🎧 Night Shift Dragons by Rachel Aaron @Rachel_Aaron ‏ @zwooman @audible_com ‏ ‏#LoveAudiobooks #KindleUnlimited

Posted July 20, 2020 by Robin in Book Review / 11 Comments

🎧 Night Shift Dragons by Rachel Aaron @Rachel_Aaron ‏ @zwooman @audible_com ‏ ‏#LoveAudiobooks #KindleUnlimitedNight Shift Dragons by Rachel Aaron / Bach
Narrator: Emily Woo Zeller
Series: DFZ #3
Published by Audible on May 5, 2020
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Length: 14 hours, 41 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased
Goodreads
Amazon,  Audible
one-half-flames
One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star

They say family always sticks together, but when you’re your dad’s only lifeline and the whole world—humans, dragons, and gods—wants you dead, “family bonding” takes on a whole new meaning.

My name is Opal Yong-ae, and I’m in way over my head. I thought getting rid of my dad’s bad luck curse would put things back to normal. Instead, I’m stuck playing caretaker to the Great Dragon of Korea. That wouldn’t be so bad if he wasn’t such a jerk, or if every dragon on the planet wasn’t out to kill him, or if he was my only problem.

Turns out, things can always get worse in the DFZ. When a rival spirit attacks my god/boss with the aim of turning the famously safety-optional city into a literal death arena with Nik as his bloody champion, I’m thrust onto the front lines and way out of my comfort zone. When gods fight, mortals don’t usually survive, but I’m not alone this time. Even proud old dragons can learn new tricks, and with everything I love falling to pieces, the father I’ve always run from might just be the only force in the universe stubborn enough to pull us back together.

Night Shift Dragons is the final book of the DFZ series.  Opal has some daddy issues.  Sure, she has the normal ones, rebellion against a controlling parent and a desperate need to get out from under their thumb.  Then she has the not so normal ones like; being the only human daughter to a dragon and a bad luck curse her father put on her so she would fail and have to come home.  And you thought you had issues with your parents, bet they never cursed you.  Now Opal is stuck with her father after the curse had some unusual side effects.  When everything went wrong, he ended up in a coma and now she is his only magical lifeline to this world.  I guess with all this family time, being magically attached at the hip, maybe they will be able to work through their issues.

Nik, the almost boyfriend, has no idea where Opal has gone and it has been months.  Desperate to find her he makes a bargain that puts him in incredible danger.  He has a death sentence hanging over his head unless he can find a way finagle the magical promise he made.  But he and Opal have been up against worse odds, haven’t they?

I struggled a bit with Part-Time Gods, the second book of this series because Opal was so focused on thwarting her father’s curse that she lost sight of everything else, even Nik, the most patient partner in the land.  But the Opal I loved from Minimum Wage Magic is back with her super cute can-do attitude and ingenuity.  She is going to find a way to get out of this mess she has gotten herself into and heck she might as well help Nik with his huge problem too while she is at it.

There are some great cameos by a few of the characters from the Heartstriker series.  Amelia being my favorite and I definitely liked seeing how you get the Spirit of Dragons to appear.  The DFZ is also an interesting character, as the spirit of the city she is both the best and the worst of what people are in her city and I liked how unusual that made her.

The romance between Opal and Nik is also one I really like.  Each person is their own individual but they are also a team and try to help each other out.  Nik made some poor choices when Opal disappeared.  I loved that he owned them completely never blaming her at all.  They’ve both made mistakes in the past but it was great to get them back on target and deal with the family drama that haunted Part-Time Gods.

The culmination and big showdown at the end are well worth the wait and I enjoyed every twisty moment in it, even if my stomach didn’t.

This is the end of this series that is an exercise in what if Storage Wars was mashed up with a world where ‘gods are real, dragons are traffic hazards, and buildings move around on their own’.  I really like the world this is set in and all the potential of it for so many different kinds of stories.  I’m sincerely hoping that Rachel Arron finds other compelling stories to tell in this world.

Narration:

Emily Woo Zeller is a good fit for the voice of Opal.  She did another good performance of the narration overall.  I was able to listen at my usual 1.5x speed.

Listen to a clip: HERE

About Emily Woo Zeller

Narrator: Emily Woo Zeller

Audie award-winning actor, voiceover artist, dancer, and singer Emily Woo Zeller (member SAG-AFTRA) is based in Los Angeles, though her work has been seen and heard internationally. Her wide range of work has included theater and extensive dubbing for film and television in Southeast Asia. Emily’s lifelong theater and dance work includes performance with Ellis Wood Dance, Dutch Kills Theater, FACT/SF, Facing East Dance and Music, Oracle Theater, and physical theater collective Lampazo Group.

Audiofile Magazine named Emily as one of the “Best Voices of 2015” in Nonfiction and Culture for her work on THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP by Marie Kondo and “Best Voices of 2013” in Nonfiction and Culture for her work on GULP by Mary Roach. Awards include 2018 Audie for FIRE ROAD by Kim Phuc Phan Thi, Ashley Wiersma; 2015 SOVAS VOICE ARTS AWARD for THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP by Marie Kondo; 2015 Audie Nomination for her work on THE BEAM: SEASON 1 by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant; Audiofile Magazine Earphones Awards for narrations of THE POPPY WAR by R. F. Kuang; FIRE ROAD by Kim Phuc Phan Thi, Ashley Wiersma, AFTER THE ECLIPSE by Sarah Perry, KITCHEN CHINESE by Ann Mah, UNDER A PAINTED SKY by Stacey Lee, THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP by Marie Kondo, GULP by Mary Roach, and TIES THAT BIND, TIES THAT BREAK by Leslie Namioka; the 2009 Tristen Award for Best Actress as Sally Bowles in CABARET; and the 2006 Roselyn E. Schneider Prize for Creative Achievement.

Emily holds a degree from the University of California, Berkeley in Dance and Performance Studies, with a minor in Nutritional Sciences. She is a certified yoga teacher.

About Rachel Aaron / Bach

Hello, my name is Rachel Aaron, and I write the Heartstriker books, a new Urban Fantasy series about misfit dragons, starting with Nice Dragons Finish Last. I also wrote The Legend of Eli Monpress fantasy series for Orbit Books about a wizard thief and the poor bastards who have to try and stop him. PLUS I’m also the author of the new, rolicking fun Science Fiction romance Fortune’s Pawn under the name Rachel Bach. Confused yet? I know I am!

I was born in Atlanta, but I currently live a lovely, nerdy, bookish life in Athens, GA with my lightspeed son, perpetually understanding husband, and fat dog. Besides my own books, the internet knows me best for writing very fast. The best way to get to know me is probably to read my blog or follow me on Twitter or Facebook.

Rating Breakdown
Plot
One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Writing
One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Characters
One StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star
Dialogue
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star
Narration (Audio)
One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Overall: One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Robin
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Posted July 20, 2020 by Robin in Book Review / 11 Comments


11 responses to “🎧 Night Shift Dragons by Rachel Aaron

    • I really enjoyed the Heartstrikers series. It was a lot of fun and Julian the beta Dragon boy is adorable.

  1. This sounds like such a keeper here and I love seeing that solid teamwork happen. Glad you had a good time with this one here.

    Great review.