I know for many people it has been a while since you read the first six books in the series. Some people have asked if there were summaries to help them remember what happened before Cast by Flames. I actually re-listened to them myself a few months back before finishing Cast by Flames because I wanted to refresh myself on the smaller details that might be pertinent to finishing the story. You’ll find brief details/highlights for each installment below, plus a timeline for the novels.
Also, for the readers who weren’t able to grab the last couple of ebooks from the non-Amazon retailers before I pulled them for KU, I wanted to let you know that every book (except Christmas with Dragons) is available in audio through most local libraries via Hoopla, plus all the major retailers. For the fourth book that is only on Amazon and iTunes, I have free download codes through Audible for anyone interested. All you have to do is message me or comment below, and I’ll get back to you. Hope this helps!
Dragon’s Breath Series Book Summaries
Stalked by Flames (book 1)
Dragons invade at the beginning of the novel (late May). Bailey is attacked by a green dragon that burns her pants but not her skin. A red dragon (Aidan) kills her attacker and explains she is a born slayer. After some reluctance, she trains with him with the promise he’ll help her reach her family, and she’ll help fight his enemies. Bailey goes through the rite of passage near the end of the book to become a full slayer. The world is falling apart and changing during the novel as the two dimensions collide over a period of two and a half months with earthquakes, terrain changes, and extreme weather until they merge as one. Readers meet some of the core series characters, including Conrad (Bailey’s sidekick), Danae (who turns out to be a sorceress/healer), Miles (human and former Marine), Justin (human and Army veteran), Trish (Bailey’s best friend), Earl (friend of Bailey’s stepfather), and Verena (a powerful sorceress who was born over a thousand years ago).
Dancing with Flames (book 2)
Begins about six weeks after book 1. Bailey is regularly hunting dragons at this stage with Conrad by her side, and Aidan is continuing to train her. His primary focus now is helping her gain control over her slaying urges while around shifter allies, which includes practicing on his cousin, Donar (who is not overly enthusiastic about this). She discovers children are being kidnapped by a Shadowan female dragon, Matrika. Bailey goes to Javier (a powerful sorcerer who governs downtown Norman) to help locate the missing kids. He will only cooperate with his special seer powers if she brings him a certain amount of dragon scales that help shield his territory from the beasts. She and Conrad fight many dragons to collect them and eventually find out the location of the children.
Meanwhile, Aidan and his siblings must complete tasks set by their father (Throm) to prove they are worthy of competing in the Bitkal competition, which decides the next pendragon. Aidan works out a treaty with the Faegud clan in Texas as his task. Later, Ruari blackmails Aidan in regard to Bailey and forces him to turn down being a candidate for pendragon, otherwise he’ll tell everyone about his relationship with the slayer. Zoran (Aidan’s eldest brother) cheats on his task and attempts to have Nanoq (another candidate and the captain of the guard) killed since he’s the strongest contender for pendragon. Zoran ends up imprisoned in the dungeon for a year, followed by exile.
At the end of the novel, Bailey gets the location of the missing kids from Javier, and the Taugud shifters attack the Shadowan to help retrieve the children and gain more territory. Throm (Aidan’s father) dies during the battle, Nanoq becomes pendragon, and new border lines are negotiated so the Taugud expand their territory to all of southwest Oklahoma (up until this point pure dragons still roamed much of Norman). Also, Bailey meets her father (Wayne) in this novel when he saves her after a dragon knocks her off a roof. He left before she could really talk to him, though.
Forged by Flames (book 3)
About four weeks have passed since the previous novel, and it’s the end of November. Kade (Aidan’s uncle) finds a page from his missing tome that says they must find three lost orb fragments. It details how it must be done and which types of people should participate in the quest. The group that goes includes Kade, Aidan, Bailey, Miles, Danae, Conrad, and Phoebe. Before they go, Xanath has to clear Bailey and Danae’s minds from tampering and compulsions that Verena inflicted.
The group travels to Robber’s Cave in western Oklahoma for the first fragment, and after that, they travel to Bluff Dwellers Cavern in Missouri for the second. They run into a strong sorcerer, Bacchus, along the way in Arkansas who Kade hides from when they stop for food/supplies in a town. Aidan has a bad feeling about him, but they manage to get away without a fight.
After receiving the second orb fragment, they head to northwest Oklahoma for the third. Along the way, they run into Bailey’s father and one of the slayers he’s training just west of Tulsa. It’s a tense meeting where the slayers attack the shifters until Bailey stops them. She and her father talk and he agrees to come visit her for Christmas so they can get to know each other better. Bailey and the crew continue to Alabaster Caverns, where they receive the third orb fragment, meet Allison, who is the quest guide for that location, and Aidan forges the three pieces together. Conrad and Danae become fireproof through this process.
