Audiobook Review: The Destiny of Dragons (Tales from Verania #2) by T.J. Klune

Once upon a time, the wizard’s apprentice Sam of Wilds got his happily ever after in the arms of his cornerstone, Knight Commander Ryan Foxheart. A year has passed, and while Sam’s been captured five or six more times since then, things are pretty great. His parents are happy, Gary and Tiggy still eat sass for breakfast, Randall is somehow alive despite being older than the gods, the King rules with a gentle hand, Kevin the dragon is as gross as ever, Morgan sighs a lot, Ryan continues to be dashing and immaculate, and Sam is close to convincing Prince Justin they will be best friends forever.

Life is good.

Until it’s not.

Because Vadoma, the leader of the Gypsy clan and Sam’s grandmother, has come to the City of Lockes with a dire prophecy written in the stars: a man of shadows is rising and will consume the world unless Sam faces his destiny and gathers the five dragons of Verania at his side.

And she brings along her second-in-command, a man named Ruv.

Ruv, who Vadoma says is Sam’s true cornerstone.

The first book in the DESTINY FUCK YEAH! Trilogy (because sometimes, having a destiny is the stupidest thing ever).

Narrator: Michael Lesley
Listening Length:16 hrs 40 mins

I honestly had some trouble starting this review.

What can I possibly say that hasn’t already been said?

For some fangirling reference, check out our group review when the book was released.  I stand by it all and then some.

So, to at least keep this review from going stale, I’m going to focus on the sublime pairing of T.J. Klune’s words and Michael Lesley’s narration. Listening to A Destiny of Dragons is not a passive experience, it doesn’t run in the background while you’re driving, doing chores, blah, blah, blah. Listening to this book is an event that is all encompassing in the best possible way. Thank sweet baby jeebus for the 30 second rewind nubbin on the app; because I get to laughing at a Gary rant and miss a whole passage, or Sam will have an epiphany that is perfectly worded and then spoken in Sam’s “contemplative” tone that always gets my attention, or Ryan will just be Ryan and I want to hear him again.

I listen to a lot of audiobooks and am a huge fan of quite a few narrators. Some though, some can just make the words come alive and when the perfect match between book and narrator come together, the book gets elevated and as listeners we get to experience the story on a more intimate level. Michael Lesley is simply amazing. There are A LOT of characters and these aren’t just MC’s and secondary characters, these are KLUNE characters. They have completely unique personalities, rapid fire interactions and the entire gamut of emotions from start to finish. He nails every scene and every bit of banter and I’d love to sit down with him over beer and nachos just to listen to him tell me all his behind the scenes stories of creating a T.J. Klune audiobook.

I’ve gushed over the narration and now I just want to ramble a bit about the series as a whole and what it means to me. One of the best experiences in the world is loving something with your friends. It’s a quiet thing really, it doesn’t take a lot of expense or effort, but the sense of community it creates is priceless. It’s a strength in our little world that I know I take for granted too often and when I was thinking about what I could say about The Tales of Verania that wouldn’t be a repeat of what I’ve already said, words didn’t come to me, but feelings did.

I’m not a super mushy person by nature, but when I love something I’ll smother it hard with all my feelings and when I think of this series, outside of the specifics of the story, it just plain makes my happy. I love that the characters are not perfect, I love that they’re relatable and I love that I can respect them. I love that I can be a part of their epic adventures and that I’m not alone, my friends are with me for the ride. I’ve talked about this series with friends I’ve met in person and some whose real names I don’t even know. I bought the audiobook for another friend and he and I have listened together and texted back and forth throughout every chapter.

I know that this just one series that brings readers together, but this is the most meaningful one for me personally. It’s not just the words or the narration, it’s the sense of comaraderie with fellow readers and listeners both the author and the narrator created that I am truly thankful for. It’s a seemingly minor thing that is actually a pretty big deal.

I have to say a big thank you to both T.J. Klune and Michael Lesley for giving me something to love so hard with my fellow book (and audiobook) pals.

Thanks guys, see you in the next book!

**a copy of this audiobook was provided for an honest review**

Happy Unicorn Fourth of July!!!!!

How is your summer going so far?

Hopefully is a great one filled with hot books and hotter holiday celebrations!

To our friends up north, Happy Canada Day! (July 1st - a little late but we're partying for you today)

And happy birthday to America!

We here at BMB Reviews would like to wish you and yours a very happy day!

Author of the Month Interview - S.J. Frost.

