How to Drive a Dragon Crazy

By: G. A. Aiken

Narrated by: Morgan Hallett

Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Some things never go away, like vile enemies, bad ale, and annoying kin. But I thought I was finished with the one dragon I’d have done anything for: Éibhear the Blue, a big, gorgeous, blue-haired beast who thinks the world belongs to him. The world, and apparently, me.

So if Éibhear wants to play the caring hero and travel into the most forsaken of Gods forsaken lands to protect the one woman who doesn’t need it - namely me - I’ll let him. Because while I’m trying to fulfill a ridiculous quest for a pushy god, I’m going to draw this overconfident warlord much too close, rekindle his fires, and enjoy every minute of his delicious defeat....

©2012 G.A. Aiken (P)2012 Recorded Books

blue is now my favorite color.

I knew there was a reason blue's my favorite color. I absolutely loved this book!!

So much has happened in Aiken's (aka Laurenston's) 'Dragon Kin' books since she introduced us to this fantasy world of brutal warriors, snarky dragon shifters and insanely mad human and dragon royalty in 'Dragon Actually'. While the emphasis of the stories has shifted somewhat from mainly romance to include more and more 'Dragon Kin' political intrigue, this only makes the stories meatier and more satisfying IMO. I love that Aiken is able to weave these increasingly complex story lines from book to book while maintaining her trademark humor and 'How to Drive A Dragon Crazy' is a darn-near perfect story that culminates in the Dragon/human pairing we've been taunted with since nearly the beginning.

What I loved:
1) Izzy and Eibhear of course!! Izzy has been infatuated with Eibhear (and his glorious blue hair) since laying eyes on him in 'About A Dragon' and as much as Eibhear repeatedly denied it, Izzy's exotic beauty, open personality and near inhuman strength captured his attention too. Trouble was, Izzy at the time was only 16 (!), Eibhear himself was not yet fully mature, and, due to the fact that his much older brother mated her mother, he was technically her uncle! Fast forward nearly twenty years, and Izzy is no longer an innocent girl, but a general in Mad Queen Annwyl the Bloody's army, and Eibhear the Blue is now Eibhear the Contemptible, a vicious berserker-type warrior in the Dragon Queen's much feared "special-forces" unit. Yep, they've both matured and the time was finally right for Izzy and Eibhear to face what they are to each other...

2) Talan, Talwyn and Rhi. The dragon/human children (or abominations as viewed by some) are now all grown up and ready for their own adventures... yay! We got a small taste of their respective personalities and they've grown into unique, interesting and powerful individuals. I can't wait for their stories....

3) Frederick. I love that Aiken gives us updates on past pairings - and one of my favorite couples is Gwenvael and Dagmar. Well, Gwenvael is still his same old ridiculously handsome self and madly in love with his outwardly prim and highly logical Dagmar, "the Beast" from the Northlands. When Dagmar's family visits and leaves behind a seemingly dimwitted and dull nephew, it turns out he's more like her than she could ever hope. I hope we get more Frederick in future books!

What I didn't like:
Not much. Seriously, this book was made of awesome.... but, I do wish we could have gotten a bit more detail of Eibhear claiming Izzy. Okay, a lot more detail - like pages and pages of scorchin' hot detail, but that's just me...

'How to Drive a Dragon Crazy' heralds the end, in a way, of a generation of 'Dragon Kin' stories. Eibhear is the last of the Dragon Queen Rhianwen and her consort Bercelak's children to get hitched. I hope that Aiken continues with stories for Brannie (I'm thinking maybe one of Eibhear's comrades-in-arms would be a good match) and other dragons we've met in the books. They'd make great novellas! But, I really can't wait to find out what happens with Talan, Talwyn and Rhianwen - bring on the next generation!!!

unfortunately had to Bear through it

unfortunately the narrator in this series switched but the director didn't do a very good job with pronunciation or the overall performance of the strong female characters. They sound like bimbo's drives me crazy. Then the pronunciation of names also is driving me crazy but you have to suffer through this book. it gets better.

