Early Review: Flight From Death by Yasmine Galenorn (Fly by Night #1)

Flight From Death (Fly by Night #1)
Yasmine Galenorn
Published: July 7, 2015 (Berkley)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review Source: copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

Reviewed by: Amy

Rating (out of 5): 4.5 stars

Shimmer is a blue (a.k.a. water) dragon. After being caught stealing from another dragon, Shimmer is stripped of much of her powers and banished Earthside for five years. Despite having much of her power taken away and being cast out, Shimmer got off rather lucky. You see Shimmer is a dragon without a family name. Families and names are very important within the dragon race and being without one puts her in with the lowest of the low in terms of hierarchy. Shimmer could have easily been put to death for stealing and no one would have batted an eyelash. But by the grace of the Winged-Liege (and his rather odd friendship with her new vampire boss Alex) Shimmer is consigned to work for the Fly by Night Magical Investigations Agency.

At the start of Flight from Death, Shimmer has been Earthside for only five months. And she and her co-workers have finally been called on the first big case since her arrival: helping an old friend of Alex’s divest of a ghost at their soon-to-open Bed & Breakfast. Of course, once they arrive at the Port Townsend B&B it’s very apparent this is not your run-of-the-mill haunting.

First thing I want to say: If you are intimidated by the fact that this series is set in the same world as Yasmine Galenorn’s Otherworld series, don’t be. Don’t let that stop you from reading this great book. There’s mention of other characters from that series, but nothing that impacts the progress of Flight From Death and the supernatural world is not so different from what could be considered ‘standard’ to cause any confusion.

Second, I absolutely loved Shimmer. She was such a great character in that she’s definitely had a lot of hard knocks in her life, and to say she’s been mistreated is putting it mildly, but she doesn’t let it turn her into a bitter, revenge-minded person (dragon). Instead you can see that she has such a kind heart. Various times throughout the book we see her lending support to those who need it. Violence also wouldn’t be the first way she’d deal with a problem, but she’s also more than capable of taking care of herself and able to understand when it’s called for. I’m most looking forward to finding out more details of her dragon self. There’s a lot that’s a mystery to Shimmer (such as who her parents are) that it’s sure to come up somewhere down the line.

The budding relationship between Alex and Shimmer is kind of a given. But I liked how it was handled. It was very simple. They both acknowledged that they are attracted to each other, but they’re not ready to declare their eternal love for one another right off the bat. It’s a ‘let’s see where it goes’ situation. It felt more real than book romances tend to feel sometimes. (Side note: the novella Flight from Hell takes place a couple months before this story. Some events from it are referred to in Flight From Death. Reading it may round out this story more, but I don’t think it is required reading).

I took the investigation for what it was, and that was mainly introducing this cast of characters and their various strengths and weaknesses. That being said, it was also pretty freaky and made me not want to read the book at night alone. It did slow down for me in places, but overall, I thought Flight From Death was a great first book, and I’m really excited to add this series to my must-buy list.

Sexual content: sex