Fury of Fire

Dragonfury, Book 1

By: Coreene Callahan

Narrated by: Benjamin L. Darcie

Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

A clandestine race of half-dragon, half-humans known as dragon-shifters lives among us. Bastian, leader of the Nightfury dragon clan, is sworn to protect humankind at all costs. For him, honor and duty always come first. When the clan dictates he take a human mate to sire a son, he falters, aware that for a human to birth a dragon-shifter she must die. Myst, the woman given into his care, is the most extraordinary he’s ever met, and though he can’t bear the thought of harming her, he is bound by duty.

Myst loves her life in the human world, but Bastian has captured her heart in an instant of electric connection. But Bastian and his warriors are in the middle of a deadly battle with the Razorback dragon-shifters, intent on killing every Nightfury clan member - and the humans they protect - the fate of their world and ours hangs in the balance. An extraordinary blend of action, fantasy, and steamy romance, Fury of Fire brings to life a dangerous new world intertwined with the survival of humanity, all while exploring the meaning of honor and the nature of true love.

©2012 Coreene Callahan (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Unusual but very entertaining!

Would you listen to Fury of Fire again? Why?

Yes I would. This is a very good story - different than the vampires and wearwolves stories I normally read - but just as good!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Fury of Fire?

I enjoyed listening to Myst's reactions about the "elven" butler. She was hilarious and he was almost believable!

Which scene was your favorite?

I enjoyed the scene where Bastien told Myst something about herself that she didn't even know herself!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I enjoyed the entire book.

Hmmm...

Would you try another book from Coreene Callahan and/or Benjamin L. Darcie?

Yes...if it happens to be on sale.

Would you be willing to try another book from Coreene Callahan? Why or why not?

I suppose. WAY too many references to specific brands. Another reviewer mentioned this; I ignored it thinking that it couldn't be that bad. But, it was incredibly annoying.

The characterization of the main character wasn't consistent. She was really attached to a baby in the beginning and was motivated by protecting that child. About a third of the way through the book, though, she never thinks about the baby again.

Ending was weird and abrupt--no actual conclusion. It didn't feel like a cliffhanger (what I assume the author was going for); it felt more like she ran out of steam and just capped it with a trite make out session.

Which scene was your favorite?

Intrigued by minor characters who will appear in other books in the series--not so much by these characters.

Was Fury of Fire worth the listening time?

I generally listen as I'm doing household chores, so, yeah, it was worth it.

very good

Loved it !! this story. the narrator is so fantastic it's like your really there!! good overall

Love it

I love the this series
I like the story line and the characters
I’m waiting for more in this series to be released

Loved It

Any additional comments?

Great narration. I like to list this first as it can make or break a story.

Loved this story. Easy listerning and very entertaining. Will be impatiently waiting for any new books in audio from this author.

I really enjoy it when readers with similar reading interests list their favourite authors and series. It really helps me find new authors too follow. Mine are Charlaine Harris, Jeaniene Frost, Jennifer Estep, Faith Hunter, Molly Harper, Ilona Andrews, Kresley Cole, Deborah Harkness, Nalini Singh, Coreene Callahan and Sherrilyn Kenyon.

Happy Reading

So-so dragon romance novel

I'm a huge dragon fan and when I ran out of typical dragon books to listen to, I tried the shapeshifting dragon in human body romance novel genre. I've now read books in three such series, but I think I have to rank this series at the bottom.

First, the author makes a lot of references to actual products, from beers to phones to shoes. This might be an attempt to make the story seem more real or relatable, but it seems more likely they were paid product placements and I found them a little jarring.

The story seemed to jump back and forth between heavy and often gory action scenes and romantic emotional scenes in a way that felt oddly forced, like the author was trying hard to interest the stereotypical action-oriented male and romantic-oriented female readers. Characters often seemed to go out of character a bit just to create various conflicts or situations that weren't entirely believable. In fact, the whole mythos of the story seemed contrived to create this artificial need for an all-male race of dragons to suck energy from human females while giving them incredible pleasure as if to provide an excuse for them to have a romance (or at least to have sex). But I will give the story points for not devolving into a series of too many inexplicable sex scenes like one of the other similar series I read. In fact, I think there's really only one explicit scene in the whole book, and a couple glossed-over scenes.

