An Audiobook Blog Tour | “Pemberley: Mr Darcy’s Dragon” (Jane Austen’s Dragons, Book One) by Maria Grace, narrated by Benjamin Fife

Posted Wednesday, 5 February, 2020 by jorielov , , , , 2 Comments

#AudioReads banner created by Jorie in Canva. Unsplash Photography (Creative Commons Zero) Photo Credit: Alice Moore

Acquired Audiobook By: I started to listen to audiobooks in [2016] as a way to offset my readings of print books whilst noting there was a rumour about how audiobooks could help curb chronic migraines as you are switching up how your reading rather than allowing only one format to be your bookish choice. As I found colouring, knitting and playing solitaire agreeable companions to listening to audiobooks, I embarked on a new chapter of my reading life where I spend time outside of print editions of the stories I love reading and exchange them for audio versions.

Through hosting for Audiobookworm Promotions, I’ve expanded my knowledge of authors who are producing audio versions of their stories whilst finding podcasters who are sharing their bookish lives through pods. Meanwhile, I am also curating my own wanderings in audio via my local library who uses Overdrive for their digital audiobook catalogue wherein I can also request new digital audiobooks to become added to their OverDrive selections. Aside from OverDrive I also enjoy having Audible & Scribd memberships as my budget allows. It is a wonderful new journey and one I enjoy sharing – I have been able to expand the percentage of how many audios I listen to per year since 2018.

I received a complimentary audiobook copy of “Pemberley: Mr Darcy’s Dragons” via Audiobookworm Promotion who is working with Benjamin Fife on this blog tour in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

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What inspired me to listen to this audiobook:

When it comes to Jane Austen, I am most definitely a Janiete. As I previously disclosed during #AustenInAugustRBR – I have had a particular interest in both the original canon & the after canon universes of Jane Austen’s worlds. More recently was my discovery of The Quill Collective wherein I had the pleasure of becoming introduced to their writers via one of their anthologies “Rational Creatures” and wherein this week I’ll be talking further about the Collective and the latest anthology of theirs on audiobook (“Yuletide”) I am listening to which tucks me back into the canon of “Pride & Prejudice”; similar to how I am entreating into it right now with this wicked lovely fantastical series.

I must admit as readily as I am excited about reading #dragonfiction, my knowledge base for the different species and types of dragons is a bit limited. Most of what I previously knew I’ve already forgotten and that is one reason I am spending this 3rd Year of Wyrd And Wonder (@WyrdAndWonder) focused on reading more stories about dragons & trying to carve out my own path into a section of Fantasy I am dearly under-read!

Thus, imagine my excitement when I started to learn about the unique differences between fairy dragons & wyvern dragons! I had a feeling there would be a whole subspecies of dragons within the Jane Austen Dragons world – giving me a wonderful primer as I move towards reading more dragon literature in prep for Wyrd And Wonder!

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An Audiobook Blog Tour | “Pemberley: Mr Darcy’s Dragon” (Jane Austen’s Dragons, Book One) by Maria Grace, narrated by Benjamin FifePemberley: Mr Darcy's Dragon
Subtitle: Jane Austen's Dragons Book One
by Maria Grace
Source: Audiobook via Audiobookworm Promotions
Narrator: Benjamin Fife

England is overrun by dragons of all shapes and sizes. Most people are blissfully unaware of them and the Pendragon Treaty that keeps the peace between human and dragon kind. Only those born with preternatural hearing, like Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet are able to hear and converse with dragonkind.

When the first firedrake egg laid in a century is stolen from Pemberley, the fragile dragon peace teeters on collapse. Darcy has no choice but to chase down the thief, a journey that leads him to quaint market town of Meryton and fellow Dragon Keeper, Elizabeth Bennet.

Elizabeth shares a unique bond with dragons, stronger than anything Darcy has ever experienced. More than that, her vast experience and knowledge of dragon lore may be the key to uncovering the lost egg. But Elizabeth can’t stand Darcy’s arrogance and doesn’t trust him to care properly for a precious baby firedrake. After all, he already lost the egg once. What’s to prevent it from happening again?

Can he win her trust and recover the stolen egg before it hatches and sends England spiraling back into the Dark Ages of Dragon War?

Jane Austen meets Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern. A must-listen for Pern fans.

