The Priestess and the Dragon

Dragon Saga, Book 1

By: Nicolette Andrews

Narrated by: Dawn Cromwell

Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

The Cruel Prince meets Inuyasha in this slow-burn romantic fantasy. You won’t be able to put down this action-packed fantasy adventure!

Exiled to a mountain shrine, Suzume trains to become a priestess serving the god of the mountain. As she toils at the temple, she longs for a life beyond its walls. Until she awakens the slumbering god and unmasks the temple’s centuries-old secret.

The god is a fake. Five hundred years ago, the shrine’s founder sealed a dragon in a stone. And now that he’s free, he wants revenge. Unleashing the dragon wasn’t an accident. As Suzume learns, she’s the first priestess’ reincarnation.

He spirits her away and Suzume plots to kill him before he kills her. But the more time they spend together, she starts to question her feelings for him. Tangled threads of fate bind them together and Suzume must decide: will she follow her heart or will history repeat itself?

Start the adventure today with this epic romantic fantasy sure to please listeners who enjoy aching slow-burn romance, twists and turns, complex characters, and villains you love to hate!

©2015 Nicolette Andrews (P)2022 Nicolette Andrews

Baskerville Book Reviews

The 2 most stand-out things about this story…. are both told up front in the summary, which I didn’t read. It’s slow as all hell, good god, it’s nothing, if not slow. And I noticed it was extremely similar to the anime version of Inuyasha. (I can’t comment on the manga, I haven’t read it yet and anime/manga aren’t usually my thing.)

It may leave this review a bit lacking, but I genuinely have been struggling to find anything else to say about it. Every time I think of the plot, I think of how slow it is and make a bunch of Inuyahsa crossover references. But I know not everybody will have watched that show, so a list of meaningless references isn’t going to help.

It’s a good book. It’s slow as a crockpot (to steal a line from Aron Beauregard), I didn’t struggle as much with the Japanese cultural references as I did with the …. whatever the other series was called by Nicolette Andrews. The Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood and Little Mermaid retellings. Which are a separate series, but set in the same world. I’m also unsure of the timeline of these stories, but I think this might be set prior.

I didn’t find any issues with the narrator, or the audio itself. I never had trouble telling who was speaking. Everything was clean and clear, easy to follow along and slow as all hell. I really can’t stess that enough.

NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.

Great listen

The Story by Nicolette Andrews is brought to life through the voice of Dawn Cromwell. The story alone captures your interest and encourages your imagination to see the story as it is told. Dawns voice brings the characters to life, allowing your imagination to roam free.

Each character has a distinct voice, so it is easy to hear the dialog between characters. This made it super easy for me to listen to the book.

The story has some great plot twists that keep you on the edge of your seat. I am looking forward to book 2.

Reads like a historical manga

This is a really interesting story. It reminds me a lot of several manga I have read that deal with youkai. The plot development is great. In fact, this would make a beautiful graphic novel. While I love the interactions between the MCs, I struggle with the FMC's voice. For a historical setting, her speech is too informal and flippant. That's really picky, but it did take me out of the story a bit.

PRINCESS AND THE DRAGON

FANTASTIC! NICOLETTE REALLY KNOWS HOW TO DELIVER AN EXCELLENT STORY AND TURN IT INTO A AUDIO BOOK!
SET IN JAPAN, A YOUNG WOMAN FINDS HERSELF DISOWNED BY HER FATHER THE EMPEROR. DURING A WEDDING CEREMONY SHE WAKES UP THE SLEEPING DRAGON. WHO HAS SLEPY FOR FIVE HUNDRED YEARS. FROM THERE AN ADVENTURE AND DEATH DEFYING EDGE OF YOUR SEAT STORY BEGINS AND TAKES OFF. THE BANTER IS FUN, AND THERE ARE LOTS OF DIFFERENTS CREATURES THE WILL MEET ALONG THE WAY, LIKE A KITSUNE.
AND MAYBE IN THE END SHE MIGHT FIND LOVE WITH AN ARROGANT DRAGON. I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE NEXT ADVENTURE!
DAWN CROMWELL DID A BEAUTIFUL JOB WITH THE NARRATION OF THE STORY,
BRING ON MORE DRAGONS!

The Value of self verses love and success

The Value of self verses love and success. When your life's goal is to become powerful in the eyes of your peers by marrying a high ranking man then your life needs a real BIG shake up and boy is Suzume in for a life changing adventure. This is a good value story of adventure,emotions, and surprises galore. Well narrated and a good 16 hours of entertainment. Recommended clean story.

Great Start to YA Japanese Dragon Romance Series

Great Start to YA Japanese Dragon Romance Series

Parents- PG13- more young adult +17 and up
Language: some but no f-bombs
Violence: moderate violence with murders and fight scenes but not overly graphic
Sexual Content- undertones and insinuations, desires, seduction attempts, this book stays clean but sets the stage for future interactions in the coming books

An interesting first book to a Japanese mythology based fantasy romance. I really liked how the author twined in some of the characters from her other books. This starts out a bit confusing and slowly pieces come together and then it is staged quite well for book two without being left on a cliffhanger. The character and world building was wonderful and even through I really didn't like the bratty spoiled princess character I did still enjoy the story, and loved the in actions with the dragon. I'm looking forward to see where this tale goes.

The narrator was great although I thought it was better at 1.3x speed. She had good differentiation between characters and the overall acting was well done.

—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

There Be a Dragon Here

This is my first book by the author, Nicolette Andrews and I enjoyed it. She is a good story weaver and I appreciated her research of Japanese history and Mythology. The Priestess and the Dragon is a good fantasy for tweens on up. Nothing too graphic or sexual.

I totally enjoyed the strong female characters along with being multidimensional for both the sexes & other species. Seeing main characters, Suzume & Kaito, slowly start to trust one another and let down their guards occasionally was more realistic timewise than most books. I look forward to future audiobooks from this series.

Narrator, Dawn Cromwell did a wonderful job, especially for her first book. Good voice variations, rhythm & timing.

True Story: My daughter & I attended a showing of the Last Unicorn during 80s week at a local theater. She aided a couple wanting their picture by the poster & they reciprocated. Walked in to our pre-bought assigned seat & miraculously ended up sitting next to them. The chatting commenced until movie time and it turns out the woman was Narrator, Dawn Cromwell who was trained by a familiar narrator to us, Jeffrey Kafer. Kafer will be proud.

Good book

I enjoyed listening to this story narrator did a wonderful job. The main characters at the beginning were a little hard to like but as the story went on they grew on me and ended up enjoying this book.

Great Narration! Good Dragon Priestess Fantasy

In this fantasy tale, suitable for adults and teens, Suzume, an Eastern princess is shipped off to train as a priestess when her mother's adultery is discovered. She realizes her temple is not legitimate and leaves with the dragon. Thus starting a long journey with the dragon-man, during which she will discover her self and her special powers as she battles giant spiders and other foes. This would be a great animated film and is book 1 of a much longer series.

But, the best part of this book was the 5 star A+ narration. Dawn Cromwell is one of the best I have heard. She varies tone, pitch, pause placement and rate in a pattern that enhances the story. Characters could have been more dramatically differentiated in some placed, but overall, a great piece of audio performance

Fascinating Fantasy

I really enjoyed this first book in the "Dragon Saga" series. The story was convoluted. The characters were complex. Magic, betrayal, power, humor, and romance peppered the tale. I liked that the fantasy included beings that exist in Asian folklore. I am looking forward to the next book in the series. Dawn Cromwell's narration was great, and she kept my attention with her performance. I was given a free copy of the audiobook, and I have voluntarily posted this review.