Bring the Heat

By: G. A. Aiken

Narrated by: Morgan Hallett

Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

He says: I, Aidan the Divine, am, well, divine. My name was given to me by the Dragon Queen herself! I'm a delight! Cheerful. Charming. And a mighty warrior who is extremely handsome with a very large and well-hidden hoard of gold. I am also royal born, despite the fact that most in my family are horrendous beings that don't deserve to live. And yet, Branwen the Awful - a low-born, no less - either tells me to shut up, or, worse, ignores me completely.

She says: I'll admit, I ignore Aidan the Divine because it annoys him. A lot. But we have so much to do right now, I can't worry about why he keeps staring at me, or why he always sits so close, or why he keeps looking at me like he's thinking about kissing me. We have our nations to save and no time for such bloody foolishness...no matter how good Aidan looks or how long his spiked tail is. Because if we're going to win this war before it destroys everything we love, we'll have to face our enemies together, side by side, and without distractions. But if we make it out alive, who knows what the future will hold.

©2017 G.A. Aiken (P)2017 Recorded Books

Stories are Great, But...

I wish the author could get more creative than just using the word Fu***** over and over and over. Also the word Pu***. And yes, I censored myself because I find those 2 words offensive. However, I love the characters, the humor and the action packed story lines, so I just cringe when those words gets used to monotony, then continue with the story.

The story was over sooner than I wanted.

I hope to have more of the dragon and his new mate in other books in this series.

Love it!

What the battlef**k? hahahaha I love this series so much. Especially love the audible versions. I hope this isn't the last of them.

G A Aiken at her finest!

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

I recommend this whole series to my friends. They are so entertaining and the characters are so 'out there' that you just have to laugh. Which makes you look like a loon in a coffee shop sitting by yourself. :)

Who was your favorite character and why?

I tried to isolate just one character as my favourite and it wasn't happening. I love them all, and every one brings a different POV and changes up the story line. I've always been partial to Brannie, and Aiden is definitely one I've been hoping to hear more about so this story works for that, but there are so many other story lines going on at the same time! This is a smorgasbord, people! It all comes together in the end but you will be greatly entertained getting there!

What three words best describe Morgan Hallett’s voice?

tireduninvestedmore than 3 words- but she STILL doesn't pronounce the names right!

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

She's mate to a Dragon- did you really think Hell would slow her down?

Any additional comments?

I love everything that Laurenston/Aiken writes, but getting another narrator for her dragon series has been very disappointing. The first three books by Hallet were well done- so she can deliver when she chooses. Why she has been such a pain in the rest of them is anyone's guess. Then the publishers tried Holly James. She just doesn't have the ability to bring the humour and voices out- not poor, not great, just a middling attempt and another narrator that can't pronounce names. It's called Google, people. It's so easy to find the proper pronunciation, they even give an audio clip. Of the two, I prefer Hallet, but it is 'the lesser of two evils'. Our author deserves SO much better.

Great story and addition to the series :D

4.5-5 stars

This was a great story and addition to the series. I loved both Aidan and Branwen and really enjoyed their story.

Branwen is part of the Cadwaladr Clan...she's the daughter of Ghleanna and Bram (from Dragon Kin #0.4, Dragon on Top), BFF to Izzy (#6, How to Drive a Dragon Crazy) and sister to Celyn (#7, Light My Fire). Despite all these associations, Branwen can stand on her own and is a dragon warrior with an impressive rank and many soldiers under her command. She excels at fighting and war and only sleeps with a guy to sate her needs and usually just once because she hates it when a guy gets "clingy".

Aidan is one of the Mi-runach, a special band of dragon warriors that answer only to the Queen. Aidan is the son of a dragon royal but except for his youngest sister, Aidan doesn't like his family much. Aidan is one of the few "sensible" members of the Mi-runach and spends a lot of his time talking his buddies out of the trouble they get into because of the impulsive things they do.