Genres: After Canons, Dragon Fiction, Fantasy Fiction, High Fantasy, Historical-Fantasy, Mythological Fantasy, Re-telling &/or Sequel



Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Add to LibraryThing

ISBN: 9780998093710

ASIN: B07TMQCCGD

Also by this author: Narrator Interview (Jane Austen's Dragons), Longbourn: Dragon Entail, Netherfield: Rogue Dragon

Also in this series: Longbourn: Dragon Entail, Netherfield: Rogue Dragon


Published by Self Published

on 2nd of July, 2019

Format: Audiobook | Digital

Length: 8 hours and 11 minutes (unabridged)

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The Jane Austen Dragons series:

Pemberley Darcy's Dragon by Maria Grace (audiobook)Longbourn Dragon Entail by Maria Grace (audiobook)Netherfield Rogue Dragon by Maria Grace

A Proper Introduction to Dragons (prequel)

Pemberley: Mr Darcy’s Dragon (book one)

Longbourn: Dragon Entail (book two)

Netherfield: Rogue Dragon (book three)

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Formats Available: Trade Paperback, Audiobook and Ebook

Converse via: #JaneAustensDragons + #AudioReads, #Audiobook

as well as #Pemberley, #MrDarcy OR #LizzieAndDarcy

& #JaneAusten, #PrideAndPrejudice #aftercanon

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7th Annual Jorie Loves A Story Cuppa Book Love Awards badge created by Jorie in Canva. Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo.

This story received my award for Best Classical Literature Variant Cross-Genre Story: (ie. the world of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” crossed with a dragon fiction world of Fantasy).

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About Maria Grace

Maria Grace

Five time BRAG Medallion Honoree and #1 best selling Historical Fantasy author, Maria Grace has her PhD in Educational Psychology and is a 16-year veteran of the university classroom where she taught courses in human growth and development, learning, test development and counseling. None of which have anything to do with her undergraduate studies in economics/sociology/managerial studies/behavior sciences. She pretends to be a mild-mannered writer/cat-lady, but most of her vacations require helmets and waivers or historical costumes, usually not at the same time.

She writes gaslamp fantasy, historical romance and non-fiction to help justify her research addiction.

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a note about wishing for more

back-history whilst listening to the story:

In some regards, I wish there had been an audiobook version of A Proper Introduction to Dragons available to be heard prior to listening to the series in-progress. Reason being? There are a lot of lovely creatures in this series – different species of dragons and other fantastical creatures who take their entrances and exits as you’re listening to the developing story – especially how all the classic characters are starting to re-emerge into the story-line and how their presence is affected by the presence of dragons and how this world is built akin to ours but has several unique differences within its scale.

I love reading Fantasy but sometimes I find it is easier for me to sometimes have a larger introduction into the fantastical elements and creatures inclusive to a Fantasy story and/or series. I did feel Ms Grace did a good job of describing the culture of the dragons and the concept of how dragons first entered into the lives of humans but the back-history and the back-story of those meetings was a bit blurry in the background of where we picked up the threads of where we should arrive within the cycle of Pride and Prejudice.

I am hoping when a copy of A Proper Introduction to Dragons releases it might help fill in some of the gaps I felt I had as I was trying to gain traction and footing within the world-building for the Jane Austen’s Dragons series. I simply need a bit of a small primer on the dragonology and draconic legends and lore Grace used within her series to feel more connected and more confident in my understanding of how she constructed this beautiful world of dragons and the Regency.

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→ I nearly overlooked the Appendixes of the Jane Austen’s Dragons series happily provided by the author on her website. I hadn’t realised they were there until after I was over an hour into listening to the story and found the information provided most useful! In fact, in lieu of the prequel this information helped me align more closely with her world-building!

Thank you, Ms Grace!

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my review of pemberley: mr darcy’s dragon:

We retreat back into the world lit alive by Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett in a rather charming viewing of this family’s evening traditions. It is here were we find the incomparable Mrs Bennett still with a glint of criticism to share on her observations of her family and Lizzie herself, who is gathering requests for a story to be told about dragons. The young boys in her presence are besotted with the idea – barely able to contain themselves or the immediate glee they are experiencing over the prospect of what Lizzie might tell them about their favourite creature. And, thus our entrance into the Jane Austen Dragons series begins as if we never left this world at all – well, except with one minor difference, the last time I visited dragons were never whispered about nor aptly disclosed.

