...Bookfanatic

I love dragons. Of all the creatures in mythology they are the ones that hold my total fascination. So needless to say I love seeing how others interpret them.

'Joshua' is the first book in Caitlin Ricci's series 'Faeted'. The series title is in reference to 'The Faeted Matchmaking Agency' a place that specializes in helping the 'Fae' and other magical beings from the realm of fantasy/mythology find their partner(s).

Joshua's running out of time to find a partner, someone to help him transition to independence from his family. This doesn't need to be a love match, it could just be a long time trusted friend...if Joshua had any of these. Since a romantic relationship is preferable and Joshua is open to the idea his parents send him off to the 'Faeted Matchmaking Agency' and the staff at 'Faeted' send Joshua off to play a game of 'capture the virgin'...come on dragons and other mythological creatures, tell me this is a surprise? And it's here that Joshua meets his match in the form of Rex an eagle shifter.

I've only read one other book by this author and sadly this one suffers from the same condition as the previous book 'better in theory than execution', happily I did find the execution on this one to be slightly better...hence, the higher rating. In concept this book was looking at a solid 3 or more stars from me, sadly when it came time to read it the best I could muster up was 2.5 stars and some definite appreciation for the cover...it's very shiny and pretty (I might have ogled it for a few minutes).

I enjoyed the humor in this story and the way that the author rolled in a lot of stereotypical beliefs about dragons...liking fire, hoarding wealth (read shiny things), their love of flying, bar-b-que, virgins, etc. much of it was presented in a bit of a tongue in cheek manner that I found entertaining. I loved that while Joshua wanted someone who wasn't afraid of fire or flying, he didn't necessarily want another dragon to share his life with. This made for some interesting possibilities in the life partner department.

So back to why my potential 3+ star story ended up being 2.5 rounded up to a weak 3. I needed more story, I really wanted the possibilities in this story to be explored with a little more depth. Truthfully with only 27 pages I was just starting to really get into this story.

I liked Joshua and I think Rex and he could have produced a story that was fun and entertaining if it had just gone a little further. I would have loved to share in some of the adventures that I'm sure would have ensued as Rex helped Joshua learn the things he needed to know in order to gain independence from his family and as their own relationship grew into something based on more than their initial 'lust-at-first-site' and believe me it was lust...totally hawt! off the charts...but still it just felt like lust and I wanted them to see them find that connection that made me feel like there was more than a really strong physical attraction between these two shifters.

I'm not really sure where this series is going or whether or not I'll continue to read it but I'm willing to check it out when the next book is released and I'll decide from there.

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An ARC of "Joshua' was graciously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.