Named of the Dragon

By: Susanna Kearsley

Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren

Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

The charm of spending the Christmas holidays in South Wales, with its crumbling castles and ancient myths, seems the perfect distraction from the nightmares that have plagued literary agent Lyn Ravenshaw since the loss of her baby five years ago. Instead she meets an emotionally fragile young widow who's convinced that Lyn's recurring dreams have drawn her to Castle Farm for an important purpose - and she's running out of time. With the help of a reclusive, brooding playwright, Lyn begins to untangle the mystery and is pulled into a world of Celtic legends, dangerous prophecies, and a child destined for greatness.

©1998, 2015 Susanna Kearsley (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

wonderful

I find her work to be extremely wonderful. I enjoy her stories, and love the twist and turns she creates. I feel like I am there. She is the type writer I hope to be.

Very enjoyable!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. I found it a very enjoyable story, just wasn't thrilled with the narration.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Katherine Kellgren?

I have listened to others by Katherine Kellgren and liked them. However, in this one I did not think she was a good choice as a narrator. Her Welsh accent was so far off it sounded middle eastern. I would listen to another book narrated by her, but it would depend on the characters.

future and past

I like the book, I thought it was very well written.I enjoyed how she weave the story between the past and future also.

Great story, don’t like this narrator

This narrator is really annoying to listen to. Way too melodramatic and sing song speech pattern.

Not her best, but still a beautiful story by Kearsley

I began reading Kearsley with The Winter Sea and have loved every book she's written since. Storytelling is truly her craft and you can tell each one is weaved with love and attention. This was no my favorite book by Kearsley, but it is still a lovely way to spend a few hours. Her characters grab me, and the lighthearted supporting cast balances what could be a dreary storyline. The twists and turn never really develop leaving the climax somewhat anticlimactic. I don't regret the purchase and will be purchasing whatever she puts out next.
Katherine Kellgren is one of my favorite narrators. I get so easily sucked into her voice and often forget I am only listening to one person, she makes each voice so distinctive. That said, this was not her best either. I had to speed up the narration to feel comfortable listening. Too many pauses and lengthy descriptions.
Still, enjoyed the book and think fans of Susanna and Katherine will too, even if this isn't their best showing.

Insufferable Narration

I cooooould barrrrrrely staaaaaand the teeeeeediousssss “voices” of the characters-besides Lynn & her assistant Graham & maybe (ha ha) Sovereign & Chance truth be told. Listening to the voice of Bridget was like fingernails on a chalkboard-if you’re old enough to know what I’m talking about. The character *Dillis for example sounded like she was Jamaican. The book itself was interesting enough but the droning ooooon & ooooon daaaarrrrrrrrlllllliiiiinnnnggggg with all the accents was too much. Granted, I’ve never been to Wales so maybe the accent was correct but I rarely force myself to finish a book because the narration grates on my ears-& nerves this much.

Narrator is too much

Everyone, male and female is either very high brow English or some weird combo of Caribbean trying to be Irish? Or lowland English? And always with an odd drawl. It’s really distracting because it’s so off from the characters written by the author. And she starts yelling whenever the main character experiences stress, which isn’t actually appropriate for the moment. Struggling through because I really like the story itself but if I didn’t already own it, I’d skip it and buy the physical book.

Cozy mystery

Typical of the other Susanna Kearsley mysteries. Introduces you to a group of characters and adds what we feel to be a little supernatural historical mystery. I enjoy her books, as they are just relaxing to read. I didn't care for the narrator on this one though. Her characters voices didn't coincide at all with the author's description, sounding much older and very prudish.

Isn't anything like the summary

Decent "is she crazy? Is it real?" but not an entertaining Welsh story for an American.

Performance is distracting

I'm finding this performance distracting - full of energy and high and low tones, but too much for me. Have restarted now 3 times having tuned out the vocal quality, so missed the plot completely. NOT typical for me and audio books.