If a Dragon Cries

The Legend of Hooper's Dragons, Book 1

By: Gary Darby

Narrated by: Scott Glennon

Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's Summary

Legend says calamity follows the birth of a golden dragon. Hooper doesn't believe such nonsense. He is about to learn how utterly wrong he is. 

Years ago, dragons destroyed his family and home, leaving Hooper burned and broken. Hooper lives with the memory of seeing his mother die and the screams of his brother. The scars caused by dragon fire are nothing compared to the scars in his heart. Now this man-child is forced to feed them and clean out their stalls - he is the poop master. Bitterness fills his soul. In a strange twist of fate, he and a small band of refugees must save the one he hates the most of all - the dragon they call magic. Or the calamity foretold will come to pass. 

Come along for an exciting time in a wondrous world filled with heroes, villains, laughter, heartbreak and, of course, dragons. 

If a Dragon Cries is the first novel in the eight-book series, The Legend of Hooper's Dragons. Buy this incredible audiobook today! 

©2016 Gary J Darby (P)2018 Gary J Darby

amazing

this was a very funny book. Hooper the poop king!! this book goes from lol to wtf to finally and then, I need the next book now!!! I must have more

Love "The Golden"

Great start to this series. Lots of action trying to keep the Golden safe, at times humorous and always interesting. Love that the story continues without a cliffhanger. I'm so glad the "Jewel" ended up with who it did. My only complaint was that it took forever for Hooper to see the light. At first I was not sure of narrator, but soon into the story I felt he got comfortable and did an excellent job. This audio was given to me free, and I voluntarily gave this review..

magic!

Im a total sucker for fantasy and this checks all the boxes ion my book. Dragons, Magic, swords, Elves etc. Love it! This book was given to me as a review copy.

YOU DON’T KNOW WHO YOU ARE UNTIL IT’S TIME TO KNOW

Dragon hater, Hooper, is deemed the lowest of all people at the dragon farm on which he lives. Scarred by dragon fire at an early age, he is deformed and has limited use of half his body. Being given a dragon tear, which turned into a jewel, that he thought was only a myth leads him on an adventure of learning himself and how to do what he believes is right. Love, deceit, betrayal, life and death situations slowly transform him into a non-hater of dragons. He doesn’t love them, but he learns a lot of life-lessons in their presence when everyone is plunged into danger.

Good Story, BAD Narrator

Honestly, the protagonist has some maturity issues, and the Narrator amplifies them. The story is good, action-packed, and in a world well built. I should have read the book, I would have enjoyed it much more than the Audible version. The narrator ruined it for me. I still rate it 4-Star for overall and 5-star for story!!

Duncan MacLoud

Enjoyed the humor. Looking forward to future books and their character developments. Love the Gold Dragon's personality.

Dragons!

While I suspect this novel is geared a bit more toward the young than the ... not young ;), haha, but I think it was a very cool story with everything you'd ask for in a dragon adventure tale! Well written, engaging story, narrated well, all in all a very enjoyable audiobook :) If you love dragons, well then this is right up your alley! :) I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. Please take a moment to click the "YES" ("Helpful") button below if you found this review helpful :) Thank you!

Enjoyable twist on a classic hero

While many heros are reluctant and unsure, Mr.Darby created a protagonist that is both likeable and downtrodden. This book takes many classic scenarios of fantasy and put great slant on them. The plot is complicated enough to keep one entertained without getting lost. And enjoyable performance by the narrator

Great for pre-teens, for adults less

On Audible it's often not clear from the book's title nor the publisher's summary nor the genre description who the book is aimed at. As a consequence, I end up with YA and (pre)teen novels far more often than I'd like, to my own disappointment (I'm a 40 something). For instance, according to Audible the genre of this novel is Sword & Sorcery. Which technically is correct, but they really should find a way to add some children's category to it. (While writing this review I discovered a better way to check the genre: search the title on amazon, it tells you more about the several genres. For instance, this book has 3 listed genres, among which children's SF&F. Very enlightening.) Anyway, that being said, for a pre-teen novel the story is fun I guess. For me however, it was too slow, too much explanatory repetition, and the MC was - again, to me - very annoying in all his repetitive whining. Which is why I ended up rating it only 2 stars. But again, I guess to 10-15 year olds this might just be a grand adventure, receiving 5 stars left and right. The narrator was not my favorite, he didn't sound strong enough, perhaps he could have projected more and put more power into his character voicing. I especially didn't like the way he voiced female characters, including the dragon, it was too soft in a weak way, for me. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. I was not required to write a positive review and this reflects my honest opinion of the work.

A solid listen

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review. This was a pretty good coming of age fantasy story. I thought the characters were engaging and the story held my interest. Some places in the story dragged a bit, but the narrator did a good job of keeping thing moving. All in all, this is a solid listen if you are a fantasy genre fan.

Legend of Hooper's Dragons

I was hoping relationship between hooper and gold wind grow more deeper. Such a beautiful lovely female dragon Hooper has and does not even know it. Best part of story is all female dragons that are in the story. I hope more dragons can be freed and saved. So many plot twist I received a free copy in exchange for a review.