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Thrilled by J.K. Harper

terilyb's review

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5.0

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This delightful story is about a Dragon Shifter named Kai Long and a female Diver named Gabriela Santos. Gabriela Santos or "Gabi" and her research team discover a shipwreck the ship is called The Santa Maria. Her and her research team are there to catalog the find. Gabi and her dive partner Shane go below the water to take pictures of the ship which is then relayed to the top on a computer to her research team. This find is kept secret so nobody knows it is there. At least that is what Gabi and her team had thought. Gabi has a sick Grandmother who she affectionately calls "abuela". Gabi has a purpose she wants to save her Grandmother's life by being able to afford to get her the treatment that her Grandmother's insurance can't provide for her. Gabi decides to do something she's not proud of and is deceitful but she loves her Grandmother and she is okay with what she has to do. Then one day while on a dive she was taking pictures of the whole on the side of the ship where the gold was and something real shiny just below on a ledge was glowing and it caught her attention so she swam to it and stuck her hand below the seaweed and held it in her hand to look and it was a small gold nugget. She decides she wants to borrow it as proof and will return it to it's place as soon as she is finished with it. Then just as soon as she get's ready to go meet Shane on the other side of the ship she gets an eery feeling in the water she sees something huge and holds still thinking it could be a shark but then discovers that it isn't a shark but another type of creature a dragon with big green eyes and a beautiful blue green body she notices that it is staring at her and for a moment they are just looking at each other and then in a flash the dragon swims off fast leaving sill and other particles under the water in its wake. She dropped her camera. She calls to Shane to ask him if he seen what she saw, she didn't say it was a dragon, she didn't want to sound crazy but, Shane said he didn't see anything and asks him to help her find her camera. Meanwhile Kai the dragon shifter had a mate that died several years before and he is not able to touch his gold horde because his deceased mate placed a spell over it to keep it hidden it's called a death spell, so each day Kai would go down to visit his Gold in the hopes that he can touch it because you see the gold is a dragon's source of life and power without it the Dragon can not live. So Kai is swimming along and goes to the ship only to discover humans in the water particularly a female human who was touching his gold as he is watching her she turns around suddenly and he just looks at her holding still, he then realizes that she can see him and she is not suppose to be able to see him because he and all other dragons cloak themselves from the eyes of humans but apparently she can see him. The only humans that can see Dragons are humans called Fealties who serve and help Dragons. But he didn't want to wait around and let her continue to stare at him so he swims off and now has to go and figure out who this woman is that has his gold and to find out how she knew about his treasure. So that night Kai goes to the local bar that he is a silent partner in and has a drink and is waiting to see if the research team will show up so he can find out who the woman was so that he can seduce her into telling him how she found out about the gold and what their intentions were for the gold. When the group walks in he assesses each woman and decides that Gabi is the one he saw under the water, so he tells the bar tender to give the lady whatever she is drinking, he then walks to the table they are at and Kai speaks to Gabi asking her what they are celebrating and if he could buy her a drink and if she wouldn't mind sitting with him so that he can get to know her better, she and the other women stare at the handsome man with gaping mouths open, So Gabi agrees under one condition, that Kai buy drinks for the table he then asks the bartender to come over with a bottle of Cristal and Gabi is impressed and goes with him. The go to the VIP area and Kai and her are thinking to themselves how pretty and handsome they are. Kai wants to seduce her for information and while they are talking Gabi gets a phone call the number on the screen makes her look concerned and she excuses herself from Kai to take the call, she is on the phone with the contact person from a company called UTEI asking if she was able to provide a sample and the coordinates of the gold. Gabi tells the man that she will get it tomorrow. She then walks back to the table where Kai is and tells him that she has to leave and she gives him her phone number so that they can meet up again at some other time but as she is about to leave she gives him a quick kiss and she feels a little spark happening by the touch and ends the kiss abruptly. Kai decides to continue with getting the information the next morning by requesting she report to the Chairman's Board room of the Marine Center to discuss the paperwork her research team filled out so the next morning her boss tells her she can't go out with them that she has to meet with the Chairman. Gabi is disappointed because she wanted to return the gold nugget. So she leaves for the Marine center and when she arrives at the board room she is surprised to see Kai standing there and becomes upset with him because what gave him the right to pull her out of her work she then finds out he is the chairman so a little sexual thoughts and banter go across the room toward one another until Gabi finally stands next to him and they are both thinking sexy thoughts about each other so to break the sexual tension Kai calls her over to his desk to go over the paperwork. The next day while she is getting ready to go into the water a sailboat is seen in the distance and the research crew recognizes it as the guy from the bar the other night and Gabi is once again appalled by this because she can't go back into the water now. He challenges her by saying that she can't handle his sailboat but since Gabi has had a sleepless night dreaming about Kai she decides to see where this day will go so she gets on his boat and drives the boat where Kai tells her to. They end up in a secluded part of the ocean where there is a reef and no one around for miles. Kai decides that today right now he is going to seduce her then ask her questions. Well they end up taking care of the sexual tension and the spark between them right there on deck after they are finished Kai's dragon keeps putting into his mind that Gabi is his mate and Kai gets carried away and claims her as his mate then at the realization of what he has done he gets up and becomes distant towards Gabi and starts asking her questions. Then Kai reveals himself as a dragon and Gabi is shocked and in awe because she finally got to see a real dragon because her grandmother had always told stories about seeing water dragons when she was younger and Gabi had always believed in her stories now she had proof with her own eyes. But while they are there on the boat they are attacked by another dragon and Kai has to shift again into Dragon form to fight the other dragon. Kai's dragon wants to protect his tiny human mate from the other dragon and notices that Gabi is trying to help or cheer him on. They fight each other but Kai is a water dragon the other one is not and is not able to stay under water for a long time, he then flies away. When the fight is over Kai shifts back into human form and as he is asking if she is alright Gabi's phone rings and she finds that it is still strapped to the rail of the boat she answers it and it is her brother telling her that her abuela is in the hospital, she passed out in the kitchen and bumped her head while making lunch for Gabi's nephew, Kai rushes down below the boat to get a shirt and some shorts for Gabi because she can't find her swimsuit bottoms. She is at the hospital with her grandmother and when her grandmother awakens Gabi tells her what happened to her and about Kai being a dragon and then her Grandmother tells her of her dragon man that she fell in love with how they met before she married her grandfather and the importance of the gold to dragons and tells Gabi that she must return the dragons gold back to him now. So the next morning she has to do what her grandmother told her and she calls Shane to go with her to the ship so she can return the gold piece so when they get there Gabi senses something is wrong and sure enough something is wrong the treasure is gone. I would tell you what happens next with Gabi but I'll leave that for you to read. I'll also leave you to find out what happens when Kai discovers his gold is missing and he thinks gabby has stolen it from him. This story does have a happy ending but you'll have to read the story to appreciate the ending which was quite nice. I really enjoyed the book so much, it is not a really long read and I didn't find any slow parts to the story and the sexual tension between the two characters was sometimes funny and sweet. I would definitely recommend this book if you love dragon shifters and their quests to find mates. This is a romantic story as well.
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