SASSY'S REVIEW
❖Books Included: Taming, Claiming, Maiming, Sustaining, and Reigning
Series Status: Complete
Ending: HEA
Spice: Explicit and open-door
Content & Trigger Warnings: Explicit sexual content, violence, blood and injury, death, captivity, kidnapping, torture, manipulation, emotional abuse and toxic relationship dynamics, threats, war and battle violence, and darker fantasy themes.
There are books you enjoy, books you love, books you obsess over, and books you recommend so aggressively that your friends probably regret ever mentioning they were looking for something new to read. Then, apparently, there are books that completely screw up the trajectory of your life. For me, that book—or technically this entire five-book series—was To Tame a Shifter.
A.K. Koonce is basically responsible for this entire mess, and by “this mess,” I mean me, Sassy Reviews, my never-ending TBR, the ridiculous number of fictional men I now have very strong opinions about, and the disturbing ease with which I will defend a morally questionable man as long as he is fictional and sufficiently obsessed with his woman.
She is also partially responsible for the fact that “one more chapter” has become a promise I make and break every single night. At this point, I don’t even know why I bother lying to myself anymore. We all know I’m not going to bed.
Before To Tame a Shifter, I absolutely hated reading. I could never sit still long enough to enjoy it, and I genuinely did not understand why people voluntarily picked up a book when television existed and required significantly less cooperation from my attention span.
Then A.K. Koonce introduced me to Arlow, three dragon shifters, a demon named Sinister, magic, danger, ridiculous banter, and enough supernatural chaos to apparently short-circuit whatever part of my brain had spent years insisting books weren’t for me. As it turns out, I didn’t hate reading. I just hadn’t found anything capable of holding the attention of my ADHD brain, which is basically a hyperactive squirrel on its third espresso bouncing between seventeen thoughts and making questionable life choices. This series didn’t just catch its attention; it held the little bastard hostage through five entire books. I have never recovered.
The omnibus follows Arlow through one continuous story, giving you enough time to become genuinely invested in her life and watch her understanding of herself, her relationships, and the supernatural world change as the series progresses. What begins as a relatively contained story involving a mage and three dragon shifters grows into something much bigger and considerably more dangerous, with demons, magic, kingdoms, secrets, betrayals, captivity, political conflict, battles, and increasingly higher stakes. So while the dragons and romance may be what initially lure you in, there is an actual fantasy story waiting inside it. Admittedly, that is probably terrible advice for avoiding kidnappings, but you know what I mean.
Arlow herself was a huge part of why I kept reading. She is sarcastic, stubborn, impulsive, occasionally reckless, and completely capable of making the kind of decisions that force you to stop mid-page and stare into the distance while wondering what the actual fuck this woman is thinking. I adored her, but I would not trust her to calmly assess a dangerous situation and choose the option least likely to result in catastrophic consequences. She isn’t some all-powerful, flawless fantasy heroine who always knows exactly what to do either. She screws up, keeps things to herself when she probably shouldn’t, gets scared, feels guilty, reacts emotionally, and loves people fiercely enough that those emotions sometimes make an already complicated situation even worse. There were plenty of moments when I wanted to crawl into the book, grab her by the shoulders, and shake her before she created another problem. Realistically, she wouldn’t have listened to me, and considering my own track record with fictional red flags, I’m probably not qualified to be giving her advice anyway.
Then we have Chaos, Rime, and Kain, the three dragon shifters who turn Arlow’s already complicated existence into a supernatural relationship situation that would make an HR department quietly close its laptop and go home. One of the things that can make or break a why-choose romance for me is whether the men actually feel like individual characters, because if I’m halfway through a book identifying them as “the blond one,” “the grumpy one,” and “whichever one is currently naked,” we have a problem. Thankfully, that isn’t what happens here. Chaos, Rime, and Kain have distinct personalities, strengths, vulnerabilities, histories, and relationships with Arlow, but they also interact, argue, irritate each other, and protect one another. They feel like actual characters rather than several attractive supernatural men standing around waiting for their scheduled turn with our FMC.
And because three dragon shifters apparently weren’t enough for one woman, eventually we get Sinister. Yes, his name is Sinister. That really should have been the first clue that everyone involved was about to make some questionable decisions, but good judgment had already left the building by that point. Sinister is powerful, unpredictable, inappropriate, dangerous, and somehow manages to be completely unhinged one minute and unexpectedly vulnerable the next. Adding him could easily have made an already crowded relationship dynamic feel like somebody was simply collecting supernatural boyfriends, but his personality is different enough that he earns his own place within the story. He also contributes to some of the humor I loved most, because apparently what I needed was a demon with questionable boundaries.
The humor is actually one of the biggest reasons To Tame a Shifter worked so well for me. The series has real danger and increasingly serious stakes, but it never becomes so consumed by those darker elements that the characters lose their personalities. There are betrayals, violence, captivity, dangerous enemies, painful histories, and plenty of opportunities for things to go spectacularly wrong, yet Arlow’s internal commentary and the banter between the characters keep the story fun. Apparently this is another thing I’ve learned about myself as a reader: you can emotionally traumatize me, threaten everybody I love, destroy a kingdom, reveal some horrifying secret, and leave me questioning whether anyone is going to survive, but I need at least one sarcastic asshole still alive to provide commentary. I have standards.
The romance works for me because Arlow’s connection with each man develops differently, which gives the why-choose aspect more emotional weight than simply throwing several attractive men into the same bedroom and calling it a relationship. There is jealousy and possessiveness, but also trust, vulnerability, fear, comfort, forgiveness, and protectiveness. Over time, those individual bonds grow into something bigger, and the found-family element becomes just as important as the romance itself. These characters begin choosing and fighting for one another, not simply because they all love Arlow, but because they have become important to each other. Basically, they become a family—just with considerably more dragons, demons, magic, attempted murder, and sex than most Thanksgiving dinners. Hopefully.
