Serpent's Kiss

Elder Races Series #3

By: Thea Harrison

Narrated by: Sophie Eastlake

Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's Summary

In order to save his friend's life, Wyr sentinel Rune Ainissesthai made a bargain with Vampyre Queen Carling - without knowing what she would ask from him in return. But when Rune attempts to make good on his debt, he finds a woman on the edge.

Recently, Carling's power has become erratic, forcing her followers to flee in fear. Despite the danger, Rune is drawn to the ailing Queen and decides to help her find a cure for the serpent's kiss - the vampyric disease that's killing her.

With their desire for each other escalating just as quickly as Carling's instability spirals out of control, the sentinel and the Queen will have to rely on each other if they have any hope of surviving the serpent's kiss.

Listen to more Elder Races.

©2011 Teddy Harrison (P)2011 Tantor

Go Ahead … Bite Me!

This is the third book in the Elder Races series, but it could have been listened to without hearing the first two books, Dragon Bound and Storm’s Heart. There are references to things that happened in the first two books but not enough so that you would have been lost if you didn’t read them.

I really, really enjoyed this story! The suspense was awesome! I feel like this story of Carling and Rune will go down as one of the best in this series even if Sophie Eastlake writes 100 more.

In this story, the countdown for the end of Carling’s life is slowly ticking toward the final hour. Rune is determined not to let her go quietly into the night. When Carling goes into a ‘fade’ Rune finds that he is able to travel into her personal dreamland with her. He will be visiting some of the key points of her past, thus learning about her in a most intimate way. The closer he gets, the more she wants to push him away. Neither knows the dangers traveling to her past will bring, or what it could mean for the future.

The Narration Review
This audiobook was narrated by Sophie Eastlake who was also the narrator for the first two books. I am getting used to her young sounding voice and she does do a good job on differentiating her character voices. I think I would classify her voice as tootsie pop drop, sweet like candy but chocolaty goodness in the heart of things.

My Favorite of the Series!

Would you listen to Serpent's Kiss again? Why?

Ummm...I have to admit, I've already listened to it so often that if it were a record, it would have grooves! I love this particular installment of the series. Rune is so very...well, HOT and possibly the most enjoyable of all of the male leads in the series. I love the portrayal of his lazy, playful, lion's side. Plus, the story itself is extremely well done and highly entertaining. There are perfect blends of steam, action and drama with the typcal comedic moments that catch you by surprise sprinkled throughout. If you haven't started this series, you'll want to begin with Dragon Bound. What I like about this series is that each of your male and female leads have very distinct personalities. You don't feel like you are reading something made from a cookie cutter formula of alpha male, helpless female, blah, blah, blah. The women are strong in their own rights and the men are delicious and the stories will be ones you wish to listen to again and again.

Sophie Eastlake rocks the narration for this series. If she never said which character was supposed to be speaking in the midst of an all out argument with every single character involved, you would know who was speaking just like you know your own family or friend's voices. I've read a couple of reviews complaining about the way she might pronounce a word here and there. I would challenge that regionally, we all pronounce words slightly differently. Being from the south, I do prounounce the word fillet as 'Fill-Ay' but my neighbor, commonly pronounces it as 'fill-it'. It's no different than the whole 'roof' argument about whether it is pronounced like 'goof' or whether you say it like you are a dog barking. See...I can be snarky too!

So if you are already into the stories...keep going and don't forget to swing over to Kindle to check out the novellas that are only available in electronic form. You'll meet some new characters and revisit some older characters and there's a bit of glue that will bind the series in preparation of the book that will come out after "Oracle's Moon." Read "True Colors" and "Natural Evil" before you read "Devil's Gate" and make sure you don't read "Devil's Gate" before listening to "Oracle's Moon."

This book is GOOD!

To negate all the NEGATIVE reviews
I’ve listened to the 2 preceding books from this series (Dragon Bound and Storm’s Heart). When I read the reviews about this book I actually thought of skipping it all together but then decided to give it a chance. So far I am about 3hours in and I am LOVING it! I actually love it more than Strom’s Heart not because of anything in particular - I just like this book better. The book is definitely NOT bad or boring. It is fun as much as the first one. I will write an update as soon as I am finished but I just wanted to write a positive review since all the negative reviews threw me off when I was contemplating to buy this book.

Might just be my favorite in the series!

Okay, the first book, Dragonbound was HOT, and so very cool to read. Book two had me scratching my head a bit and saying...well maybe number one was a fluke, but book three, is OMG SHE IS SO BACK!!!!

This is the story of Rune...Dragos's first in command, the strongest of the griffins and what the world sees as the hottest of the Griffins...he is walking talking breathing seduction...until he meets Carling in Book 2, and then his world stops....he can't think...he can't reason...he is flying off the handle and yet he doesn't know why, he just knows he is on edge and now he has to go to Carling, one of the oldest vampires on the planet because he swore he would...he is already in a cruddy mood, so this is just icing on the cake.

The chemistry between them is H-O-T, and this story is an intricately woven fairly tale to rival them all! I just really love this series, there is so much action, and so much loving and it all equals up to a great read!

can't stop listening!

I have nothing bad to say. The book is awesome. the story is amazing. The narrarater rocks! I hope this isn't the last book in the series. I just love the elder races!

I Love THE STORY

What made the experience of listening to Serpent's Kiss the most enjoyable?

I like that Thea harrison took her time to get us involved in the story Not all books have to have blood and sex in the first two lines she took her time to get us to love and understand this story I was going to skip this book becouse of some reviews but I wanted to know what happen between them and Im glad I got to know their story

What did you like best about this story?

what happens to a vamp when they lived to long

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

thea harrison makes me laugh thats why i listen to them

Any additional comments?

keep up the good work

Very good but #1 is still the best for me!

What did you love best about Serpent's Kiss?

Sophia Willingham's narration, she is sooooo good! I do love this series though and the story was good.

What other book might you compare Serpent's Kiss to and why?

This series is about hot supernatural hunks and their mates, there are many out there but this is good writing and narration!

What about Sophie Eastlake’s performance did you like?

Everything, her main male characters ooze sex appeal, I love it!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

There were a few tense moments but mainly this was a good story with a happy ending.

Great new Author

Any additional comments?

I have enjoyed the first three books in this series. The characters have depth. The narrator is very good!

Another Great One!

This series is really heating up! This book takes a slightly different turn than the first two did. I really enjoy the characters in these books and the narrator does a great job.

Enjoyable

First off, I really enjoy that Thea Harrison makes each of the books in the Elder Series interconnected with each other, they work well as stand alone books as well.

Sophie Eastlake does an amazing job narrating the books - I really look forward to more from this narrator.

The Story - I found the entire book enjoyable. The story's pace was a little slower in the first half then the second half. The ending was very well done in my opinion. If you enjoyed the other two books, then you will likely find this one just as interesting.

There are a couple of chars that I would really like to see more of, and I hope that Thea Harrison explores in future books - I suspect the plan is to go through sentinels, but it be wonderful to see some of the other interesting chars worked on as well.