Nice Dragons Finish Last (Heartstrikers, #1)

by Rachel Aaron

[Melanie]

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

Julius is a young dragon. He isn’t like other dragons. He doesn’t feel any need to be ambitious and take advantage of the weak, especially humans. Ever since he was let out of training, he has been hiding in his room being a professional college student (I so wish I could that), and doing everything in his power to avoid his more powerful siblings and his mother. He wanted to go unnoticed. This is until his mother figures out his plan and kicks him out.

Julius is sent to Detroit with just the clothes on his back. He is forced to work for his brother and do something to show his mother his worth as a dragon or she will eat him. One of his older brothers and a seer sent him a phone with money on it (this is how they use money in the future instead of credit cards), but it isn’t much. Julius is charged with finding another dragon in this town and bring her back to her sisters. Oh, and Detroit is controlled by Algonquin, the Lady of the Great Lakes, and she hates dragons.

Julius hires Marci to help him find this dragon. The dragon is supposed to be at a mage party so he needs to fit in to get into the party. She is going to help him. They instantly hit it off. They become fast friends, with the potential to be more. She is a mage who isn’t without her own issues. She has a mob boss after her.

You can tell the age of siblings based on their name. Each clutch was all named with the same first letter with the first clutch all being As, then Bs and so on. Julius is in the newest group. The Heartstriker clan is the largest clan of dragons and many call their mom, Bathesda, a whore because each clutch has a different father. Bob is the other character in this book that really impresses me. He is the seer. He is about 800 years old. Being that old and being able to see the future has to take a toll on a person, or in this case dragon’s, psyche. He is always saying weird things, showing up out of nowhere. Oh, and he has a pet pigeon that goes everywhere with him, usually on his head.

Narration
Vikas Adam does a great job with the narration of this book. It is the first time I’ve ever listened to a book by this narrator. He really brought me into the story. I really felt like he brought out things that were important to the story like, Bathesda’s rage and Bob’s weirdness. He did a great job with male and female voices. I was always able to tell which character was talking. His pace and tone were great. Highly recommended.