I think my main problem with the story was that Bastian (the main good-guy dragon man) was too powerful and faced too few actual challenges. He mysteriously won most battles with little obvious effort, seeming to majorly outclass his opponents for little obvious reason. VAGUE SPOILER ALERT: Even when the main villain in the series set up this big, supposedly cunning trap for Bastian, and even when Myst (the main female human love interest) found out about the trap, she never tried to warn Bastian (which made no sense at all) and Bastian avoided the trap simply by spotting it a little before it sprung and asking one of his buddies to thwart it, which they did easily. Huh? Basically the final battle scene felt like an old Gi Joe episode where they're flying through a cloud of bullets and never getting hit while easily taking out waves of enemies for no apparent reason.
END SPOILER ALERT

If you like dragons, at least you get a fairly good dose of them in this book, but they rarely felt like dragons. They felt like humans fighting in dragon bodies or even fighting in jet planes (yes, dragons were described as "going supersonic" a number of times, I guess with the aid of magic). The dragons sometimes even fought like humans, using a punch where a bite or a breath weapon would have made more sense. You also get a large dose of enemy dragons getting fairly graphically brutalized, so if that bugs you, stay away.

As to the love story between Bastian and Myst, it was decent. Kind of contrived. The only real reason she had to fall for him was a mysterious energy attraction thing and the way he was so strong and protective of her. I guess some women really go for that. But I did find both characters to be likable and interesting, so I did enjoy seeing them get together in the end (as if that wasn't inevitable in this kind of book). Rykar and Angela (a second love interest obviously set up to be the central theme of the second book) were also likable characters. However, the end of the book played out pretty much as I predicted it would, which is never a good thing. I'd much rather be surprised.

Oh, and my wife found the pacing/tone at which the narrator read the story to be kind of annoying and found his voice acting to be a bit unemotional in areas that required emotion. I actually thought the tone of the narrator went with the almost military style of the action scenes, but it was a little unusual for the non action scenes. The most noticeable odd thing was he would say "Blah blah blah and..." and then pause before continuing the rest of the sentence. I actually didn't mind that aspect of the reading and... sometimes it even helped build suspense.

Good Story, But....

Ok i liked this book, didn't hate it, but didn't get in love with it... unlike the main character in this book were he loves a woman in 2 seconds and calls her his love and so on .... all because she has what he needs. ...

He gives hera nickname from the first freaking minute they meet "Belmia" and it means my love, and she doesn't tell him or ask what it means or to stop it... oh nooooo... she acts like its her first name and that everyone called her that....

if you remove the love story here, you will find an amazing book with a great idea.... but i felt like half the book was a romantic story WHICH I HATE IN BOOKS.... ya there could be and it doesn't hurt at all to have some love in these books... but c'mon, having them talk about mating and sex from the beginning of the book is a bit annoying,....

I'll get the 2nd one later on, but hope it will be much better than this one.

Not my favorite

Any additional comments?

I really liked the idea with the half dragons, I thought that rather original, but unfortunately I was disappointed. The characters were very briefly described and I couldn't really connect with them or the story. The narration was ok though.

NEEDS a different Narrator.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Good book, but the narrator is awful. All of the characters sound like gay men, no matter who he is speaking. I find this very distracting when trying to listen to a book where the male characters are supposed to be heterosexual alpha in nature. Please find someone new for the fourth book in the series.

Would you be willing to try another one of Benjamin L. Darcie’s performances?

NO!!!

Lords of the Underworld Knock Off

I enjoyed this book for the most part, but, it reminded me quite a bit of the Lords of the Underworld, but not nearly as interesting and sexy. The Nightfury dragons are a band of male shifter dragons that need human women in order to thrive, but the women usually die during childbirth. When the leader of the Nightfury's--Bastian--intercepts one of these 'death/births' he meets Myst, whom he's inexplicably drawn to, and things get crazy from that point forward.

The narration was mediocre, which was surprising because Benjamin Darcie isn't bad, but some of the voice characterizations were more of a distraction. The main thing that salvaged this story was the romance--it was pretty steamy so I didn't feel completely robbed. I'm interested enough to get the next book but this is a sale-series only for me, I wouldn't spend a credit.