This story begins about 3 years after the previous book and Annwyl and her allies have been fighting Zealots that are trying to take over everything in the name of their god. Branwen and Aidan are both with their troops and happen to be in the same area when one of the Mi-runach does something that royally pisses off Branwen and Aidan tries to calm things down before bloodshed takes place. In the middle of the heated discussion, a spell is set off by the Zealots and Branwen, Aidan and 2 other Mi-runach are separated from the rest of the troops. They soon run into Keita and end up being ordered to accompany Keita on a mission, much to Branwen's dismay.

The mission entails going to find Ren, who is Keita's friend and partner in her duties as a "defender of the realm". He disappeared and since he's the youngest (and favorite) son of the Empress of the Eastlands, it's important that they find him alive and well or risk war with the Eastlands. Branwen has always seen Keita as useless and crazy and Keita does pull some crazy stunts on their trip but she also shows that she's got some impressive skills and Branwen eventually has to give Keita some credit as they accomplish their mission. Branwen and Aidan have always been friends and have fought together but it's not until this trip that their friendship turns into something more. Branwen tries to deny their connection but Aidan is persistent, showing patience but pushing until he succeeded in winning her so he and Branwen end the story starting a HEA together.

This was a greatly enjoyable story. I just loved Branwen and Aidan as friends and then as something more. They just worked really well together for me, even if it took Branwen a bit to recognize their deeper connection. Surprisingly, the overlying series storyline (dealing with the Zealots) is mostly wrapped up in this book but with just a tad bit of something at the end to indicate more in the works. I loved the characters and the story was really good with enough humor to have me laughing out loud while being interesting enough to keep me engaged from beginning to end. I'd recommend this story/series. :D

* note - The narrator did a pretty good job except for the mispronunciation of some names (mostly it's that she's STILL pronouncing Dagmar as Dogmar).

Love these crazy dragons

This book brings to a climax the arc of the Zealots and the god Chramnesind as Queen Annwyl the Bloody and the dragons of Garbhan Isle together with Queen Rhiannon and all the characters we have met in the past eight books draw together for the final conflict. This is an epic book, don't even try to read it if you haven't read the previous books, all our old favourites are back to do battle. Annwyl gets dragged into a well and disappears. Dagmar Reinholdt and her cohorts are plotting, the Cadwaladrs are their usual blood-thirsty selves and we see the Mi-runach and the Daughters of the Steppes. G.A. Aiken brings all of these fantastic characters to life so vividly and weaves the strands of their stories together in the tradition of some of the great fantasy novelists of my childhood.

At the personal level, Captain Branwen the Awful and her best friend Aidan the Divine have been fighting side by side against the Zealots. After Chramnesind's priests level the mountains as far as the eye can see, Aidan, Brannie and two of Aidan's Mi-runach brothers Caswyn and Uther drag themselves from the rubble and flee the approaching Zealot army, only to run into Rhiannon's youngest daughter Keita the Viper. The foursome are ordered to protect Keita as she undertakes a dangerous mission.

To do all of the different threads true justice this book needed to be twice as long (I wouldn't have minded). There was just so much going on that the romance between Branwen and Aidan didn't really take off for me. There didn't seem to be any great love between them, just two best friends who kind of slipped into love by accident. I also thought that, and probably intentionally, this book wasn't as laugh out loud funny as some of the others. Sure, Keita, Uther and Caswyn provided some light relief, and the Daughters of the Steppes are always good value, but overall this was a more sombre book as befits the climax of a story arc about a vicious cult.

I really liked this but I didn't love it. Branwen and Aidan just weren't strong enough characters in my opinion, Keita really stole the show from them even though it wasn't her book. But it was a strong fitting end to the Zealots, although it looks like there might be more trouble on the horizon ...

These are forever stories

The books written by this author will last more than a lifetime. For the followers of these series it seemed very familiar repeated a lot of the old plots and premises. which is all besides the point. Very good, ya gotta love these characters.

love story(all of series)

Love this whole series but can't stand the narrator that they chose to do the 2nd half constantly using different pronunciations for names and characters it is very hard to stay immersed in the story

More stars

This series was an amazing escape!! The world building and characters were so alive. I really hope that there will be more stories in this world!

I love this series!

The characters are wonderfully expressed thru action and humor. I have listened several times and highly recommend both author and narrator.