It is in this children’s story about the back history of dragons we first caught a glimpse of the first human who could interact with dragons due to his ability to ‘hear’ them; an unfamiliar trait amongst humans who previously were unable to communicate with dragons previously. This man was Uther Pendragon. And, thus the back lineage of dragons and humans is explained through how our original contacts with dragons began quite humbly and how Pendragon forged a unique capacity for peace with the dragon king he had met and of whom had given him gifts to takeaway with him. This was an interesting section of the story as it set down the tradition of how men kept falcons and why women kept birds; a seemingly uninteresting habit and yet, if you were to view this with the back history of how this tradition was manifested first through the meetings of dragons, it gives new meaning behind why humans have feathered companions.

This was a beautiful segue moment – where you can view this world in one dimensional lens and re-view it through the dimensional lens Ms Grace is writing for us to find disclosed. It was shortly after the bedtime story concluded where we first understood who Lizzie’s feathered companion really is and how she fits into the history of dragons inside this world. It is a slow building arc towards showcasing how most of the inhabitants still believe themselves to be living a rather ordinary experience – to see the non-magical elements round them and taking that as stock for what is truly the reality they know and love. Yet, behind that veilled reality there is a keener one, a more fantastical one which is seeking to merge into known history and the perceptional assumption everyone had already made about their own living sphere. It here I felt Ms Grace made a wonderful gesture towards breaking us out of the tradition of Pride and Prejudice and what we knew of the Regency to exchange it for this wholly new set of rules and traditions for this new world emerging into our view. I found it as fascinating of a transition as I had previously when I first learnt the word muggle and the differences therein in a universe just as fantastical as this one.

I loved how this variant of the story has truly new hurdles to be overturnt – such as it isn’t just a male relative who must be the heir to the estate this time round but rather one who has the ear for dragons! This made perfect sense to me because of how intricate and detailed the estate disclosures were for people who were inheriting in the Regency. Prior to those rules though – there is an older alliance here at play and that of course stems back to Pendragon himself and the original dragon king. This is a charming new addition to the confines and construction of the story because it not only deepens the angst for the Bennett’s themselves but it also gives a new urgency for how to solve their predicament!

Counter to the entailed dilemma we are all rather familiar with and how repugnant Lizzie would find Collins – there is a new fever of anxiety emitting from the discovery of a rogue dragon egg! One which might be lost to them if they cannot secure it and have it bourne by humans – as apparently that is the one sticky rule in this world; if a dragon is not able to understand how humans and dragons are meant to interact it goes rogue and wild. There apparently isn’t a reverse course once that direction is set and this is what puts everyone on high notice – Lizzie, her father and her Uncle. What can they do if they cannot find the firedrake’s egg in time? Even I was starting to consider those dire outcomes and circumstances… especially as you know, there would be those who would give into hysteria and not handle the situation well at all.

It was not surprising that Darcy was trying to scheme behind Bingley’s back – as I enjoyed seeing how they intercepted a spontaneous meeting with Lizzie whilst enroute to view Netherfield for the first time. Darcy of course was plotting the whole journey whilst Bingley, the innocent that he is was trying to see the good in both the people they were thankful to meet and the prospect of what Netherfield might bring to his life. Bingley I always felt had the short end of the stick – he was easily overlooked and misunderstood and you just wanted the best for him. Darcy on the other hand was just as convincingly stubborn minded as I remember him in this series – he has set his mind on a fixated goal and I doubt anything could deter him away from his goals.

You never quite know what to expect as you’re moving through the story – as when Lizzie took her younger sister Mary (of whom I had forgotten about as I had always been so dearly focused on Lizzie, Jane, Kitty and Lydia!) to seek out the lost fairy dragon eggs on their estate – you’d be properly surprised by the cunningly clever new species of cat-snake Ms Grace developed to play such an important role in how they could secure the eggs! I am not the kind of girl who is readily smitten by reptiles like snakes – save the python I helped save in my childhood who went missing – (Monty was such a dear sweetheart; I put him in an entirely different class of snakes!) which is why I was quite taken by how charmed I was by the presence of Rumblkins! I credit this newfound appreciation for his species due to how Grace characterised him – how she depicted his fur and how his scales took up residence outside the fur – she truly knows how to allow you to reconsider species of wonder and curiosity in a new way by disarming your anxieties about similar species from our own realms. She actually makes you want to adopt! Rumblkins and that is quite the feat!

