Dragon Soul (Unabridged‪)‬

I love listening to MacAlister’s stories, voices for the characters just live in your head and add

AudioBook Review
Stars: Overall 4 Narration 4 Story 4

What do you do when you are newly widowed, nearly broke and have a desire to find the next new thing in your life? Take on a position as companion to an elderly woman destined to head to Egypt and cruise the Nile. So perhaps all of us aren’t so lucky to fall into that opportunity, but maybe luck had very little to do with it. At least, that’s Sophea’s take after discovering just HOW difficult and confusing this new position really is.

See, Sophea’s charge is Mrs Papadopoulous, or Mrs. P for short. Very elderly, and wholly eccentric she seems to have this strange habit of ‘borrowing’ anything that is bright and shiny. Poor Sophea, tasked with the Herculean effort of reining in Mrs. P and returning the purloined goods, “Would this happen to be your vibrating butterfly?”, she is in for one hell of a ride. Things only get worse when someone attempts to kill Mrs. P on the flight, and one heartbreakingly handsome man steps in to rescue them both.

Rowan Dakar is the brother of Aiofe and Bea from the earlier books, and has been hiding from dragonkin for much of his adult life as a survival tactic. But, his sister Bea has asked he help retrieve an item to keep it out of Bael’s grasp and pay off a blood debt to the First Dragon, there was little room for him to refuse. From the start, he finds Sophea unnervingly unaware of the realities around her, the ultimate destination of the cruise (through Duat, the Egyptian underworld) and even her own dragon nature. But, he’s also not 100% positive that she’s really as unaware as she proclaims, and, lo and behold, she’s not sure she can trust him either. The one thing that is obvious to everyone (including the original hot-pants in the trio Mrs. P) is their attraction.

Oh what a fun ride – with Egyptian lore, the return of Aisling, Gabriel, Constantine and Drake bring a sense of familiar into the story and Effrajim and Gary (think head in a hamster ball) add some comic relief to the non-stop action and asides to the story. There’s so much happening as events unfold, rectangle and drop out teaser lines throughout the story. Feeling very much like the conclusion to the story involving the Dakar siblings, and what a way to go!

Tavia Gilbert narrates this story, and her ability to manage the tiny hesitations needed to provide the proper import to moments, as well as navigating the often complex enunciation, emotional overlay and fast-paced dialogue was wonderful. The characters have their own sense of self with her performance that details each with a specific tone that is further delineated with the speech patterns, inflections and speed. I love listening to MacAlister’s stories, voices for the characters just live in your head and add to the heart and humor. A solid instalment in the series with a nice moment of ‘check in’ with characters more prevalent in earlier books.

I received an AudioBook copy of the title from Hachette Audio for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.