Drake Hall

by Christina Baehr

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 203
Series: The Secrets of Ormdale #2
Rating:

Synopsis:

Edith’s ancient home is full of secrets…and dragons are the least of them.

As the new dragon keeper in the hidden valley of Ormdale, Edith expects her first dragon mating season to involve venomous bites and amorous wyverns. She doesn’t expect to find herself growing closer to an inconveniently appealing suitor next door, or to stumble upon a dragon poacher lurking in the outbuildings, or to uncover a family scandal in the Abbey.

Fortunately, Edith has a mentor to help her sort things out, the spellbinding Helena Drake of Drake Hall. Or does Helena harbour secrets of her own?

For Edith, the dragons were always going to be the easy part.

Christina Baehr’s Drake Hall is the second book of the series, and I think it got off the ground a bit faster than the first book — certainly I didn’t stall partway through reading, and felt pretty impelled through it. I did feel a bit cringy about certain aspects, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen when her cousin finds out what Edith’s been writing exactly (feels like a prime moment for some stupid misunderstanding).

It was definitely interesting to see Edith ending up somewhat in opposition to a particular character; it’s not something I’d been expecting, from the build-up, though we got hints in that direction pretty quickly in this installment.

I’m not quite sold on the potential romance, still, but there does now feel like there’s some space for it to grow, so… we’ll see!

Overall it feels a bit like an episode, or a part of a bigger book, rather than a standalone novel (in some ways, at least) — I’m glad I have the next one to continue onto.

Rating: 3/5