3.5/5 stars ( )

So I read this book thinking of a strong female lead and a dragon I hope it's good.... I wasn't disappointed!
I was really pleased with this start of a series, a women who's not in her 20s or even 30s and she's a very strong lead character with lots of sarcasm ( )

This beginning to a new urban fantasy series stars Val Thorvald, a half-elven assassin, who rids the Earth of law-breaking supernatural criminals. She runs afoul of a dragon who has come to Earth to capture those criminals and bring them back to their own dimension to face the Dragon Court and be rehabilitated.

When her boss is stricken with a magical form of cancer, Val needs to track down the Dark Elf who made the potion and find a cure before it is too late. However, with her boss away, a new young officer is in charge of the division who really wants to shut the division down and convict both Val and her boss of financial malfeasance.

Val finds herself trying to elude the cops, find Dark Elves who were an unknown species to her, and keep out of the way of the dragon who wants her to become his bait to capture criminals. Luckily, she has some allies including a part-dwarf who makes magical garden statuary and a snarky tiger who comes from another dimension when she calls for aide. And she has her weapons including a magical sword and a gun that fires magical bullets.

I really enjoyed this series beginning. Val is a great character who is dealing with a difficult job and who seems to have developed asthma from the stress of it. She has deliberately distanced herself from her young daughter and her mother in order to keep them safe but regrets what she sees as the necessity to be so alone.

I enjoyed the narration by Vivienne Leheny. I look forward to reading more in this series. ( )

Urban Fantasy is definitely one of my guilty pleasures and the Death by Dragons series by Lindsay Buroker is my new favorite series in that genre. It reminds me a bit of the Kate Daniels series written by Ilona Andrews. It has a great mix, of romance, snark, humor, and action in it. I am glad I discovered it after several books had been published because the story could be a bit frustrating if you had to wait too long for the next book but luckily Lindsay Buroker is a fast and enjoyable writer. ( )