The Blood King

Inferno Rising Series, Book 2

By: Abigail Owen

Narrated by: Sarah Puckett, Alexandre Steele

Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Ruthless dragon king Ladon Ormarr must keep his throne at all costs. And now, with war on the horizon, he'll need a miracle. Luckily, the fates have dropped Skylar Amon right into his lap.

Except he may have met his match.

The feisty Amon sister has no fear - of him or any other dragon-shifter - is brash, doesn't stick to protocols, and regularly offends his warriors and advisers.

Skylar also has no intention of sticking around. She doesn't believe in the whole destined mates thing and believes all dragon kings to be dangerous. But if it means taking out the High King who murdered her parents, she'll put up with Ladon...temporarily.

But the fates have other plans. And when Skylar disappears in the middle of a battle, Ladon will burn down the world to find her.

©2020 Abigail Owen (P)2021 Tantor

Love this series!

I love this series. I thought the female narrator did a fantastic job. However, I felt the male narrator was wrong for this story line. It drove me crazy that he kept pronouncing Amon wrong. For those that don't know, Fires Edge Series connects with this series as well.

Good story hampered by narration

UPDATE: I went the eBook route with the next 2 books and would highly recommend doing the same unless you are good with the narrators (or they change them). The next books have even more characters and locations which I'm positive the current narrators won't handle well. The series is wonderful and I loved it!

Original review below:
I really want to like this series and I do think the world Abigail Owens has built is pretty engaging, but the narration is just killing it for me.

Both narrators are fine, they just aren't the right voices or skills needed for such a sweeping story set in European countries. Other than the sisters, NO ONE ELSE IS AMERICAN and should NOT have that accent. Dragons having a "blend of accents" doesn't equal America standard.

Sarah Puckett and Alexandre Steele are unable to do the necessary European, Mediterranean, Slavic, or Asian accents that most of the characters should have. When they do apply accents, they are inconsistent and even some characters aren't voiced they same way throughout. This makes it very confusing to follow with all the various plot lines and characters. Recorded Books or whomever, should have picked more skilled voice actors and/or done a duet narration style to avoid Sarah and Alexandre picking their own accents when voicing the same characters. It was so confusing and frustrating.

I'm not sure I will finish the audiobooks. Instead, I think I will read the ebooks so I can enjoy the rest of the story without the distraction of the poor voice acting.

narrators destroyed this book.

The first book wasn't bad but this one just dragged on and on.. the male narotor is so boring no character to his voice it sounds like he's reading and doing a very poor job at it. couldn't finish the book.

Fantastic paranormal romance

I love a book that includes a grumpy, tortured hero or a capable self-rescuing heroine and this book includes both. The Blood King has a little bit of everything - sweet moments, fan your face steamy sex, dangerous excitement, cut throat and loyal supernatural creatures, and even some chuckles, all set against the backdrop of a continuing war between dragon clans. Skylar and Ladon’s love story has all the feels. Ladon, king of the blue dragons, strikes a deal to mate Skylar, one of four sister phoenixes. Both see it as a political decision which will be advantageous to both of them. They agree to be mated but without love. As the war between the dragon clans continues to rage, Skylar and Ladon learn to operate as a team through the many dangers and enemies they face together but their growing attraction makes it difficult to remain on their chosen paths - to destroy the red king and bring peace to dragonkind. On their way to their HEA, Skylar and Ladon have to both learn to let down their walls - to let go of their pasts and where they thought they were supposed to go in order to embrace a life neither one thought was possible for themselves. I am excited to hear what happens next for the dragon shifters and the dragon kings and whether the evil ruthless red king will be defeated and balance restored to dragonkind. With The Blood King, Abigail Owens once again proves she’s a fantastic storyteller and world builder.

Sarah Puckett and Alexandre Steele did a phenomenal job narrating the story and characters into life with enough change of inflection, tone and cadence to voice multiple characters quite convincingly. I love the added dimension of listening to the characters.

The Blood King

I enjoyed this clashing romance of two opinionated creatures. The battle scene descriptions were clear and easy to follow, not always the case in adventure tales. I’m now looking forward to the next in the series.Thank you Abigail!