How to Date Your Dragon (Mystic Bayou Book 1)

I love Molly Harper's stories. She is a gifted author. Her imagery is vivid, the romance fun and the characters witty (usually). My favorite series' are the Naked Werewolf series and Nice Girls series. My favorite laugh-out-loud, embarrassing snort audio book is Driving Mr. Dead. That being said, this book was lacking. I felt that the romance was half hearted and the sex scene was placed as an afterthought. Because I liked the characters, I could overlook that. But I was pulled from the story each time I came across a misspelling, missing punctuation & missing words, and it took a moment to resume the pace. I'm not a grammatical prude, but I think 1 major error per page is too much for this seasoned author. One would think that Ms. Harper would at least put this manuscript through Grammarly.com prior to pushing it out for sale.

As with most Molly Harper books this was hilarious. It really was. I laughed a lot. Out loud even.Unfortunately there were actually several errors. (SPOILER ALERT)1) When they had sex she never actually took off her pants but she was suddenly naked. Removal of all other clothing items were mentioned.2) Jillian called Bael a Baby Boomer but at about 80 he is ten years too old for that.3) Sonja gave Jillian an emergency shirt out of her desk while all her luggage was sitting right there.4) She said she was changed when Simon dragged her out to the rift. That never happened. The only time she went to the rift was with Bael.It was also disappointing how long it took Jillian to figure out Bael was a dragon. There were so many clues. She saw smoke rings floating around his head for goodness sakes.And while it wasn't obvious even after two murders that the killer was targeting former humans turned magica Bael specifically said "They had nothing in common, other than they were both over the age of fifty." They were both former humans and that was obvious.I merely wish the characters didn't miss the obvious and that more proofreading was done.

I wanted to love this one. I love all of Molly Harper's paranormal musings, her small town atmosphere, and even the brilliant quips... but this one sort of fell flat for me. The relationship built between the main characters went from zero to sixty with no real transition. I'm totally fine with unrealistic book love, but there was no discernible shift from "hey we argue over everything" to "hey we're going to jump one another's bones".I will say that I absolutely loved Zed and his mama, Sonja was the BEST sort of friend to have, and there were some truly delightful scenes. While this won't rank as my favorite of Harper's books, I am interested enough to check back in on the next installment of the Mystic Bayou series.

This story had the potential to be very good. Unfortunately it wasn't. It feels like a first or second draft instead of a well-edited final. Too much happened that didn't make sense with what was already explained. The old boyfriend sent an ominous message and then never showed up. There was never any real tension between the main characters that explained their actions. The dragon family was just sort of there; they looked like they would have more of a presence.I generally like Molly Harper's writing. A lot. This just seemed to be rushed and/or not edited. Was there a word limit to the book? I would much rather read a longer book that gets all the parts in their proper place than something that is cut down for size without being properly edited.

This book isn’t up to MH’s usual standard. Far less humor and early chapters contain long unskilled dumps of heroine’s back story. My high school creative writing teacher would have written “show not tell “ in the margins. That back story is not even convincing.. MH seems to be trying to address the all too real problem of men who although not violent are verbally abusive and destroy a woman's confidence-- but it reads like the initial outline rather than a well developed backstory conveyed gradually and through conversations with different characters or events that trigger a brief memory. The romantic triangle is the kind of cliche she usually avoids. The only reason it is not 1 star is that the multi species supernatural story world has potential. Overall, this is a huge downgrade from past books. I read the Nice Girl ..Fangs series while recovering from surgery and the laughs made me feel better than my pain meds. There is almost no humor in this one . I notice that she has another book coming out in only a month, in a totally different and new series. I think she is spreading herself too thin (or maybe even using a ghost writer?) I don't even think I'm going to finish it... already moved on to a different and much better dragon fantasy (Jo Walton)

Loved the premise and the beginning. Thought I was really on to something. Quickly descended into the worst rubbish. The heroine treats the hero with chilly politeness , then suddenly there's a description of him running his hand down her back and shoulders and over her hair and she doesn't object. What? Back to polite blah, blah, blah, they take shelter in a cave somewhere and as they casually chat about other stuff the heroine peels off her clothes to have sex. Wtf? I hate this sort of clunky, amateurish, ignorant kind of writing. Total rip off. Don't waste your money.

This is really more of a 4.5 stars review. I love Molly Harper - and she's definitely gotten her groove back with this new series. As a non American, I love the ambience she creates with her descriptions and small touches. My only critique is that it ended very quickly. I felt there could have been a few more chapters to it (resolving feelings on MC part etc. especially with her history with men) and the villain was a tad obvious (but I don't mind that at all). I can't wait for new book in this series, and intrigued about the league. So Yay. thank you Molly for writing a fab new series. I'm in love with Bael and can't wait to see more of Mystic Bayou.

Mystic Bayou is an excellent series, a novel twist on fairy tales and paranormal romance, and totally engaging. I want more from Mystic Bayou. The overall theme is a rift that is causing havoc with the fae and normals alike - this has been sorted by the end of book 6 but surely the author can dream up another threat or issue to weave her romances around. The town and its characters are too interesting to have them disappear

I loved the setting and the true community spirit portrayed in the strange town of Mystic Bayou. The merging of lore and cultures from each supernatural race was nicely done and revealed at a good pace. The characters were enjoyable to read and I liked how attention was also given to more minor characters, who made some reoccurring appearances, along with establishing their own traits. Overall a good and satisfying read.

I have read many book after this (it seems I forgot to write this review right away), but thinking about it still gives me good feelings! I could not put it down, what happened next in the plot was always a surprise, well, a part some events the author gave too good clues in advance (he he!).

I loved this book! I was laughing so much listening to it. Loved Bael and Gillian as a couple! I wonder if Zed will get a story and get matched up too!