Previous book here.
Twyla and Frank are 50something neighbors, best friends, and partners in being Tanrian Marshals. The job has been rather quiet lately, until they discover that dragons now exist in Tanria, and Frank accidentally gets imprinted on by a baby dragon he names Mary Georgina. (I note that dragons seem to have been engineered as pets by the Old Gods and are pink, barf/pee/shit glitter, are vegetarian, and are sweet as can be.) To this end, a dragon expert named Quill, a rich, nice dude, is called in for advice on the situation. Why are dragons out now? They seem to have been woken from hibernation when people were digging around in the mountains, mining--and the situation apparently ties in with an illegal mining operation and the random death of a jerky marshal.
While Hart and Mercy are in this one--they get married!--it focuses on Twyla and Frank. Twyla's marriage was a dreary one in which she was fed up with her husband (Frank's wife left ages ago and that gave him some issues too) and she's not really looking to have feelings for anyone, but is fine at first with the idea of having some FWB with Quill. Quill, however, attaches too fast and Twyla's not feeling it, and Frank seems disturbed.
Most of the book focuses on their budding relationship, as Twyla's kind of in denial about possibly having feelings for Frank, but Frank is also the only one who really turns her on. (Great sex scenes, I gotta say.) The book really reiterates Twyla's age and how she feels unattractive about it, but clearly others don't feel the same. Duckers is also in this book as a third teammate to the pair, rooting them on. (Less fun is Duckers and Zeddie's relationship hitting the skids because Zeddie wants to be close and commit and Duckers is all "breathing space!" Sigh.) I really enjoyed them working it out, and I especially liked the scene with Twyla at Grandmother Wisdom's shrine, which was very sweet. There's a bit of a time skip at the end that threw me (how many years later was that?) but is cute as a button.
As for the ending of the case, HOO BOY is this ludicrous. I'll talk about it below the spoiler cut. It's not bad, per se, and it fits everything in the world and book and ties together, it's just...crazy unlikely? And yet, absolutely works as a twist that simply NOBODY would be expecting. That said, it was so DAAAAAAAMN that it took me out of things and thus must have some spoiler space commentary.
I also give this one four and a half stars. It was a delight (especially baby dragon stuff) and I look forward to the next one.
Spoiler space
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So a running joke is that the current nimkilim mail carrier in Tanria, Henrietta, is an adorable yet ineffectual hedgehog that can barely sorta kinda deliver the mail, and definitely not without injury to the mail. Turns out she's gotten in league with the mob (twice?!) and gotten involved in the mining scheme...SO SHE CAN GET AN ENDLESS SUPPLY OF HER FAVORITE SODA. I SHIT YOU NOT.
LIKE DAMN GIRL. We don't find out what happens to criminal nimkilim, but I'd love to find out. The fuck, girl? Your life choices? It works, but it's also ridiculous! Wowza.
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