Dragons of Pemberley

Jane Austen's Dragons, Book 10

By: Maria Grace

Narrated by: Benjamin Fife

Homecomings never live up to expectations.

After a visit to London that nearly cost her everything, Lady Elizabeth Darcy, Dragon Sage, desperately needs the solace of her country home, Pemberley. Sir Fitzwilliam Darcy, knight of the Pendragon Order and Keeper to Pemberley, counts the minutes until Pemerbley's walls protect his family once more.

Their homecoming cannot happen soon enough.

Pemberley and its substantial population of minor dragons welcomes them home with open arms. But those open arms contain more than happy dragons.

Unexpected problems plague the estate and surrounding county. Dragon-sized problems. Problems that might be too big for even the Dragon Sage.

A fresh new gaslamp fantasy adventure in the engrossingly intricate world of Jane Austen’s Dragons. Anne McCaffrey meets Jane Austen perfect for dragon lovers and Regency-era fans alike.

©2022 Maria Grace (P)2022 Maria Grace

Another great listen by this author!

The investigation into dragon poachers grows apace with the boldness of the rapscallions. And yet the very investigation becomes the perfect foil for a romance between Lydia and Sir Richard. I can't wait to see their courtship further. As always Mr. Fife's narration was superb.

fantastic narrator

I have enjoyed everyone of this series. Maria Grace has a fantastic imagination, and Benjamin Fife is a marvelous narrator. his repertoire of voices, his ability to add emotion to the narration, and his absolute grasp of the series is astounding.

Great Read

This was a Great story. So much action in this one. I don't know where to start. There is an audit of keepers & estates, dragon poachers, wild dragons and injured dragons. Darcy, Elizabeth, Lydia and Richard have their hands full . They will have to all work together including the grumpy auditor to solve this dilema. Little Pemberly has grown up as she proves that she is dominant. I just can't say enough about this series.

One of the best so far

Great storytelling and deep characters make for a satisfying entry in the series. Elizabeth and Lydia’s struggles with their dragon-deaf mother and sister were well-written. There’s an interesting smuggling plot. And Pemberley continues to grow and amaze. Recommended!

I swear this story gets better with each book!

This is Book 10 in the Jane Austen Dragons series so please read/listen to the others first

Dragons of Pemberley starts with the Darcy’s returning to Pemberley after a memorable (and not always in good ways) Season in London. Accompanying them are Sir Richard Fitzwilliam, Lydia Bennet, Mrs Sharpe the new nursemaid for baby Anne Darcy, and Mr St John undersecretary of the order and known antagonist of Lizzy (see book 4, A Proper Introduction to Dragons for more details). And the accompanying dragon friends: the Darcys’ friends cockatrice Walker and fairy dragon April, Richard’s cockatrice Earl, Lydia’s fairy dragon Cosette, Anne’s tatzelwyrm May, and Mrs. Sharpe’s zaltys Mercy and Truth.

After the tumultuous season the Darcy’s are hoping to settle into the comfort, peace and quiet of Pemberley - but nothing is so simple when there’s the snapdragon poaching/smuggling group to contend with. An attack on Ring, a knucker who lives in Ring pond, is discovered and Ring is cared for faithfully by Lydia and Lizzy. But information from Ring and local historian dragon lesser cockatrix Raven alert the Darcys, Richard and Lydia to issues of attacks on dragons around the new moon dating as far back to when old Pemberley was in his decline and when Lord and Cownt Matlock became Order Chancellor!
Lizzy is furious - at the attacks on dragons, and most of all that Darcy and Richard kept this information from her.
Meanwhile Mr. St. John is trying to stir up trouble with talk of audits to Matlock and Pemberley keeps - starting with Matlock so no one else can say anything since the Chancellor received one also.
Lydia and Richard team up to investigate the apothecary lead obtained from Mr. Oakley (see end of book 8 Dragon Keepers Cotillion) - one they clear but the other definitely has dragon related items for sale.
Lizzy and Darcy work together to meet the dragons that Old Pemberley’s dementia forced into hiding and finally work out their issues. Family issues still plague as Kitty has a suitor and Darcy’s approval in Mr. Bennet’s stead is requested. A very tense and awkward dinner party at the Bingleys’ estate of Ingleside occurs. With the entire Pemberley party wishing they’d brought fairy dragon April and Cosette with them. Kitty’s suitor Mr. Mothman, nicknamed Buzby and is a school friend of Bingley’s used to be an apothecary but is planning on making a complete shop for ladies to combine linen drapers, haberdashery, and modiste and requests Darcy and Richard to invest in the business. Unsure is he can hear dragons but Mr. Mothman loans Lydia his handkerchief and she notes snapdragons on the border!

One of the Pemberley house dragons, puck Fern who is allowed to hoard discarded bits of paper, finds a paper with snapdragons on it from Mr. St. John’s fire!
Confrontation with St. John reveals he’s been working on the poachers/smugglers situation for almost 2 years after being approached about the body of his deceased friend drake Rottenstone. Putting differences aside for the time being they combine efforts.
More pressure from Ingleside regarding approval for Kitty and Mothman and unsure of Mothman’s role after discovering his handwriting on a note in a shack used for a drop point by the smugglers results in Ingleside residents (Jane, Bingley, Miss Bingley, Mrs. Bennet and Kitty) plus Mothman being invited for a visit at Pemberley to coincide with the new moon.
The visit is an unmitigated disaster: Kitty argues with Lizzy, May smells a strange dragon which Darcy later hears in his study when speaking with Mothman and culminating in Mrs. Bennet being bitten by Mercy and Truth after storming unannounced into the nursery and threatening the little dragons. The rest of the Ingleside residents are persuaded by the Pemberley dragons that they are ill and depart. But Mothman doesn’t continue onto Ingleside with them and stays “for business” at the inn in Lambton. the barn tatzelwyrms confirm strange dragon in the house and May confirms azure striped forest wyrm (like ones used to kidnap Lizzy - see Book 7 Dragons Beyond the Pale).