From To The Other Side by SJ Frost we found this quote;

"He'd seen countless beautiful and magnificent horses, but the unicorn stallion had to be the most breathtaking creature he'd ever seen."

Now, we know how amazing unicorn stallions are and we couldn't ignore an author after our own hearts, so.....

May's Author of the Month is the wonderful SJ Frost. We read and chatted about A Little Bit Country in our monthly chats (always the best fun to be had on the internet) and have been reading our way through her back-list. To round things up we grilled her mercilessly about her writing habits invited her into the clubhouse for a chat. Here's what she had to say;

BMBR: Do you listen to music when you write? If so, does the music genre change with each story? Each scene?
SJ: No, I don’t listen to music when I write. In real life, I’m a mom and I also work a full-time day job, so I don’t have a lot of time to write in general. When I do, it’s usually at night after my son is in bed. At that point in the night, I just want to unwind and have things quiet. Of course, writing into the night also leads to me writing while half-awake sometimes, so maybe I should listen to music to keep me more awake! As I’m driving to and from work, though, I listen to music and sometimes certain songs or artists do help me think of a particular story or characters. With one of my WIPs right now, whenever I listen to Imagine Dragons, the characters get chatty. It’s nice when that happens, because I know I can play that music and wake up the characters to be ready to work with later.

BMBR: Are any of the characters in A Little Bit Country based on real life performers? If so, who?
SJ: I’ve got to give credit to Adam Levine and Blake Shelton for inspiring me to write the expanded version of A Little Bit Country. When I wrote the shorter version, there were a lot of calls from people who wanted to see more of Ash and Jackson. Even I knew they had more to their story. Other projects made me keep putting it on the backburner…until I started watching The Voice. Adam and Blake’s bantering woke up Ash and Jackson and it got to the point where everything else got put on the back-burner to finish out their story.

BMBR: Are you a fan of country music/what is your favourite type music?
SJ:I enjoy listening to country from time to time, but my favorite music is rock and classical. I grew up listening to both country and rock from my parents. Classical, I developed my love for on my own. Queen is my all-time favorite band and I have Freddie Mercury on a pedestal above all other musicians. I listen to whatever suits my mood at a given moment, really.

BMBR: Your Instincts series are about vampires and your Terra series is about witches, unicorns and dragons - yet you also write a lot of contemporary, music based stories. Do you have a particular genre you prefer to write in? Is one easier than the other?
SJ: I enjoy fantasy, music, vampire-themed books and movies, horses, history…and so I write stories with those themes. And I write stories that make me happy as I’m writing them. Writing is my escape and I don’t want to escape to somewhere I’ll be stressed, upset, or depressed. If my books get published and other people enjoy them, then that’s a wonderful and amazing bonus to me and I always want people to walk away from one of my books feeling as good about their reading experience as I felt during the writing experience. I also write about issues I care about.
The whole reason I write gay romance is to help put gay relationships in a loving and positive light. That’s always at the heart of my work. Probably another reason why I write sweet romances. In the real world, there’s still so much discrimination, the fight for equality is far from over. I want my stories to be happy, encouraging, uplifting and to show that all love is beautiful and special. Beneath that overall focus, I occasionally touch on other issues that are important to me, such as environmentalism and like now, the WIP I’m writing features a horse rescuer.
Writing contemporary and paranormal are probably easiest for me. Fantasy is more challenging because of the extensive world building involved. The historical I wrote, Of Honor and Love, was also challenging because of the hefty researching I did for it. But I enjoy researching and world building, so while challenging, writing those stories has been very rewarding. I love flexing my little writing muscles in different ways. 

BMBR: What books do you like to read? 
SJ:I read a lot of fantasy, historical fiction, and paranormal books…the kinds of books that really let me escape.

BMBR: Who are your writing influences? 
SJ: There have been many! Mercedes Lackey, Anne Rice, Tad Williams, Laura Joh Rowland, J.K. Rowling, Walter Farley… Not to mention I’m a huge fan of classic literature too; Chaucer, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Shakespeare. Those are just a few whose work I love and admire.

BMBR: If A Little Bit Country was made into a film/TV show, who could you see in the roles? 
SJ:I know Adam Levine does some acting, so he could still be Ash. Maybe it could be Blake Shelton’s screen debut ;-) It’s so hard for me to put Ash and Jackson’s personalities on anyone else at this point after how those two got me going on writing the expanded version of the story.

So, that's what the lovely SJ Frost had to say about her writing. Thank you so much for being our author of the month.  Of course we couldn't invite her into the clubhouse without finding her unicorn name, so here she is, Nightshade Jolly Legs.