During the journey, the group learns of how the orb was created in Europe and its original dark purpose of controlling dragons and slayers. They find out it was broken apart and hidden in America, and how the shifter dragons came into existence, starting with a slayer and a pure dragon forced into human form with magic. The two were trapped together for years and had several children that formed the shifter race. Bailey and crew also learn from the female guide at the third location that the orb is key to saving everyone from an evil force coming in the future. They must swear oaths to stop it when the time comes. Bailey and Aidan deepen their relationship during their travels, becoming mates, and Nanoq gives them permission to live together outside the fortress at the end of the book.
Christmas with Dragons (book 4)
Begins about two weeks after the previous installment, shortly before Christmas. During this book, two rogue dragons from the Thamaran clan (western Oklahoma) cross the border to attack humans and shifters on the Taugud side. They are very strong and difficult to kill, which Bailey, Aidan, and Wayne discover the hard way after getting seriously injured in their first attempts. While Bailey and Aidan are hunting the rogues, they also look for Christmas gifts, celebrate Dragomas with the Faegud in the neutral zone by participating in contests and eating a feast. Javier also has a holiday event in downtown Norman complete with dragons pulling a sleigh.
This is the book where Ruari meets his mate, Freya, and she terrifies him, yet he’s still interested…mostly. In the end, Bailey, Conrad, Aidan, and Wayne work together to kill the two rogues. Bailey’s father decides to stay in the Oklahoma City area so he can be near his daughter and help hunt dragons. It gives them more time to get to know one another.
Captured in Flames (book 5)
Begins three and a half months after book four on April 10th (almost a year after the series started). Kade finds another missing page from his tome that tells of a prophecy about Bailey. While it indicates that she is vital to their upcoming war with the Ghastanan in Texas (the Taugud fighting alongside the Faegud), it says she could also bring about the downfall of the shifters after that. Xanath trains Bailey to protect her mind from sorcerer influence but warns they don’t have time for her to master the skill.
They fight the war against the Ghastanan with Bailey and Galadon (the lone shifter introduced in this book) working together to take down the enemy pendragon, which brings about their victory. As Bailey’s reward, she is able to finally go home to her family on a ranch near Dallas, but once she gets there, she realizes her mother, Imee, is dying. The only way to save her is to bring her back to the Taugud fortress, where the healer can use the standing stones to repair the damage to her heart.
Bacchus, the sorcerer from Arkansas, shows up at the end of the novel. He steals the orb and uses it to control the shifters inside the keep. Bacchus also takes control of Bailey and forces her to attack the Taugud. She resists by only injuring them until Verena appears to break the mental hold on the slayer. Bailey is then able to kill Baccus. Despite this, Nanoq is furious and orders the slayer’s execution, but Aidan and Phoebe argue that she is pregnant and can’t be harmed. He still wants her imprisoned, so Verena teleports Bailey, her mother, and brother to Earl’s neighborhood. With help from Javier and others, they gain vehicles and supplies, leaving the state for the New American Coalition in North Carolina with Conrad, Miles, and Danae (who were already planning to leave). She has a tearful goodbye with Aidan. They console themselves that she will eventually return when called by the mystical powers associated with the orb to fight an evil enemy to the west.
Torn in Flames (book 6)
Bailey, Imee (her mother), Paul (her brother), Danae, and Miles have been living and working in North Carolina with the coalition for over five years. Bailey now has a son, Orion, that is four years old. Danae and Miles have a daughter who is two, and Danae has reunited with her sister, Candace. They get the “call” to return to Oklahoma, but Bailey also speaks with her top military supervisor and the Straegud pendragon about the Kandoran threat in the west, seeding a potential alliance for later. Bailey and her group make the long and perilous journey back to Oklahoma, picking up Rayna (another slayer/sorceress) and her horse, Onyx, along the way. They also see Zoran (Aidan’s exiled brother), who joins them for most of the journey, forming a bond with his nephew, Orion. He leaves them at the Oklahoma/Arkansas border.
There is a tearful reunion when Bailey and Aidan reunite, and he meets his son for the first time. While she was on her journey, Aidan searched for Bailey’s father who was attacked and taken by the Kandoran. He also challenges Nanoq and kills him, discovering the pendragon was infected with dark magic and working for their enemy for an unknown amount of time, as well as some other shifters in Nanoq’s circle.
Aidan became the pendragon about two weeks before Bailey returned. They begin planning for war soon after she arrives, and Bailey finds her father chained and dying at Red Rock Canyon. He passes before she can free him, and then they are attacked by the Kandoran. They manage to win the battle and escape back to Taugud territory. All their focus is now be on preparing for a massive enemy invasion and gathering allies to fight the threat.
Dragon’s Breath Series Book Timeline
Book 1: Begins in late May and ends in mid-August
Book 2: Begins late September and ends mid-October
Book 3: Begins the last week of November (just after Thanksgiving) and ends about one week into December
Book 4: Begins about three weeks into December and ends right after Christmas.
Book 5: Begins April 10th and ends in mid-May.
Book 6: Begins 6 years and 1 month after the start of the series, or a little over 5 years after book five ended. It is June 18th when the novel begins, and it ends July 24th.
Book 7: Begins in early September, approximately 6 years and 3 ½ months after the start of the series.