Off the Bookshelf: NICE DRAGONS FINISH LAST, by Rachel Aaron

 

Heartstriker series #1

Wry humor, constantly rising stakes, an incredible new zoology thanks to the weirdness of rogue magic, and the incredible worldbuilding where Detroit has turned into a wild west of magic. Love the DFZ books. 

I guess I'm reading backward, because I started with Minimum Wage Magic, and this seems to have come before it, with Heartstriker #1.

Aaron makes you care about her characters from the beginning. Which is good, because poor Julius needs someone rooting for him, from almost before the story begins. The runt of the litter, he's managed to survive by being quiet and lying low -- until his mother, Bethesda Heartstriker, who has dragon-sized ambitions (naturally) locks him into his human form and throws him into the one place on the planet where dragons are outlawed, and gives him a month to prove he's a real dragon (whatever that is) or he'll probably end up a midnight snack. For her!

Things seem to improve, only slightly, when he meets a mage named Darcy -- until all her problems, starting with a gangster on her tail, catch up with them. One simple little job, to start proving himself, turns into a nail-biting adventure that could get them both killed a dozen times over. Then dragon politics get involved and things get really dicey ...

Fun. I'm addicted. Thank goodness I have another Audible credit in my account, because once I catch up on my podcasts, I'll need another dose of the DFZ and dragons.

Off the Bookshelf: PART-TIME GODS, by Rachel Aaron

 

Audible Original, Audiobook

Emily Woo Zeller, narrator

And we're back to the DFZ, the Detroit Free Zone, where dragons are welcome to live and the anthropomorphic spirit of the city is its deity -- and our heroine, Opal, encounters that spirit as she continues her struggle for freedom from her adopted father, the Dragon of Korea.

When we last left Opal and her partner-in-cleaning, Nick, she learned she had been cursed with bad luck, to keep her from earning enough money to pay her debt to her father -- and when she defaults, he can drag her back to Korea, where she will be part of his collection once more.

Or so she thinks. Like any second book in a series, there are a lot of turning points and "this ain't what you thought it was" moments. Opal is in a bad place, damaging her magic to the point it won't work. She has literally disconnected herself from her soul, and if she isn't careful, she could destroy it altogether. When her plan to work around the bad luck curse just doesn't seem to be working, she finds what she thinks are some loopholes ... and things get really strange.

Think you've got a bad relationship with your father? Try a father who is a literal dragon, who can become a human at will, who insists everything he does is to protect you, but you know better. Toss in a really bad sibling rivalry problem that goes back a millennia with a snotty coward younger sister dragon named White Snake ... just when you think it can't get worse, it gets worse.

I'm about halfway through the third book, which just keeps getting better and better. I'm at the point of chewing my nails down to the first knuckle from the tension! 

Off the Bookshelf: MINIMUM WAGE MAGIC, by Rachel Aaron

 

Audible exclusive, audiobooks

Narrated by Emily Woo Zeller

Major fun! Incredible world-building.

This book takes place the same setting as another series by Aaron, with titles like Nice Dragons Finish Last, set in the living city of Detroit.

Okay, I need to find out how I can get by on 1 hour of sleep a day, just so I can indulge in more of these audio books. And yes, the narrator DOES make a huge difference in enjoyment. This is a great narrator, and I agree with another reviewer who said to please keep Zeller for the other books in this series.

Our heroine, Opal, is a cleaner -- someone who comes in and cleans up when someone defaults and is evicted, or dies, or vanishes in the living, magical, fantasy city of Detroit. Just a slice of the background of this alternate reality: magic has returned to Earth, and the air and water spirits and other "gods" have come back and some of them aren't too happy about what happened to the world while they were gone. Detroit is a living entity, constantly changing, and there aren't really any laws -- except that if you're in debt, you better pay up fast, or else.

Opal has a huge debt to pay, and a deadline to meet. She bids on an apartment where the tenant has defaulted -- the city gets some of its money back, and she gets to keep whatever she finds when she cleans out the apartment. But what she finds leads her on a treasure hunt, in and out of danger, facing the underground of this living city -- and takes the reader on a fascinating tour of this strange and magical world, where dragons are real, criminals are everywhere, and vicious, and you don't want to mess with death gods. Enemies and problems just keep popping up, and betrayal clings to her like a bad luck curse -- which shows up as well. She's one tough chick, and readers find out why, bit by bit, as the story careens through the ever-changing landscape.

SO. MUCH. FUN. Of course, I have to find the rest of the stories of Opal and her AI, and the trouble she's still in at the end of the book. Yeah, and when will I have the TIME? Gee, if all my problems were this kind, I'd be a very happy (sleepless) camper!