Playing with Fire

Silver Dragons, Book 1

By: Katie MacAlister

Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat

Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Gabriel Tauhou, the leader of the silver dragons, can't take his eyes of May Northcott - not even when May, who has the unique talent of being able to hide in the shadows, has slipped from everyone else's sights.

May, however, has little time for Gabriel - not when she's hiding from the Otherworld law, hunting down a blackmailer, and trying to avoid a demon lord's demands. But her ability to withstand Gabriel's fire marks her as his mate, and he has no intention of letting her disappear into the darkness she seems to prefer.

May is ordered to steal one of Gabriel's treasures - an immensely important relic of all dragonkin - and he must decide which to protect: his love or his dragons.

©2008 Marthe Arends (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Silver Dragons!

Fun, entertaining and very witty...a great escape. THis series revolves around the Silver Dragons but characters from her Green Dragon series are included. It is an easy and enjoyable read....great dialogue too.

Good job narrating

The narrator did a good job with the odd voices involved in this story.
I didn't realize that this book had a cliffhanger ending, so I was disappointed when I got to the end.
May is a doppleganger who was sentenced to serve a demon Lord by the "twin" that made her. He makes her steal things for him. During one of her missions, she messes up. As she attempts to put back an object that the demon might want but would give him too much power, she meets Gabriel. It is discovered that she can withstand a dragons fire and so she is a dragon mate. There was a cursed placed on the dragons that said no dragon mates would be born and since she was created, she qualifies.
There is a dragon amulet that two clans have been fighting over, now the demon also wants it.
This book is interesting but I am not sure if I liked it well enough to continue in to the next one. If the next is a cliffhanger too, then I definitely will not read anymore. As you can tell,. I hate that kind of sending. So if you don't mind them, then go ahead and try it. I did adore the demon dog character, Jim, I thought he was cute and funny.

Disgusting 35 minutes wasted

I wasted a disgusting 35 minutes listening to a disgusting demon lord mattemptnto seduce/ molest the heroine. I guess I should give the narrator props for acting out the disgustingness of the demon lord.

Terrible Narrator

The narrator's attempt to draw the listener in by fluctuating her gravelly voice with the rise and fall of the excitement of the sentences fell very flat. She imposed her own rhythm on the story instead of letting the listener interpret it her/his own way. I didn't find the book particularly interesting, but the narrator made me not even finish it.

meh

found myself rolling my eyes at the main characters decisions. for someone that is supposed to be so rational, her decisions keep feeling like plot devices rather than what her character appears to be trying to be. for the voice acting, I just didn't like the accent or the whiny voice. it felt like the only way the actress could perform sad scenes where in a whiny voice

Smarmy and hyperbolic

The romantic comedy for this series is cartoonish, so if slapstick, over-acted and eye-rolling characters / plots aren’t your thing, then you should pass on this series, and the prior series from which it flows,

If this is your kind of thing, I suggest starting with the four book Aisling Grey series. That series has the same formula as this one, with a sassy gal unexpectedly plunged into supernatural intrigue and mated to a dragon. That series also introduces this series’s MC Gabriel, along with Drake, Aisling, Jim, and a host of other characters, plots, and backstories that get referenced in this series. (This series gives some info dumps but more often vaguely references things you won’t get unless you’ve heard the other series). That series also gives better romance chemistry and set-up. Further, the best character is scene stealer, and demon-dog, Jim, who gets much more screen time in the original series. Minor warning: narrator Rosenblatt gets too close to the mic (especially in books 1 and 3), so if hearing slurping, swallowing, and smacking is Audible torture, maybe read those books instead.

If you’re still having fun at the end of the Aisling Grey series, this series picks up immediately where that one stopped, shifting to a new female lead in doppelgänger, thief, and demon-slave Mayling. She’s got some cool supernatural skills and an interesting dynamic, being the doppelgänger to a Naiad, but otherwise is a cookie cutter clone to Aisling Grey. Both female leads are voiced by Ms. Rosenblatt as ditzy gals with Kathleen Turner-voice dialed up to five-packs a day smoker territory. Both leads talk tough to their dragons, yet (literally) jump their bones almost immediately with WhenHarryMetSally-style narrated gasps and moans. Both leads fail to talk through plans and mysteries with their dragons, resulting in predictable catastrophe.

The few new tweaks to the formula aren’t very appealing to me. In particular, there’s a constant theme of Mayling being leered at, groped, or being threatened with abuse by multiple males using extortion, blackmail, and bribes. The demon Magoth is the worst of the bunch; his character is like bundling all the worst stereotypes of a predatory male onto him and hearing the narrator voice him with sickly relish. The ick factor would have been easier to take if May and her Naiad twin were smart, kickbutt women. Instead, they are damsels who get captured, blindly follow unknown blackmailers, and repeatedly walk into traps.

Finally, I was annoyed by the repeated phrases, especially Gabriel’s pet name for her of “little bird” and Mayling’s constant cuss-phrase of “Agathos Daimon!” If I channeled Saturday morning cartoons, especially Daphne in Scooby Doo, I could mostly enjoy the comedy and the comedic-nooky. But, then I got to the not-ending where the bad-guy, his motives, and Mayling’s happy ending are all still unknown and unresolved. Wait until you get all three books in this series, like I did, because it takes until book three for Mayling and Gabriel’s story to conclude.

I finished this second series of dragon books with effort … and only because I purchased them all at once during a stacked sale. There are another three spin-off series after this one and it’s all the same exact formula with the same type of personality for the H and h, and demon dog Jim jokes. I can’t bring myself to keep going with the derivative copies of the same story.

Meh!

There where several spots in the story where it just drags on. Then it ends and you have to read the second one which is following the same trend as the first book. The only redeeming feature was the demon dog Jim, he was quite humorous. Sadly I barely made it through book 1 and can't continue book 2. This is just my personal take on the books. I saw reviews where people just loved it, so I say try it and see for yourself.

Didn’t work for me

I appreciate a certain level of creativity, dedication, storytelling, but honestly, I couldn’t even get through it. Maybe I’m not romantic enough, maybe I’m not in my twenties or thirties anymore, but it just didn’t work for me.

Where is the rest of the book?

This book had a great beginning and a middle but ends abruptly. I don't mind a book series but I expect each to have at least one complete story within them. This was a cheap shot to get you to buy the next one so you can see how this story ends. I will pass on buying another as I feel cheated having bought this one.

what?!?!

What happened to the rest of the book? Where is the rest of the series? Hellooooooo