Soon thereafter we entreat into a courtesy of homage and introspective insight (for the original canon) we all know of within Pride and Prejudice – of how the Bennett’s must endure Mrs Bennett’s irked ire about how she has too many daughters and not enough beaus to go round to marry them off! How she was mortified her husband and her daughters (Lizzie and Mary) hadn’t disclosed to her about Bingley and Mr Darcy – such was a hearty segue in order to re-align the original canon into this after canon fantastical sequence. It is a good reminder of seeing the Bennett’s as they were and of how they are now influenced by the Blue Order (the body of government for the dragons). This is a merging world between the two confluences of thought and I still attest Ms Grace had such a lovely imagination to pull this off in such a way as to allow all of it to sound and resonate as an organic ‘next step’ for the world we had previously known.

If you haven’t read Pride and Prejudice in a long while this is a wonderful re-visitation of the story – as Maria Grace aligns you so wholly true to where Jane Austen took us into her novel. The added benefit is the secondary arc wherein the dragons reign alongside the ton and country society the Bennett’s have become renown. As you take this journey each new corridor of the original story is re-explored and re-heightened by the presence of Grace’s dragons. It is hard not to spoilt what you will find within this new series because of how readily true she has written her world into Austen’s and vice versa. You almost question which of the world’s came first – even knowing the answer and that is a mark of a wicked good storycrafter who has given those of us who love Austen a new experience of her stories!

on the fantastical styling of merging #dragonfiction into the world of pride & prejudice by maria grace:

What I was struck by the most is how the dragons were as easily inserted into this series as the wizards of Harry Potter! You don’t have to speculate too hard to distinguish how either is plausible because at some point both writers gave you the illusion that they were always inclusive to those worlds and thereby they didn’t have to hard sell the point towards why there are wizards and why there are dragons; they are simply naturally inclusive and have always been round. Another happy revelation was what the titles of the novels are giving you about this world you’ve now transitioned into visiting – Pemberley, Longbourn and Netherfield are not strictly ‘places’ nor ‘settings’ to be visited but they are some of the more impressive dragons of this world! Therefore by that reckoning each installment of the series is focusing on a singular dragon and how their presence in this world has a larger effect on the world itself. (at least by what I am speculating)

Ms Grace took us through a conjoined and mutually admired lens of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice storyline – keeping us clued into the familiar and then taking us into heightened new additions – not just the dragons but how she constructed this world ‘behind’ the lore and legend which has become the Jane Austen universe. It is in that breadth of entrance I could definitely see why the narrator Mr Fife was talking to me in my forthcoming interview about how expansive this world is going to become – because it isn’t locked into strictly resonating with our memories of Pride but will endeavour itself to re-transition through different components of theory and thought from each of Austen’s novels.

I truly loved her instincts – such as how she put in a new reason and central arc of intrigue into why the soldiers would be in Meryton and how this had a cross-effect of importance with the dragons. Similarly to how she enlarged the mindfulness of understanding why female heirs were not giving real estate and how this new component of needing a Dragon Keeper (a person who can hear and see dragons) is just as relevant as the old rules for the entailled property to go to a male heir. She takes the traditions of the story itself and then re-visualises how it can become augmented into a dragon society living adjacent and cohabitating with the humans who reside here. I found it wicked brilliant!

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Fantastical Elements:

→ Hybrid creatures like the cat-snake Rumblkins who was really a Tatzelwurm

→ Dragons have telepath or empathic powers of influence over humans

→ A wholly fully realised dragon society including their own legends, cultural history with a spoken and written language!

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In regards to the audiobook, directly:

About Benjamin Fife

Benjamin Fife

Benjamin Fife has always had a passion for learning. With a mind that remembers all sorts of numbers and useless trivia, he regularly wins local radio shows and enjoys confusing people with sci-fi quotes.

