Audiobook Review: Fire in His Blood by Ruby Dixon

Series:	Fireblood Dragon #1
Pub. Date:	June 20, 2017
Publisher:	Forever Romance
Narrators:	Noelle Bridges Jeremy York
Length:	11 hrs 27 min
Source:	Publisher

Ruby Dixon is a new-to-me author but one that I have been hearing about quite often, usually in reference to her Ice Planet Barbarians series. So I was looking forward to a little dragony alpha action, and this hero did not disappoint.

I liked the world-building for this series. We are operating in a post-apocalyptic Dallas, but not too far past the catastrophic event. About seven years ago, a big whole ripped in the sky and dragons came through. Most of them went crazy and started scorching the earth and killing off humanity. So now those who are left are eking out a meager existence behind makeshift forts with militia men and dictatorial mayors. The populace either has to obey the rules, or risk their safety on the outside. Neither is a good option.

Our heroine, Claudia, is living in Fort Dallas and trying to support her younger sister (Amy) with the help of a tragic friend (Sasha). Claudia is not afraid to break a few rules to feed their small family, but when she gets caught scavenging, her choices are to be exiled or dragon bait. I thought there was good potential for Claudia, but mostly she squandered it and got on my nerves really bad. I found her to be wishy washy and somewhat mean to our hero, and I just couldn't connect to her as a heroine.

However, as much as I disliked Claudia, I just loved the hero. Kyle is a big gold dragon, more than half-mad and in search of a mate. When he comes across Claudia staked out like a juicy morsel, he couldn't resist the temptation to claim her. However, Kyle was not a cruel or overbearing alpha. His entire focus was on making his mate happy and satisfied... with a heavy emphasis on the satisfaction. For all that he was somewhat alpha in his actions and behavior, I thought he exercised quite a bit of restraint with our wishy washy heroine. I often felt bad for how she treated him or her thoughts for getting away. I guess that makes me have dragon Stockholm Syndrome. ;) It didn't hurt that Kyle's "human" form was seven foot tall and bulletproof!

One thing that did confuse me somewhat was the language and language barrier. Kyle cannot understand English... but then once they have a mind link, the language barrier seems to have went away. I mean, their mind to mind speak was in English, and sometimes the heroine spoke English. But then later on in the story, Kyle doesn't understand English when spoken by other people. So that didn't make sense to me and my curiosity and confusion threw me out of the story at times.

The heat factor was dialed up in this one and our dragon knew how to satisfy his lady, so I think all the smutty girls at heart will enjoy this story. My love for the hero and dislike for the heroine about balanced things out, so I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

The narrators did a great job. The majority of the story was from Claudia's POV, so Noelle Bridges was the lead narrator. I found her to do well with both male and female characters, and she kept my attention throughout the story. Jeremy York chimed in with Kyle's POV on occasion, and his low raspy voice translated well for a dragon character.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced copy of this audiobook that I received from the publisher, Tantor Audio.

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