Laugh Out Loud!

What made the experience of listening to How to Drive a Dragon Crazy the most enjoyable?

The humor - when the narrator can convey the humor in the story to the point I laugh out loud - that's a great read/listen for me.

What did you like best about this story?

Izzy and Eibhear's story started pretty much in the second book in the series and has continued all the way thru each book. It was great to finally get their story told and G.A. Akien did a great job. She did a great job with the characters' development in that each of them had grown up and yet retained their personalities. Too often when authors have a character growing up throughout their series they feel the need to change them dramatically when it comes to their story. She didn't do that with these characters. She allowed them to be the same people/dragon as they were growing into being in the other books. - And FUNNY! I love the relationships with all the other characters - new and old.

What does Morgan Hallett bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Pronunciations of names!!!! The names of some these characters has always been a bit of a challenge and I have to hand it to Ms. Hallett that she handled it with ease. She was very consistent throughout the whole book. She does a great job with the humorous lines in the story as well. I would give her an easy 4 out of 5 for narrating. (A 5 out of 5 for me is saved for those that actually give the tears, laughter, choking, etc into the voice as they are reading it. There are very few that can do that in their narrations, but boy does it make it come alive when they do.)

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

Man, to pick one scene would be hard. I enjoyed the relationship of the 4 cousins. I also loved how Izzy and Eibhear interacted together. It is a great story. I truly think it was one of the best stories in the series (I have read them all.) So worth a credit if that is your method of purchasing books. (I got this one on sale due to the fact I also own it on Kindle.) Thank you Audible for providing this series in audible format. Please, please get the rest of them. This is the 6th book in the series. It could probably be read out of order....BUT there is so much backstory that you really need the whole series to truly appreciate all the punchlines and understand all the relationships of the other characters. These books truly build each story from the others. G.A. Aiken also does a great job of staying consistent with her story lines and characters. I hate when reading a series and as the author grows more comfortable, they start making glaring changes in backstories, the hows and whys of things in the series.... She stays right on track. For those that don't know - she is also the author Shelly Laurenston with the shapeshifter Pride series and Magnus Pack series (all interrelated - just grouped separately). She has 24 books/short stories (between the two author names) out altogether at this point. Her Pride series under the name of Laurenston can be read out of order without too much struggle to follow along.

Any additional comments?

There was only one point of issue for me during this story and I have had it happen in other books but this one had it multiple times. During editing, when the narrator has to go back and rerecord something not quite right the first time, it was very noticeable. It was a different tone of voice, didn't have the same quality of sound and could be a bit distracting while listening to the book. It was not something that would change the story or my true enjoyment of listening, but stood out when listening. This was not Ms. Hallett's fault in any way and doesn't take away from her skill as a narrator. Just something the producer should have paid more attention to.

Not a standalone story & eibhear is TOO different

I finished the story, 'about a dragon' earlier today and went to search through the other stories specifically to find sweet and cute eibhears story. While I like that there is an over all story to it all, I do not like that time fully understand eibhears story i would have to listen to them all (I have the romance package, its relatively free except for two, I just don't have the time or interest to listen to the others as that stories did hold my attention.)

Eibhear has changed and his character so far (1 and a half hours in) is not what I'd expect. I normally would not give a bad review if something just isn't to my taste, but the stark difference in this books eibhear and the second books eibhear is too shocking even with the background for 'why' he's changed. Izzy as well, is totally new. I know characters developed especially over years and years, but I wanted to warn anyone who thought they would get to meet the sweet eibhear from previous books, He's not here as far as I can tell. Also, I barely recognized his and talaiths because they were pronounced so different than what I was used to. And as other reviews said, there are pauses within the story that are glaringly out of place and throw me off. Im going to try and get another hour in and see if I can get back into it, becuase I hate not finishing books, but this one might be a hard one to force down which makes me sad because the writing is amazing and humorous and, if the stories were alone and not mixed together, they could be really Amazing. Maybe others will like it, but not my style.

