


Books in series

#1
The Dragon Question
2018
One Answer. One Question. One Woman. One Dragon.
Shennon Trelor, researcher for the Arbitrator of Shlognar, earns a coveted spot on the negotiation team selected to bring a close to a war between two kingdoms. She worked hard to earn the spot, and a snow storm, a dragon king and the labyrinthine archives of High Cadore are not going to interfere with her doing her job.
Shennon arrives late to the negotiation and is mistaken for a Question Girl and taken before the Dragon King. Frustrated by the further delay, she demands she be allowed to do her work, but the Dragon King won’t stop calling her in for questioning.
The Dragon King needs an answer. His administrator brings a different teenage girl each day to face the question, until the day a woman from a negotiation team is accidentally brought to him. The answer to the question will free him from a curse, but after five hundred years, he doesn’t remember what question he is supposed to ask nor what will happen once he gets his answer.
Soon Shennon is as intrigued by his need for a specific answer as she is in furnishing the negotiation team with the facts that will end the two hundred year war. The shifting moods of the Dragon King and her own unexpected desire to help him pull her into a 500-year-old curse and land her in royal intrigues far beyond her expectations. Will she find the answer to his forgotten question? Will the answer save the king or kill him?

#2
Dragon Bone Ridge
2020
Dragons can be so demanding at times, even those stuck in stone.
Nyle came to Maribelle in a dream demanding she help him reclaim his missing dragon pieces.
She has more than enough keeping her busy, except for a man in her life. Adding searching for stone dragon parts seems hardly conducive to improving her love life.
Nyle has waited years for someone to fall asleep near him on a solstice day and agree to make him flesh and blood again. He’s not going to allow a man to interfere with his plans.
If she can’t locate all the missing pieces, Nyle is doomed to be stone, and she’s going to be stuck with a dragon wandering around in her dreams. A woman needs privacy when she’s asleep.
Maribelle has her own goals to achieve, but Nyle’s needs keep getting tangled in her own.
When Seth enters her life, helping a dragon becomes a frustrating endeavor that begins to reveal buried fractures in her own family.
Will she have time to help Nyle before he’s permanently fractured as well? Does she even want to?
Buy this standalone novel in the Solstice Dragon World because dreams are tricky and dragons trickier.

#3
Dira's Dragon
2019
If you listen very closely, keep track of every nuance of his word choice, bargaining with a dragon is no big deal.
Keep in mind solstice dragons live a very long time, and they don’t mind hanging on to an open-ended bargain until they really need to call it in.
Finding herself in the company of dragons should have been eased by the knowledge that the Don’t Eat Humans Clause had been adhered to for more than 1000 years.
When Dira agrees to a bargain with Brundar, a dragon with indifferent interest in her plans to make it through the winter alone on the frozen slopes of the Cadore Mountains, she learns too late one should always have someone evaluate the nuances of the word choice before agreeing to a binding contract with a dragon.
Hadn’t he said he just wanted her help keeping the young dragon he was mentoring in line in trade for food and shelter for the winter? But she can’t quite recall the exact phrasing though he assures her increasing her skills in survival was a deliberate focus in the negotiations.
What negotiations? It was all of a two-minute discussion!
Convincing him that as a dragon he was hardly equipped to provide her training in anything relating to human survival seemed brilliant, until he agreed without argument.
Now she’s saddled with an exasperating warrior bent on educating her, a war she hadn’t bargained for, and far too many dragons with designs on her future.
Read this third book in the Solstice Dragon World now.

#4
To Harbor a Dragon
2020
All Lena wants is to go to university. One more good season on her family’s crabbing boats is all she needs to finish saving and to get there on her own.
There are only a few problems:
The local crab population is dwindling and no one is having a good season.
Someone is trying to sabotage the boats of anyone not part of the new cooperative venture that’s moved in. And, every time Lena tries to figure out who’s behind it, Jae, the handsome and vexing employee her father has hired, gets in her way.
Oh, and a crab-loving dragon might have moved into the harbor.
Jae is always just a step behind her. Is he out to win her heart or keep her from tracking down the culprits behind the attacks on her family?
Lena never was one to ask for help. But she's going to need it.

#5
The Would-Be Dragon
2021
Some curses come with a benefits package, even when the curse wasn’t yours to start with.
Kimble is a dragon and life is one glorious flight, hunt, and flirtation after another.
If only Rasmuth would back off about making him the quintessential dragon. What is his problem?
If only he could settle into being a dragon and forget the human heart that once beat inside him.
If only he wasn’t attracted to human females.
Mayrian is terrified of snakes. Dragons are enormous snakes, and one of them seems to think she should enjoy his
slithering company.
Figuring out what she wants to do in life just complicates the process. Sheepherding seemed like a fair prospect. Except for the snakes. And the dragons who keep landing in the high meadows.
It seemed a good prospect until she actually started doing it.
Move out on her own
Find an occupation worthy of her demand for adventure
Avoid snakes. And wolves. And dragons. The list grows with each day.
Kimble’s realizing that loving a human is dangerous. To the human.
Mayrian's had enough of snakes and dragons, but shaking a stick at them comes with life-changing ramifications.
Some curses come with benefits packages; others just won’t quit playing out new twists on the old theme.

