Narrated by Sophie Eastlake
I love it when an audiobook ends with “Audible hopes you have enjoyed this program” and I am grinning and nodding. Yep, I’m now officially an Elder Races series fan. I started out of order with Book 6 in the series, the full length story Kinked, and the short story Dragos Takes a Holiday. I would say that I’m not usually a fan of paranormal, but the truth is, any story – probably any genre – that is well-written and well-narrated is something I am happy to listen to.
First in the series is Dragon Bound, where the world-building starts with Dragos Cuelebre who was born along with the earth in the Big Bang. He is pretty much all powerful, and as time went on, he learned to shapeshift to appear human and collected treasures of time – original works of art as well as precious metals and gems – which make him pretty much the richest person, Wyr or human, ever. When some upstart manages to slip past all his security to steal something from him – a penny, no less! – and also leaves him a note, and a Slurpee – his roar causes all humankind to cower as well as untold amounts of property damage.
Pia Giovanni is half Wyr and half human, and has spent her life laying low, keeping out of the constant Wyrkind conflicts, until she is blackmailed into stealing from Dragos. It doesn’t take Dragos long to find her, but the attraction he feels is something he isn’t expecting. He decides to spare her life as long as she remains his. Of course, Pia wants nothing to do with this uber-alpha-male trying to be the boss of her! However, there are all those other conflicts – human witches, other Wyrkind, all trying to bring Dragos down, and soon they are on the run together.
There is a lot of action and a ton of great, humorous dialogue in the story, with just enough world-building to keep you up to speed with gryphons, trolls, faeries, dragons and harpies being main characters. Pia is no pushover, either – she stands up to authority, and she can certainly hold her own against Dragos and his various cohorts. The growing relationship between Dragos and Pia is both fun to watch and compelling – in all the years of his existence, Dragos has never felt this kind of protectiveness and attraction, and he is humbled by his reaction to her. And it helps that Harrison writes some great hot scenes too! It was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to listening to the whole series in order this time.
Sophie Eastlake – well, she’s really in my top-ten list of wonderful narrators. Maybe top-five! Her delivery is spot on, although I feel like she is even better now, in 2015, than in this book published in 2011, as though her voice is maturing and improving. Her gender differentiation is excellent; she uses accent, timbre, tone and pitch to great effect to create a large cast of characters; her narrative pacing is perfect in all different kinds of scenes. It can’t be easy voicing gryphons and harpies, but she manages it with aplomb! This is definitely a thumbs-up recommendation for a great series with excellent narration.
Melinda
Narration: A
Book Content: A
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Fighting
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Great review, Melinda! I loved this audiobook. I got hooked on the Elder Races series and Sophie Eastlake made it also to my top 10 narrators list, she’s that good.
I so love this series and Dragos and Pia are my favorite two characters. I love that we do get to revisit them in a later book in the series, not to mention several short stories. I only listen to the audios for this series, because I think Eastlake does a great job with the narration. Great review.
This is a fantastic audiobook. Absolutely fantastic!
Great review Melinda, but a little nit pick about spoiling the penny bit. And the person doesn’t leave him a Slurpee too, the note is on a receipt for Twizzlers and a Slurpee……it’s one of my favorite scenes :)