Good turn in this series.

This was a good story but, was not my favorite.. All the characters are sexy & flawed but exciting.. I love the different range of women G.A Aiken uses.. bravo

I loved it!

I totally love this series. The authors sense of humor is wonderfully. The characters take on a life of their own.

love it

love them all I've listened to this several times over it they should be a part of Good Reads.

Love the story

The narrator has a different pronunciation for many characters names so it’s hard to tell which character is talking or being talked about.
I loved the story it was really awesome to see these two characters finally getting together.

Wow

This is a laugh out loud series! Complete with romance, and swords! I hope that there will be lots more stories in this world!

Really good story/addition to the series :D

4-4.5 stars

This was a really good story and addition to the series. TBH, with the way things had been in previous books and the way Éibhear acted in the beginning of this book, I thought he was going to ruin the book for me because he pissed me off enough that all I wanted to do was slap him. Thankfully, Éibhear got a clue and stopped acting like a complete prat after a bit and then I really enjoyed the story.

Izzy is the daughter of Talaith (a MC from book #2, [book:About a Dragon|3295696]). Izzy is also a general in Queen Annwyl's army and is considered a highly skilled and fearsome warrior. Izzy's mother and younger sister are both witches but because of an issue when Izzy was born, her magical power didn't come through but she was infused with extreme strength (for a human).

Éibhear is the youngest of the royal dragon siblings (they have been the MCs of the previous books in this series). Éibhear is just now getting into what's considered adulthood for dragons (over 100 years old) but his family still insist on acting like he's still a child. Due to some drama, Éibhear had some behavior problems a while back and was sent to join the "Mi-runach"...a group of berserker type warriors that tend to do things their own way but always complete their assigned missions.

Éibhear has been with the Mi-runach for 10 years when the story begins and he hasn't seen any of his family in that time. Éibhear is a squad leader now and his commander says it's time for him to go home for a visit and he can take the other 3 members of his squad with him. Éibhear stops in at Ragnar's keep on the way home to see his sister (Keita) and is informed that he needs to stop in an get Izzy on the way home. Éibhear agrees and he and his men go off to find Izzy. When they do, Éibhear finds that Izzy has grown up and is now a mature woman that's a hell of a warrior. Regardless of her skills, Éibhear feels the need to get between her and her kills (a few different times) under the guise of "protecting her". Éibhear attitude in the beginning really pissed me off and if I was Izzy, I'd have probably tried to slit his throat for his crap.

Thankfully, with a bit of time, Éibhear's asshat behavior calms and he and Izzy are able to get along well enough. They get home and find that things are good in general but there are some issues brewing that could cause problems. The most important issue is that Izzy's younger sister, Rhi, is a witch of immense power and as she grows, she has problems controlling her power when she's emotional. There's some consideration given to sending Rhi to Talaith's mother for training but she was so horrible to Talaith, they're not sure if it would be good for Rhi. It's decided that Izzy will go to the southlands where she'll seek info on an enemy they're trying to find and believe is in that area. And while she's on the mission, she'll try to find her grandmother and see if sending Rhi to her for training is feasible. Or course, Éibhear wants to ensure Izzy stays safe so he tags along on the mission as well. Éibhear and Izzy do finally get together and although they don't really discuss things immediately, it's not hard to see that they both want more. Thankfully, by that time, Éibhear had stopped freaking at the concept of them as a couple and starts actively working bringing them together. There's some danger and a bit of drama to get through but things do turn out nicely and Izzy and Éibhear end the story starting on a HEA together.

This was a really enjoyable story. I really liked Izzy as the heroine and I can't really think of anything to really complain about in regards to her. She was strong, smart and wasn't a pushover but also wasn't a bitch. Éibhear pissed me off at first but once he pulled his head out of his nether regions, I liked him. Overall, I liked the characters and the story was very good and kept me engaged. I'd recommend this story/series. :)