Fife grew up in Southeast Idaho. He attended college at Idaho State University, where he met his future wife in their music theory class. They have been married nearly 20 years and now have six children and a whole menagerie of animals. When their oldest daughter was three or four years old they started reading aloud from novels every night at bedtime, and have continued the tradition ever since. The family loves exploring various worlds and topics through Fife’s wonderful reading skills, which get better every year. They all have his Christmas Carol voices memorized (and the older kids are known to quote along with portions), since he has read it to them every December.

Benjamin enjoys all kinds of sci-fi and fantasy - both books and shows, is an extreme eclectic music lover, and prefers his chocolate to be of the 90% cocoa variety. Above all, he loves to be with his family. He loves recording audio books, and is delighted to tell people, “I’ve finally found what I want to be when I grow up!”

I am appreciative of Ms Jess providing a cursory outline of how best to articulate my listening hours on behalf of this audiobook and the others I shall be blogging about or reviewing in future. I’ve modified the suggestions to what I felt were pertinent to respond too on my own behalf as well as keeping to the questions I felt were relevant to share.

Number of Times I’ve heard the Narrator(s):

This is the first time I’ve listened to the narration styling of Benjamin Fife.

Regards to the Narrator’s Individual Character performances:

The characters we all know & love within the context of ‘Pride & Prejudice’:

Lizzie: Lizzie had a voiced presence in this story which is as approachable and warm as her regular self – I felt this was a strong credit to Mr Fife and how he wanted to re-articulate Lizzie into the Jane Austen’s Dragons world. She still had her own mind and her personality we knew of her from previous encounters but she had a softer edging to her in some regards here and I wondered if that was the added benefit of being round dragons?

Darcy: Being as dearly attached to the character of Mr Darcy as I am, I was most keen on hearing how Fife would voice such an infamous character I’ve come to belove! Quite the daunting prospect for me as I have seen actors perform Darcy in different variations of the story on camera and I don’t always feel they are the right fit for the role. Sometimes their versions seem a bit ‘off’ from the Darcy I always envision him to be and thus, as always I went into this with an open mind – curious at what I would find and how Darcy would sound to me.

He was as standoffish as I remember – as boldly confident as I hoped he might be and of course, he was still shrouding his affairs from those of his neighbours and his peers. He was also very single-minded and I loved that about him as it plays to his strengths even if it infuriates you about his short-comings!

Bingley: The first character outside of Lizzie I truly was captured by was Bingley! Bingley gets downplayed so very often in retellings and after canon sequences; not to mention in the original canon as well  – to where I found it rather refreshing how Fife approached voicing his character!

And, the dragons themselves:

April: She’s a dragon companion to Lizzie – whose opinionated impressions about how she is spoken to and treated as a dragon reminded me dearly of Mrs Bennett! How clever to have a companion who is as outspoken as her own mother and sometimes just as nettling! I felt that was done on purpose and it seemed to befit the character of Lizzie quite well. Her voice was unlike anything I expected to hear as it was such a strong transition from the young girls and adult women Fife has narrated before her presence was exposed. Truly memorable and she makes you take stock of what she has to say – again, so very true of Mrs Bennett!

How the story sounded to me as it was being Read: (theatrical or narrative)

When Pemberley: Mr Darcy’s Dragon first begins I felt this was a spoken narrative rendition of the story. As Mr Fife has a way of alternating his voice per each age and gender of character he is highlighting through the context of the story but not in a theatrical way but rather a spoken word presentation where the story alights through how he is speaking the text and how the performance is moving forward as if you were watching a play unfold.

The only criticism I had as it was being read is I felt Fife was moving through the story at a faster pacing than I would have preferred. He wasn’t rushing his words per se as you could fully understand his intonations and his disclosures of the passages – it was more simply that the pace of how he was narrating the novel felt a bit hurried. This was especially true when he was doing the straight narrative pieces without dialogue or the characterisations themselves.

I did attempt to drop the speed down from 1.0 but that distorted the listening of the story a bit too much for me as my preference is always to listen to audiobooks at the 1.0 standard setting. I did notice as we started to progress forward – his voice seemed to relax and I was questioning if perhaps it was nerves I was hearing in the opening portions of the novel rather than a quickening of the pace? I might have misconstrued what I was hearing as I know nerves can play a role in how a performer is being heard – whether with audiobooks or singers – sometimes a performance is influenced by things outside a reader or listeners purview. In other words, perhaps what I was hearing was how he gained his confidence within the role as a narrator for this series.

