One Good Dragon Deserves Another (Heartstrikers, #2)

by Rachel Aaron

[Melanie]

4.5 stars

My review and an extended sample of the audiobook are posted at Hotlistens.com.

One Good Dragon Deserves Another starts about a month after the end of the previous story, [b:Nice Dragons Finish Last|20426102|Nice Dragons Finish Last (Heartstrikers, #1)|Rachel Aaron|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389049309s/20426102.jpg|30107715]. We are still following the main character of Julius, the youngest of the Heartstrikers. He is also known as a failure for being so nice. He doesn’t possess the ruthlessness and selfishness that are synonymous with being a good dragon.

He has survived his mother’s plot to kill him and is now really enjoying the life that he has made for himself in the DFZ, Detroit Free Zone, with his new friend, business partner and mage, Marci. Their animal control business is making enough money to stay afloat, even if they are making large amounts of money.

It seems that the oldest daughter of the three sister, and one of three dragon seers, is up to something. She appears and other dragons’ future are no longer able to be seen by Bob, the Heartstriker seer. The dragons that Estella visits also don’t appear to act right.

There is also the appearance of Amelia, A-melia Heartstriker. She is the heir to the Heartstriker throne. Which means she is a threat to her mother. Amelia is a planeswalker. She has spent the last fifty years on another plane of existence, so Julius and Justin are meeting her for the first time.

There is also Ghost, who we learn a lot more about. Ghost is a spirit cat that Merci bound to herself in the first book. He is a large player in this story and I think has an even larger part to play in the future.

We also see a lot of Bob and his pigeon. I just love Bob and his pigeon. Not only does he have the quirks that many would expect of a seer, he is just quirky in and of itself. Plus, he is never seen without his pet pigeon and how can you not love that.

Oh, we also get to finally meet Algonquin and her pet dragon slayer Vann Jeger. Algonquin is the Lady of the Lake, a spirit who runs the DFZ and she hates dragons.

This was a fun story with several laugh out loud parts. There are also some great action scenes, especially the fights with the water spirit of Vann Jeger. The political maneuvering of the seers, Bethesda the Heartstriker and even how Julius out thought them all was well written. There is suspense in that you know who the bad guy is, but you have no idea how the good guys will prevail. Lastly, there is the start of a romance between Julius and Marci. This is a fun urban fantasy series that has it all. I do recommend that you start with Nice Dragons Finish Last. As with most UF series, you can’t pick up this series in the middle without being lost.

Narration
Vikas Adam did a wonderful job with the narration once again. He is great with both male and female voices. He has the spirits that he has to voice in this story. The spirits came in both male and female too. You can really feel the difference in the spirits and the dragons and humans. I really loved how he voiced the fun-loving aspects of A-melia and Bob. I would highly recommend this series on audio. I will also be looking for other books narrated by Vikas Adam.