The Dragon Prince's Bride: Volume 1

The Dragon Prince's Bride, Book 1

By: CJ Young

Narrated by: Luci Christian, Gabriel Michael

Sylvia's had more than her fair share of hardship. Abandoned by her husband, sold into slavery by her father, and now ruled by a harsh master, she's never felt free.

But everything changes when she discovers an injured stranger in the woods. Despite his initial hostility and the language barrier between them, Sylvia decides to help him at any cost. She's determined to save him from a cruel fate...and he's become her new secret. But she never realized that he'd be a prince - or that he would kidnap her as his bride!

As Sylvia takes on this unexpected adventure, she faces a difficult question: Can love be her freedom, or is it just a new prison?

©2021 CJ Young (P)2021 Podium Audio

Good story

The storyline is good. The male reader was difficult to listen to at times. He used so many different accents for each and every character. No ending.

It's not great but serves a purpose.

If you have a strong love for terrible, cliche, and very problematic romances on webtoons this fits the bill! I was looking for something in this vein to listen to mindlessly while I was working on projects and The Dragon Prince's Bride fills that need. The characters are very one dimensional, the story drags on, and the side stories about how spouse kidnapping is a "romantic" and "okay" tradition because the people in the sky have a long history with it being part of their culture was really unnecessary. I'll be listening to the second book.

As for the narrators, Luci Christian did a fine job. I wasn't a fan of Gabriel Michael's performance however. Gabriel's voices for the male characters were fine, but he needs to work on his female characters. Also every time he giggled or chuckled made me cringe and it happens in the story a lot.

Mixed feelings, Good Story, but drags at times.

Reading or listening to this book is definitely a commitment, but as a person who loves fantasy and shifter type books, I was willing to give the commitment. I will say for the first half of the book Sylvia was on my last nerve, so annoying, but I liked Kiel and the other characters, so I stuck with it. The overall story is very good, however, I don’t like when they started doing chapters saying 9 years ago or 15 years ago, because the back and forth of years past and current is confusing and frustrating. They should have just started from years before and told the story of how the current people came to be. Towards the end, Sylvia becomes more likeable, and the story gets better. I am off to part two, which is another 26 hours, but now that I am hooked on the story and invested in the characters, I am willing to continue the journey.

The narrators were really good, but the writing is really awful

I got this story because the plot intrigued me. In truth, there are a lot better writers who would do this sort of plot justice. Ruby Dixon comes to mind. There were so many mistakes or inconsistencies in the writing that I couldn’t help notice them. Just as one example, They walk until they come to a large meadow. The meadow is actually quite small. Wow, which one is it? But that is the way most of the book went. The narrators do a really good job. The male narrator, especially does a great dragon. But I just couldn’t finish the book. It was free in Audible plus and I still couldn’t finish it.

For a niche audience.

This story was very well written and never has a dull moment, I highly enjoyed it but I recognize I'm part of the audience it appeals best to. The story was written with people who enjoy very fantastical, over the top, pure, cliche fairy tale romance in mind. If you are looking to get invested in a very wholesome romantic story with hours and hours of emotional story telling, this book is worth picking up despite it's higher price. If you are looking for a more realistic, less cliche fantasy romance story then this would not be the book for you.
The narrator's did an excellent job of conveying the characters intentions and emotions, while giving them voices that seemed to fit the characters in question rather well. My one complaint would be that the story often introduces a range of characters and perspective that drag on for a while (much like this review).

Tldr: For people that like very high fantastical/emotional romance stories, not realistic gritty romance lovers.