Return of the Ice Dragon (Dragon Knights Book 19)

A farm-raised spinster who thinks she has no business being on a high-level diplomatic mission, and turns out to be the heart of it. A guard captain who has been waiting for the right moment to tell her how he feels, and finds that a journey to Draconia has a very efficient way of settling that kind of hesitation. A baby ice dragon caught between two families, facing a choice that could end in war, or change the world.

Joleyn is practical about her own limitations. She is nobody important. She has a farm, a talent for numbers, and an unlikely friendship with the ice dragon Esselyn, which is, apparently, the only qualification the mission requires. Esselyn wants to know the truth about Tor, the orphaned baby ice dragon the royal family of Draconia adopted and raised as their own. The adult ice dragons want him back. Someone who speaks dragon needs to go along on the mission to far-off Draconia. That someone, to Joleyn's considerable bewilderment, is her.

Guard Captain Jimnel has spent considerably more time admiring Joleyn from a respectful distance than he cares to admit. A journey through unfamiliar lands, shared danger, and the kind of enforced closeness that diplomacy produces turns admiration into something considerably harder to ignore. But the romance building between them is only one of the things at stake. When a plot against Tor's life is uncovered, and it falls to Joleyn to act, the woman who thought she had no business being there proves exactly why she was the only one who could be.

Tor is loved by two families and claimed by two worlds. His choice will determine not just his own future, but whether ice dragons and colorful dragons will live in alliance or open war. The lands have never faced anything quite like it. And somehow, it all comes down to a simple spinster who lives on a farm, a guard captain, and the friendship that brought them both here.

Perfect for readers who love fantasy romance with underdog heroines who discover unexpected depths of courage, slow-burn attraction that earns its moment, ice dragons and virkin companions, and high-stakes diplomatic adventure where the personal and the political are impossible to separate.

Tropes: underdog heroine slow-burn romance diplomatic adventure dragon-bonded heroine world-stakes dragon politics

Heat level: Steamy

HEA: Yes - and she gets a dragon partner and a virkin too

Series: Dragon Knights Book 19 - can be read as a standalone. Readers of Book 3: The Ice Dragon will recognize Tor and feel the full emotional weight of his choice

Return of the Ice Dragon delivers a woman who underestimates herself, a captain who never did, and a baby dragon whose choice will reshape two kingdoms.