Night of the new moon and the larger minor dragons of Pemberley are set - using themselves as bait for the poachers. Darcy, Richard and St. John along with Walker and Earl divide between Ring where two men noted and Blackwoods a basilisk where discovered a team who have the azure forest wyrm with them.

Ends with Mothman captured by Richard at Ring Pond and Darcy and Walker aided by the guard drakes and Blackwoods herself in subduing or killing the team there including the azure wyrm Cobalt and discovered the ring leader is Mothman’s man Caney!

Lydia interviews Mothman the next morning and discovers most of his recent plans including his relationship with Kitty had been suggested by Caney/Cobalt. Mothman not part of dragon smuggling but obtaining goods from a “free tradesman”
Richard is to take the smugglers to Blue Order offices in London but requests to court Lydia upon his return.

Mr. St John meets with Pemberley and the Darcys and Cownt Matlock and Andrew, Richard’s brother and Matlock’s junior keeper to discuss matters in Derbyshire. Andrew finally brought to see reason about being a good dragon keeper (although very begrudgingly) or else Cownt Matlock will replace him with Richard or save the estate for Darcy’s “next whelp” - outing Lizzy as expecting!

Epilogue has the Darcys, Lydia and Richard relaxing the night before Richard to leave for London when Pax bursts in through the window and announces Georgiana is in terrible danger!

Loved the humor! Lydia especially is fun and has several great quips but also shows that her time at Mrs Fielding’s was much to her benefit. Love the cadre of Pemberley dragons we get to meet especially Ring. Mr. St John becomes slightly less odious but still irritating. And the epilogue is a fantastic lead in to Book 11 Miss Georgiana and the Dragon, coming soon for audiobook l, available in print now)

Action-packed story & great narration

Another great dragon story from Maria Grace, with wonderful narration by Benjamin Fife. My favorite character voice was the deep, booming, lair-rumbling growl of the dragon Matlock. I was pleased that Lydia began to realize her mother and Kitty’s actions were truly embarrassing, and that Jane was a limp noodle. Hope to see her romantic relationship grow in the next book.

Yikes! A cliffhanger!!

There’s so much going on in this book I can’t begin to say anything at all that would convince you to listen to this except for the fact that, if you’ve been following this this series you won’t be disappointed with this one. Oh goodness, if you are looking at this one for the first time do not be overwhelmed that there are this many books so far in the series!!! I’ve re-listened to the whole series multiple times so to set the stage for the next one to come. If you love JAFF you just have to try the first one. I was never a dragon fantasy reader before these books and hesitated for quite a while in the beginning. But I love this author and figured I couldn’t go wrong with at least trying it. From then on they were an auto purchase as soon as possible.

Oh yes!! That cliffhanger. Excuse me while I start listening to this story again right away.

Dragon Society Continues to Pursue Smugglers

I very much continue to enjoy Maria exploring the flaws and drawbacks in her crafted Regency society with a secret underworld that knows of dragons. And underworld is quite a fitting way to describe it as we pursue a smuggling ring that trades in dragon parts.

Of course, there's more than the espionage and intrigue surrounding this smuggling ring! There's also an unexpected romance I didn't see coming but that works quite well! I'm excited to see how it will progress in later books, along with the drama of the splintered Bennet family, with dragon hearers keeping secrets from the non-hearing members and the wall this creates between them.

Just a warning to make sure you're prepared with the next book in your library, as this book ends on a cliffhanger and I, for one, need to know what happens next.

After finishing 10 books, I struggle to find new to say about Fife's narration that doesn't sound like empty praise. He's excellent, his range is superb as he needs to do normal human voices for a large cast, AND high-pitched and low-pitched voices for all the dragons, using pitch to give an idea of the dragon's size.

Fantastic Narration of Lydia's Story

This doesn't look like any particular Austin story, it's more of a continuation of the characters. While I thoroughly enjoyed this one I did struggle again in this book with how some of my favorite characters continue to be portrayed in this author's version like: Jane, Bingley, and Mr. Bennett. I really have to remind myself that this is a new story to not be too upset by those changes. I do understand her logic and what she's doing with them but it still bothers me maybe a bit too much... especially with the lack of closeness between Jane and Lizzy. Outside of those personal irritations the story was very engaging, had it's own mystery, plenty of new dragons and was quite hard to put down. I still really love this series and with the cliffhanger at the end I can't wait to see where the next one goes.

I love Benjamin Fife's narration as always! you can tell he has fun with all the dragon voices, the accents, and his overall acting is top notch.

Parents- PG- middle grade and up read
Language: mild very little language, no f-bombs
Violence: none
Sexual Content- nothing to warn of- clean read

—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Best One Yet

I am absolutely enjoying this series and they seem to just keep getting better. I love Benjamin Fife's performance but had trouble understanding the fairy dragons this time. On to Book 11, Yay!