#6
The Keepsake Dragon
2022
Imagine inheriting a dragon, one intending to dog your every step.
Adrielle is the last Rovada, of which the family dragon reminds her daily.
It has yet to be an advantage especially when combined with acting as scullery maid to her uncle and two cousins. Surely the last Rovada has better things to do.
On the road, prized belongings sacked and flung over her shoulder, she’s headed for the capital and a new life. Apparently, no one travels the trade road with a dragon taking up the northbound lane.
Equally obvious, she can’t seem to shake the beast or the man who has taken a sudden interest in her odd companion.
She just wants a quiet job and a tiny room to call her own.
The single-minded dragon, the meddlesome man and some unsavory characters must be in league together to turn a simple desire for independence into intrigue, danger, and assassination.
Will she achieve her quiet goals or face off against unexpected enemies, imprisonment, and a doomed invitation to a ball?
Read the next standalone romantic dragon fantasy in the Solstice Dragon World because Prince Charming is a thief among men.

#8
Dragon in Parallel
2024
Love has the power to move mountains, but can it rewrite ancient law, inspire forgiveness, and reunite a fractured family?
When an avalanche forces dragonets, unhatched eggs, and their caretakers from their creche, they must come together for transport to a new sanctuary.
Caretaker Dalya observes their arrival, scanning the crowd for her own dragonet. Her duty has always been to nurture the spirited and outgoing fledgling.
Nothing out of the ordinary. Until a case of mistaken identity turns her world upside down.
Two identical dragonets from creches separated by mountains?
Bastion, the other caretaker, takes Dalya's error in stride as he checks in his well-mannered dragonet. They can address the uncanny resemblance later.
But Bastion can't help but be curious about Dalya, even though she seems a bit too uptight for his liking.
While the dragonets form a close bond, a mysterious illness plagues them. The disease leaps between them, each resurgence bringing the afflicted dragonet closer to death.
It's a relentless and elusive disease. Determined to uncover its cause, Dalya and Bastion must work together.
They stumble upon an ancient law mandating the death of the parent dragons and their offspring before the disease can infect other dragonets and hatchlings.
As the illness spreads, the law looms large, and Dalya and Bastion find themselves with nowhere to turn.
Forced to collaborate, they discover the strength in each other. But can their newfound connection save the dragonets or bridge the chasm of their differences?
Dive into a captivating world of dragons, magic, and destiny, where the caretakers' hearts are as entwined as the dragons they protect.

#9
Like to a Lonely Dragon
Standalone Dragon Romantasy
2025
A dragon reading a book. Who'd have thought such a thing could happen?
In the realm of Shlognar, where dragons and humans have little in common, Dakcodger stands out among his kind. A 500-year-old Solstice dragon, Dakcodger is a self-chosen scholar, hoarding knowledge like treasure.
His insatiable curiosity leads him to discover a rare and powerful the ability to transform into a human. This newfound power opens the doors to human libraries and halls of written wisdom—an irresistible lure for a dragon driven by the pursuit of understanding.
Amidst the labyrinth of books in Shlognar’s royal library, Dakcodger encounters Ruth Delmartin, the shy yet determined fourth daughter of the king. Overshadowed by her politically ambitious siblings, Ruth finds solace in her studies, her brilliant mind seeking the very knowledge Dakcodger craves. In each other, they discover kindred spirits—two lonely souls bound by their love for learning.
As their bond deepens, they realize they will face suspicion and uncertainty from their respective societies if their secret becomes known. Dragons have never loved humans as partners, and such a relationship is uncharted territory. Ruth’s royal family questions her growing attachment to a being more beast than intellectual, while dragon society views Dakcodger’s affection with wary eyes.
With each passing solstice, Dakcodger’s ability to maintain his human form grows stronger, but the time they can spend together remains heartbreakingly short. Together, they must navigate the treacherous path between duty and desire, knowledge and love.
Dakcodger and Ruth must decide if their connection is strong enough to withstand the struggles that come with such an unprecedented love.
"Like to a Lonely Dragon" is a tale of magic, love, and the timeless quest for knowledge, set against the backdrop of a richly imagined world where dragons walk among humans and the heart’s deepest desires ignore human frailties and a dragon's set-in-stone loyalty.
Author
L. Darby Gibbs
Author · 20 books
L. Darby Gibbs, aka Elldee: I have lived all over the country, so I don't feel I come from anywhere specific, but I started in Maryland and consider California my current home base. I am a teacher of creative writing. At thirteen, I read science fiction almost exclusively, reading Asimov first and moving alphabetically down the library shelf, then turned to fantasy for a while taking in everything up through Tolkien. I spend my free time reading many of the classics, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and contemporary fiction. I have four fantasy series and a nonfiction book on narrative frameworks available in eBook form on Amazon, Smashwords, Kobe and other fine eBook retailers.