Within the Flames by Marjorie M. Liu
This is, I believe, the 11th book in Liu's Dirk & Steele series, but can largely be read independently, though scenes pertaining to the series as a whole may make you “bzuh?”.
Lyssa is the daughter of a dragon and a witch. Who is secretly a famous yet secretive children’s artist under a pseudonym, but who lives in the sewers because she must forever be in hiding. And because one of her arms is covered in scales and the fingers on the hand attached to it are rather clawlike. Eddie is an agent of Dirk & Steele (aka "The X-Men, if the X-men were a detective agency and considerably less soap opera-like") who is almost abnormally nice and polite in this day and age and who has a tendency to burst into flame. As they are the leads in a romance novel, yes, the sex actually is a tad on the dangerous side.
Eddie is sent by Dirk & Steele to find and protect Lyssa when the agency learns that she's being hunted by evil superwitches. Lyssa isn't exactly thrilled to suddenly have a a bodyguard, but decides he's pretty useful. Along the way they get rid of abusive fathers, tangle with various forms of good and evil witches, face off with the scary lady dragon and hang out with shape-changing, one-eyed female mercenary captains. (Never forget, Liu is the one who actually had a character run away to join the circus. If she can think of a way to include something, it'll be there.)
It's fun and there's a lot of development with Liu's mythology for witches, most of which was interesting, but I kept getting the feeling that this shoe was going to drop and I'd hate the shoe. It didn't really happen, but I kept having that FEELING as I was reading it. It’s also a bit disappointing as “Eddie’s book” because fans (at least, the ones I know) like Eddie because he’s super nice and not because he’s angsty and has Tragedy in his past.
Lyssa is the daughter of a dragon and a witch. Who is secretly a famous yet secretive children’s artist under a pseudonym, but who lives in the sewers because she must forever be in hiding. And because one of her arms is covered in scales and the fingers on the hand attached to it are rather clawlike. Eddie is an agent of Dirk & Steele (aka "The X-Men, if the X-men were a detective agency and considerably less soap opera-like") who is almost abnormally nice and polite in this day and age and who has a tendency to burst into flame. As they are the leads in a romance novel, yes, the sex actually is a tad on the dangerous side.
Eddie is sent by Dirk & Steele to find and protect Lyssa when the agency learns that she's being hunted by evil superwitches. Lyssa isn't exactly thrilled to suddenly have a a bodyguard, but decides he's pretty useful. Along the way they get rid of abusive fathers, tangle with various forms of good and evil witches, face off with the scary lady dragon and hang out with shape-changing, one-eyed female mercenary captains. (Never forget, Liu is the one who actually had a character run away to join the circus. If she can think of a way to include something, it'll be there.)
It's fun and there's a lot of development with Liu's mythology for witches, most of which was interesting, but I kept getting the feeling that this shoe was going to drop and I'd hate the shoe. It didn't really happen, but I kept having that FEELING as I was reading it. It’s also a bit disappointing as “Eddie’s book” because fans (at least, the ones I know) like Eddie because he’s super nice and not because he’s angsty and has Tragedy in his past.