I noticed when Mr Darcy’s entrance begins to take root, I felt there was a shifting of confidence and Mr Fife truly started to reach his sweet spot in the narration. I could tell he enjoyed the sequences featuring Mr Darcy as he truly started to shine in these passages and the story took on a new level of enjoyment for me. I had already become smitten with his voicing of the first dragon we encounter (ie. April, Lizzie’s companion) and had started to feel the rhythm of the novel as it serves as a gateway into the series and the world Ms Grace created – however, as Mr Darcy is a favourite character of mine – I was especially keen on seeing how Darcy would enter the stage as it had been set.

I should also say when Fife was narrating the earlier portions of the novel in comparison to when Darcy took root in the story – his narrative voice also changed and I honestly think that is the transitional moment where I fell in love with how he’s narrating this series! He came into his own so to speak and it was delightful from that moment onward.

Regards to Articulation & Performance of the story:

Fife changes the height and tone of his voice when he is aging his characters – such as the differences in how he vocalised Mrs Bennett from Lizzie. Mrs Bennett had a higher pitch than Lizzie and in this performance you could nearly see her critical eye focused on the characters Ms Grace brought back into our life as she was just as critical as ever about what she observed; right or wrong-minded Mrs Bennett is never tired of sharing her fierce opinions with her family! And, this was brought back to life in how Fife approached drawing us back into her presence by how he articulated her voice.

When Fife alters off speaking the roles of the adult characters – he gave the impression of the children in the story to have a higher pitch and presence than the women. I oft find this is the case when narrators are approaching how to project a child’s voice to a listener. In some instances I thought the pitch level was a bit on the higher end, nearly a squeak but other times, the impression rounded out a bit and you could enjoy hearing with the children were saying. I find the voices of women and children the hardest to fuse to mind when listening to audiobooks (if performed by male narrators) – each narrator has their own styling in how they want to perform these characters and I felt Fife’s strength was with the women moreso than the children. Except for when he was voicing the young girls listening to Lizzie’s story? I felt he captured their voices quite well.

Notes on the Quality of Sound & the Background Ambiance:

The quality of the sound was free of background disturbances and distractions – a very crisp production for this audiobook where you can simply hear Fife narrating the novel and not worry about an other interruptions to distract you. There wasn’t any additional ambiance sounds in the background – such as overtures or musical interludes – either in the beginning or between chapters and sections either. It was simply a clean sound setting wherein you could hear Fife’s voice and listen to how Maria Grace developed the story to unfold.

Preference after listening to re-Listen or pick up the book in Print?

I believe this is one audiobook series which would benefit with a print edition companion to read alongside listening to the narration. Sometimes I find this is the case – where especially with a world which is growing larger with each chapter you’ve listened too it would be a keen reference point for the listener to first read and hear the story in tandem than to attempt to listen to it individually; at least for me. I sometimes find it harder to re-adjust into an audiobook series without having a tangible construct of the world being presented – this one I felt would benefit from either reading a chapter sampler (online) of the novel whilst listening to Fife’s presentation of the story and/or if one could purchase or borrow the print edition and then listen to Fife’s narration – I felt that might be a better course. I definitely want to re-listen and re-read the book in tandem when I’m able to collect the books in print. I have a feeling it might give me a different experience than the one I first had as I listened to the stories without the companion edition.

Part of the reason I felt this applied to me is because this is an after canon story set in a world I love – not just the Regency itself but within the world of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Sometimes I think I benefit from having books in hand and audiobooks in my ears – where I can transition in and out of both editions and have a fully rounded readerly experience. Classical Literature I find takes longer to ruminate over and sometimes after canons follow suit.

In closing, would I seek out another Benjamin Fife audiobook?

As I am participating in the series throughout this audiobook tour, I am thankfully blessed to continue to hear Mr Fife’s narration of the Jane Austen’s Dragons series. I definitely have a better sense of his narration styling after having heard this first installment of the series and have become a ready appreciator of his style. I can definitely see him a good fit for traditional Classical Fiction releases as well as a continuing grace for approaching the after canons and/or seeking out other stories within the Speculative realms! I look forward to following his career and seeing what develops as time goes by.