Speaking of sex, yes, this series is spicy. Nobody discovered celibacy, and nobody appears particularly interested in organizing a search party for it. The scenes are explicit, the attraction is strong, and this is absolutely an adult why-choose romance. However, the spice is not the reason I cared about their relationships. Don’t get me wrong, I love spice, but if you want me emotionally invested in a romance story, I need the characters to have something worth caring about after they put their clothes back on. Arlow and her men have that, and their emotional connections are what made me root for their relationships rather than simply enjoy their chemistry.
While all of this is happening, the fantasy plot continues expanding around them. Arlow begins with only a limited understanding of what is happening and why, and the world grows as she discovers more about it. Magic becomes increasingly important, histories begin connecting to present events, secrets change what she believes she knows, new threats emerge, and eventually the stakes are considerably bigger than figuring out what the hell she’s supposed to do with three ridiculously attractive dragon shifters. Honestly, that already seemed like enough responsibility for one person, but nobody asked me. The progression works because each new discovery makes the world feel larger without completely abandoning the characters and relationships that got me invested in the first place.
The worldbuilding itself is accessible rather than overwhelmingly dense, which was probably perfect for me when I originally read this. Dropping a twelve-page political history and six royal family trees in front of my easily distracted brain would have ended this little reading experiment before it began. The story teaches you about the world as Arlow experiences it, so you aren’t required to memorize four thousand years of fictional history, seventeen kingdoms, twenty-three magical bloodlines, and a map large enough to qualify as home décor before you’re allowed to understand Chapter Two. Readers who prefer extremely detailed high-fantasy worldbuilding and deeply explained magical or political systems may wish some parts were explored more extensively, because this series is much more character-driven. It prioritizes relationships, emotion, humor, action, and momentum, which for me made it dangerously bingeable.
Normally, because I try to be fair even with books I love, this would be the point where I talk about what the author could have done to earn that fifth star. Unfortunately for my attempt at professionalism, A.K. Koonce already has all five of them. Could I come back to this series after everything I’ve read since and find little things I might have wanted expanded? Of course. I would happily take more depth in certain areas of the world and spend more time exploring some of the characters. But I don’t believe a five-star book has to be technically flawless. Five stars, for me, means the reading experience gave me something exceptional, and this one unquestionably did. I cared about these characters, wanted answers when secrets appeared, wanted revenge when somebody deserved it, and immediately wanted the next book whenever one ended.
That feeling is ultimately what I chase when I’m looking for my next obsession. I want a book that makes stopping inconvenient, with characters wandering around my head when I’m supposed to be doing something productive. I want to tell myself that I’ll only read one more chapter before bed, then become so completely immersed in the story that when I finally come back to reality, the sun is up and the rest of the household is starting their day. Meanwhile, Future Sassy is sitting there wondering how the hell “one more chapter” turned into another all-nighter.
To Tame a Shifter gave me exactly that, but it also gave me something no other series can really duplicate, because it was the first one to show me that reading could actually feel this way.
After Arlow and her ridiculous collection of supernatural men, I kept reading. One book became another series, which eventually became fantasy, paranormal romance, romantasy, dark romance, dragons, shifters, demons, and an increasingly alarming collection of fictional red flags that I continue defending despite overwhelming evidence that I should know better.
Somewhere along the way came ARCs, then reviews, and eventually an entire website dedicated to me publicly judging books and romanticizing red flags. So when I say To Tame a Shifter holds a special place in my heart, I don’t mean it in the generic “I really loved this series” kind of way. This series is quite literally responsible for the fact that you are sitting on Sassy Reviews reading my opinion about it right now.
Look what you did, Ashley. I hope you’re happy. 😂
If you’re looking for a fast-moving fantasy romance with dragon shifters, a mage FMC, a demon who probably shouldn’t be trusted in polite society, and enough supernatural chaos to keep things interesting across five books, I absolutely think this series deserves a place on your TBR.
If you prefer closed-door romance, aren’t into why choose or reverse harem, need extremely dense high-fantasy worldbuilding, or require your heroines to consistently stop and consider the consequences before doing something reckless, then this one might not be for you. Arlow will occasionally make you contemplate throwing your Kindle. Though, I adored her despite that. Then again, we’ve already established that my judgment became questionable somewhere around the time fictional dragon shifters convinced me I liked reading.
So yes, To Tame a Shifter: The Complete Series gets ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5 stars and 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 4/5 peppers from me. Does this series have an unfair advantage because it was my first bookish love? Absolutely. I’m not pretending otherwise. But I’ve read enough since then to know the difference between loving something because it was my first and loving it because it was genuinely a damn good time. For me, it’s both.
Some books become an obsession. To Tame a Shifter shaped mine. It introduced me to the kind of stories I didn’t know I’d been missing and somehow turned a woman who hated reading into the Sassy reviewer I am today. And I’m still deciding whether I owe A.K. Koonce a thank-you card or she owes me for the ridiculous amount of sleep I’ve lost over the years because of the reading obsession she started. Probably both. 😂🖤📚🐉
—Mz. Sassy K.
SassyReviews.com
NOTE: As always, all thoughts, reactions, fangirling, suspicious side-eyeing, and sleep-deprived ramblings are entirely my own. My reviews are always unbiased, unfiltered, and unapologetically honest—whether I loved the book, wanted to throw my Kindle across the room, or somehow managed to do both.
"Some books become an obsession. To Tame a Shifter shaped mine."