Dragon Jude's Meandering Thoughts

This is a reread to get ready for Irresistible Dragons #4, Dragon’s Magic at the end of May. Nora Phoenix has created an extremely convincing world for the preceding series, Irresistible Omegas. Her characters are well rounded with depth and her plot is interesting and engaging.

I love this world Nora Phoenix created. I imagine it is one of the hardest things for an author to do – create a world that has all the basic ‘reality pins’ that allow a reader to connect and then begin to change and insert history that alters the face of that reality without alienating the reader. Authors who I think are very successful in that endeavor are those such as Laurell Hamelton, Kim Harris, and Patricia Briggs. Nora Phoenix is another who has successfully done this and in an omega / alpha reality. I find most omega/alpha worlds there is always a bit of disbelief or disconnection for myself as the reader, but with Irresistible Dragons and the preceding series, Irresistible Omegas, I feel no disconnect – even with male pregnancies front and center I seem to be still connecting the story to my world. The contextual details such as political bases, human drives, and character development keep connecting me to my reality which in turn keeps my ‘buy-in’ factor high.

The usual disconnect for me is that the topic of male pregnancies creates a mental shift to ‘not my world’ – which is fine – but by detaching from ‘my world’ there is that slight disconnect, less buy–in? Somehow Nora completely negates that disconnect for me. As I said before, I think it is the context of her world-building. I find that her detailed and thoughtful approach to the world her characters live in creates a reality that my brain ‘buys into’ even though I know it is not my reality. This continues with her characters. They are not carbon copies or altered versions of each other – each is a unique individual with well-developed personalities, needs and fears. Combine these with an engaging story line and challenges both personal and social and you have a winning combination. Even if you do not usually read alpha/omega world books, these are worth a try.