is a new set of main characters (the first two books were the same pair): Rhavana and Kolaith.
The book continues our saga of the new battle with the dreaded soul mages, now with dragons! Rhavana and Seira (of the previous books) are friends, so when Seira goes missing, Rhavana goes seeking. She’s just a scout, and not a guard like Seira, however, so she ends up caught be Centaurs on one of their raids (they haven’t gotten word of the new peace agreement yet). Lucky for her, she meets up with Seira as soon as she gets brought to camp and the whole captive issue is resolved without too much fuss. She is an interesting a spunky character.
Kolaith is a dragon from across the border who suffers a terrible loss at the hands of the soul mages as they’re fleeing. Desperate to find his sister’s eggs before it’s too late, he winds up seeking out the centaurs and finding Rhavana, who he is inexplicably drawn to. The pair enlist the help of both maidens and centaurs and set out on a rescue mission-the two from the air to be the ‘scouts’ and the rest following close behind. They gather dragons to them too.
The romance is sweet and gradual despite their mutual, if inexplicable (he’s in dragon form for most of the book) attraction (don’t worry, it’s not THAT kind of story: the attraction is mostly emotional and spiritual). When she figures out he can shift forms…well it makes a lot more sense from there for her. 🙂 It really was a wonderfully fun read with great characters and new information. I’m looking forward to Soul Mage and our next Warrior Maiden’s story (she reminds me of Aife from Celtic lore-hopefully not so tragic though!).
Told from both perspectives, lots of action, dragon riding fun, some steam, a lot of really sweet romance, and an epic battle, you really should read this book!
Take one favorite fantasy author, Lisa Blackwood, mix in as background an already superb series, Huntress vs Huntsman (if you’ve not already read the prior two books, separately reviewed, you’ve missed something great), add in dragons (my weakness), mix in superb writing, lead abs supporting cast, and plot elements (all standard “spices” for anything “cooked” by this author), and the result is Dragon Archer (Book 3). I loved this story. Somehow Rhavana and Kolisth’s tale is even better than Seira and Toryn’s story in Books 1&2 (and I adored those books). Fans of this series will be bowed over by this book. Newcomers can fully enjoy it standalone, but I strongly recommend starting this series with its first book. No matter how it’s taken on I’m sure that any reader will devour this book as the deliciously tasty morsel it is, so I’m happy to highly recommend it.