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I am thankful I could interview him for this blog tour!

My interview will be featured alongside

my final review for the tour itself – Netherfield: Rogue Dragon on 19th of February!

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 This blog tour is courtesy of Audiobookworm Promotions:

Audiobookworm Promotions Event Host badge provided by Audiobookworm Promotions

Be sure to follow the blog tour route to see what else awaits you!

Jane Austen's Dragons audiobook blog tour banner provided by Audiobookworm Promotions.Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Listening to this audiobook contributed to some of my 2020 reading challenges:

2020 Audiobook Challenge badge created by Jorie in Canva.2020 HistFic Reading Challenge banner created by Jorie in Canva.

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{SOURCES: Book Cover for “Pemberley: Mr Darcy’s Dragon”, “Longborn: Dragon Entail” & “Netherfield: Rogue Dragon”, the biography of Maria Grace and the narrator, Benjamin Fife as well as the blog tour banner, the audiobook promo banner and the host badge were provided by Audiobookworm Promotions and are used with permission. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets embedded by codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: #AudioReads banner created using Unsplash Photography (Creative Commons Zero) Photo Credit: Alice Moore, 2020 Audiobook Challenge badge, 2020 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge badge;  7th Annual Jorie Loves A Story Cuppa Book Love Awards badge (using Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo) and the Comment Box Banner.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2020.

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About jorielov

I am self-educated through local libraries and alternative education opportunities. I am a writer by trade and I cured a ten-year writer’s block by the discovery of Nanowrimo in November 2008. The event changed my life by re-establishing my muse and solidifying my path. Five years later whilst exploring the bookish blogosphere I decided to become a book blogger. I am a champion of wordsmiths who evoke a visceral experience in narrative. I write comprehensive book showcases electing to get into the heart of my reading observations. I dance through genres seeking literary enlightenment and enchantment. Starting in Autumn 2013 I became a blog book tour hostess featuring books and authors. I joined The Classics Club in January 2014 to seek out appreciators of the timeless works of literature whose breadth of scope and voice resonate with us all.

"I write my heart out and own my writing after it has spilt out of the pen." - self quote (Jorie of Jorie Loves A Story)

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Posted Wednesday, 5 February, 2020 by jorielov in After the Canon, Audiobook, Audiobookworm Promotions, Blog Tour Host, Classical Literature, Dragon Fiction, Fantasy Fiction, Folklore and Mythology, High Fantasy, Indie Author, Inspired By Author OR Book, Inspired by Stories, Jane Austen Sequel, Jorie Loves A Story Cuppa Book Love Awards, Pride & Prejudice Re-telling




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2 responses to “An Audiobook Blog Tour | “Pemberley: Mr Darcy’s Dragon” (Jane Austen’s Dragons, Book One) by Maria Grace, narrated by Benjamin Fife

  1. Hi Jorie!

    Thank you so much for your awesome review. This is without a doubt the most detailed review of my narration I’ve ever received & I appreciate your feedback. Thanks for participating in this Audiobook tour! Looking forward to the next phase of this series – Persuasion. Book 1 is coming out this month & the audio should be available sometime this summer. :)

    • Good evening, Mr Fife!

      What a February it turnt out to be for me – this first review I felt more comfortable sharing because it was before the cold overtook me and was the last time I had a chance at absorbing the series without the effects of the cold. I did manage to assemble my thoughts for the second and third novel in the series; though how my thoughts resonated with my readers, I am uncertain. I felt more muddled by the time those reviews went live but I’m hopeful something I said on their behalf might have helped organise my thoughts about the series overall. It wasn’t until this weekend where I could honestly see how the cold was lessening and I am finally getting out of its grip.

      Despite the hurdles I faced, I loved showcasing my interview with you and for having the experience of the #JaneAustensDragons.

      Likewise, I was thankful my words and notations about your narration throughout the series was the kind of feedback you were hoping to find whilst on the blog tour. I like to give honest feedback to narrators about how their style of narrating audiobooks resonates with me and how their characters, accents, voice and capacity to carry us through the writer’s thoughts and world is relating to me as I hear them narrate the story. I am grateful our paths crossed and I will be keeping an eye out for your next releases.

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