Dragon Ridden

Dragon Ridden Chronicles, Book 1

By: T. A. White

Narrated by: Natasha Soudek

An uncertain past. A sinister tattoo. A woman whose origin is steeped in mystery.

For Tate - last name unknown - everything prior to being found by pirates on an isolated piece of land is a blank. Her only clue to the person she was: a dragon tattoo capable of moving under its own will.

Brought to the city of Aurelia, Tate is forced to abandon the few people she knows to make her way alone. When a momentary impulse forces her to intervene in a situation she does not understand, she'll find that reckless actions have unintended consequences.

Friendless and alone, Tate will have to be light on her feet if she wants to survive in a city where no one is what they seem. Monsters walk the labyrinth beneath Aurelia's streets, and it's there where Tate will find the biggest clue to her past. Unlocking her hidden memories might just be the only thing keeping her alive to prevent the coming war.

©2012 T.A. White (P)2021 Tantor

Maybe audible isn’t for me

Several of the voices were off-putting to me and were wildly different than I would have expected. Especially Night, Ryu and Dewdrop. I liked Tate’s voice though. Overall, though I love the book, plot, and characters, listening took some getting used to as voices and the choices the narrator made around how she expressed of some of the dialogue brought me out of the story. Maybe audible as a medium just isn’t for me.

Decent story, not my favorite narration

I mainly picked this up because I’m a dragon fanatic, but at least in the first installment they’re just a side plot to a whole lot of political intrigue. I also feel like there are hints that this is going more in a sci fi direction than pure fantasy. Not terrible story wise, just not what I expected.

What really brought it down for me was the narration. It feels very slow for an action novel, I had to listen to it sped up and even then it dragged, and the narrator makes liberal use of character voices and inflections that really don’t feel like they fit with the characters. As other reviewers have mentioned the MC comes across as very ditzy and whiny with this narration, while the story tries to cast her as a snarky quick witted lawbreaker. The male voices feel very forced and uncomfortable, which interferes with the emotion behind their parts. If the narration was more to my taste I would’ve been quicker to pick up the second book just to see where all these hints are going, but it’s honestly making me hesitate to get it.

Great Original Story

I enjoy fantasy. I like this take on a dragon themed fantasy. Ending seemed abrupt. More like the end of a chapter rather than the end to a story. Great reading. Very immersive.

narrator was good. Story was not succinct.

I struggled to get half way through, gave up. the story line ambled and had no goal that I could see.

Stubborn to the bone.

T.A White is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. At one point I had listened to all of her books on Audible and when I found out the Dragon Ridden series wasn’t on Audible, I got them on my Kindle and read them. So of course, I picked them up once they were added to Audible and I don’t regret it at all. Full of adventure, mystery, and later in the series some romance. I really like the friendship that TA White puts into her story, sometimes side characters are equally as important as the main ones. Same narrator as all T.A White books, she does great for the characters this author creates.